I didn't know...
I wrote about Morrissey and the Smiths (see recent previous posts), on my own timeline, out of time, out of the blue. I just finished Morrissey's Autobiography and ordered up Johnny Rogan's "Morrissey & Marr - The Severed Alliance," because of my own private obsession.
Little did I know that I would be in tune with Mark Simpson, who writes about the Smiths in the latest Rolling Stone... 30 years since the Smith's breakup. And according to Mark we should be happy the Smiths broke up when they did, and happy they have never gotten back together.
I think I agree.
Their career seems perfectly preserved in aspic. Kind of like one of those extraordinary butterflies preserved under glass. But spin the discs and it all comes alive again. And Mark Simpson, who wrote a gloriously cool and funny and brilliant book about Morrissey called "Saint Morrissey," tell us there are only three questions you need to ask about the Smiths...
"Do you have any taste? Do you have a heart? And do you have a sense of humor?"
