MUSIC « In Which Heaven Knows We're Miserable Now »
Friday, June 5, 2009 at 2:15PM 
Some Things Morrissey May Have Said
by ALEX CARNEVALE
The following may not be 100 percent true, but it is 100 percent true to me.
I once bought a Manchester United hat, which I think was 12 shillings, and somebody ran up behind me and pulled it off and just ran ahead. I thought, 'It's a very cruel world, I'm not prepared for this'. And I decided to get my revenge on society.
"What Difference Does It Make (alternative mix)" - The Smiths (mp3)
"Reader Meets Author (instrumental)" - The Smiths (mp3)
The lyrics I write are specifically genderless. I don't want to leave anybody out. Handsome is a word that people think is applied to males... but I know lots of handsome women. After all, there is such a thing as a pretty male.
"Wonderful Woman (unreleased Kid Jensen)" - The Smiths (mp3)
"Miserable Lie (Peel session)" - The Smiths (mp3)
I don't perform. Seals perform.
"Girl Afraid (live in Glasgow)" - The Smiths (mp3)
"I Know It's Over" - The Smiths (mp3)
I never enjoyed life in my twenties, not one minute of it. It was a test of endurance that I'm surprised I survived. Professionally, of course, I was doing very well but personally it couldn't have been worse or more difficult for me if I'd been living in a mud hut in Leeds.
"Honey, You Know Where To Find Me (instrumental)" - The Smiths (mp3)
"Laughing Anne (instrumental)" - The Smiths (mp3)
I can smell burning flesh ... and I hope to God it's human.
"Unloveable No. 1 (rare sound check recording)" - The Smiths (mp3)
"Unloveable No. 2 (rare sound check recording)" - The Smiths (mp3)
Q: Were you in love with Johnny Marr?
M: Sexually? Absolutely not. There was a love and it was mutual and equal but it wasn’t physical or sexual. There are lots of people post-Smiths who would like to make some dramatic homosexual story. There never was one. It’s often said that Johnny rescued me but he was also bobbing about in his own lifeboat.
"Shoplifters of the World Unite (last ever live performance)" - The Smiths (mp3)
"Sheila Take A Bow (last ever live performance)" - The Smiths (mp3)
I don't like it when people say let's leave the past and go ahead, because a lot of the future isn't that attractive.
"Sweet and Tender Hooligan (John Peel session)" - The Smiths (mp3)
"Hand in Glove (Sandie Shaw on lead vocal)" - The Smiths (mp3)
Well, I think the way you feel as a teenager stays with you, forever. I really believe that. And we try to change and we hope that we change, but we don't really in big ways, in serious ways. I think the personality is formed at that time, for the good and for the bad. ... We all want to grow up and move on and appear to be different to people. And we want people to see us in a different way. But, I don't know, I think the personality is very, very strongly cemented, and we just bear whatever shortcomings we have and learn to live with it.
"There Is A Light That Never Goes Out (live)" - The Smiths (mp3)
"Vicar in a Tute (live on the Old Grey Whistle)" - The Smiths (mp3)
It's hard to be a man. It's made to be hard and I don't know why. I think it's easier to be a woman. The women's movement has been so successful; the men's movement has never been accepted. I think it's not wanted. I think the expectation that men be stoic and strong is so enormous that finally they decide that this is the attractive way to be. There's more to life than being macho - such an ugly word - which is something that I realized at the age of one.
"How Soon Is Now? (John Peel session)" - The Smiths (mp3)
"Barbarism Begins At Home (live)" - The Smiths (mp3)
M: I don't have relationships at all. It's out of the question.
Q: Why?
M: Partly because I was always attracted to men or women who were never attracted to me. And I was never attracted to women or men who were attracted to me. So that's the problem. I've never met the right person.
"Still Ill (live on the Tube)" - The Smiths (mp3)
"Hand in Glove (live on the tube)" - The Smiths (mp3)
I've seen a tramp with an Afghan coat on. I think we'll reach the stage where tramps no longer wear old 1930s overcoats and cloth caps, that they'll actually be going round in platforms and Chicory Tip t-shirts. It will happen.
"The Boy With The Thorn In His Side" - The Smiths (mp3)
"Is It Really So Strange? (John Peel session)" - The Smiths (mp3)
I'm really chained to those iron bridges. I'm really chained to the pier. I'm persistently on some disused clearing in Wigan. I shall be buried there, I'm sure, and shall be glad to go at that point. I mean, I certainly don't want to be buried at Rough Trade.
"Never Had No One Ever" - The Smiths (mp3)
"Frankly, Mr. Shankly" - The Smiths (mp3)
I miss not being able to stand up straight. I tend to slide into rooms and sit on the chair behind the door.
"Cemetry Gates" - The Smiths (mp3)
"Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others" - The Smiths (mp3)
If I was a pessimist I wouldn't get up, I wouldn't shave, I wouldn't watch Batman at 7:30 a.m. Pessimists just don't do that sort of thing.
