So yes, I finally finished Tony Fletcher's great, shimmering, definitive biography of the Smiths. I was a fan before I read the book, and now I'm a hopelessly lost and rabid fan. A tragically lost and rabid Smiths fan. I reside in Smiths-ville now. And am forever lost in that great zone of emotion, intellect and rhythm that is their music. I feel sorry for my neighbors. The last few weeks, it's been all Smiths, all the time. The deeper you go into the music, the deeper you go, the richer it all sounds, the harder you fall, and the more you discover.
Can listening to the Smiths music make you smarter? Deepen your heart further? I believe the answer is yes. The creative marriage between Morrissey and Marr is profound, enlightening, overwhelming. Their songs are just perfect vehicles. They enter you, they explode inside you. Sometimes in the past, I think, I just glided on the surface of the music, it was always so musical, shimmering, sparkling. I got lost in the beautiful, shimmering surface.
But the book helped me to go deeper. And there is just so much to the music, Morrissey is such the wonderful lyricist, a modern-day Oscar Wilde, and he always has something, interesting, brilliant and usually subversive to say about what it means to be human - to love, to desire, to fall. And Johnny Marr conjured up such a joyful, shimmering, beautiful noise. Such a great creative collaboration.
And the band never made a false artistic move. They recorded all this amazing music from 1982-1987. They disbanded still at their peak. There was no diminishment in their brilliance. Yes, like a shooting star... a bright shiny light that never goes out. And the music stands. It's alive now. Just put a disc on and sink in... joy, pleasure, beauty, intellectual brilliance and subversive wit... it's all there.
