English Rock: Morrissey's Ringleader of the Tormentors and The Smiths: Under Review DVD

Fame, fame, fatal fame,
It can play hideously tricks on the brain,
But still I’d rather be famous than righteous or holy
Anyday, anyday, anyday.
(The Smiths, “Frankly Mr. Shankly,” The Queen is Dead)

I think it’s Morrissey who can play hideously tricks on the media. That’s always been true with his cryptic, misleading, avoiding, trickery answers to interviewer’s inquiries. While as someone who’s always wanted to know the truth, figuring I’d like the “real” Morrissey, this has been so frustrating, but this time, I guess I’m hoping it’s true.

“Dear God Please Help Me” from Ringleader of the Tormentors is a rather graphic, organ-drenched torch song about Morrissey’s apparent sexual tryst. Morrissey has told Spin, Mojo, and Uncut, that the song describes his hook ups with some ruffian boys in Rome during the recording sessions.

If it’s true, then there goes the celibate pride which has always defined the oddly, asexual, hetero-homosexual, sexual angst in Morrissey’s music and persona. The cover of Spin said crassly, “Morrissey Gets Some: It’s About Time,” which seems exactly the point—if the song is a true tale, it is so far removed from Morrissey’s greater lyrical desire for someone who really loves him. Did Morrissey really give out for some cheap one night stands, or is this just another hideous trick on the brain’s of media and media watchers from the publicity mill of Morrissey’s brain?

If “Dear God Please Help Me” isn’t description an actual encounter, what is the song? Yet, another song exploring Morrissey’s fantasies, fears, demons, and spot-on emotional connections with the hearts of his listeners.

Released on DVD this month is The Smiths: Under Review, An Independent Critical Analysis (see below), which offers some insights into the sexual conflict that’s always been apparent in all things Morrissey. Journalist/author Mark Simpson says that Morrissey had set out to “reinvent gender,” seeking to rise above the categories of male and female, heterosexual and homosexual. Morrissey himself is seen in an interview saying that he feels that he is able to sing from anyone’s point of view. This certainly informs us as the possible motives behind “Dear God” and Morrissey’s interview comments, and yet, as always, the truth remains elusive.

However, the purported account of sexual exploits with Rome’s street ruffians would also seem to fit with musician/writer John Robb’s assessment regarding “Shoplifters of the World Unite”: “Morrissey’s lyrically always been interested in ruffian types. Some people say that maybe he fancies people like that. Maybe that’s why he sings about them, maybe not. Maybe he likes hanging around the rough boys. He went to a rough school. Maybe he’s fascinated about that because it’s something he never was.”

No matter how one interprets “Dear God Please Help Me,” it seems to be the next step beyond You Are the Quarry’s “I Have Forgiven Jesus.” While I am tempted to agree with Morrissey later on the song “I’ll Never Be Anybody’s Hero Now,” feeling it is much more difficult to look into his heroic eye, yet Morrissey continues to struggle with his sexual and emotional feelings, and he should at least be given credit for taking those struggles before God.

Ringleader of the Tormentors as an Album
Said to be the most electric and heavy album since Your Arsenal, I also see it as having some of the same heightened homoeroticism as Vauxhaul & I. The rocking blast that welcomes you for track 1, “I Will See You in Far Off Places,” takes the necessary step past You Are the Quarry which rocked at places before drifting off somewhat elsewhere. “Far Off Places” gets some of the kick from a Middle Eastern haunt, and lyrically it is an uninformed hope for eternal life, seeing Morrissey leaving open spiritual questions that are answered in Jesus.

“The Youngest was the Most Loved” is Morrissey’s “Folsom Prison Blues,” facing a killer in the face and seeing where that murderous intention originated. Perhaps as a tale to flesh out the idea behind the Kill Uncle album title, the chorus comes amid the smashing piano and bass line. Morrissey sings, “There is no such thing in life as normal,” and it makes you think how societal pressures alienate and encourage violent reactions. Whereas the youngest simply became a killer, thematically murderous intentions continue on “The Father Who Must Be Killed.” The song, which could also be titled “Kill Stepfather,” doesn’t seem so different from blues, country, or 50’s rock tragic epic songs.

