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The Best Of Morrissey review in the Boston Phoenix (Jan. 3 - 10 issue)
posted by davidt on Monday January 07 2002, @08:00AM

 Jason Brown sends the link to the review in The Boston Phoenix (Jan 3 - 10 issue):

The Best Of Morrissey review by Matt Ashare

If you can make it past the lethally pretentious liner notes by Michael Bracewell - which compare our hero with everyone from Noël Coward and Montgomery Clift to Henry James and Alan Bennett and predict that 'One day there will most probably be a Faculty of Morrissey Studies in more than one distinguished seat of learning' - then what you've got here is a pretty-much flawless 21-track collection of solo work. There have been Morrissey compilations before - the rarities collection My Early Burglary Years and the disappointing World of Morrissey - but this is the first one that spans his entire solo career and goes to the trouble of ferreting out the idiosyncratic singles that have made him such a special and, in England at least, successful artist.


Everything from 'Suedehead,' one of the first singles that made it clear that he wasn't going to let the end of the Smiths slow him down, to later, reflective numbers like 'I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday' is here. And though there's no attempt to place the material in chronological order, that doesn't diminish its effectiveness as a career retrospective. Which I suppose would make The Best Of! the perfect textbook for Bracewell's Morrissey 101 class, or something like that.

BY MATT ASHARE

 
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    The Best Of Morrissey review in the Boston Phoenix (Jan. 3 - 10 issue) | Log in/Create an Account | Top | 6 comments | Search Discussion
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    the henry james comparison (Score:1)
    ...is completely appropriate. is pat reid taking notes?
    thirsty fists <thirsty_fists@yahoo.com> -- Monday January 07 2002, @11:07AM (#22875)
    (User #149 Info)
     "world's ugliest boy"
    • why? by Anonymous (Score:0) Tuesday January 08 2002, @09:38AM
      The Montgomery Clift comparison (Score:1)
      The first time I saw a Monty Clift film I thought of Morrissey. But I don't think they operate on the same level in their personal lives. The incident w/ Monty rubbing his steak dinner all over his face underneath the table while making dog growls seems to come from him not being able to handle public stardom; where Moz seems to appreciate us.
      hanz_ofbyotch -- Tuesday January 08 2002, @06:38AM (#22901)
      (User #4000 Info | http://www.crabnog.net/ )
       I've Got Thirteen Channels of Shit on the TV to Choose From
        Reviews (Score:0)
        Henry James?????????, hmmmm reviews, could I expect anymore, or less for that matter????????
        Anonymous -- Wednesday January 09 2002, @08:31AM (#22922)
          not accurate (Score:0)
          Morrissey is much more successful in the US than in England
          Anonymous -- Wednesday January 09 2002, @04:47PM (#22947)
            I agree with Matt Ashare... (Score:2, Insightful)
            I didn't like that paper at all, at all. The person who wrote it (sorry I cannot see the name here) was a bit hmm flattering and too broad. Morrissey is worthy much more than flattery, that's what I mean. In a way he said that Morrissey was everything he knew and liked, all recent and not so quite recent influence on cinema and books of not only the present century but also the past two. Though I can see a point in compare him to Montgomery Cliff (but that happens probably because of Morrissey's cult for James Dean) I cannot see why to compare him to Henry James. Henry James was Freud before Freud, who saw the film The Portrait of a Lady, based on one of his books, can understand why. Or the outstanding The Innocents, also based on one of his books. Montgomery Cliff, btw, played the role of Freud in one movie directed by John Houston, but that is the only connection I can think of.
            About an academic course on Morrissey, I cannot see why some Fine Arts colleges cannot hold a discipline to study Morrissey, within pop studies, if we want to be serious about it, but that's it.
            But what I disliked most was saying that Morrissey is a rebel, and that in a paper enclosed within a re-re-re-package. Well. Seemed that words could mean more, or even deny, what was sadly obvious, as much as it wasn't Morrissey's fault.
            Morrissey has a strong and beautiful identity, a place in the last century and let's hope that he has a place in this one too - let's not blurr it saying he's everything - what can be seen as a plus, as gain, may in reality be a loss.
            Havfine -- Thursday January 10 2002, @04:45AM (#22953)
            (User #284 Info)
             "Have you forgotten how to love yourself?" Red House Painters

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