[audiobook] The Joy of Boogie and Blues by Yorktown Music Press in Arts-Photography

Review

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Lessons on Morrisseys Music: Perseverance Pays OffBy CarokaliI have finally got around to perusing this book of essays released in August this year (2011) entitled Morrissey: Fandom; Representations and Identities; and co-edited by Eoin Devereux; Aileen Dillane and Martin J. Power. As a fan; I am finding much that is new in the material; and the discussions; for the most part; are illuminating. The authors have generally gone to some trouble to research the background to songs and events for the reader and to propose rationales; patterns and criticisms. It may take a few pages or chapters to acclimatise to the academic jingo; and no harm either to keep a dictionary to hand: is it ever?! Packaged like this; socio-cultural critique rocks - even if; in reading the volume; is that what I was doing? might have been the frequent refrain running through Morrisseys mind!Perhaps the most topical chapter is the fourth one; by Canadian Colin Snowsell: Fanatics; Apostles and NMEs. In it a number of morrissey-solo.com posters are quoted by username; and comments there taken quite seriously. Fan theory is cited and fan behaviour described; if to a somewhat iterative and circular degree. The 2007 interview with the NME; the subsequent allegations; and range of fanbase reactions are covered in some detail; as is the gig retort about subspecies. Included; a la Godwin; is a public comment (Billet) on the controversy: "If someone like Adolf Hitler said that; youd talk about biological racism..."; and itd make sense to talk so; given someone of Hitlers character; beliefs and behaviour. Another essayist quotes from a song; "you defer to the views of the television news; let someone do your thinking for you and I cant help wondering if; as a self-confessed fan; Mr Snowsell; now an internationally-esteemed man of letters; protests too much and is truly disappointed that his heros antics of kicking away from the mundane are not so needed by him anymore; considering that from the Smiths first single; Hand in Glove; dramatisation of alienation and of defending oppressed love crop up again and again. In that light its rather an endearing piece; all in all.In contrast; on the same theme of fandom; the first essay by Erin Hazard; Suedehead: Paving the Pilgrimage Path to Morrisseys and Deans Fairmount; Indiana does what it says on the tin in a romanticised appreciation of the benefits of becoming a fan; both in Morrisseys case and in turn; in the authors case. Along the way; quite fascinating information is provided about the Suedehead video; and deliberate parallels drawn; as in allegory; between it and photographs taken of Dean years beforehand; and later with the authors own mementos of the journey. For this contributer; "this kind of investigation [as a mobilised fan] eventually became a way to turn imitation and reverence into creativity." Lee Brooks uses the same video; along with a range of other material; in evidence of Morrissey as Arthound extraordinaire; swiping cultural gems all over the place like his collage artist friend; Linder Sterling; in chapter 14: Talent Borrows; Genius Steals: Morrissey and the Art of Appropriation. Like Mozipedia; research of aesthetic sources adds value. For artists Dan Jacobson and Ian Jeffrey; listening to the songs allows you to become someone else. Their chapter 13; called Smiths Night: A Dream World Created Through Other Peoples Music; tells a strange story of a girl with a cut bare foot bleeding all over the dance floor of a Smiths tribute night DJ set in New York; and from there queries what Bigmouth Strikes Again is about. Later; There Is A Light... is scrutinised e.g. tracing the intro back to Marvin Gayes song Hitch Hike. The essay is presented as a conversation to reflect Morrisseys "play of intertextuality"; though in the dialogues unnatural polish; this form also conveys a place like the nightclub; "where sincerity can be insincere."The second chapter by Lawrence Foley; "The Seaside Town They Forgot To Bomb"; Morrissey and Betjeman on Urban Regeneration and British Identity; succeeds in dusting off biographical knowledge of John Betjeman; such as his influential official role in national architectural surveillance; that was rarely if ever mentioned in the context of Morrisseys concerns before about sense of place; homeland; and its manifestation in his oeuvre. Likewise; in chapter ten where editors Eoin Devereux and Aileen Dillane (a music lecturer) take on Speedway for Beginners: Morrissey; Martyrdom and Ambiguity; new hypotheses are put forward about possible sources of the song title e.g. Wildean ventriloquism; religious martyr testimony. A close dissection (with help from Boz) of the musical construction with its key ambiguity and plagal/Amen cadences is included.John H. Bakers