I love Johnnys glam jam on this, its fantastic. M's words are brilliant as well,
"The Leeds side-streets that you slip down I wonder to myself
Hopes may rise on the Grasmere But honey pie, you're not safe here" .
The naming of British streets, was of course part of the Brit pop play book 10 years later . M was a keen student of the Ray Davis school of taking the American habit, of geographical mythology and applying it to the UK .
Its funny how this became the first attempt of someone stating M is racist. The music writer who wrote the auricle that names this song, actually likes M (way more than Bowie,for instance) He just saw M as an easy target and tried to be edgy and Manchester cool , that of course means thinking black music is better than white.
The music writers name is Frank Owen and was/is a cretin, a lesson in "If you knew about the lives of those that criticise music, you wouldn't pay them any mind"
In 2015 Frank was a meth smoking moron, who sent pictures of his younger girlfriends arse on the internet in a pathetic attempt to say " look I have a bab"
One of those who tries to get man points by talking about being around druggy parts of NY "back in the day"
In the 80s in the UK, most disco dj's were white, 99% of radio dj's were white. Also even if M was racist (he isn't) its not against black people.
It was such a stupid stance, that it never really became an accepted theory until years and many more M wind up's later
I notice Johnny made a point of saying how British the song is, something, M used to do ALOT about most Smiths things - but hey don't mention that it means its too "Johnny Foreigner "
The only Foreigners I dislike are those in the band Foreigner