MORRISSEY’S FOURTH GENDER

Introduction

Hello/I am the ghost of Troubled Joe/hung by his pretty white neck/Some eighteen months ago/I travelled to a mystical time zone... These are the words with which English popartist Morrissey begins the album Strangeways here we come, the last one his band, The Smiths, ever made. These are the words responsible for the fact that almost ten years later, when adulation of the fans still goes on, I embarked on some sort of a scientific study of my idol. Here begins the struggle between the uncritical admiration of the fan and the ‘researcher’s’ quest for truth. In this article I want to ascertain how androgyny can be expressed in Morrissey and The Smiths (in the words of interviews and lyrics) if indeed it occurs there.

The road to an unknown gender

“Obviously I’m interested in sex and every song is about sex. I’m very interested in GENDER. I feel I’m a kind of prophet for the fourth sex. The third sex, even that has been done and it’s failed. All that Marc Almond bit is pathetic. It sounds trite in print but it’s something close to “men’s liberation” that I desire. I just want something different. I want to make it easier for people. I’m bored with men and I’m bored with women. All this sexual segregation that goes on, even in rock ‘n’ roll, I really despise it.” (McCullogh 1983)

The gender issue is, in my opinion, one of the most obvious themes in the music of Morrissey and The Smiths. My research data consists of press interviews and song lyrics. The Smiths’ record sleeves express sexuality, however, the artwork on these record sleeves will not be included in the present study.

The research problem — Morrissey and androgyny — is fascinating in its very mythic quality. The fascination lies in the many levels and ways that sexuality/asexuality can be expressed in popular music. I further propose to proclaim the existence of Morrissey’s fourth gender.

The idea of examining androgyny in the music and the phenomenon of Morrissey and The Smiths originated in the article by Hannu Kylkisalo in the publication Nuorisotutkimus (2/96) under the title Morrissey and the New Innocence. In this article Kylkisalo mentions among other things the androgyne and homosexual characteristics to be found in Morrissey’s lyrics. He refers to a ‘third sex’ in Morrissey’s lyrics, of the way in which Morrissey fades out the sex of people’s roles in the lyrics. The traditional first person narrator in the song is thus not necessarily a man (subject) nor yet an object (you) a woman, as has so frequently been the way in pop music.

In the interviews with Morrissey there is no mention of either ‘androgyne’ or ‘androgyny’. He is generally interpreted as asexual or homosexual than actually androgyne. On the other hand asexuality — the condition of being without sexuality — may in some way be linked to that of being androgyne (Kalpio 1994, 60). According to O’Brien (1995, 248) the androgyne and the homosexual fit closely together when pop music and its past are under scrutiny. If the artist is androgyne, s/he is also homosexual.

What does the concept of androgyny embody? According to John Richardson (1994, 328) it does not necessarily mean equality between the sexes although it is a union of masculinity and femininity. Although being in the middle of ‘nothing’ (the No Man’s Land between the masculine and the feminine) carries its own risks, it is also a strength (O’Brien 1995, 241). The androgyny is firmly rooted in its cultural context. Its occurrence in pop music and particularly in music videos (including Billy Idol’s Rebel Yell and Madonna’s Open Your Heart) has been researched by E. Ann Kaplan in her book Rocking Around the Clock (1987). In her article (Lähikuva 3/94) Minna Kalpio addresses the trinity of androgyny, pop and Music Television. Kalpio focusses on Annie Lennox. I believe that Kalpio’s definitions of androgyny suit my present research very well. Kalpio’s conception of the essence of the androgyny comes close to Richardson’s thinking. This androgyny means ‘...a combination of such characteristics in a star which does not fulfill the cultural conditions for a sex, but constitutes something between the masculine and the feminine.’ (Kalpio 1994, 59-60) In addition to the foregoing Morrissey’s androgyny would imply the exclusion of the concepts of feminine and masculine and moving outside all categories.