Kicking off with a guitar lick like Ted Leo’s “The Angel’s Share,” “In the Future When All’s Well” musically is a nod to classic rock. “Life is a Pigsty” is a bass heavy disco beat with a sweeping vocal coupled with a T. Rex acoustic bridge like the Morrissey-covered “Cosmic Dancer.” The dark rocker “On the Streets I Ran” ends with the honest thought concerning death: “Dear God, take him, take them, take anyone, the stillborn, the newborn, the infirm, take anyone, take people from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, just spare me.” Most of us wouldn’t say it out loud, but Morrissey outs our true sinister thoughts that pass through our brains.


The Smiths: Under Review, An Independent Critical Analysis
The traditional topics in any Smiths biography are all covered here: the band name, traditional four piece lineup, ambiguous nature of Morrissey’s sexuality, being a household name in the UK (but not the U.S.), “Suffer Little Children” (Moors murders), album sleeves, singles slump, role of Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke, reluctance to do videos in MTV era, Craig Gannon, and the split. However, while some of the information may not be new, because The Smiths: Under Review, An Independent Critical Analysis is a video documentary, it is a comforting companion for any Smiths fan or seeker.

Having never attended a Smiths Convention http://www.musicconventions.com/, and having very few close friends who are Smiths fans, sitting and watching so many writers, musicians, and people in the circle discuss what the Smiths meant and mean is like discovering that you’re not alone. Others have also spent hours thinking about why this band affected them so much.

The DVD produced by Chris Davies has a BBC/public television style, but that doesn’t rob the emotional tributes or song performances of their impact. The assembled commentators have much to contribute as the film follows the band sequentially through their releases.

It is especially good to hear so much from John Porter, producer of the debut The Smiths album, someone who has never gotten enough credit. His insights into the Smiths during that era, as well as, his comments from afar about the later years are intriguing and insightful. For instance, Porter says he was fired after helping to produce the swirling, monstrous epic “How Soon is Now?” While the track stands as one of Marr’s strongest guitar wash effects, apparently the band fired Porter, because they (Marr? Morrissey) felt like Porter was taking them in a musical direction they weren’t prepared to go.

Another man never given enough credit in the Smiths story is Craig Gannon. The former Aztec Camera guitarist came on board as the fifth Smith to help Marr reproduce in concert the studio layers of guitar. This during the Queen is Dead period, Gannon’s contribution to the band always was downplayed. Many biographies seemed to point towards Morrissey as the force behind his eventual sacking, but Gannon seems to think that Marr was really the one who was calling the shots on the decision. Gannon, however, is upfront about his own mistake of not investing enough of himself in the band, being too reclusive. Crew member and producer Grant Showbiz remembers that it was Gannon’s job to loose—which is what happened. This side of the story alleviates some of the demonizing of Morrissey—at least in this case.

Journalist/author Nigel Williamson is a Smiths fan I’d like to sit down to talk to while listening to each album. Reversing a commonly held assumption—that Morrissey’s lyrics led the way to the melancholy—Williamson mentions how most often Marr would lay down the guitar parts on cassette, dropping them through Morrissey’s mail slot for him to write lyrics accordingly. It is Williamson’s opinion, then, that the melancholy was inspired by the sadness in Marr’s music because the music came first. Yet, it was still the sum of parts—Morrissey needed Marr, and Marr needed Morrissey, and while this wasn’t explored enough in the DVD, Morrissey and Marr needed Joyce and Rourke.

By the way, I scored an embarrassing 12 out of 25 on the DVD Extra “The Hardest Smiths Interactive Quiz in the World Ever.” I thought I knew my stuff!

Thanks to Morrissey, Attack/Sanctuary Records Group, Sexy Intellectual, Chrome Dreams, and MVD – Music Video Distributors for the review copies.