Current mood: RELAX CHARMING MAN....
Category: RELAX CHARMING MAN.... Music
I was reading Mojo Magazine today...
This doesn't happen very often - I generally find the magazine to be very boorish and almost completely lacking in humour...
The copy I was reading, was celebrating amongst other things 'indie'
The intro to this piece suggests that 'indie' was a fundamentally British phenomena (what musical genre hasn't been claimed as being so at some point or other???)
It then went through what it termed to be 50 essentially 'indie' tracks...
Number 1 of these was 'This Charming Man' by The Smiths....
Thereafter followed a couple of pieces about The Smiths featuring interviews and viewpoints on The Smiths from a variety of sources...
The Morrissey feature supposed the private hell his highness must have gone through when The Smiths was over. It discusses the singularity and ultra private nature of his character - about how it was given an outlet by Johnny Marrs jingly jangly guitars, and how that outlet was then ripped from him - how would he react...?!?!
It then goes onto to compare and contrast Morrisseys insular homosexuality with Frankie Goes To Hollywoods IN YER FACE!!!! version - both of which were on show (or not as the case may be) at that time...
The thing that interests me here is the role repression and denial plays in the pursuance of long term creativity...
Yes boss, I've been running over the view this last while, that it pays to keep yourself locked up in some way or another, to be able to continue to create things.
Denial or obstruction forces an outlet whereas easy expression doesn't - and every good entertainer knows to leave your audience always wanting more....
As many of you will know, I live with an Italian and Italians don't make any effort to keep anything in and though they might be generally very happy people, they aren't well known for producing good contemporary music.
No boss, the only stuff of interest they produce (that i know of) is high energy up tempo stuff. Meanwhile Britain is time and time again the place where music - particularly deep and dark music evolves and expands..
Morrisssey is a key example...
Could Morrissey have come from anywhere else???
And what percentage of his continued appeal has to do with his dark brooding mystique?!?
Unlike Frankie and the boys, as far as I'm aware Morrissey hasn't even admitted to his homosexuality yet. It's widely assumed that's who and what he is - but he's never 'come out' and I'm willing to bet that should he ever do, it would finish his career....
This isn't because being gay is a problem (it's a career boost in the UK these days) but because it would kill his mystique...
The very fact that he keeps mystery about himself and his sexual habbits feeds his cult - it keeps people talking and wondering and theorising - and that is at least half the deal with being a long term musical icon...
Yes boss, 'all out' expression is all very well, but once it's done there isn't much else to say or hear and people move onto someone who's still repressed and troubled because that reflects what they appear to want from music.....
Frankie Goes To Hollywood are long gone, meanwhile Morrissey is still grinding it out....
Anyway, I'm listening to the 12" of Two Tribes tonight and it's one hell of a 12"...
It's almost completely introduction - in fact that whole LP is one of the most interesting pop LPs of that era....
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