It would be far-fetched to call Annie Lennox, the subject of Kalpio’s research the female counterpart of Morrissey, but I cannot resist toying with the idea of what manner of mega-andromonster would result if one combined the feminine sides of Morrissey and the masculine sides of Annie.

According to Simon Frith the androgyny is important from the point of view of the cult of the boy. ‘Cult of the Boy’ was a specific reference to how easy it is for teenage boys to identify with artists like Morrissey, whose own sexuality appears to be a mystery to him. The artist appealed particularly to a young audience whose sexuality and gender roles have not entirely (or at all) taken shape. (Frith 1988, 170) It is as if Frith were saying that the artist has deliberately cultivated androgyne features in order to attract attention.

The androgyny of rock

Throughout its existence rock music has expressed sexuality more or less on the basis of masculinity/femininity. Taking it to extremes one might say that an equivalence has been established between rock and masculinity. The women of the 1970s slowly but surely made ground for themselves in the field of rock music, but only as interlopers. Women did not bring femininity into rock; they adapted themselves to masculine requirements. The toughest guy of the rock world of the 1970s was not Mick Jagger, but Janis Joplin.

Rock was traditionally masculine, but women did appear as the makers of rock, and men, too began to break out of the mold of masculinity. David Bowie is considered one of the pioneers in the merging of the sexes in the shape of glam-rock.

“The major mark of stars is their ability to transform themselves, to be attracted to both men and women. The most successful stars, then — from Little Richard and Elvis to Prince and Michael Jackson — have both Jungian qualities of masculine and feminine on display. Their mental wardrobe contains a world of possibilities and permutations; when your star is in the firmament, why restrict yourself to something as prosaic as gender?” (O’Brien 1995, 243)

It was not easy even for male artists to question masculine characteristics. Women may have been permitted to express ‘weakness’, vulnerability and sensitivity in music, because it was interpreted as being appropriate and natural (= feminine). The sensitive man, however, was nothing but a ‘repugnant wimp’, at least in the eyes of other men. (Reynolds 1990, 20)

As the androgyny in rock advanced both artist and audiences experienced some sort of a liberation. It was no longer necessary to be either Man or Woman; acceptance could be gained as an androgyne, a person whose image did not emphasize either sex.

For Annie Lennox androgyny was a means of avoiding becoming a sex symbol. She also perceived the potential for fun and commercial success in androgyne elements. (Kalpio 1994, 63) For one thing Lennox was required to produce a birth certificate to prove that she really was a woman before being allowed to perform at the Grammy Awards Gala in 1984. Her reaction was to perform an imitation of Elvis.

Grace Jones was an example of the androgyny in punk rock. Her image was distinctly masculine. She wanted to appear as a macho, as an opposite to the frilly image. (O’Brien 1995, 250) Phranc, one of the first woman artists to proclaim herself a ‘lesbian celebrity’ (Morrissey’s warm-up act on the Your Arsenal tour) claims that men’s androgyny was approved by a few votes in public. However, when women broke out of the traditional gender roles they were dubbed manhaters. (ibid. 258) For the American singer and songwriter kd lang androgyny is expressly a means of communicating as a person, not as a man or a woman.

“I use my sexuality but I eliminate the gender from it. I think the male thing is just a way of surviving — outside. Inside I’m completely a woman.” (ibid. 264)

All men have secrets - Researching The Smiths and Morrissey

The Smiths was founded in Manchester in 1982, led by the singer and verbal acrobat Steven Morrissey and the guitarist and music man Johnny Marr. There was literally a social niche for this band, which played mostly guitar music not for dancing. The Smiths was like manna from Heaven for frustrated youth, which abominated pop from the charts.

The Smiths and other contemporary indie bands took a dim view of mainstream pop. Morrissey resisted music video culture and went in for otherwise provocative utterances. He hated the British Royal Family and Margaret Thatcher, and also the British system of education. On the other hand he was active in animal rights and announced publicly that he was celibate.