"Rush and a Push And The Land Is Ours" - The Smiths (mp3)
"I Started Something I Couldn't Finish" - The Smiths (mp3)
I suppose you have work tomorrow? That's quite sad, really.
"Death of a Disco Dancer" - The Smiths (mp3)
"Death At One's Elbow" - The Smiths (mp3)
That's why I do this music business thing, it's communication with people without having the extreme inconvenience of actually phoning anybody up.
"What Do You See In Him (early version of Wonderful Woman)" - The Smiths (mp3)
"Girlfriend in a Coma" - The Smiths (mp3)
These are desperate times. But I don't think we should join in with the desperation. We should conquer it. I'm fed up with this depressive attitude people have.
"What's the World (live from Glasgow)" - The Smiths (mp3)
"I Won't Share You" - The Smiths (mp3)
If there was a magical beautiful pill that one could take that would retire you from this world, I think I would take it and I suppose that's the extremity of the obsessiveness.
"Panic (live on the Eurotube)" - The Smiths (mp3)
"Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now (different studio mix)" - The Smiths (mp3)
The songs are personal - they're there to be discovered. The words are basic because I don't want anyone to miss what I'm saying. Lyrics that are intellectual or obscure are no use whatsoever.
"Bigmouth Strikes Again (live on The Old Grey Whistle)" - The Smiths (mp3)
"Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" - The Smiths (mp3)
Most of the songs are about my own life, which has been quite tragic.
"I Don't Owe You Anything" - The Smiths ft. Sandy Shaw (mp3)
"Paint A Vulgar Picture" - The Smiths (mp3)
Inevitably certain aspects of the band would become tarnished, so a slight readjustment will have to be made. I think now is absolutely the right time to do it. When something becomes too easy and it's all laid out for you, one is robbed of the joy of achievement. When there's no need to fight any more, it'll be time to pull up the shutters on the Smiths.
"Half a Person (Peel session)" - The Smiths (mp3)
"The Hand That Rocks The Cradle (alternate Troy Tate mix)" - The Smiths (mp3)
Thanks to Smiths Presumably Forever Ill for some of these images.
Reader Comments (8)
Given the quotes I can see why Morrissey has a following as a person.
But seriously ... for the music?
Most of the people I respect seem to really enjoy The Smiths, or have this 'deep' connection to the music. I've often given them a chance, but the 'music' is just not good ... to me.
I don't get it? Is that really part of the appeal? Have I missed out on some magnificent series of lyrics that would persuade me otherwise?
Your comments got me interested enough to listen again ... still sounds so uninteresting to me.
Then again ... I didn't like Adam Lambert either. Sadly, it seemed that only Clay Aiken agreed with me ... for a little while ... for what that's worth.
Blah.
not everyone has to like the smiths, but he's a brilliant songwriter and hilarious to boot
"girlfriend in a coma, I know, I know, it's serious" is one of the enduring lines, if not sentiments
Lyrics for people who grew up reading Edith Sitwell! Even a graying, gutty Morrissey on stage with his shirt off is better than all those auto-tuned Liebensborn bitches in the Top 40. One of the few cases in which I'll overlook the fascist subtext... and you know there is one.
500 DAYS OF BUMMER.
In response to Slappy: I would say, but by no means narrowing it down to, if you were to find yourself at a certain age either a young teen or a none teen age...listening to the The Smiths and Morrissey you may have found a connection, again this isn't the only way to appreciate them but mind you it certainly helps....in the getting along through a young love break up or just your own personal out look on life, it always felt like someone was there that felt the same way. It is an easier way to look at things....maybe you would return home from school or return home from a day with your friends and turn on The Smiths/Morrissey and enjoy what its saying and think wow, I have felt this way or I have thought that before. I believe, and I may believe falsely that the relationship I have formed with bands such as The Smiths/Morrissey have impacted my life but it is not the foundation of my life....I am not entirely sure when you started to form a your relationship with Morrissey musically but I think if you listened during the informative years of your life, I'll even go as far as university years, you ay have been able to have a better grasp on why their/his fans have such admiration for them/him.
An excellent collection of some of Mozzer's best quotes. I've adored the Smiths and Morrissey for more than 20 years. I've always been intrigued by his wit first and foremost and Johnny Marr's jangling guitar wizardry helped considerably. When people drone on and on about how "depressive" The Smiths sound I just realize that they've not listened to the lyrics. Morrissey crafted more hilarious lines than any other songwriter I can think of yet still managed to convey a sense of loneliness and despair that resonates with the teenager in all of us. When we as teenagers saw the ridiculousness of the world around us, but felt our opinions wouldn't be respected...our thoughts would pound in our brains. Morrissey's lyrics allowed those thoughts to ping pong around the dancefloor or the bedsit. He gave credence to the angst of adolescence and I thank him for that gift.
Morrissey is 50% angst and 50% jubilation, some people just focus on the negative side of this genius and lovely man.