Book Report- Morrissey - Autobiography
May. 19th, 2014 05:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedsitter23Well, you knew I would get to it.
Uncut Magazine's Book of the Year. Acclaimed as much as it's unexpected, but is it any good?
The book starts with the Moz musing about the early years. It's "Barbarism Begins at Home" in print- abusive teachers, passing acquaintances, British culture and a walk through 50s England.
The opening 50 pages or so of the book are the most acclaimed, though for me (I don't know these towns and movies), it was a bit too obscure to really feel much towards it.
It does very much set up everything you need to know about this book.
Morrissey took some heat for using the Penguin Classics imprint, but his goal here is clear. This is not the bio of a lead singer. Moz is not trying to emulate Ian Hunter or Dave Davies. Moz doesn't even want to be Dave Marsh or Greil Marcus or Nick Hornsby. He wants to be Thomas Hardy.
Morrissey's autobio is extremely self-important, but it would have to be, wouldn't it?
Insights about the Smiths are few in comparison to say Rogan's Severed Alliance. Sure, Moz does give his side - He never wanted Roddy Frame to replace Johnny Marr as long reported, he never used the phrase "Lawnmower Parts" to describe his rhythm section, and he thinks his music videos are as cheesy as you think they are.
You don't get traditonal fare like "What were the Smiths inspired by and listening to while recording Strangeways." (Though Moz does work in excerpts from his heroes like Auden, Housman, and Belloc).
Moz is more of a character in his autobiography than anything. A character is very funny, very fragile, and feels extremely wronged against, The Moz of this book (like his interviews) is Ignatius J Reilly, Holden Caulfield, and The Bell Jar's Esther Greenwood. Young and rebellious.
Wry and very funny. Damaged and precious.
This book reads like a first draft. There are no chapters (except an occasional picture to interrupt the action) and barely paragraphs. It is part of the book's charm, though, as it probably is a first draft, and one guesses it wouldn't exist in any other form.
Morrissey desperately wishes he was Oscar Wilde and it is apparent that he wishes his life would have a dramatic trial like Wilde. Thus the Smiths trial is clearly the peak of excitement for the book. You only hear Moz's side and it sounds like he had the most personal wrong ever, though surely there is something more. True enough, his arguments do seem valid (If Rourke & Joyce shared the profits, then why not share the losses; if being a Smith is so terrible, why are they so eager to reunite, and why did they work with Morrissey post-split-up; why did they get 25% each when the Smtihs were a five piece for a period of time with Craig Gannon; How come in a similar lawsuit, Gary Kemp won over the members of Spandau Ballet?)
True enough, this may make this a tough sell for anyone but diehards, but this is what a diehard is going to expect, and it's pretty clever.
The book ends with a travelogue of places visited, and along the way some truly unique stories (encountering a ghost in Scotland; being kidnapped in Mexico.)
Moz is always correct and never at fault, throughout; which certainly can't be the truth, but his points are often valid. Why didn't the Smiths break America since songs like "How Soon is Now" were well loved? How come his albums didn't perform better on the charts since he was selling out arenas as a solo performer? How was a duet between the biggest male and female alt-rock stars of the early 90s (Interlude)- not a hit. To a certain extent, Sire, Warner Bros, and Rough Trade must bear some blame. Moz tells a story where WB Music was interviewing him with no reason given, but according to Morrissey, they were secretly grilling to find out who they were going to put their money behind (Alanis Morrissette, we are told, won the best pitch).
Celeb cameos do make the book. Neighbor Dave Wakeling asking Moz over for a dip in the pool. A lost Grammy to Tom Waits in which Waits tells Moz if he really wants it, he can have it. Siouxise gets slighted as being the most abrasive person on the planet. The New York Dolls are ungrateful that Moz broght them back together for a new adoring public. Personal heroes like Bowie and Bryan Ferry are that they are two-faced carnivores. We already know about Billy Duffy, but we find out teenage Moz was pen pals with fellow teenage Mancunian Ian Curtis (which seems appropriate).
There's love of course, but it's handled pretty vaguely and Moz has since covered it before. "I became we" is as close to an admission as we get, and we may never get much more admission that Jake Walters was more than a dinner companion.
Morrissey fans will read over and over. Best book of the year is a tough credit to give. For those who hate the Mozzer, all of the things that they find annoying are well on display here. Even this Moz-maniac found parts tedious, but it is what it is, and it is when you give it some thought, kind of what you expect it would be.