“Along with the likes of Germaine Greer and Andy Warhol, Morrissey has been a key propagandist for the Celibate Tendency. Giving up sex has become such a declaration of independence.” (Owen 1986)

According to Morrissey society had nothing good to offer. It was his ideology to remain outside of it, to refuse to be a citizen (I degree today that life is simply taking and not giving/England is mine — it owes me a living -Still Ill; The Smiths 1984) and a worker (No, I never had a job/Because I never wanted one -You’ve Got Everything Now; The Smiths 1984) but also to reject everything that was ‘fun’ (to pretend to be happy could only be idiocy -What She Said; Meat Is Murder 1985). All these characteristics come together in the form of sexual innocence in the lyrics, a blending of men’s and women’s gender roles.

In 1987 The Smiths broke up with four albums, some collection records and innumerable singles to their credit. All in all the band was the most successful British band of its genre in the 1980s. Morrissey continued as a solo performer, and there is a body of fans who have remained faithful to their idol despite accusations from the media, some of them distinctly far-fetched, about racism.

The face of sexuality in Morrissey

The questioning of sexuality emerges not only in Morrissey’s lyrics but also in interviews he gave. Most notably in the early days of his career as the vocalist with The Smiths, Morrissey went for a fourth sex. In addition to interviews and lyrics Morrissey also paid attention to record sleeves. These almost invariably featured some star from the film world, an author or a camp queen from British pop. The birth of Morrissey’s androgyne characteristics was influenced among others by Sandie Shaw and Dusty Springfield and Marc Bolan, David Bowie and The New York Dolls. Morrissey’s set of ‘idols larger than life’ indubitably includes James Dean, Shelagh Delaney and Oscar Wilde, from whom Morrissey ‘inherited’ his delight in appearing with a bunch of gladioli in his back pocket. Dean and Delaney at least have found their way onto the Smiths’ record sleeves.

Morrissey - the interviewer’s dream?

Journalists who lie/The truth is, it happens/Praise, then crucify/Just follow this pattern/And see how: They're only trying to make their name/By spreading sickening lies/About the ones who've made their name/Mate, give us the knife/Give us the knife/Journalists who lie/So happy in malice/Rock star - out of line/So happy in malice. (Journalists Who Lie; Our Frank 1991)

Reading Morrissey’s interview it immediately emerges that we have here a verbal acrobat taking interest in the very smallest details. I have not so far come across a single interview in which Morrissey was lost for words. He cultivates sayings self-consciously. On the other hand the reader easily gains the impression that the interviewer is trying to trick Morrissey into saying things that he doesn’t want to say. What would a proper newspaper man not do in order to scoop a revealing story? Although Morrissey proclaims his asexuality in numerous interviews, this has not prevented him from achieving status as a sex symbol (cf. Annie Lennox). The fascination is heightened by Morrissey’s declaration that being a sex symbol is the best that anyone can achieve (Robertson 1988, 8). He later sang that he was the last famous international playboy.

Although Morrissey’s attitude to representatives of the press is anything but respectful, he expresses his opinions with a will. In virtually every interview either the interviewer or Morrissey makes some reference to sexuality. It is as if the interviewee could not depart the place without the issue being dealt with (Owen 1986).

“Does it bother you that writers always try and probe into your sexuality? —Yes. The interview I just did with Rolling Stone begins: “Morrissey is a man who says he’s gay,” which upset me because of course I didn’t say anything of the kind. People make assumptions but there’s no point complaining about it. I came into this business willingly and I know the pitfalls so I accept them. At the end of the day, sexual terms just segragate people, it’s all monotonous and an insult to their individuality.” (Van Poznak 1984)

James Henke’s (Rolling Stone, June 7, 1984) article/interview with Morrissey (Oscar! Oscar! Great Britain goes Wilde for the ‘fourth-gender’ Smiths) begins like this: “He goes by a single name, Morrissey. He calls himself a ‘prophet for the fourth gender,’ admits that he’s gay but adds that he’s also celibate”. The Smiths had just experienced their accession to greatness and it is no wonder that the press was anxious to take a stand as sharply as Morrissey did to society. It is interesting that after Henke’s claim there is no direct quote from Morrissey as there is in any other themes of the article.

