Morrissey
Steven Patrick Morrissey (/ˈmɒrɪsi/ MORR-iss-ee; born 22 May 1959), known mononymously as Morrissey, is an English singer and songwriter. He came to prominence as the frontman and lyricist of rock band the Smiths, who were active from 1982 to 1987. Since then, he has pursued a successful solo career. Morrissey's music is characterised by his baritone voice and distinctive lyrics with recurring themes of emotional isolation, sexual longing, self-deprecating and dark humour, and anti-establishment stances.
This article is about the singer. For other uses, see Morrissey (disambiguation).
Morrissey
Steven Patrick Morrissey
22 May 1959
Davyhulme, Lancashire, England
- Singer
- songwriter
- author
1976–present
Morrissey was born to working-class Irish immigrants in Davyhulme, Lancashire, England; the family lived in Queen's Court near the Loreto convent in Hulme and his mother worked nearby at the Hulme Hippodrome bingo hall. They moved because of the 1960s demolitions of almost all the Victorian-era houses in Hulme, known as 'slum clearance', and he grew up in nearby Stretford.[5] As a child, he developed a love of literature, kitchen sink realism, and 1960s pop music. In the late 1970s, he fronted the punk rock band the Nosebleeds with little success before beginning a career in music journalism and writing several books on music and film in the early 1980s. He formed the Smiths with Johnny Marr in 1982 and the band soon attracted national recognition for their eponymous debut album. As the band's frontman, Morrissey attracted attention for his trademark quiff and witty and sardonic lyrics. Deliberately avoiding rock machismo, he cultivated the image of a sexually ambiguous social outsider who embraced celibacy. The Smiths released three further studio albums—Meat Is Murder, The Queen Is Dead, and Strangeways, Here We Come—and had a string of hit singles. The band were critically acclaimed and attracted a cult following. Personal differences between Morrissey and Marr resulted in the separation of the Smiths in 1987.
In 1988, Morrissey launched his solo career with Viva Hate. This album and its follow-ups—Kill Uncle (1991), Your Arsenal (1992), and Vauxhall and I (1994)—all did well on the UK Albums Chart and spawned multiple hit singles. He took on Alain Whyte and Boz Boorer as his main co-writers to replace Marr. During this time his image began to shift into that of a burlier figure who toyed with patriotic imagery and working-class masculinity. In the mid-to-late 1990s, his albums Southpaw Grammar (1995) and Maladjusted (1997) also charted but were less well received. Relocating to Los Angeles, he took a musical hiatus from 1998 to 2003 before releasing a successful comeback album, You Are the Quarry, in 2004. Ensuing years saw the release of albums Ringleader of the Tormentors (2006), Years of Refusal (2009), World Peace Is None of Your Business (2014), Low in High School (2017), California Son (2019), and I Am Not a Dog on a Chain (2020), as well as his autobiography and his debut novel, List of the Lost (2015).
Highly influential, Morrissey has been credited as a seminal figure in the emergence of indie pop, indie rock, and Britpop. In a 2006 poll for the BBC's Culture Show, Morrissey was voted the second-greatest living British cultural icon.[6] His work has been the subject of academic study.[7][8] He has been a controversial figure throughout his music career due to his forthright opinions and outspoken nature, endorsing vegetarianism and animal rights and criticising royalty and prominent politicians. He has also supported far-right activism with regard to British heritage, and defended a particular vision of national identity while critiquing the effects of immigration on the UK.[9]
Solo career[edit]
Early solo work: 1988–1991[edit]
Several months before the Smiths dissolved, Morrissey enlisted Stephen Street as his personal producer and new songwriting partner, with whom he could begin his solo career.[93] By September 1987, he had begun work on his first solo album, Viva Hate, at Wool Hall Studios near Bath;[93] it was recorded with the musicians Vini Reilly and Andrew Paresi.[94] Rather than featuring pre-existing images of celebrities, as the Smiths' album and single covers had done, the cover sleeve of Viva Hate featured a photograph of Morrissey taken by Anton Corbijn.[95] In February 1988, EMI released the first single from this album, "Suedehead", which reached number 5 on the British singles chart, a higher position than any Smiths single had achieved.[96] The second single from the album, "Everyday Is Like Sunday", was released in June and reached number 9.[97] The album reached number 1 on the UK album charts.[95] The album's final song, "Margaret on the Guillotine", featured descriptions of Thatcher being executed; in response, the Conservative Member of Parliament Geoffrey Dickens accused Morrissey of being involved in a terrorist network and police Special Branch conducted a search of his Manchester home.[98]
Morrissey's first solo performance took place at Wolverhampton's Civic Hall in December 1988.[99] The event attracted huge crowds, with NME journalist James Brown observing that "the excitement and atmosphere inside the hall was like nothing I have ever experienced at any public event".[100] Following Viva Hate, Morrissey put out two new singles; "The Last of the Famous International Playboys" was about the Kray twins, gangsters who operated in London's East End, and reached number 6 on the UK singles chart.[101] This was followed by "Interesting Drug", which reached number 9.[102] After his songwriting partnership with Street ended and was replaced by Alan Winstanley and Clive Langer,[103] he recorded "Ouija Board, Ouija Board", released as a single in November 1989; it reached number 18.[103] Christian spokespeople and tabloid newspapers condemned the song, claiming that it promoted occultism, to which Morrissey responded that "the only contact I ever made with the dead was when I spoke to a journalist from The Sun."[104]
Artistry[edit]
Lyrics[edit]
Mark Simpson characterised Morrissey as "the anti-pop idol", representing "the last, greatest and most gravely worrying product of an era when pop music was all there was".[273] Music journalist and biographer Johnny Rogan stated that Morrissey's œuvre seems based on "endlessly re-examining a lost, painful past".[274] Morrissey's lyrics have been described as "dramatic, bleak, funny vignettes about doomed relationships, lonely nightclubs, the burden of the past and the prison of the home".[275] According to Mark Simpson, there is a common feeling that his music's emphasis on the sadness of life is depressing.[276]
Current members