chapter (3) on Morrisseys attraction to the skinhead cult; In the Spirit of 69?... is also fairly topical and sets out; step by step; what happened before; during and after Madstock in Finsbury Park 1992. Despite the media leaving reality well behind in their biased coverage; a couple of other song videos featuring skinheads were made and are discussed - [...] ; [...] . The essay is a useful clarification of this milestone and concludes pretty much that confusion abounded; and malice was not aforethought.Chapter 5; The "Teenage Dad" and "Slum Mums" are Just "Certain people I Know": Counter Hegemonic Representations of the Working/Underclass in the Works of Morrissey is louder than bombs; rumbling with relevance to our times and very validating to anyone who is not deliriously happy about the political-economic landscape and the suppression of class inequality issues. I would just recommend it to everybody. Ive also noticed over the past few months in the Irish newspapers that the three editors (one of whom is Martin J. Power; who wrote ch. 5) are walking their talk - or at least talking it loud -; publicly standing up for people threatened with educational deprivation; and stigmatisation due to where they live. Respect.In decoding the words of Slum Mums; it is observed; after Rogan; that "in assuming the role of the taunter; as well as her potential liberator; Morrissey forces the audience to deal with our own prejudices." The next/sixth chapter by Daniel Manco; In Our Different Ways We Are the Same: Morrissey and Representations of Disability; considers this method when assessing the controversial song; November Spawned a Monster (it is pointed out that the moniker; les enfants de novembre; traditionally refers to all the oppressed peoples of the world). Two theorists; Mitchell and Snyder are cited in support of a verbal ploy termed "transgressive resignification": - As opposed to substituting more palatable terms; the ironic embrace of derogatory terminology has provided the leverage that belongs to openly transgressive displays...The embrace of denigrating terminology forces the dominant culture to face its own violence head-on because the authority of devaluation has been claimed openly and ironically...The effect shames the dominant culture into a recognition of its own dehumanising precepts...that detracts from the original power of the condescending terms. -Most people have grasped that this is what was going on with the subspecies remark and Morrissey explained it as such. Anyhow; Mancos essay delves deep into disability perspectives and weighs up the use of irony versus taking advantage of stereotypes gratuitously for effect and symbolic proxies for other socially injured persons as appear in such songs as Nobody Loves Us; Dagenham Dave; Theres A Place In Hell...since disability of one kind of another touches most people in a lifetime. In a note; Because of My Poor Education is added to the list; with a dubious comment that here; "the corporeal non-normativity is metaphorical". Leaping from Morrisseys teenage impersonation as the wheelchair-bound Sheridan Whiteside; the theme roams widely such that "one might well ponder the associative chains"; but very interesting stuff. Non-normative gender becomes the total focus in Elisabeth Woronzoffs chapter 15; `Im Not The Man You Think I Am: Morrisseys Negotiation of Dominant Gender and Sexuality Codes. Narrating from films such as Querelle; and from books such as The British Pop Dandy; she shows how he uniquely "embraces gender fluidity and never settles at either end of the gender binary long enough to provide the normative constructions credibitily". He sings of being re-born free; forging a new paradigm of a polymorphous sexual identity by negotiating dominating discourses and institutational controls; to make it easier for others.A potted history of portraiture is delivered in the examination of album art by Melissa Connor in Chapter 7; "My So Friendly Lens": Morrissey as Mediated through his Public Image. The use of other celebrities; his own face and body; and other signs in record sleeves and promotional material; to reveal only as much as he wants us to see and I would add; what we want to see often; is ably explored. The enquiry carries over into Chapter 8; entitled; "Because Ive only got Two Hands": Western Art Undercurrents in the Poses and Gestures of Morrissey and penned by Andrew Cope. Here Morrissey is postulated as the proverbial finger pointing at the moon in his adoption of classic embodied poses from Plato through religious iconography (martyr-redeemer) and pop culture figures (e.g. The Wanderer); reproduced on the page; as signs on a trail to something greater beyond. It is claimed that "art; for Morrissey is the prophetic call of some fundamental reality...