In the NME interview (1984) Morrissey states that he has a very neutral attitude to sexuality. He perceives people as human rather than as sexual. He would throw all manner of suffixes (hetero-, homo-, bi-) overboard. This may be Morrissey’s core idea of the fourth sex. The third sex could be interpreted to cover the androgyny and the bisexual. The fourth sex would comprehend asexuality, that is, it would in principle be sexless. Leaning on this interpretation Morrissey actually seeks to avoid the coming into being of androgyne images.

Melody Maker (Leboff 1987) tries to elicit from Morrissey why he writes no songs for women. Morrissey admits that writing for all and everyone is his ideal goal, but may not be feasible.

“The sexes have been too easily defined. People are so rigidly locked into these two little categories. I don’t know anybody who is absolutely, exclusively heterosexual. It limits people’s potential in so many areas. I think we should slap down these barriers.” (Henke 1984, 45)

Morrissey’s statement that no-one is entirely heterosexual may have been the reason for conclusions drawn especially by the press at to Morrissey’s own homosexuality. It is said that after John Lennon it is Morrissey’s sexual attitudes which have come in for most boning. (Robertson 1988, 5)

“His sexuality is as obscure and open to interpretation as everything else about him. Though he’s aware of his popularity among gay men, he surely understands that declaring sexual, rather than asexual, preference would make him more accessible, less enigmatic. Morrissey has made it clear that what makes him heavy is not his sexuality but the music he’s made since he first became a Smith.” (Brown 1991)

In 1985 Morrissey said that he was convinced that there was no heterosexuality or homosexuality. He also made a comment on celibacy: “Celibacy? I can’t even recommend it. It’s just right for me and wrong for the rest of the population”. In his biography of Morrissey David Bret adds a remark to this statement as to how people misinterpret the entire concept of celibacy. According to the dictionary celibacy is not complete withdrawal from sex, but a decision not to marry. (Bret 1994, 105)

According to Morrissey one particular problem in the role of a public person is that if s/he feels sympathy towards some group of people the conclusion is easily reached that the artist is actually claiming to be a member of that group. This has been the case with Morrissey, at least in regard to feminism and homosexuality. (Van Poznak 1984)

Excerpt from Baktabak interview c. 1985

Sister, I’m a poet

“My lyrics are only obscure to the extent they are not taken directly from the dictionary of writing songs. They’re not slavish to the lyrics rule book, so you’ll never catch me singing ‘Oh baby, baby yeah’. My only priority is to use lines and words in a way that hasn’t been heard before.” (Black 1983)

Morrissey’s lyrics differ from ‘traditional’ rock texts both as regards themes and sexualizing. This is no wonder, for one of his greatest role models was the flamboyant George Formby (NME 1984). Morrissey collected in an anthology of rock history such terms as ‘bigmouth’, ‘suedehead’, ‘coma’ and ‘shoplifter’ (Morley 1988) and on the same record (The Queen Is Dead 1986) a smooth transition was made from the clergyman in a ballet costume (Vicar in a tutu) to the theme of romantic love/death (There is a Light That Never Goes Out). The problem is that of how to interpret the texts. If a piece of it is taken outside the context it renders more than one interpretation possible. Morrissey sought to create a new form of love song by avoiding cock-rock and mainstream romanticism. He wanted to express feeling provocatively and in a way that awakened the audience.

“They’re not explicit in a hard-core sex way or in a sensual way --- I tried to approach it from a different angle that can seem wholly innocent, but dramatically known.” (Rogan 1992, 191)

On the other hand Morrissey stated in Melody Maker (1985, 26) that his lyrics were and always would be autobiographical. Direct conclusions have been drawn from these as also from the interviews.

