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dear hero imprisoned
Earlier email to my friend Dave:
You know how I've always loved Morrissey and the Smiths? Well, something is threatening that love.
It's this Grown Man with an Important Job in the office closest to my cubicle. You see, he's a Cool Hip Guy and he plays this Awesome and Edgy music all the time, and not just for himself, you see, because his office door is always open. Yesterday, "I am the last of the Famous International Playboys" came through at an especially loud volume and I couldn't stop laughing. I mean, Steven Patrick Morrissey actually YODELS for a moment in this song. Does this man think that this will impress the cubicle-dwellers?
And that's the thing that's I’m finally understanding about Morrissey and The Smiths - they're so arrogant and self-important and extraordinarily queer, you’d best just listen to them when you are by yourself. Despite how it seemed when I was an angsty prep school kid, it’s just not publicly-palatable music. You’re going to come off like a tool. Especially, if like this guy, you're actually straight, and not very much of a playboy at all.
Such things I do
Just to make myself
More attractive to you
Have I failed ?
Update: If he is now playing an Everything But The Girl album I love dearly, what does that make me?
comments (10)
I remember that yodeling chill voice wearing me down. Its been years since I've listened to them.
1 | michael | March 15, 2005 12:33 PM
i love, love, love everything but the girl!
2 | karen | March 15, 2005 02:49 PM
hey hey hey,
don't let someone else threaten the love!
just remember that embracing (and sometimes fast-forwarding through) the yodeling is just a part of loving morrissey and the smiths.
to this day one of my oldest friends teases me by singing the yodelly bit in "hairdresser on fire." damn her.
3 | pam | March 15, 2005 10:58 PM
It depends which old Everything But the Girl album it is. I miss listening to that one where on the cover Tracy had a cute bob with bangs and Ben wore a captain's hat and it was kind of swingy. If it's that one (Baby the Stars Shine Bright?), it makes you old and wistful like me.
4 | mgood | March 16, 2005 11:59 AM
He was playing "mirrorball" yesterday. I think if I had had PMS, I would have been sobbing. Typical. However, EBTG's attitude was far superior before they were all club-y. They're kind of rude now.
5 | deb | March 16, 2005 12:02 PM
Have you heard much Gene?
6 | Stuart | March 16, 2005 10:41 PM
...or any Gene?
Check out the album 'Drawn To The Deep End' you know, should you have scurrilous electronic means.
Ahem.
7 | Stuart | March 16, 2005 10:42 PM
But I have that album! Talk about another ambiguously gay lead singer...
8 | deb | March 16, 2005 11:11 PM
I think we need to know what this Grown Man's hairstyle is like. Does he affect any of Morrissey's coiffure & dress eccentricities? Is he more of a "Morrissey as solo artist" fan, or does he also own "Hatful of Hollow" or one of the older, edgier Smith's albums? This will help we, the helpful readers, to categorise him properly.
9 | Nigel M. | March 17, 2005 03:25 PM
wow, what a flashback to my own angst-teen days, lol. Thanks... makes me wanna pull those out when I get home tonight! Maybe I'll throw em on the ipod for good measure, lol. :)
10 | Just Me | March 17, 2005 03:39 PM