Meetings with Morrissey

Meetings with Morrissey

This week I nearly read Meetings with Morrissey by Len Brown in one sitting – a tribute to the subject and the writer. Music biographies are a hairy beast, sometimes leading you to a renewed/fresh infatuation with the muso in question (reading about Kate Bush this year has made me buy some more of her CDs) or just coming across as a glorified discography/cut & paste of newspaper articles.

Len Brown has got into the nuts&bolts of Morrissey and his numerous cultural signifiers – especially his deep reverence and connection to Oscar Wilde. Most of us probably knew about his interest in James Dean (as demonstrated in the “Suedehead” video) and various Smiths cover stars like Warhol star Joe Dallesandro. But I had no idea of the extent of his Wilde-olatry. He has an extensive collection of Wilde first editions, but his admiration is not merely that of a collector but of an soul connected acolyte.

There’s some more new Morrissey books too, notably Morrissey in conversation and The Pageant of his bleeding heart, and there are other books about Morrissey.

If you want to explore Morrissey on the web, check out the masterful web sites Lucky Lisp and The Smiths file online, created by Christchurch local Jason Collins.

STOP PRESS: Serendipitously I’ve just been told that Morrissey is coming to New Zealand and Australia in January 2009. Say it’s so!