#marrissey thoughts

[mooseyspooky]

Page 30, Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite

[mooseyspooky]

I always thought that Hi Hello could be about Moz. It feels like the lyrics are a response to There Is a Light That Never Goes Out and the string part is also obviously refers to it.

Take me out tonight // I’m gonna pick you up

I never, never want to go home, There is a light that never goes out // And I'll find you when the lights are blinding and you can't get home

What do you think?

Well, the last time I suggested it, I got a really long comment insisting it was about his daughter Sonny, and a link to an interview where he talked about how that was meant to be the case.

But there's also quotes like this from Johnny:

So I don't really know what to make of it. When I first heard it, I was absolutely sure it had to be about Moz. And perhaps Johnny's inability to keep his story straight about the song makes that even more possible.

Though there's a lot of mixed imagery in it. "You're the future's child" would definitely lean more towards Sonny, while lines like "You say, Leave me alone," "I can't say no," "And I'll watch you when you're losing your mind" all feel very Moz adjacent.

Maybe it's the idea that The Smiths legacy, and consequently the relationship between him and Moz, shouldn't fall to the wayside for the sake of those that come after them - "See the future for tomorrow's child." Albeit Johnny seems totally disinterested in that notion now that Andy's passed, so. 🤷‍♂️

[mooseyspooky]

From officialthesmithsfan

"On August 31, 1978, while attending a Patti Smith concert, a 14 year-old Johnny Marr was introduced to 19-year old Morrissey."

[mooseyspooky]

There's no real point to this ramble, but. Here we go.

So List of the Lost parallels the rise and fall of The Smiths, right? But something I always forget is that Moz' use of track runners in place of the band seems directly tied to his life at school, which I find really fascinating. I'd say Moz' only positive memory from school is running track, and much like his time with Johnny, it was one of the few times he was in his own element and where he felt really confident in his own abilities. So it's interesting to see how he twists these two separate parts of his life together to create this fictional world for himself, where he can vent his emotional turmoil over Johnny and his frustration over losing him. And it's a constant theme, too - Moz uses the imagery of dead athletes as early as 1988 with the song Michael's Bones.

Michael's Bones doesn't seem directly tied to Johnny, but (spoiler for List of the Lost) Moz' self-insert - Harri - dies before any of the other runners on his team. Harri is also a very innocent character, like Michael, who ODs because of his grief over his mother's untimely demise. So it definitely seems like this is a characterization of himself that Moz returns to again and again in his mind: the strong young runner or athlete at the peak of his life brought down by something out of his control.

And of course, there's Forgive Someone which seems to be List of the Lost in song form, with both written at exactly the same time in 2014/2015, which directly addresses Johnny. All but confirming the parallels between Ezra and Johnny as well as Harri and Moz.

So yeah. I just find all that really intriguing. 🤷‍♂️

[mooseyspooky]

And isn't that the crux of the issue with the reunion Moz wants so badly now. Because Johnny might criticize Moz and make snarky little shit posts on Twitter, but he never hides how much he still loves him. "Why does he play my songs??? Sing my lyrics??? If he doesn't like me??" And it's like Moz, honey, I know you know the answer to that. We all know. And I think it eats him. Moz has a very black/white type of autism that he's gotten more stuck in over the years, and if Johnny so much as sneezes a bad word well - he must hate me. But no. Johnny has never, ever said that. He's always been complimentary, even when he's frustrated over the political bullshit - which, again, absolutely doesn't matter. Cause Johnny is five feet up Duffy's ass, and Duffy's happily married to an anti-vax lunatic who's said her husband supports her insanity. So it's just Johnny venting in the way he can best express his frustration. He clearly doesn't give an actual fuck about Moz' overly conservative perception of immigration in the UK - a perspective which, might I add, seems incredibly common in England if the amount of comments left on news articles relating to such things are anything to go by.

They both desperately want it to be 1983 again in their own ways, and they will never move on from that. Moz can't bring himself to say to Fiona or Sam that he still deeply, truly cares about Johnny and will make transparent excuses like "well we're both getting older" to stop himself from saying he's spent 40 years of his life rotating in Johnny's orbit, wanting every bit of his attention and affection all for himself cause that's what truly made him feel alive for the first time in his life.

[mooseyspooky]

So I recorded a tiny clip of this during the pre-roll footage at the Baltimore show, and Moz Solo was struggling to figure out what it was - it had been played at the prior show in Roanoke, too, but no one had footage (and maybe one or two times last year, too?). After some research, someone figured out it was this really old French punk band from the 1970s. This song in particular is from 1979, and the guitarist, Jacno, is playing a very familiar looking Rickenbacker.

