Quote of the Week: Morrissey on Involuntary Celibacy

Morrisey: I don’t have relationships at all. It’s out of the question.
Interviewer: Why?
Morrisey: Partly because I was always attracted to men or women who were never attracted to me. And I was never attracted to women or men who were attracted to me. So that’s the problem. I’ve never met the right person.

From “The deep end”, interview by Nick Kent, The Face (March 1990).

Well said, Moz, well said.

photo source

Morrissey and Johnny Marr of the Smiths, circa 1980s.

GQ: “Were you in love with Johnny Marr?”

Morrissey: “Sexually? Absolutely not. There was a love and it was mutual and equal but it wasn’t physical or sexual. There are lots of people post-Smiths who would like to make some dramatic homosexual story. There never was one. It’s often said that Johnny rescued me but he was also bobbing about in his own lifeboat.”

-GQ magazine, October 2005.

Morrissey, in the ’80s.

On being single:

When you’re a teenager and in your early twenties it seems desperately eternal and excruciatingly painful. Whereas as you grow older you realise that most things are excruciatingly painful and that is the human condition. Most of us continue to survive because we’re convinced that somewhere along the line, with grit and determination and perseverance, we will end up in some magical union with somebody. It’s a fallacy, of course, but it’s a form of religion. You have to believe. There is a light that never goes out and it’s called hope. - Morrissey, in 2006 

By Megan Hein on May 5, 2012.

The Smiths are one of those bands you either love or hate. It’s hard to describe a band that arouses either strong admiration or disgust, when you’re not sure where such strong reactions come from.

Nowadays, the band is long since defunct, although they’ve recently had resurgence in popularity due to that terrible hipster-targeted romantic dramedy 500 Days of Summer. Perhaps this is part of the problem: The Smiths have somehow become associated with the cooler-than-thou hipster crowd, even though that age group were just babies during the band’s heyday (myself included).

Some of the hate may come from the band’s front man, Morrissey, who’s never bothered to filter his words or opinions. He’s been accused of being everything from a racist, to a misanthrope, to just an all-around miserable human being. He has no problems schooling people on the atrocities of eating meat or slagging off certain artists, but sidesteps any questions about his personal life. Unlike other ‘80s front men like Boy George, Morrissey always remained ambiguous about his sexuality, even when it was obvious he wasn’t straight. Inquiring minds wanted to know: was he gay? Bisexual? Metrosexual? Morrissey rejected these labels and instead proclaimed that he was “asexual” because he “never met the right person.”

It’s hard to listen to the Smiths and pinpoint that they came from the ‘80s. There are no new wave synthesizers or god-awful ‘80s hair metal posturing bullshit. Instead there’s jangly ’60s guitars and catchy melodies coupled with depressing, sardonic lyrics. The man was first and foremost a great lyricist; a failed romantic dying to be proved wrong. Nobody says pain quite like him. Even his idea of a love song was to juxtapose it with death: “And if a double-decker bus crashes into us/to die by your side is such a heavenly way to die” he croons on the band’s best-known song “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out.”

Some people can only take pessimism in small doses, some not at all. Morrissey never sang about cheerful subjects. His songs largely focus on doomed relationships, heartache and longing, and even a song or two about murder. Many people find the man to be a snob, a fanatic who takes himself far too seriously. But those who think so may have to take another look. Nothing is ever quite what it seems, neither life nor people, and this is a theme that appears often in Morrissey’s lyrics.

“I have a grand and endless capacity to find myself slightly ridiculous. I’m not pretending to be some wallowing prophet, for heaven’s sake. I think we all have to sit down and look in the mirror and think, What is that absurd monstrosity?” Morrissey in 1992 to Details.