These past few weeks
have undoubtedly been busy and exciting for Morrissey fans. Quick on
the tail of the upcoming 9-date Canadian Tour, a 7-night residency on
Broadway has been announced, selling out instantly. Following the
release of swoonworthy lead California Son
single, It’s Over (a
dreamy Roy Orbison crooner),
Moz has released a dazzling
Jobriath cover, Morning Starship, and
Wedding Bell Blues,
featuring Billie Joe Armstrong, will debut on Radio 2 UK, April 8th.
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| Morrissey singing I Bury The Living, London, 2018 |
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| pic via @officialmoz on Twitter |
Morning
Starship
A
lifetime fan, Morrissey released a Jobriath
compilation, Lonely Planet Boy,
in 2004, and takes the next step in honouring him on
California Son with a
stunning cover of Morning Starship. Opening
with silvery chords and plush lush vocals, 2019’s
Morning Starship
catapults us into a glistening 1970’s time capsule, while
simultaneously offering a modern, polished sound. Morrissey’s
vocals glide over Jobriath’s decadent
yet ethereal lyrics and he
honours the original vision
while adding signature
Moz-esque nuances that make the
song his own. I am living for
his heavenly sighs and la la las, naturally.
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| Pic via MorrisseyCentral.com |
Often,
there is a snooty veneer of pessimism from naysayer
fan-wannabe-critics when an artist, particularly a more mature one,
releases a covers album. Some will whine such a venture means one is
having “a last hurrah” or has “run out of ideas,” and I’ve
seen such regurgitated notions dribbling around social media on
occasion. However, Morrissey has once
again shut the mouths of
armchair critics with these otherworldly
covers – showcasing his
immense attention to detail, emotional
core, and his
timeless voice that gets
mesmerizingly better
with time. The talented musicians surrounding Mozzer have also shown
their chops with these covers, demonstrating
their aptitude for glittering, fresh arrangements that meanwhile
capture the true
essence of classic songs.
What
makes Morrissey’s covers so brilliant? Everything I mentioned above
is certainly a
huge part of it, but, I
believe a special facet
he also brings is that he is at heart a true music fan himself; he’s
never lost that wonder and fascination with his favourite artists.
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| Photo by Kevin Cummins |
Before
the release of Morrissey’s Morning Starship,
I was not tremendously acquainted with Jobriath and his music. With
devastating talent and
dazzling cheekbones, Jobriath
evaded cookie-cutter notions of 70’s rock star ‘shoulds.’ In a
time where being an openly gay artist signed to a major label
(Elektra) was simply unheard
of, Jobriath did just that, and his life story makes even some of the
most daredevil rebels seem like yawn-a-thon basic bitches.
Tragically,
he died quite young of AIDS, but in his 36 years, his life was never flat: he went from devastatingly talented young piano
prodigy, to AWOL from the army, to baroque folk artist, to military
psychiatric hospital, to
prostitution, and this was all even before
his emergence as glamorous Jobriath Boone, with the release of
Jobriath.*
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| Jobriath via Wikipedia |
Jobriath
cut his own path in an industry where many artists simply become
constructs of someone else’s vision. Unfortunately, the beige
9-to-5 masses were not prepared for him, and after two albums, he
found early retirement as a
Manhattan Lounge singer,
dying alone
at his piano in 1983. Now,
Morrissey honours him, and introduces his work to a new generation;
as we already knew - he
has incredibly good taste.
TOP
50?
About
a week ago, I noticed some other fans discussing
a SPIN TOP 50 list of Morrissey songs. I clicked the article, which
was over a year old, and scrolled
through to check out the ranking, but the
writing itself
was
so
wilted
by character-attacking
negativity
and bland
pepperings
of “Morrissey is SO controversial,” that
I quickly lost interest.
Needless to say, I won’t link to SPIN’s
humdrums,
but the
concept of a Top 50 did
pique my interest in attempting my own
list
– how hard could it be? I tweeted that I was considering making my
own, and received positive feedback about the idea, along with a few
good-natured threats from online friends about my placement of
favourite tracks, and that I would do it ‘right’, right? Eek,
what had I gotten myself into?
Never
one to shy away from semi self-destructive behaviour, I dared to give
it a shot, and began listing
my most adored tracks.
Well,
I soon realized this was more arduous than I had imagined: for every
single
song I would try to cut, I’d add three more to my list (which
certainly
speaks to the strength of Morrissey’s catalogue). This
initial ranking
process was about as calming as Ticketmaster’s
new queue system (I’m
not sure I’ve recovered from that!),
and
I burned through at least an entire notebook and pencil, agonizing
over revision after revision... I even
nearly
passed out in a Starbucks – not once, but twice! Apparently
compiling
a top 50 list is
incredibly
challenging. Perhaps
my relationship with the music is just too personal – and too many
feelings and memories are hinged on these songs that saved my life...
so,
needless to say,
after 5 days of stalling and sighs... I felt I had accomplished very
little.
