Talking to Girls... & Morrissey: New Book by Rolling Stone Journo R. Sheffield

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This could be amusing, :) - Rolling Stone columnist Rob Sheffield's new book "Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: One Man's Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut".
He read about Morrissey taking over his brain for a while in his youth, at a launch in Barnes & Noble, Brooklyn, NYC yesterday (21 July):

- ...For all their wisdom, the Sheffield girls couldn't save young Rob from Morrissey. 'Talking to Girls About Duran Duran' centers on how Sheffield's adolescence was shaped by '80s music, and in the first of two passages he read Wednesday, the author acted out an imaginary dialogue with the former Smiths singer, a wellspring of suspect advice Sheffield once regarded as an infallible Fonzie-like shaman. As he imitated the misanthropic icon, quoting some of his best-known lyrics, Sheffield used not a lilting Manchester accent, but rather a clipped Clint Eastwood bark.

Asked during the Q&A session to name the worst piece of advice he ever took from Morrissey, Sheffield cited 'I Don't Owe You Anything,' from the first Smiths album, in which Moz, angry at his lover for daring to leave the sanctuary of their apartment and venture into the outside world, sings, "You should never go to them/let them come to you/just like I do."

"When I was 18, I was like, 'Yeah!'" Sheffield said, drawing knowing laughs from an audience containing more than a few Smiths fans. "Of course, that's terrible advice to give any 18-year-old. It's like giving them a toaster to play with in the bathtub..." -

http://www.spinner.com/2010/07/22/rob-sheffield-discusses-new-book-karaoke-in-new-york-exclusi/
 
I caught Mr. Sheffield's interview on Soundcheck just the other day - very amusing. He didn't mention The Smiths (but he did talk a lot about Duran Duran). He sure sounded like someone who had once fallen under Morrissey's spell, being a sensitive 80s music nerd and all that.
 
I've always associated Rob Sheffield with Rob Thomas from Matchbox 20. There is no reason for this whatsoever. Just a mental hiccup. In any case it's like irrationally associating spaghetti sauce with diarrhea: you have no idea why it should be so, but in any case you tend not to dine in Italian restaurants. As such I scrupulously avoid articles written by Rob Sheffield out of a horror of Matchbox 20. Sorry Rob! It goes without saying I would otherwise be excited to hear all the reasons why Morrissey is no different than Simon Lebon and Boy George.
 
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