There's no posted lyrics online, but as this song is in English most of the refrain can be made out:

Johnny, Johnny

Birthday party

Gimme Johnny's birthday cake

Johnny, Johnny's birthday party

Gimme Johnny's birthday drink

Johnny, Johnny's birthday party

Getting younger everyday

Getting younger, getting younger everyday

[mooseyspooky]

[mooseyspooky]

A mindless ramble about Maudlin Street for @wolfstrong

So 'Late Night, Maudlin Street' is the sixth song on Moz' first solo album Viva Hate, an album Moz was forced to write contractually by the record label. An album that had to credit Johnny even though he didn't write anything on it - due to stipulations in the contract.

Maudlin Street is the last song on Side One of the vinyl. Right before it comes 'Angel, Angel, Down We Go Together,' which refers to the film Angel, Angel Down We Go from 1969. The plot of which is listed on Wikipedia as: "The overweight, emotionally troubled daughter of an affluent but brittle Hollywood couple becomes involved with a charismatic rock singer and his friends. The singer proceeds to seduce and manipulate her entire family." I find that incredibly interesting since, as we all know, Moz did actually admit to writing Angel, Angel about Johnny.

And I don't think it's possible to listen to Late Night, Maudlin Street without Angel, Angel. I firmly believe these two songs are a conversation - where Angel, Angel is Johnny directly speaking to Moz. Whether this was a real conversation that happened after the break up or an imagined one, I don't know.

The reason I'm so personally set on this with no facts to back it up is because in Angel, Angel, Johnny says: "Don't take your life tonight." And in Maudlin Street, it feels like we hear the other side of the conversation from Moz: "I took strange pills, but I never meant to hurt you." I added this to the original post with all the songs, but it's important to repeat it here.

Another important thing to remember is that this song was written maybe 2 to 3 months after Johnny left in June 1987, maybe around October or November 1987 (hence 'winter coming, winter push on'). This would have been an incredibly tough time for Moz, and there's been rumors talked about on Moz Solo that say he actually did attempt to take his own life around this time, though these rumors are not verified and only reported by a second or thirdhand source.

Some parts of Angel, Angel may be Moz speaking to Johnny ("I will be here, believe me"), but I think the central refrain is definitely Johnny speaking to him.

Maudlin Street itself is an interesting mix of things both real and imagined. There are book quotes (Elizabeth Smart, By the Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept: 'Inspector? Do you not believe in love?'), movie like imagery, and childhood experiences like the 1972 miners strike that led to power cuts (Mozzipedia page 272, Simon Goddard): 'don't leave your torch behind, 1972, you know.' Then a massive amount of the song was rewritten for a handful of live performances from 2002, and oftentimes Moz sings songs live how he truly wants them to be heard.

We also, of course, have parts of the 'conversation' Moz is having with Johnny (again, it could be an imagined conversation. It might not have been one that actually happened): 'I sleep with a picture of you by the bed,' 'truly I do love you,' 'we crept through a park,' 'but you without clothes...'

Many of the lines echo sentiments in other Johnny songs. In 'You Must Please Remember': 'you, too beautiful. I can't look.' Then in 'Stretch Out and Wait' there's icy cold hands leading the way (you without clothes). 'Suedehead' refers to Moz' diary being in his room - and oftentimes Moz glues in images or draws portraits when he's writing as we saw in the Robert Mackie letters, thus 'a picture of you by the bed' -> 'So many illustrations.'

And of course: 'I could list the detail of everything you ever wore or said, or how you stood that day.' Passionsjustlikemine notes Moz changed this to 'how you stood on the day' in the few live performances there were. This is undoubtedly in reference to the day they both met in 1982 - and, interestingly enough, Johnny listed exactly what they were both wearing in Set the Boy Free in 2016. Which I find so fascinating.

Mozzipedia also mentions this quote from Sandie Shaw on page 218: "Shaw remembers first hearing the track during the making of the album when Morrissey turned and caught her eye 'with such a pained expression...I cried, he cried. I sensed his fear and I felt so frightened for him.'"

All of this to say, basically, I feel like these two songs together combine to make a longer narrative. Where Johnny is trying to help Moz not fall apart and Moz is lost or maybe even trapped in his own memories - because the pain of reality is too overwhelming ('every hag/slag waving me on', 'i never stole a happy hour around here'). And so memories of childhood, of driving in the van, of creeping through the park are all preferable to the actual conversation they're meant to be having.