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| Sloth notebook exhausted |
But
then... out of crossed-out page after page – it
suddenly struck me - that one very
interesting criteria I had for
songs making the cut was: “Could I imagine anyone other than
Morrissey writing these lyrics?” Many of the songs I had chosen
were unique in that the lyrics featured protagonists who were
outcasts, broken, possibly even
dangerous – not the typical lovestruck heroes of your
basic pop song. In several of
his most engaging
tracks, Moz sings of criminals, the tormented, and the criminally
tormented – and he does so with unwaveringly astute psychological
depth, twists of humour, and, at
times,
strokes of empathy. His
songwriting stands
out from many other artists
as a form of poetic
storytelling.
So, in lieu of my top 50, I bring you a list of Morrissey’s top
solo tracks about outcasts: those who, for whatever reason, live on
the fringes of society’s outskirts.
The
Youngest Was The Most Loved
Morrissey/Tobias
Opening with wailing sirens,
Ringleader Of The Tormentors’ The Youngest Was The
Most Loved tells the tale of a
cherubic featured child, spoiled and shielded by overprotective
parents, only for it all to
backfire as he grows
up and becomes
a ruthless killer. Seemingly perfect people turning to dark fates are
often met with ‘shock’ by news media hinged on the notion of
traditional sunshiney
families. Things are not always as they appear, even
if you do have a retrousse nose and lovely wife.
Musically, the song features an
Italian child’s choir, juxtaposed with grinding guitars and a
throbbing bassline. The
refrain, “there is no such thing in life as normal,” strikes me
as comforting: we may be doing a lot better in life than those we
consider successful, or ‘perfect.’ ‘Normal’ is nonexistent -
a completely unrealistic expectation.
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| Gif via Tumblr |
Jack
The Ripper
Morrissey/Boorer
Set in the looming soot-blackened
back alleys of 1880s London, Jack The Ripper’s
first guitar notes evoke chopping knives slicing
through thick-hanging fog. My take is that the lyrics are the
voice of Ripper himself:
“your face is as mean as your life has been” expresses his
repulsion towards his victims, yet also
he
hovers
on the edge of romanticization,
or at least strange desire:
“crash into my arms, I want you.” While muted longing and disgust
frame his vision of the prostitutes he kills, he tends to justify his
actions: “you don’t agree, but you don’t refuse,” in an act
of psychological twisting. Here,
both the killer and the victims are outcasts, or... is Ripper’s
resentment built out of his own
dehumanization of such outcasts? Regardless, the musical atmosphere,
combined with Morrissey’s haunting vocals, make this one of the
most deliciously creepy romantic songs ever written.
The
Last Of The Famous International Playboys
Morrissey/Street
Another song that delves into the
killer’s psyche, The Last Of The Famous International
Playboys is more focused on the
glamorization of crime, and parts read like a fan letter to
notorious Ronnie
and Reggie Kray. The speaker claims to not be “naturally evil,
only killing in order
to make himself appear “more attractive.” With swaggering
guitars, roguish vocals,
and a powerful bass drum kick, the feel of the track is quite sexy,
with a dusting of 60’s glamour. Morrissey’s take, according to
Mozipedia: “Within
the song, the quest to be an international playboy is a myth. Just
simply by being notorious and wanting to be extreme and a part of the
criminal underworld, desperate to be so. A lot of people, in order to
be famous, and in order to be acknowledged,
do something destructive. Or commit murder” (216). The
lyrics also offer critique of the media’s treatment of criminals:
“in our lifetime those who kill, the newsworld hands them stardom.”
Yet another reason to “stop watching the news”? Perhaps.
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| The Krays via The Spectator |
Ambitious
Outsiders
Morrissey/Whyte
Over a
vintage horror-show creeping
instrumental complete with sinister strings, the lyrics to
Maladjusted’s
Ambitious Outsiders inform
you that no amount of security can protect you or your family from a
motivated, calculated attack: think
scare-mongering news stories gone wild. The
speaker appears to be part of a child killing gang, lurking around
blank-faced suburbia, tapping
into the fear – and knowledge – that murderers
exist among us, relatively unnoticed. “There’s not really much
point in making safe music,” Morrissey argues (Mozipedia).
While the mood is undeniably disturbing, I feel some lines border on
amusing: “you’re giving, giving, giving...” feels like a play
on the commonly
touted notion that
procreation itself is a melodramatic act of selflessness (often
with no consideration of how
well one’s children are cared for once they are
brought into the world).
Again, like Ripper,
the killer applies a certain level of mental gymnastics to justify
their behaviour: “we’re just keeping the population down.”
Maladjusted
Morrissey/Boorer
Of course, not all of our outcasts
are killers, many are simply Maladjusted.