“And while Morrissey’s lyrics were steeped in Englishness, they also challenged conventional maleness. —I’ve always felt closer to transsexuality than anything else --- A lot of male followers are, as far as the eye can see, natural specimens who have very anguished and devilishly rabid desires in my direction.” (Brown 1991)

Morrissey in the turmoil of human relations

The theme of Hand in Glove (1983), The Smiths’ first single, was ‘alternative’ love, which set in motion rumours about Morrissey’s homosexuality. The record sleeve portrayed the posterior of a naked man, and Morrissey sang Hand in glove/the sun shines out of our behinds/no it’s not like any other love/this one is different because it’s us/Hand in glove/the Good People laugh. On the B side the band recorded the even more polemic piece Handsome Devil, whose texts gave rise to accusations of pedophilia (A boy in a bush/Is worth two in the hand/I think I can help you get through your exams). (Di Martino 1985)

The piece Miserable Lie (The Smiths 1984) describes the mendacity of love. I look at yours, you laugh at mine/And “love” is just a miserable lie/You have destroyed my flower-like life/Not once — twice/You have corrupt my innocent mind/Not once — twice/I know the wind-swept mystical air/It means: I’d like to see your underwear. The song ends with Morrissey’s shrill cry in falsetto I need advice. In his obituary for The Smiths, Simon Reynolds (1987, 28) compares Morrissey to Prince. According to Reynolds both succeeded in expressing more in a falsetto song than in the entire libretto of the album.

It is deceptively easy to draw conclusions about homosexuality, but on the other hand this could be a more ‘traditional’ style, that is, the contortions of physical love between a man and a woman. The predative nature of the pair relationship is also pictured in the piece Girl afraid (Hatful Of Hollow 1984). Morrissey juxtaposes the lines Girl afraid/Where do his intentions lay?/Or does he even have any? and Boy afraid/Prudence never pays/And everything she wants costs money. The end result is that I shall never again make such a mistake.

And further, if the lines are taken out of context, the lines in These things take time (And the hills were alive with celibate cries and You said I was ill, and you were not wrong (Hatful Of Hollow ´84)) could be interpreted as cries for help from the narrator, and thus easily placed in Morrissey’s own mouth — he had after all announced that he was living in celibacy.

Morrissey in the turmoil of genders

Androgyne features are perceptible at least in the piece Vicar in a tutu (The Queen Is Dead 1986) in which the clergyman dances in a ballet costume (he’s not strange/he just wants to live his life this way). Morrissey’s self-irony flourishes at the end of the piece in the declaration in a fabric of a tutu/any man could get used to/and I am the living sign. It was Morrissey’s habit to appear in oversized women’s blouses. In the piece The Queen is dead Morrissey also calls gender roles into question, holding up the Royal Family to ridicule by singing I said Charles, don’t you ever crave/to appear in front of the Daily Mail/dressed in your mother’s bridal veil?

The rock anthology Som en smutsig hund takes Morrissey’s homosexuality for granted, as a plain fact referring to the pieces Pretty Girls Make Graves (The Smiths 1984) and Paint a Vulgar Picture (Strangeways, Here We Come 1987). You’re just the same as I am/What makes most people feel happy/leads us headlong into harm is taken as a song of welcome and acceptance to homosexual Smiths fans. (Söderling 1990, 182) Holopainen, too, in an article (1995, 114) compares Morrissey to Frank Zappa. Where for Zappa the guitar solo reflected sexual activity, Morrissey likewise ‘emphasized his rather peculiar celibacy, unless he was making a beeline for somebody’s mammary glands.’ Here Holopainen is referring to the Smiths’ piece already mentioned Handsome Devil. Let me get my hands/On your mammary glands/And let me get your head/On the conjugal bed/I say, I say, I say.