[that] resist any level of postmodern disenchantment..." and reaches its zenith in his live shows.More about art and culture in chapter 9: Moz: art: Adorno Meets Morrissey in the Cultural Divisions ; which is written by Rachel M. Brett. This writer views Morrissey through Adornos deduction that "through capitalist production methods of industrialisation; the CI [culture industry] produced a predetermined division between high and low culture that disguised the transactional valutes between them". Pop music is a distraction and consciousness-dulling consolation. As art becomes more mass-commercialised; Morrissey is situated as going against the grain in making punk-pop; subverting from within; plucking apt samples from elsewhere to patch into his modern hymns which usually involve an Other struggling through class barriers and some sort of absence. By still challenging the means of production; "he maintains human agency for himself as a commodity form and his audience as consumers alike."Morrisseys nephew read a message on his behalf at the Manchester book launch-cum-symposium; dealing with the suggestion in Chapter Eleven that Morrissey had pitch-controlled his voice on Skull (to imagined mass relief that no-one was subpoenaed for anything else!). That chapter; No Love in Modern Life: Matters of Performance and Production in a Morrissey Song; was written by Eirik Askeroslash;i. Morrissey had not altered his voice; according to the statement; but "singing in that high register was actually starting to damage Morrisseys vocal cords; hence the shift down for later live performances". Askeroi is an active recording musician whose knowledge about composition; and electric guitars with their history and social impact; is on full instructive display here. He links the songs utterances on modern life to concurrent discourses on the war on terror and accelerating use of social e-media in a thought-provoking penultimate section; and concludes; "as we become more isolated and lonely through a mix of technological devices and fear of an unstable and ambiguous Other; Morrisseys sonic double take becomes a reminder of how such mechanisms might lead us away from love and real friendships in human life." So there.Morrissey; the clownish human icon; expresses his polyphonic consciousness through multimodal text (much provided by Oscar Wilde whos given a few paragraphs) in a Northern womans voice; according to Pierpaolo Martino who wrote chapter 12: `"Vicar In A Tutu": Dialogism; Iconicity and the Carnivalesque in Morrissey. Quoting Irish Blood English Heart; Morrisseys in-betweenness; his existance on the borderline; is compared to Wildes similar liminality; or evasion of easy categorisation and rejection of rank. The author subjects the two following albums to similar treatment. In chapter 16; Melodramatic Morrissey: Kill Uncle; Cavell and the Question of the Human Voice; Johanna Sjouml;stedt proposes; drawing on heavyweight thinkers; that the neglected early album; Kill Uncle; actually shines a playful philosophical light on ordinary human life in precious plain language; and offers far more than Gavin Hopps assessment of it as surface camp. In the sharply-intuited discussion; sizzlingly-provocative conundrums like this are put forth: "Thus; radical scepticism with respect to others is not grounded in metaphysical speculation separated from the human realm; it is a question raised in response to experiences of failure in everyday communication..." We dread both voicelessness and excessive expression; and Kill Uncle offers the solution of acknowledgement; going forward; even while the relative ease of artistic expression in it contrasts with the strain of the pain" of dealing with people. Its a masterpiece; Sjouml;stedt concludes. So is her article.Like others captured by the title of Stan Hawkins recent book; the British Pop Dandy; Morrissey stems from this line alongside Beau Brummel; Byron; Wilde; Coward; Crisp; Bowie. Hawkins wrote the last; 17th; chapter; `You Have Killed Me - Tropes of Hyperbole and Sentimentality in Morrisseys Musical Expression; and views the song; like many others; as "an impassioned [ritualised] response to social politics"; with Passolinis assassination centre-stage. The vocal idiosyncrasies of Morrisseys natural-sounding voice and his "dramatised subjectivity" are picked apart as performed and recorded. His imputed "psychopathology" in stubbornly maintaining a vulnerable solidarity with the human struggle is probed; culminating in a verdict that although Morrissey has anologously killed the jury/critical fan; you have to forgive him; always.The anthology is privileged with a characteristically-penetrating introduction by Len Brown; ex-NME columnist and writer of Meetings with Morrissey.The reader must engage with sometimes complex ideas and uncommon vocabulary but the selection of topics covered is wide enough that there should be something for everyone in an audience with a passing interest or more in the singular pop-singer that is Morrissey.