The title track off Morrissey’s 1997 album, with gently wailing
guitars haunting below a rolling imagery-rich
story, Maladjusted
mainly speaks
from the perspective of a young protagonist living in outskirtish
impoverished London. Perhaps a prostitute, or “working girl,” she
has little idea how to cope or exist in a world that keeps those who
are down, down. “With my hands on my head, I’ll flop on your bed,
with a head full of dread for all I’ve ever said,” speaks to me
as someone who has struggled with mental illness, particularly
anxiety, as every word uttered, thought, or action, seems to condemn
one to a lifetime of overthinking and self-loathing. The song’s
format deviates from typical verse-chorus-verse, creating the perfect
musical topography to reflect the vagabond life of a restless,
wandering outcast. The
metaphor: “the
gulf between all the things I need and the things I receive is an
ancient ocean wide, wild, lost, uncrossed” punches you to the core.
The
Father Who Must Be Killed
Morrissey/Whyte
Another gem from Ringleader of The Tormentors, The Father
Who Must Be Killed tells a gripping gothic short story in under 4
minutes. Menacing percussion and carnivalesque guitars frame the
stepchild’s beyond-strained relationship with her repugnant
stepfather – (oh, how the food chewing image burns). Magical is
Morrissey’s ability to sing words akin to their action – RIPS, or
the frantic description of stabbing. The stepchild’s racing
thoughts lead her to the knife in the drawer downstairs, then to the
father who must be killed in his own bed. She then kills herself, her
own death the only fathomable way to feel free of her own shame and
guilt, for lives are short and filled with pain anyway: “this death
will complete me” drifts into a beautiful, peaceful image: “just
as motherless birds fly high, then so shall I...” As stunningly
clear as a master’s painting.
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| Morrissey in Rome cerca Ringleader |
November
Spawned A Monster
Morrissey/Langer
Yet again Morrissey brings topics into pop music that are rarely
touched by any other. A quick tempoed, chaotic instrumental with
eerie flutes and tumbleweed guitars meld with Morrissey’s lyrics
examining the frustration of someone who is visibly disabled. Attuned
with empathy, Moz describes the suffocating pity hurled upon the
girl, which leads to palpable exhaustion, particularly from being the
root of whispered and not-so-whispered gossip. It is yet another
stifling burden for her to face, along with the “wheels underneath
her.” Morrissey received thank you letters for his treatment of the
topic: “After November Spawned a Monster, I had letters from
people who were wheelchair-bound and they expressed enormous support
and understanding and thanks for the record. It’s not just a matter
of ‘thank you for including us because no one else does’ but
‘thank you for involving us in the right way’” (Len Brown,
180).
Something
Is Squeezing My Skull
Morrissey/Whyte
Unlike the character in November Spawned A Monster, the
protagonist in Years of Refusal’s Something Is Squeezing
My Skull suffers invisibly, with mental illness. While one
benefit to an invisible illness is the possible ability to appear
‘normal,’ this can also be a drawback in the sense that people
often accuse one of faking, or react with the unbearably patronizing “it can’t be that
bad." The manic tempo and gritty guitars drive through a punk rock
quick 2 1/2 minutes of dismissive interactions filled with the
character’s exasperating and isolating experience with mental
health, particularly the faux-positive affirmations and nosiness of
others: “I know by now you think I should have straightened myself
out – thank you, drop dead.” “There is no love in modern life”
and the modern world does little to soothe a sensitive soul. The song
concludes with a chaotic, crescendoing avalanche of Rx.
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| Photo by seemserene on Instagram |
I
Bury The Living
Morrissey/Tobias
The newest song on our list, Low In High School’s I Bury The
Living is a long semi-operatic storytelling masterpiece of
strings, combat-boot drums, high tension instrumentals, and an
exploration of the darker side of human nature. Our “wretched
outcast” is uninspired and lacking thought, but with a deranged
edge – the perfect sponge for military brainwashing. Morrissey
delves into the disturbing psychological side of warfare:
unquestioning, the soldier takes orders to kill, which he seems to do
with gusto and blood lust: “give me an order, I’ll blow up your
daughter.” Played live, this song is even more powerfully
exquisite.
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| Morrissey singing I Bury The Living live in Dublin |
Morrissey takes us on multiple journeys with his songs, luring us
into psychological and emotional depths we rarely, if ever, find in
popular music. In some instances we may empathize or feel more
understood, and in others we may feel haunted or disturbed, but the
fact remains – Morrissey inspires us to think and feel on another
level – and he is never, ever a crashing bore.
Thank you for reading: the tour begins in less than two weeks. Viva
Moz!
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| Chicken friend I met the other week: Friends, not food! |
* For more info on Jobriath: https://www.highsnobiety.com/2017/04/25/jobriath-gay-rock-icon/
Sources: Mozipedia and Meetings With Morrissey