Pretty Girls Make Graves in my opinion portrays the man as the passive party and thus the woman as the active one. I’m not the man you think I am/And Sorrow’s Native Son/he will not rise for anyone --- She wants it now/and she will not wait/But she’s too rough and I’m too delicate. The sentence But nature played this trick on me may be taken as a reference to homosexuality. At the end Morrissey sings of losing faith or confidence in womanhood and the piece ends with the words with which Hand in Glove begins (Hand in glove/the sun shines out of our behinds).

In Half a Person (The World Won’t Listen 1987) the sex of the text remains unclear. A listener might imagine that Morrissey is recounting his own experiences, his first trip from Manchester in the North of England to London. To everyone’s surprise the first person narrator takes accommodation, after a brief hesitation in the Y.W.C.A. Sixteen clumsy and shy/I went to London and I/I booked myself in at the Y...W.C.A...

Feminist references are there in the piece Shakespeare’s Sister (The World Won’t Listen 1987), which got its name from the book A Room of my Own by Virginia Woolf (NME 1991). In Sheila take a Bow (Louder Than Bombs 1987) a carefree Morrissey sings: You’re a girl and I’m a boy---/--- I’m a girl and you’re a boy. This chiasma, I find, supports well Morrissey’s idea of calling into question gender categories and stereotypes.

Morrissey’s début solo album Viva Hate (1988) begins with the perturbed Alsatian Cousin, where the question is Were you and he lovers?. It is left for the listener to decide whether ‘you’ is male or female. The track on the same record Late Night, Maudlin Street, which Morrissey has said was very close to his own experiences again includes a question about love. There were bad times on Maudlin Street/They took you away in a police car/Dear Inspector — don't you know?/Don’t you care?/Don’t you know — about Love? One Morrissey fan intepreted these sentences as aimed at society as a whole. The police car carries the thoughts to the question of condemning homosexuality as the wrong sort of love. The absurdity of sexuality appears in the same piece in the words: You without clothes/Oh I could not keep a straight face/Me without clothes?/Well, a nation turns its back and gags.

Viva Hate was followed by the single collection Bona Drag (1990), an album whose first track Piccadilly Palare dealt with male prostitution and contained strange slang from the London underworld of the 1960s: So bona to vada (to vada=to see, look)/oh you, your lovely eek (eek=face) and your lovely riah (riah=hair). In the piece Such a little thing makes such a big difference Morrissey takes a stand against sexuality in the exasperated utterance most people keep their brains between their legs. This was followed, as if by way of a rebuttal, by the piece Last of the famous international playboys. In an interview Morrissey announced that he himself was one of the playboys which included Bolan, Devoto and Bowie (Rogan 1995, 84).

In the album Kill Uncle (1991) Morrissey concentrates even more on narrative. Gender issues are no longer as prominent as in the days of The Smiths. However, one piece which expresses physical sexuality forcibly is The Harsh Truth of the Camera Eye, in which an individual becomes the object of unwilling surveillance: Churchillian legs/Hair barely there/Mmm, the harsh truth of the camera eye --- Telling you all/That you never wanted to know/Showing you what/You didn’t want shown.

And you, my invalid friend

Although human relationships and their intellectual aspects are in the foregrounds in Morrissey’s texts he makes fairly frequent references to people’s physical characteristics. For The Smiths début record (The Smiths 1984) Morrissey wrote the pieces This Charming Man (This man said it’s gruesome that someone so handsome should care) and Still Ill, which contains the undying and unsolvable question of the relation between body and mind (Does the body rule the mind or does the mind rule the body?). Morrissey sang about physical abberration (including the pieces November spawned a monster (Bona Drag 1990), Mute Witness (Kill Uncle 1991), At Amber (single Piccadilly Palare 1990)), and of the right of everyone to be loved. Although Morrissey’s lyrics have changed since the days of The Smiths, there are points at which the lyrics of those days and the lyrics of his solo career overlap, as for example in Shakespeare’s sister (The World Won’t Listen 1987) and You’re the one For Me, Fatty (Your Arsenal 1992), at the point:

