Dear Morrissey . . .

I'm browsing it just now. It's a decent read i think. He doesn't seem to prioritise much - every incident is dealt with in around two pages - so the effect is like having his life's contents all set up in a line, and then viewing them from a moving train.

He also appears to have dampened his very worst and most cruellest affectations, while leaving the quintessential Morrissey character traits (including middling affectations and fairly cruel character judgements). It's actually not unlike reading a particularly long classic-era l0u15 j4g9er post, and that's a compliment of sorts btw.

okay i'm sold now

That's one for the back of the second printing, reviews..

the bit where he discusses his relationship with Jake Walters is pretty cute, which is not an adjective I foresaw myself using about this book.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49lPGmnYDw4

sort of disappointed that this appears to contain forthright discussions of his romantic/sex life...? was hoping for more clever elisions and evasions tbh

It's not really any more forthright than any of his lyrics.

Did want to shout 'stop remembering tv' when he was just listing things he watched in the 60s.

Four and a half bloody pages worth. Morrissey veering dangerously close to Stuart MacConie territory.

Then again, that's only 4.5 pages. Stuart Mac writes whole books.

uh, just suffered through another three pages worth of childhood telly.

i keep hearing this thread title in my head sung to the tune of that gin blossoms song. driving me a little crazy...

and meanwhile i would LOVE to read 10 pages of MOz t.v. habits!!! maybe i'm crazy.

otm. I used to watch "Skippy The Bush Kangaroo" as well. Why then wasn't I the lead singer of The Smiths? Also, where does he stand on "Kimba The White Lion"?

He doesn't stand on lions.

I like it a lot more when he starts remembering music instead. And remembering books. I am completely into his tributes to Auden, Stevie Smith and Robert Herrick.

"And then my world would change forever..."

http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1275941673l/8242160.jpg

These are my favourite bits of autobiographies. Adolescence saved by books + music. I love his enthusiasm!

Only 15% in & I think the editor's starting to rush things a bit, 'Hillaire Belloc' repeatedly.

sort of disappointed that this appears to contain forthright discussions of his romantic/sex life...? was hoping for more clever elisions and evasions tbh

http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2013/10/19/morrissey-not-homosexual-is-humasexual-instead/

at least sense of huma is intact

no huma, bro

Huma huma yay
Huma huma huma yay

http://oi43.tinypic.com/2vcgo3k.jpg

http://confessionsofacurlymind.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/yung-humma.jpg

lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dUZ7DdnL20

Eh I've seen American beauty, not sure I need another story where the racist dude turns out to be gay

irl tee hee

Chris Heath's is the best review of this I've seen: http://www.gq.com/entertainment/books/201310/gq-reviews-morrissey-autobiography

Sums up exactly how I felt. It's a pretty great book up until The Smiths form, and then it just becomes weird and sad.

that seems about right – I still had legs for the section on The Smiths (maybe I'd have been disappointed if they mattered more to me – I like them, but I'm not one of the faithful), tho' it was a step down from the love art/hate school sections, but then… my god the trial… it goes on forever. And you think you're out, but the close reading of the judgement begins. And then the – what 100, 150-page? – repetitive tour diary is just rotten. Some nice little pen-portraits here and there, but really "The next night I played to a crowd of 5,249 adoring fans in Oslo. My audience is getting younger as I, unfairly, am getting older. I no longer care about the British press, especially not the NME, but they refuse to cover this hysteria." over and over with slight variations.

The first third or half is really really good, far better than I expected or feared after opening pages – but it goes badly wrong.

otoh, the tour diary is a sort of tribute to his fans, which is nice - but for a general reader, no.

First 150-200 pages of childhood and early youth are really great stuff.

The Smiths era is way glossed over, I was definitely interested to find how young Morrissey felt going from village misfit to indie stardom. But alas. The constant Geoff Travis bashing is hilarious, however.

The trial and legal fallout is obviously tl;dr but he does make one or two good points in the wash of whining.

Tour diary is very much for the fans. Not sure if one can really equate a concert in El Paso to prison sex but anyways.

Best revelation? He collected the money at A Certain Ratio's first gig!

Also: put this in context. There's less whinging in this book than in Peter Hook's "The Haçienda: How Not To Run A Club".

quick flickthrough..

Saw a bit where Mike Joyce managed to contact M via letter, post trial, etc.

The conclusion from Moz was more or less "yes, over time I may well find forgiveness, but we will never be friends again"

So, there you go..

The first third or half is really really good

This is what the NYT review said today... plus his fondness for Dr Smith from "Lost in Space"! Source of band name?

we will never be friends again

song title in waiting

"I may well find forgiveness" been done already?

looking forward to reading this when it's out in the US

the back half being sad/tragic obsession on trial seems v Wildean

There are just so many weird, bitchy moments.

At one point he's talking about somebody denying him permission to include a song - Swan Lake by The Cats I think - on that Under The Influence compilation he had about 10 years ago. Later it turns out the guy didn't even own the rights so Moz gets to include the song anyway. It's such a weirdly banal little anecdote that you wonder why he's even mentioning it, until you get to the last sentence in the paragraph: “When he dies in 2008, I think, Well, that’s what you get for being so nasty”.

There's a lot of fat hate too. The most hilarious scene - I mean, hilarious according to Morrissey - is when some girl tries to get an autograph just as the Smiths tour bus drives off and Johnny Marr shouts back at her, "See you, fatty!"

Later on, Morrissey thinks it a great joke that no one tells the girl who appears in the You're The One For Me Fatty video what the name of the song is.

By the end, he considers himself fat too, though, and moans quite a bit about his own belly.

instant karma went and got him

Not sure if one can really equate a concert in El Paso to prison sex but anyways.

why don't we ask Texans

ah I see, the first third is great cuz... it's like a music critic's memoir? My God, what could be worse?

oh hush mr film man

My God, what could be worse?

A Dennis Perrin autobiog.

That's his next book! Largely about the janitorial life.

American release date: December 3

I'm still slogging through this. It's really hard to take more than 10-12 pages at a time.

That anecdote about Under the Influence* seems to be the pattern - there is a succession of famous people he meets, or has brief dealings with and who all slight, snub or ignore him. Or just stop replying to his postcards. He sees Alain Toussaint in a studio and says hello, but gets no response - it goes in the ledger.

*it's the Sundown Playboys track, which was orig. licensed to Apple, and it's Neil Aspinall who sends the nasty note.

yes that anecdote tells me everything i need to know which is to steer well clear of this. “When he dies in 2008, I think, Well, that’s what you get for being so nasty” is not funny or clever, it's just a horribly depressing way to live your life.

I notice you end almost every anecdote with the phrase ‘needless to say, I had the last laugh’.

I couldn't get through this book and dropped it off at the charity shop. Guy behind the counter had read it as well and we agreed that two thirds of the book is basically Morrissey whinging. He asked me if I thought the book should be a Penguin Classic and I replied that honestly I thought it was just a marketing tactic.

you don't say!