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"I've had my face
dragged in 15 miles of shit, and I do not, and I do not like it/but sick
as I am, I could never be you...."
 It
was impossible to hate Morrissey
completely back in middle school, if you knew this beautiful girl I did,
who had the power of conviction and just emanated consciousness from 13
years on. She changed my life like "Irene Wilde" did Ian Hunters'. She was
astonishingly beautiful, inside and out, and one of those rare, star-like,
otherworldly souls you never forget. Half my songs were about her-probably
all the ones you remember. She used to make me tapes and wrote
me letters that quoted Morrissey lyrics like "Ask" and "There Is A Light
That Never Goes Out" and "Reel Around The Fountain". I got it, I felt it,
at 14/15, but my destiny lead me, sadly, away from her, raincoats, middle
class, and college rock. Degenerate whiskey stooges high on scuzz and
desperate to escape blue collar slavery are drawn like Ralph Bakshi
cartoons to the seemy boozecans of the coasts in search of rock'n'roll
co-stars, seeking our fortunes without even the faintest glint as to how
the apparatus of the music industry works, really. I never got to make a
record. I lost my
infamous scrapbooks in the last midnight move. So now, all I got to show's
a shoebox fulla unfinished teenage symphonies to God. Years were
squandered flamboyantly, youth has flown, girls moved on, friends died.
"The passage of time, and all of it's crimes, is making me sad again, but
don't forget the songs that made you cry, and the songs that saved your
life, you're older now, and a clever swine, but they were the only ones
who ever stood by
you..."
I still haven't heard Mozzer's more recent studio CDs, "You Are The
Quarry", or "Ringleader of The Tormentors", just due to being too
poverty-stricken to buy them, but this Morrissey concert DVD is one of the
best performance videos I've seen by anyone. I've been having dreams of
making my own record with Morrissey's band-'pathetic being that haunted,
but it's true, nonetheless. They are probably my favorite group in the world
right now, aside from maybe Tex-Don-& Charlie from Australia, or Paul K. &
The Prayers from Detroit. Morrissey still has the soul that's gone missing
from everyone else I used to like, or listen to. He still has that
courageous conscience like Joe Strummer.
Recent songs like, "Irish Blood", "I Have Forgiven Jesus", "Don't Make Fun
Of Daddy's Voice", and especially, "First Of the Gang To Die", as well as
some of the above-referenced Smiths songs, and "A Rush & A Push & The Land
Is Ours", pulsate through my skull all day and night. They're in my veins,
flashing like a hotel sign, a nagging reminder of my own frustrated call
as rock'n'roll raconteur.
Morrissey's better than Bono, Bowie, or Costello in this hour. I may
write
all about the eighties Flash Metal cos I Was A Teenage Sleazegrinder, but
this is what I listen to now. Morrissey, Ian Hunter, Joe Strummer, Leonard
Cohen, Spencer P. Jones, etc. Okay, and Billy Idol. Intelligent rockers
still stubbornly, or just sadly, uninitiated should dig up the Mick Ronson
produced masterpiece, "Your Arsenal" and really, I urge you to purchase
this
DVD if we have similar musical tastes, cos it's just staggeringly good.
The
stuff of undeniably real greatness. It changes lives. Rock'n'roll when
it's
this heartfelt.
If yer half as bored by tattooed tuffguy come-latelys' cliché-mongering as
I
am, and starved to hear something that rings true, chances are you'll do
worse. By all means, get this if you love 70's glam. This is alot better
musically than any of the one-shtick-pony Thunders or Bolan inbred
glam-babies you read about in the reviews section here. If the junkie
nose ring girl at the garage rock record emporium gives you a judgmental
look when you go to purchase it, just tell her it's a gift for your
depressed friend, Pepsi Sheen. Brilliant. Smashing. Trust Me.
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