Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

for not actually knowing who the hell Morrisey is

216 replies

threesocksfullofchocs · 12/12/2012 22:13

??
I know he is supposed to be some singer. have seen him on tv.
thought he was shite.
why is he still famous?

OP posts:
HelpOneAnother · 14/12/2012 12:20

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Dromedary · 14/12/2012 12:28

I'm over 40 and have no idea who he is. Vaguely recognise the name though. I now feel v v ashamed and will go onto Youtube asap to experience his music. Have recently done the same with DC with Justin Bieber, One Direction and PSY. Love PSY. This was valiant attempt to ensure that DC doesn't end up like me - with no knowledge of such seminal figures!

SabrinaMulhollandJjones · 14/12/2012 12:46

PinkCashmere - just having a Youtube Smithsfest now, thank you!

Heres

I was a teen in the 80's and was a massive Smiths fan. I used to hang on Morrissey's every word....

Morrissey/Marr = Legend.

SabrinaMulhollandJjones · 14/12/2012 12:57

Btw - I always notice the posters with Smiths lyrics in their NN's on here - and I always love you for it!

And wasn't it originally a b-side?

Those heady days when you bought a vinyl single, or if you were really keen the 12 inch version. Happy memories Smile

SabrinaMulhollandJjones · 14/12/2012 12:59
for anyone wanting to acquaint themselves.

Last post I promise!

redlac · 14/12/2012 13:03

I ranted and raved so much about that awful John Lewis advert which murdered Please, Please last year - bloody awful cover version.

You can't improve on perfection and that song is perfect

JenaiMathis · 14/12/2012 13:08

That made me quite murderous. I almost boycotted Waitrose.

sockmuppet · 14/12/2012 13:10

Political innit!

How can you not know who the Smiths are?

SabrinaMulhollandJjones · 14/12/2012 13:11

Ha ha - me too Redlac & Jenai.

redlac · 14/12/2012 13:26
PinkCashmere · 14/12/2012 13:38

Cheers Sabrina. I can't bring myself to think about that John Lewis ad. Am currently having a Smithsfest too. I think Morrissey spoke to every angst-ridden 80's teenager.

I can remember really liking this boy at school, everyone else thought he was a bit of a loser, he didn't have many friends. I never plucked up the courage to ask him out. The Smiths song 'Reel around the Fountain' (not one of the Smith's best, admittedly) had the line 'people see no worth in you, oh but I do'. Whenever I hear that song I remember sitting in my bedroom pining over this boy.

He's happily married and reasonably successful btw.

redlac · 14/12/2012 13:42

I LOVE Reel Around the Fountain! Mind you there aren't many songs that I don't like.

giveitago · 14/12/2012 14:14

Oooh loved the smiths (but not what morrisey has given out politically since) but Bowie is my absolute musical hero.

JenaiMathis · 14/12/2012 15:16

Reel Around the Fountain reminds me of my first real love the one that got away.

Girl Afraid is another excellent song for the pining teen.

SallyCinnamonandNutmeg · 14/12/2012 17:30

I love the fact that a thread which started about someone not knowing who Morrissey was has turned into a thread with links to loads of fantastic Smiths songs which I haven't heard in ages.

Just listened to "Bigmouth Strikes Again" - apt title in view of the quotes which started all this MN Morrissey hoo-ha!

Favourite is "How Soon is Now" though - would Morrissey have been Morrissey without Marr's swooning guitar??

SabrinaMulhollandJjones · 14/12/2012 17:59

Sally, no - I don't think he would. I know he's still got a great following, but it's just not the same without Marr's guitar is it? (I hated Marr for ages for leaving the Smiths Blush )

One more:

OxfordBags · 14/12/2012 18:20

Morrissey's twattishnessis as great as his music. The Smiths are one of the most important and influential bands in late 20C music. You'll not find a critic or serious music fan who would argue differently, even if his music is not to their personal taste. Am truly amazed people haven't heard of him.

They summed up an era, gave focus to a generation when things were really shit under Thatcher for ordinary people. For fans, their music transports you back to your youth, a time when everything was so bleak and yet so intense and unhappily wonderful all at once. They sum up the frustration, the loneliness, the paradoxically egotistical self-loathing, the grubbiness, the feelings of being limited and wanting to break out of your crappy little hometown you felt as a teen or young person. At his solo concerts now, grown men with high-powered careers storm the stage to grab him, kiss his hand, sobbing deliriously as they have to be pulled off by security. I mean, that's daft, but it's an example of how important he is, culturally. For many fans, The Smiths are a form of religion.

How anyone could her the lyrics of This Charming Man, for example, and not be moved, is beyond me (a huge fan. Although not the OTT kind!).

BTW, Johnny Marr is how you say "I'm fed up" phonetically in French, trivia fans!

JenaiMathis · 14/12/2012 18:28

Indeed Oxford. It's my usual name (I'm currently sporting the Christmas version) Xmas Grin

aJumpedUpChristmasElf · 14/12/2012 18:42

How did I miss this thread (am usually PantryBoy but am in Christmas disguise)

My love of The Smiths is equal only to DHs capacity to ridicule them Grin

I too always notice Smiths inspired names

JenaiMathis · 14/12/2012 18:55

There are a LOT of us on MN. We ought to have a meet-up of our own. An MN Smiths convention Xmas Grin

NotGoodNotBad · 14/12/2012 19:10

ChristmasElf, it was about 20 years before I found out it was "pantry boy" in the song, not "country boy" (along with various other misheard Smiths lyrics). The internet makes life so much clearer. Maybe.

HairyGrotter · 14/12/2012 19:16

Waa I missed The Smiths 'love-in' earlier, but I'll throw my contribution in!

DublinMammy · 14/12/2012 19:21

Adore the Smiths, hate it when Morrissey opens his mouth and something twattish comes out.... Is it possible that unless you heard them first at the "right" time in your life (young, teenager, struggling a bit in some way), you just never "get" them?

For what it's worth, my favourite.

aJumpedUpChristmasElf · 14/12/2012 19:42

They provided the perfect soundtrack for the angst-ridden teenage years.

noddyholder · 14/12/2012 19:50

Jonny marr came into the restaurant I worked in nearly every day for a vegi breakfast in the late 80s

Swipe left for the next trending thread