From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V19 #99 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Sunday, October 9 2011 Volume 19 : Number 099 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: How do you work this thing? [Rex Broome ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2011 23:01:12 -0700 From: Rex Broome Subject: Re: How do you work this thing? On Sat, Oct 8, 2011 at 8:28 PM, Miles Goosens wrote: > > > And, at the same time, writing great self-effacing songs like "The > Queen Is Dead" and "Bigmouth Strikes Again." Morrissey hasn't taken > himself that seriously since MEAT IS MURDER (and "Meat Is Murder"); it > amazes me how his most slavish fans and most ardent detractors still > do. > Well, I dunno... I recognize that some of his lyrics are supposed to be humorous and/or ironic, but I don't find them to be actually funny. Even the self-effacing stuff seems to ooze self-congratulation. But again it probably wouldn't rankle if I thought he was any good at his primary task; I just don't find him to be a very good craftsman. My problem with his lyrics is completely apart from the problem I have with those of, say, Billy Corgan, where the words are just garbage: Morrissey seems to me to simply just not understand meter, as absurd as that seems for such a poetry-focused dude*. Corgan's words are insipid and his rhymes lame, but they fit in his songs. Morrissey just crams words in there ("take me anywhere, anywhere, anywhereanywhereIdon'tcareIdon'tcare") or throws a lot of moaning oh oh oh oh oh ohs or painfully stretched-out syllables in when he runs out of words. This is "brilliant phrasing" to some and it's been influential to enough people that it sounds kind of normal now, but for me it creates this weird thing where I now hear these highly worshiped classic Smiths singles and those tortured lines sound just as poor to me as they did when I first heard them-- they reminded me then of the weirdly rhythmless "poems" that people I knew in high school and ask if I could make them into a song, and they still do now. The lyrics themselves I wouldn't call "bad": they're obviously often clever and some good images surface from time to time (although I find his hit to miss ratio in terms of generating actual memorable lines lower than most), but they're usually in the service of an idea that irritates me on some level, often a profound one (see prior comments about proscriptive "how to be a proper misfit" content, which I find really quite pervasive and alienating). And again, clearly, most people disagree with me. *And I've always wondered similarly about his professed undying love for the NY Dolls... as with the poets, his work betrays absolutely no real influence from them. It's like he can absorb stuff completely and still remain unable to synthesize it. Weird. ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V19 #99 *******************************