MM
suggestive lyrics. Of course, pop music has the British press. and music were beautiful but also incredibly
always been about sex, love and loss. But in The Smiths continued their unconventional doom-laden. That said, when the lead singer
Morrissey’s case, sex was always out of reach. He career path. Early on they rejected making Ian Curtis took his life in 1981, the lyrics on the
was famously celibate and seemed to eschew videos, which harmed their chances of success posthumous album ‘Closer’ took on a whole new
any close sexual relationships. Back in the early in America. When Morrissey mimed on TV he meaning (by now you may have seen the award-
1980s (and arguably still today!) this was a hell made no efforts to disguise the fact that he winning film Control, about his life and death).
of a position to take. However, it didn’t stop wasn’t singing. They avoided using electronic Unlike Joy Division, who could perhaps
Morrissey’s lyrics offering in a wry, knowing
instruments such as synthesisers and their set- be seen as The Smiths’ predecessors of sorts,
way, the possibilities of sex, and certainly being
up of bass, guitars and drums harked back to Morrissey had a tremendous balance in his
deliberately obtuse regarding the gender of the
an earlier period. Their sleeves and cover art songs, seen particularly in the album considered
protagonists in his songs. Morrissey made no
were also highly distinctive – using a range by many (including myself) to be their best,
grand pronouncements about his sexuality; the
of icons, 60s soap and television stars and The Queen is Dead, released in 1986. The song
ambiguous nature of the subject matter meant
other key cultural signifiers. Each single and ‘I Know It’s Over’ has stark imagery in which
that his songs could have multiple readings and
album was special – the iconography just as Morrissey ‘can feel the soil falling over his head’,
interpreted in different ways by different listeners.
important as the music. There was also a real yet on the same record he has vicars in tutus, he
Oddly enough despite this oppositional stance
concentration on quality B-sides, which often berates an employer for ‘his bloody awful poetry’
to sex, Morrissey’s early lyrics seemed to court
meant they continued to tour almost non-stop. in ‘Frankly Mr Shankly’ and in the final song he
controversy. Certainly the early song ‘Handsome
Their shows, of course, are the stuff of legend. makes the thrilling discovery that some girls are
Devil’, with lines like ‘A boy in the bush is worth
Rather than mere showcases for the songs, they bigger than others. This ability to mix deathly
two in the hands. I’d like to help you get through
were celebratory events, especially the early gigs serious musings on loneliness with the rather
your exams’ and ‘Let me get your head on a
which saw the audience showering the band wry humour which echoed Morrissey’s own love
conjugal bed’, brought accusations by the tabloid
with flowers and trying to grab, or simply touch, of Carry On films has been matched by very few
press at the time that The Smiths were singing
Morrissey. other bands.
about paedophilia. This of course was hotly
Miserable lies Fame, fame, fatal fame
disputed by them and their record company
A common myth about The Smiths is that their For a band that has had such a remarkable
Rough Trade, but it was a charge levelled at a
songs were dour, depressing affairs in which effect and enduring influence The Smiths had a
number of songs on the first album, The Smiths,
Morrissey complained about the world and his very short life-span. As the journalist and Radio
released at the start of 1984.
place in it. Much of this view has its roots in one Two DJ Stuart Maconie so aptly put it:
Aside from the misguided accusations
of their early and best known singles ‘Heaven, The Smiths lived fast (and chaotically) and
levelled at the band, The Sun regarded the
Knows I’m Miserable Now’ released in the spring died young (and messily). They seemed to be
most controversial track from the album as the
of 1984. Certainly when placed against more around for one brief, bleak, 80s mid-summer.
chilling ‘Suffer Little Children’ written about the
mainstream songs this may at first seem to be In fact their recording career lasted little
Moors Murders of the early 1960s. The charge
the case; however, with Marr’s gently strummed over four years, but their output was huge: four
was that Morrissey was cashing in on the grief of
jazz guitar, Morrissey’s woes are punctuated with albums, three compilations and a whopping
the parents of the victims of Brady and Hindley.
flashes of camp humour such as: seventeen singles. There was also a brace
Yet a close examination of the lyrics completely
What she asked of me, at the end of the day/ of wonderful television Top of the Pops
refutes this; in fact the song is very much rooted
Caligula would have blushed. ‘You’ve been in performances which can now be accessed on
in Morrissey’s own immediate past as a possible
the house too long’ she said/ and I naturally YouTube. From the golden moment during
potential victim.
fled. ‘William, It Was Really Nothing’ when Morrissey
When ‘indie’ really did mean
Yes, on occasions Morrissey’s lyrics did have reveals his chest scrawled with the message
independent
a tendency to wallow in the despair of life, but ‘Marry Me’ to ‘Panic’ when he brandishes a noose,
ironically it was probably this that attracted so they are always riveting viewing.
At this time The Smiths had only had two chart
many teenagers – disconnected and out of place But sadly it all had to end. Tensions between
singles. They were on a small independent label
in a world that didn’t understand them. I’d been the band members had increased, due to
Rough Trade, and the massive publicity machine
a big fan of the Manchester band Joy Division Morrissey’s perceived aloofness. Bass player
that exists around pop/rock music today was
before the inception of The Smiths and their lyrics Andy Rourke’s addiction to heroin, his sacking
non-existent then. Music got nowhere near the
sort of coverage it now receives in the tabloid
press, with its tales of the drugged-up antics
of Doherty or Winehouse. It was remarkable
that The Sun and other newspapers at the time
should focus on the lyrics of a relatively small
indie band. The term indie had very different
connotations from today, when so-called ‘indie’
bands such as The Kaiser Chiefs, The Editors and
Bloc Party often dominate the charts.
The Smiths continued to court controversy
both in their lyrics and in Morrissey’s interviews
with the music press, but this was clear in other
aspects of their profile as well. Morrissey was a
strict vegan and their second studio album had
as its title track the harrowing ‘Meat is Murder’,
widely believed to have converted large numbers
of young people to vegetarianism. He also had
a hatred of the then Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher, and in the wake of the IRA’s bombing
of her hotel during the Conservative Party
Conference of 1984, he remarked that ‘The sorrow
of the Brighton bomb is that Thatcher escaped
unscathed’. Again this drew the predictable ire of
english and media centre | February 2008 | MediaMagazine 21
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