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| 'Sons and Daughters' on Morrissey & The Smiths |
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posted by davidt
on Monday September 05 2005, @10:00AM
charles byron writes:from Guardian Unlimited Fans' notes
Excerpt:
Both fell in love with the romance of pop music in their teens. Bethel can pinpoint the moment her life was turned around by it: when she heard The Queen Is Dead by the Smiths. "I was 13 and lost in the halls of school, not really knowing what was going on in my life," she says, producing a CD of the album. "A friend's elder sister gave me this record and that was it. I wouldn't be here if I hadn't heard it. I thought: 'This is incredible. I'm going to stay in my bedroom for two years and only listen to Morrissey.' "
When the two years were up, Bethel discovered that being into the Smiths meant gaining entry into a new social world. "The Smiths were a huge cult in Glasgow. We would go into town on a Saturday and try and find boys with quiffs - and there were lots of them. They hung around record shops, wore denim jackets, and worshipped Morrissey." Are they still hanging around? "Not in Glasgow. These days you have to go to Mexico to find them."
This is one of the more bizarre developments in the history of pop music. Worship of the band has spread into the macho world of Mexican gangs, despite Morrissey's generally less-than-butch demeanour. "But then, Morrissey has changed," says Bethel. "He used to be a flower-toting librarian, and now he's on the cover of his new record with a machine gun."
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Seems to me like every exciting band in the last few years is quoting The Smiths as a major influence.
Yippee!