morrissey = the new david byrne

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

ok usually when i do this kind of thing i frame the question fast and badly (or i wd never frame it at all) and koganbot becomes testy towards my fuzziness

but here is MY "explanation" of morrissey = he brought something to the boywing of britrock = called CAMP -- as in polari, as in an angry bitchy code against the UNSTYLISH USELESSNESS of the STRAIGHTS -- except that, since he wz militantly coy abt his sexuality (korrektly, as "coming out" would have stripped a powerful ambiguity out of what he wz doin), his camp was developed as a kind of MALE HET camp...

ANYWAY -- i have always bin ambivalent abt camp as an attitude (it's quickwitted and funny but it's also a compensatory attitude adopted by those who take themselves to be victims and are sniping secretly back...)

and given the shifts since the mid-80s in fashions in sexuality and within sexuality blah blah, i think morrissey's STYLE (sex! yes! but not for me...) reveals itself as a lot more reactionary a-and larkinesque than it did at the time

(again i feel i have not got at the nubbin of what i'm on about but have at it anyway)

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I only (!) have 2 Smiths albums, both bought for me during uni as presents by a particularly indie boyfriend who shall not be named. I also had Louder Than Bombs on my laptop, thefted off the interweb. Out of these the only tracks I really rated much were Rubber Ring, How Soon Is Now* and the one about the Moors Murders. Whether my general indifference to the Smiths was any relation to my a) having quite a lot of sex b) being really quite confident that I was straight is left as an exercise for the reader.

Though I did once go to a "Smiths party" dressed as Shakespear's Sister. I was Marcella. My chum Andy was Siobhan.

*Used as the bed on Doctor Fox's jukebox show on Capital for a trillion years, minus vocals, looped for eternity. I think I preferred it like that.

burn the heretic!

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

having quite a lot of sex

Re: burn the heretic!

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Hahaha. I didn't just lose my indie credibility aged 17, clearly...

Re: burn the heretic!

[celentari.livejournal.com]

Yes! I hated the Smiths for years because I would just think "oh go shag someone you daft moose!" but I get it more now. Not that I've stopped having sex, but I think through some of my friends I've seen the appeal of their stance.