Bigmouth Strikes Again As Morrissey's Book Hits the Shelves
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40 FGM FridayOctober 18 2013 | the times the times | FridayOctober 18 2013 FGM 41 arts FRONT COVER: MICK HUTSON/GETTY IMAGES BELOW: STEPHEN WRIGHT /SMITHSPHOTOS.COM arts Bigmouth strikes Morrissey wasagenius,but he’s still singingthe same song,sayslifelong fan Robert Crampton fIhad to rank the most seminal we know that he can hold agrudge, moments of my youth, the Jam and my goodness, he can. again as Morrissey’s splitting up in 1982 would be He has apop at SteveHarley and one, the Clash falling to bits in Noddy Holder.And morethan apop 1983 would be another,and the —itgets tedious —atthe judge who Smiths calling it aday in 1987 presided over the courtcase (that he would be athird. Looking back, lost) when the Smiths’bassist and bookhitsthe shelves Iof the three ruptures, the last drummer wanted abigger shareof wasbyfar the most significant. the band’sroyalties. The appeal Morrissey and Marr still had plenty courtjudges get akicking too. of creativeenergy left in the tank, As do John Peel, Rough Trade, paragraphaiming foraT.S.Eliot-style same time beingaware of his own yetastheir respectivesolo careers SpandauBallet.Pretty It’s self-absorbed, evocation of Mancunian squalor. preposterousness. “Naturally my birth suggest,they needed eachother to much everyone. “Pastplacesofdread, we walk in the almostkills my mother,for my head is alchemise that energy.Soalot of The Smiths split up overlongand center [sic] of the road,” Morrissey toobig,” he announces. He finds the great songs never got written. morethan aquarter of writes,possibly by quill, on the city firstofmanyopportunitiestobea Iwas 18 when Ifirst heardthe acenturyago.Inthe essentialreading. of his childhood. “Local kids ransack martyrwithin hours of his birth, when Smiths. Ibought all their albums on fiveyearswhen they were empty houses, and small and his sister Jackie triestokill him; the dayofrelease, played them together,Morrissey tended to Will Hodgkinson wide-eyed,Ijoin them, balancing “whether this be visionaryorrivalry obsessively and could not quite hammer away at the same few across exposedbeams and racinginto no one knows”.Afew years later,he believewhat Iwas hearing, whichis themes: growing up in Manchester is wetblack cellars; underground trips, falls intoafire and burns his best described, at the risk of crap; transitioning from being aboy divesinto the cavitieswhere murder and sex and wrist. “A heavy bandage is worn with sounding pretentious, as Englishness to aman is crap; England is crap; self-destruction seep from cracks of pridefor months to come, teachingme set to music. Equal measures of lifeiscrap; it’s all crap.Fair enough. weirdworld local stone and shiftingbrickwork all Ishall ever needtoknow about hope and despair,idealism and Buthe’sgot the intelligence and the where abortedbabiesfound deathly attention and style.” cynicism, morbidityand slapstick. talent to have moved on from that, of Mozza peace instead of unforgiving life.” Morrissey writes elegantly about It wasacertain sortofEnglishness: and it turns out he hasn’t. Youcan imagine him penningsuch working-class lifeinManchester,of bitter;Northern; unhappy; heroic prose, pausingtocatch his own ancient,embitteredteachers, lonely occasionally radical. Butitfelt reflection, noddingwith satisfaction, lollipop ladieswho smell of authentic and well-intentioned. and continuing. Morrissey hasn’t just atticsand “slackly shaped The Smiths in The Smiths were always fallen in love with his own writing. and contaminated” children their heyday, categorised as Manchester He’s fallen in love with the very idea findingescape in the photographed miserabilist, but that wasnever fair. of himself as awriter. excitement of Miss WoWorrlldd and in Salford, Morrissey wasmorethan that.He On the other hand, who wouldn’t the Eurovision Song Contest.He November 1985 wasfunny, bawdy, witty, ironic,a want to spend almosthalf athousand describesthe psychic weight the touchofmusic hall, brutal social pageswith Morrissey? Here is the first Moors murders had overSixties with the photographer Jake Walters, Marr had leftthe band only when he (“aprofessional fusspot”), Julie realism interlaced with the farce of and probably lastpop star to makea Manchester and the delirium of only happenedinhis thirties. It ended, turnedonthe television to see the Burchill (“likeall bullies, shehad never asaucy postcard. Forafew years, virtue of celibacy,whose bookishness beingachild seeingGeorge Best aptly,when Alan Bennettvisited the guitaristplayingbehind BryanFerry. thought much of herself”)and even Morrissey’s lyrics felt likethe best and introspection gave hope to play forUnited:“As Isee the pair and commented that something On MikeJoyce, the Smiths’drummer, the paraplegic