Shakespeare’s Sister

Young bones groan
And the rocks below say:
"Throw your skinny body down, son!"
But I'm going to meet the one I love
So please don't stand in my way


You’re the one for me, Fatty

You're the one for me, Fatty
You’re the one I really, really love
And I will stay
Promise you’ll say
If I’m in your way

Perhaps Morrissey’s most personal album is Vauxhall & I, from 1994, in which he, as it were, sums up the past. Homosexual interpretations have been made of the piece Billy Budd.

I took my job application into town
Did you hear? They turned me down
Yes, and it’s all because of us
Oh, and what was in our eyes ---
I said, Billy Budd
I would happily lose
Both of my legs
I would lose both of my legs
Oh, if it meant you could be free

According to some interpretations Morrissey’s Billy Budd story is the story of the relationship between the writer and Johnny Marr, The Smiths’ guitarist; Things have been bad/Yeah, but now it’s twelve years on. Vauxhall & I came out when 12 years has indeed elapsed since the men’s first meeting. The self examination is there in the last piece of the album, Speedway, in which Morrissey sings that not all the rumours were after all unfounded.

In Morrissey’s latest album Southpaw Grammar (1995), and notably the piece The Boy Racer express sexual repressions. The boy racer is a person who is envied. He has too much money, influence (He thinks he’s got a whole world in his hand, stood at the urinal) and girlfriends, and in addition to all this he happens to be good-looking. The only way to get rid of him is kill this pretty thing. In addition to Boy Racer, the piece Southpaw deals with the problem of growing from a boy into a man and breaking away from home. A sick boy should be treated/So easily defeated --- And you ran back to Ma/which set the pace for the rest of your days.

A hint of androgyny, masculinity and femininity...

Morrissey’s goal is that the lyrics should appeal to as many people as possible. He deliberately avoids boy-girl references and the like so that the listener is as free as possible to use his/her imagination. (Fricke 1986)

“It’s an absolutely intentional move. It has to be that way. Because I think all the great writers that I ever liked were writers who spoke for everybody. I don’t like it when there’s this separatism, that certain groups can be put into absolutely defined categories, that this group could only possibly appeal to men, or women, or certain sects.” (DiMartino 1994, 166)

It has been said that Morrissey’s fans are particularly heterogenic. The American fans include androgenic teenagers, Latino gangsters, skinheads, well-dressed 30 year-olds, gays, and some older fans. Morrissey’s manager, Jo Slee, summed up Morrissey’s charm in the following words: “He attracts this gentle adoration from everybody, but you’d need a degree in sociology to work him out.” (Bret 1994, 126)

Bibliography

Literature:

Bret, David (1994). Morrissey: Landscapes of the mind. London: Robson Books.
DiMartino, Dave (1994). Singer-songwriters. New York: Billboard Books.
Frith, Simon (1989). Music for pleasure: Essays in the Sociology of Pop. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Holopainen, Reijo O. (1995). Itsetunto-ongelmat The Smithsin mukaan. In publication: Musiikin henkiset ja parantavat ominaisuudet. Helsinki: Aquarian Publications.
Kaplan, E. Ann (1987). Rocking around the clock. New York: Methuen.
O’Brien, Lucy (1995). She Bop: the definitive history of women in rock, pop and soul. London: Penguin Books.
Reynolds, Simon (1990). Blissed Out: The raptures of rock. London: Serpent’s Tail.
Robertson, John (1988). Morrissey in his own words. London: Omnibus Press.
Rogan, Johnny (1992). Morrissey & Marr: The Severed Alliance. London: Omnibus Press.
Rogan, Johnny (1995). The complete guide to the music of The Smiths and Morrisey/Marr. London: Omnibus Press.
Söderling, Trygve & Ritamäki, Tapani (1990). Som en smutsig hund: rock-antologin. Hangö: Editum.

