http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/di ... ricist.php
Morrissey, the solo artist and former lead singer of The Smiths, is the greatest British lyricist ever, a book by a St Andrews University academic claims.
Morrissey, whose full name is Steven Patrick Morrissey but recorded and performed under his surname, formed a successful and influential songwriting duo with Johnny Marr in The Smiths and has gone on to a fitfully successful, and sometimes controversial, career as a solo artist.
Now Dr Gavin Hopps, in a new book to be published to mark the singer's 50th birthday today, claims that despite his fame, the singer has not received the recognition he deserves as the "greatest lyricist in the history of British popular music."
In the book, called Morrissey: The Pageant of His Bleeding Heart, Dr Hopps says that Morrissey - whose lyrics for songs such as The Queen is Dead and This Charming Man have long been praised - is "the bone in the throat of popular music, and is valuable precisely because he is disturbing - obstinately insisting that there is no such thing in life as normal'."
advertisementLast night Dr Hopps said that he does not say Morrissey is a poet, but in the book shows how he has been influenced by great writers such as Samuel Beckett, Philip Larkin and Oscar Wilde.
He said that he is prepared for his judgment to be criticised, but that writers such as Ray Davies of The Kinks or David Bowie have not "transformed their art purely by their lyrics" as Morrissey has done.
"I do expect to be challenged. He is clearly in the line of lyricists such as Ray Davies, Bowie, Pulp or Madness. He is not a songwriter like Lennon and McCartney. But no-one has written as consistently great lines as Morrissey, and I think that has continued into his solo career," he said.
"There's nothing to compare to the stunning originality of This Charming Man, the luminous quality of How Soon Is Now, and Heaven Knows is a perfect pop song. November Spawned a Monster is his most daring, original and perfect song."
Dr Hopps says "most existing commentaries on Morrissey retell a gossipy story of the circumstances around his songs or else fashion a biographical portrait out of his lyrics. Either way, his artistry tends to disappear in the process".
Dr Hopps, a research fellow in the university's interdisciplinary Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts, looks at the poetic qualities of Morrissey's writing, his voice and his fondness for whimsy, innuendo and camp.
The book is believed to be the first academic book on the work of Morrissey and The Smiths.
Professor Simon Frith of Edinburgh University, chair of the Mercury Music Prize since 1992, said: "I am not an expert on The Smiths but it seems to me Morrissey is one of those figures who has a lot of dedicated fans, many of them journalists, whose lyrics are complex enough for people to discuss them for a long time.
"I have always loved How Soon Is Now by The Smiths, but I could not tell you what the lyrics are. There have been many great British lyricists. But if you are comparing Morrissey to poets, then WH Auden is a much greater writer, for example."
Don Paterson, the leading Scottish poet and accomplished musician, said Dr Hopps was a colleague and did not want to criticise his book, but said: "Is Morrissey better' than Paddy McAloon? Momus? Richard Thompson? Michael Marra? I can't see it. Green of Scritti Politti seems streets ahead, if you ask me. He's a talented laddie, though, no-one's disputing that."
In 2002, Dr Hopps was one of the speakers at the first academic conference on the subject of The Smiths, hosted by Manchester University.
Last year was the 25th anniversary of the formation of The Smiths and tonight Morrissey marks his 50th birthday by playing to a home audience at the Manchester Apollo.
The best of Morrissey
This Charming Man
Punctured bicycle on a hillside desolate
will nature make a man of me yet?
When in this charming car
this charming man
Why pamper life's complexities
when the leather runs smooth on the passenger seat?
What Difference Does it Make?
All men have secrets and here is mine so let it be known
we have been through hell and high tide
I can surely rely on you
and yet you start to recoil
heavy words are so lightly thrown
but I'd still leap in front of a flying bullet for you
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
What she asked of me at the end of the day
Caligula would have blushed
You've been in the house too long she said and I naturally fled
Meat Is Murder
Do you know how animals die?
kitchen aromas aren't very homely
it's not "comforting", "cheery" or "kind"
it's sizzling blood and the unholy stench
of murder
The Queen Is Dead
Farewell to this land's cheerless marches
Hemmed in like a boar between arches
Her very Lowness with her head in a sling
I'm truly sorry but it sounds like
a wonderful thing
I say Charles don't you ever crave
To appear on the front of the Daily Mail
Dressed in your Mother's bridal veil?
There is a Light That Never Goes Out
And if a double-decker bus
Crashes in to us
To die by your side
Is such a heavenly way to die
And if a ten ton truck
kills the both of us
To die by your side
Well the pleasure, the privilege is mine
Every Day is Like Sunday
Trudging slowly over wet sand
back to the bench
where your clothes were stolen
this is the coastal town
that they forgot to close down
Armageddon - come Armageddon!
Everyday is like Sunday
everyday is silent and grey