singer RobertWyatt depiction of what it meant to be reat authors lose millions similarly disposed, and whose apocalyptic disturber of the peace seemedwrong between them. Later, who took Morrissey and Marr to court (“there could be no shame attachedto English in the mid-Eighties. And he their edge when appearance on Top of the Pops in 1983, swirl across the pitch, Ifaint.” he describesfallinginlove with a fora25per cent cut: “a flea in search wheelchairs, but there aren’t manyin didn’t just cover the easystuff; it they become toobig miming This Charming Man intoa Amid such poetic prose is revelation, real-lifewoman, Iranian Tina of adog”.And when the courtcase is the Top40”)all come in forabashing. wasn’t just politics and the big foreditors to do bunch of gladioli, wasasrevolutionary from wanderingontothe set of Dehghani, with whom he even overand the dreams of the best band He berates John Peel fornever coming picture. He did the psychologyand battle with. Famous forthe Thatcher generation as David Coronation Street as ateenager,torock considers having “a mewlingminiature of the Eightieslie in tatters, Morrissey to aSmiths concertand laughs at the neuroses; the small picturetoo. pop stars are toobig Bowie wasfor the one before. writer Nick Kent askingifhecould monster”.Itdoesn’t happen. writes movingly about sittingalone in Vanessa Redgrave forturningupathis “I am the son and heir of nothing from the start. Morrissey’s lyricsblend self-pity, join the Smiths. He describeshis first Then there are the Smiths, the band “a squatty hotel room, wonderinghow house the moment he is famous. in particular.” “Let me get my hands GPerhaps that’s why queenywit and maudlin crush: on aman, but one dressedasa who were “reactingagainst Hand In Glove ledtothis”. Autobiography is overlongand you on your mammaryglands.” who were “reactingagainst the man who wrotelinesofsuch sentimentalism in away that has woman. “Jerry Nolan on the front of Autobiography everything”.Hedescribesmeeting Needless to say, there are plentyof grow wearyofthe documentingofyet “Belligerent ghouls runManchester economical depthas“Punctured more in common with Philip Larkin the Dolls’debut album is the first by Morrissey guitaristJohnnyMarr, sociable, characters to takeaim at. At the top another grievance or perceivedslight, schools.”And so on and so forth. bicycle, on ahillsidedesolate”, than BobDylan, and that sensibility woman Ieverfell in love with,” he Penguin Classics, 457pp ambitious and musically gifted, as “a of the listisJudge John Weeks, “an but it’s honest.Morrissey maybevain, “When the leather runs smooth on containedwithin exquisite spills overontothe page. Yes, he’s states,after twopagesofbreathless £8.99* £7.99; e-book£8.99 matteroffindingyourself in old, weatheredtree trunk” who but he’snot toovain to hidehis the passenger seat”—that’s pretty brevityonThis Charming Man by the self-important,but he’snever boring. praise of the proto-punk band New To orderatdiscounted possession of the one vital facet that presided overthe Joycecase; Sarah unpleasantness and, hence, the wayhe damn good,that is; it transports you Smiths, wasallowed to begin his He’s also extremely funny, taking York Dolls’rent-boys-in-drag * priceplease telephone the other one lacks, but needs”.He Ferguson (“the Duchess of Nothing”), seesthe world. Forthis reason alone, right into the textureofEnglish life. 457-page memoir with afive-page himself far tooseriously,while at the aesthetic.His firstserious relationship, 0845 2712134 later claims to have discoveredthat FactoryRecords’AnthonyWilson Autobiography is essential reading. The lyrics of popular music never look very profound when stripped away from their music. But, as a lyricist writing about England, “You used to mean SO MUCH to Morrissey’s output in those years Mozziebites— me,”towhichChrissie breaksin rankswith the best.Ray Davies hit hisacidtongue with, “Yes. ButIdon’t now —so the spot afew times. So did Elvis f*** off.” Costello, IanDury, IanCurtis and Paul McCartney.But,however much On hisfirst love,JakeOwen On Bowie we lovethem, and we do, if you analyse the Beatles’lyrics, they are, Walters Suddenly David Bowie telephones with afew exceptions (PennyLane, Inside the house, the doorbell rings. the studio and askstospeak to me. Eleanor Rigby) unimpressive. They It is Jake ...He steps inside and he Iamthrilled, but he tells me that he don’t tell youmuchabout what it is staysfor twoyears. Conversation is would likemetodoacover of one of or wastobeEnglish. Thereismore the bond of companionship his recent songs, and he stresses that information —and flair —contained (according to the Wildean scripture), if Idon’t do the cover,“Iwill never in aSmiths title than in most entire and Jake and Ineither sought nor speak to youagain, haha,”whichis songs by the Stones or The Who. needed