Member-only story
Morrissey and the Red-State Music of My Youth
As race politics evolves, how do I listen to the songs that shaped me?
Oh, Morrissey. What am I going to do with him? More importantly, what am I going to do with his songs?
The Smiths, the iconic post-punk group that Morrissey led from 1982 to 1987, has been my all-time favorite band since the year they split, which, by extension, makes Morrissey one of my all-time favorite male singers. Lately, though, it’s become increasingly harder for me to listen to him — on and off the records.
The clumsy, racist (yes, Mozz, they’re racist) things that recently have come out of the 60-year-old’s mouth make me wonder if this charmless man possibly can be the same person who once wrote such eloquently morbid lines as “In a river the color of lead/Immerse the baby’s head/Wrap her up in the News of the World/Dump her on a doorstep, girl” (in The Smiths’ “This Night Has Opened My Eyes”) and “I had a really bad dream/It lasted twenty years, seven months, and twenty-seven days” (in The Smiths’ “Never Had No One Ever”).