Uncut Magazine's Book of the Year. Acclaimed as much as it's unexpected, but is it any good?
The book starts with the Moz musing about the early years. It's "Barbarism Begins at Home" in print- abusive teachers, passing acquaintances, British culture and a walk through 50s England.
The opening 50 pages or so of the book are the most acclaimed, though for me (I don't know these towns and movies), it was a bit too obscure to really feel much towards it.
It does very much set up everything you need to know about this book.
Morrissey took some heat for using the Penguin Classics imprint, but his goal here is clear. This is not the bio of a lead singer. Moz is not trying to emulate Ian Hunter or Dave Davies. Moz doesn't even want to be Dave Marsh or Greil Marcus or Nick Hornsby. He wants to be Thomas Hardy.
Morrissey's autobio is extremely self-important, but it would have to be, wouldn't it?
Insights about the Smiths are few in comparison to say Rogan's Severed Alliance. Sure, Moz does give his side - He never wanted Roddy Frame to replace Johnny Marr as long reported, he never used the phrase "Lawnmower Parts" to describe his rhythm section, and he thinks his music videos are as cheesy as you think they are.
You don't get traditonal fare like "What were the Smiths inspired by and listening to while recording Strangeways." (Though Moz does work in excerpts from his heroes like Auden, Housman, and Belloc).
Moz is more of a character in his autobiography than anything. A character is very funny, very fragile, and feels extremely wronged against, The Moz of this book (like his interviews) is Ignatius J Reilly, Holden Caulfield, and The Bell Jar's Esther Greenwood. Young and rebellious.
Wry and very funny. Damaged and precious.
This book reads like a first draft. There are no chapters (except an occasional picture to interrupt the action) and barely paragraphs. It is part of the book's charm, though, as it probably is a first draft, and one guesses it wouldn't exist in any other form.
Morrissey desperately wishes he was Oscar Wilde and it is apparent that he wishes his life would have a dramatic trial like Wilde. Thus the Smiths trial is clearly the peak of excitement for the book. You only hear Moz's side and it sounds like he had the most personal wrong ever, though surely there is something more. True enough, his arguments do seem valid (If Rourke & Joyce shared the profits, then why not share the losses; if being a Smith is so terrible, why are they so eager to reunite, and why did they work with Morrissey post-split-up; why did they get 25% each when the Smtihs were a five piece for a period of time with Craig Gannon; How come in a similar lawsuit, Gary Kemp won over the members of Spandau Ballet?)
True enough, this may make this a tough sell for anyone but diehards, but this is what a diehard is going to expect, and it's pretty clever.
The book ends with a travelogue of places visited, and along the way some truly unique stories (encountering a ghost in Scotland; being kidnapped in Mexico.)
Moz is always correct and never at fault, throughout; which certainly can't be the truth, but his points are often valid. Why didn't the Smiths break America since songs like "How Soon is Now" were well loved? How come his albums didn't perform better on the charts since he was selling out arenas as a solo performer? How was a duet between the biggest male and female alt-rock stars of the early 90s (Interlude)- not a hit. To a certain extent, Sire, Warner Bros, and Rough Trade must bear some blame. Moz tells a story where WB Music was interviewing him with no reason given, but according to Morrissey, they were secretly grilling to find out who they were going to put their money behind (Alanis Morrissette, we are told, won the best pitch).
Celeb cameos do make the book. Neighbor Dave Wakeling asking Moz over for a dip in the pool. A lost Grammy to Tom Waits in which Waits tells Moz if he really wants it, he can have it. Siouxise gets slighted as being the most abrasive person on the planet. The New York Dolls are ungrateful that Moz broght them back together for a new adoring public. Personal heroes like Bowie and Bryan Ferry are that they are two-faced carnivores. We already know about Billy Duffy, but we find out teenage Moz was pen pals with fellow teenage Mancunian Ian Curtis (which seems appropriate).
There's love of course, but it's handled pretty vaguely and Moz has since covered it before. "I became we" is as close to an admission as we get, and we may never get much more admission that Jake Walters was more than a dinner companion.
Morrissey fans will read over and over. Best book of the year is a tough credit to give. For those who hate the Mozzer, all of the things that they find annoying are well on display here. Even this Moz-maniac found parts tedious, but it is what it is, and it is when you give it some thought, kind of what you expect it would be.