Magazine articles:

Henke, James (1984). Oscar! Oscar! Great Britain goes Wilde for the “fourth-gender” Smiths. Rolling Stone, June 7, 45.
Kalpio, Minna (1994). Annie Lennox. Androgynia, pop ja MTV. Lähikuva 3, 59-67.
Kylkisalo, Hannu (1996). Morrissey ja “uusviattomuus”. Nuorisotutkimus 14 (2), 34-39.
Leboff, Gary (1987) Goodbye Cruel World. Melody Maker 26, 26-27.
Melody Maker (1985). Trial By Jury. 16, 23-26.
Reynolds, Simon (1987). How Soon Is Now? Melody Maker 26, 28.
Richardson, John (1994). Feminiinisyyden ja maskuliinisuuden androgyyninen avioliitto Philip Glassin musiikissa. Musiikki 24 (3), 292-335.
Shaw, William (1994). Homme Alone 2. Details, April, 102-107, 168-169.

Internet:

Black, Bill (1983). Keep Young And Beautiful. Sounds, November 19. - http://www.shocking.com/~despair/charmed.htm.
Brown, Len (1991). I’ll Astonish You. Details, March. - http//www.shocking.com/~despair/?.
DiMartino, Dave (1985). We’ll Meat Again: Doing It Smiths-style. Creem. - http://www.shocking.com/~despair/creem.htm.
Fricke, David (1986) Keeping Up With The Smiths. Rolling Stone, 484. - http://www.shocking.com/~despair/keeping.htm.
McCullough, Dave (1983) Handsome Devils. Sounds, June 4. - http://www.shocking.com/~despair/sounds1.htm.
Morley, Paul (1988) Wilde Child. Blitz, April. - http://www.shocking.com/~despair/blitz.htm.
NME (1984). A Suitable Case For Treatment. December 22/29th. - http://www.shocking.com/~despair/suitable.htm.
NME (1991). ?. May 25. - http://prcwwwdevel.idap.indiana.edu/~jack/moz/ interviews/bignose.html.
Owen, Frank (1986). Home Thoughts From Abroad. Melody Maker, September 27. - http://www.shocking.com/~despair/abroad.htm.
Van Poznak, Elissa (1984). ?. Face. - http://www.shocking.com/~despair/mozface.htm.

Records:

Albums:

The Smiths:
The Smiths (1984). WEA 4509-91892-2 (Rough Trade 61).
Hatful of Hollow (1984). Rough Trade 76.
Meat Is Murder (1985). WEA 4509-91895-2 (Rough Trade 81).
The Queen Is Dead (1986). WEA 4509-91896-2 (Rough Trade 96).
The World Won’t Listen (1987). WEA 4509-91898-2 (Rough Trade 101).
Strangeways, Here We Come (1987). WEA 4509-91899-2 (Rough Trade 106).
Louder Than Bombs (1987). WEA 4509-93833-2 (Rough Trade 255).

Morrissey:
Viva Hate (1988). Sire/Reprise 9362-25699-2.
Bona Drag (1990). EMI/His Master’s Voice 7942982.
Kill Uncle (1991). EMI/His Master’s Voice 7957072.
Your Arsenal (1992). EMI/His Masters Voice 7997942.
Vauxhall And I (1994). EMI/Parlophone 7243-8-27797-2-8.
World Of Morrissey (1995). EMI/Parlophone 7243-8-32448-2-9.
Southpaw Grammar (1995). RCA/Victor 74321299532.

Singles:

Morrissey:
Piccadilly Palare (1990). EMI/His Master’s Voice, POP 1624.
Our Frank (1991). EMI/His Master’s Voice, POP 1625.

Other:

Baktabak:
The Smiths interview picture disk (c.1985). Baktabak Records, CBAK 4025.