Finally, somebody with some insight. I feel like a read a different book then these reviewers. All I keep reading online is that he is miserable and filled with malice and hates women and anyone he has ever done business with. It's like they missed the parts where he was consistently physically/verbally abused as a boy and had to watch the people around him die on the regular. Or the part where he hints at being a disappointment to his father or sexually harassed/abused by a PE teacher. Or where he commiserates with his fans over what it is like to be snubbed by a hero. And what about the great deal of praise he has for Johnny Marr's musical ability or tenacity and his absolute love of poetry. If you didn't catch all that, just maybe, that's why it is difficult to understand his attitude towards the break-up of the Smiths and the direction of pop music industry.
Perhaps I just am interpreting to fit my own thoughts, but I believe Morrissey has very articulately documented the fragility of male adolescence, in a narrative that stands in stark contrast to the Holden Caulifield view of the world. I see a boy that had been consistently victimized because he didn't fit in a mold that was traditionally acceptable for a boy to be shaped. As someone who sought refuge from the ugly world he lived in to one of music, it is no wonder why he holds so steadfast to the integrity of the song and written word. I can't imagine the break of the Smiths being anything less then the crumbling of an emotional fortification he had built. But I think the most tragic part of (t)his story, is no one will ever apologize to him for how he was treated. He is just suppose to somehow accept that money and fame will make all the memories of victimization magically disappear. The girls that made him feel awkward because he was not attracted to them, Miss Power, Mr Pink, Mr Sweeney, or Anthony Morris, are all mere anecdotal evidence for the hurtful nature of growing up different in a heteronormative cisgendered world. The constant fear of physical violence on the streets of Manchester, must had been overwhelming for a boy not prone to overbearing displays of masculinity. Though the brutality of that world is no longer Morrissey's reality, I can't help but feel that young Steven might still very much be wrapped in that pain.
Finally, somebody with some insight. I feel like a read a different book then these reviewers. All I keep reading online is that he is miserable and filled with malice and hates women and anyone he has ever done business with. It's like they missed the parts where he was consistently physically/verbally abused as a boy and had to watch the people around him die on the regular. Or the part where he hints at being a disappointment to his father or sexually harassed/abused by a PE teacher. Or where he commiserates with his fans over what it is like to be snubbed by a hero. And what about the great deal of praise he has for Johnny Marr's musical ability or tenacity and his absolute love of poetry. If you didn't catch all that, just maybe, that's why it is difficult to understand his attitude towards the break-up of the Smiths and the direction of pop music industry.
Perhaps I just am interpreting to fit my own thoughts, but I believe Morrissey has very articulately documented the fragility of male adolescence, in a narrative that stands in stark contrast to the Holden Caulifield view of the world. I see a boy that had been consistently victimized because he didn't fit in a mold that was traditionally acceptable for a boy to be shaped. As someone who sought refuge from the ugly world he lived in to one of music, it is no wonder why he holds so steadfast to the integrity of the song and written word. I can't imagine the break of the Smiths being anything less then the crumbling of an emotional fortification he had built. But I think the most tragic part of (t)his story, is no one will ever apologize to him for how he was treated. He is just suppose to somehow accept that money and fame will make all the memories of victimization magically disappear. The girls that made him feel awkward because he was not attracted to them, Miss Power, Mr Pink, Mr Sweeney, or Anthony Morris, are all mere anecdotal evidence for the hurtful nature of growing up different in a heteronormative cisgendered world. The constant fear of physical violence on the streets of Manchester, must had been overwhelming for a boy not prone to overbearing displays of masculinity. Though the brutality of that world is no longer Morrissey's reality, I can't help but feel that young Steven might still very much be wrapped in that pain.
Many thanks for this! Very well put. (You're not Annie Lennox, are you?)
This is so beautiful and so right. It makes me happy to read such kind words from the amazing Annie Lennox written for someone I feel so connected to. It reminds me of many years ago when I was being picked on for liking Morrissey and a person stood up for me by saying "You mess with Morrissey, you mess with me."
"you mess with Morrissey, you mess with me." haha! love it! that's exactly what I tell people too!
And finally, The Smiths are dead.
Hazard
England