I can almost imagine spending a couple of days including a sleepover with the contemporary Moz.
Gone the slim effete with a hairspray addiction and a somewhat shy, bumbling and quietly recalcitrant disposition.
Shopping in Asda would be fraught with moaning about the seasonal vegetables grown in Brazil or Holland.
In a cafe for coffee. Why an Americano ? It’s a black coffee. Etc etc, In the midst of life we are in death etc.
Almost like a handsome young man convincing and confusing dressed up in drag.
Yet an old silverback in drag is just scary.
Can’t possibly disagree as regards their importance although I did mean that Meat Is Murder was turgid from a musical perspective rather than lyrical. That said, I think that if one reviews those lyrics it becomes quite stark that he’s always nursed the same sense of grievance. Back then it was nicely and often artfully packaged up in a vague way and thus many people identified with it. Dylan pulled off the same stunt. Looked like a protest singer right up until you went looking for the specifics and found they were, with one or two notable exceptions, kept well away from his released output (the Bootleg Series has rectified this to some extent).
As Moz gets older the artifice is largely stripped away and he’s revealed himself to be a person who doesn’t especially like people and who recognises the only valid acceptable “difference” as being his own. He appeared to be taking sides early doors and the side was ours. Thus the sense of betrayal people now understandably feel. Look again though and those lyrics are vague and the only grievances being aired are his own.
It’s a very uncomfortable truth sadly.
Aside from his very dull new single Michael Stipe will never do this to me.
It’s an over-simplification but each generation will denigrate/moan about/rail against the world and it’s perceived inadequacies - and blame previous generations, especially the preceding one. When The Smiths did just that in an unfocused and nebulous fashion they chimed with their generation. Once success had emboldened Morrissey he couldn’t resist revealing more of himself - and it isn’t all that pretty.