I didn’t discover the Pixies until 2006. I spent the summer driving to nothing but them. I got caught belting out “This Monkey’s Gone To Heaven” like Frank Sinatra + Sid Vicious at many a stoplight. Once, when i was singing the singy part of “No, my dear that is not my desire, and then she said, I’m something with fire” on wickenden street with my windows down, I made a girl smile really, really nice.
I mean, I’d heard of them, but never heard them. Strange, because they are very much of my generation.
That was for context, because last night I discovered Morrissey. All I knew of him was that in college all the girls’ dorm rooms had pictures of his abs up all over the place, so I thought, quite reasonably, “fuck that guy.” (I was still recovering from high school wrestling binge-purge cycles at that time)
But last night, at Sue’s house, she put on a video of his “reunion” tour. Singing in front of Enormous Red Letters that spelled our MORRISSEY (and, of course, in front of the band as well).
There was
HEARTFELT IRONY.
I came away thinking, for all the cure in my bright yellow reinforced clip walkman,
YOU KNOW WHAT I MISSED ABOUT THE EIGHTEES: ANGST.
And then I had to describe what Angst was to Sue. I just pointed at Morrissey, but she didn’t get it. So I made a sad clown face. Still no progress.
The point is, the man tore his shirt off and threw it to the audience after every song. He was introduced as the man who put the ‘m’ in ‘manchester.’ He wailed this i-can’t-believe-it’s-not-a-t-shirt slogan
“GIVE UP. LIFE IS A BAD MISTAKE.”
I realized that “Enqueue” is my favorite new word, and wondered
“WHY IT WAS IMPORTANT TO BE ABLE TO TALK TO PEOPLE BACK HOME WHEN WE WERE IN SPACE.” *
And then I realized that those abs were really from some calvin klein or perfume ad that always seemed to be taped underneath morrissey’s floppy bangs.
And I never realized that Major Tom Is a Junkie.
*title for the small magisculpt pink and blue and yellow forms I am making by oh so slow accretion and grinding down, like my teeth.