Ok, OK, Morrissey's a-sexual--I get it.
But who you do or do not sleep with, as many of you will agree, doesn't define your sexuality. Johny Marr once stated that Morrissey had had many girlfriends during his younger years, and quite a few male suitors. But that sex 'no longer is part of his life'. But if you ask me, he's gayer than a man at a Madonna concert. Not that there's is anything wrong with that.

The reason I mention any of the above, is that I've always felt that not having a sexual outlet of somekind stunts your emotional development. I know of a couple of people who are well into their 30s that have maintained their virginity, and this has caused them to lose their damned minds in the personal relationships they are able to maintain. Now baring physical deformities, injuries, and other circumstances, these people for various reasons do not have sex lives. And though I don't think their is anything fundamentally wrong with that--monks take vows of celibacy and go on to do great things. Gore Vidall maintained a lifelong relationship with a life partner and they never actually had sex in the end--Gore said it was the reason why their relationship was able to even be maintained .

But Morrissey is not a monk. He's wealthy celebrity living in L.A., not exactly a monastic paradise.

That being said, I've been on a Morrissey kick lately after years of more or less ignoring him. I am a huge Smiths fan: Their albums rank among my favorites from any band or singer. But specific to Morrissey's music catelogue I liked all his albums up to Vauxhall & I, and then I kind of stopped paying attention after that.

One of the reasons for that is that his lyrics are ambiguous. They offer just enough longing and passion to make them interesting. But they lack meat that I can sink my teeth into, however witty he can phrase things--and he can phrase things better than most poets.

I've been listening to his last 3 albums, and when he gets political, it's the only time I feel that he's not being ambiguously 'coy'. This act simple doesn't work on me anymore.

It feels like Morrissey is emotionally stunted when I listen to him. It's like he's only half a person--a very very unique and colorful half at times. But half a person none-the-less. You'd never know he was over 50 from listening to his lyrics. I swear when I was listening to Years of Refusal, which is one of the strongest offerings in his catalog, it sounds like a perplexing mix of a reflective older man in tiny dashes (a surprise for me), but for the most part, I'd swear I was listening to a 20 year old.

It's almost like an intellectual, more sophisticated, cerebral version of the adolescent 'incense & candles' booty lovin' version Prince is stuck in when he's not saying some insane religious crap.



FOr you Morrisey fans out there, and I know some of yall can get uncomfortably obsessive, what is your take on Morrissey's personal development. Is he a story teller, or a blogger? How much of his soul are we actually getting in these strange, sometimes direct/sometimes emotionally disconnected albums?



[Edited 9/12/09 8:31am]