An essay on the Smiths frontman whose music and lyrics turned the abject aspects of the identities of so many queer teenagers into something that made them stand out and shine – and whose focus on working class cultures of masculinity began to turn towards the far right.

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SOURCES:

Bret, David. Morrissey: Scandal & Passion. London: Robson Book Ltd, 2004. Goddard, Simon. Mozipedia: The Encyclopedia of Morrissey and The Smiths. 8/29/10 edition. New York: Plume, 2010. Jonze, Tim. “Bigmouth Strikes Again and Again: Why Morrissey Fans Feel so Betrayed.” The Guardian, May 30, 2019, sec. Music. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/may/30/bigmouth-strikes-again-morrissey-songs-loneliness-shyness-misfits-far-right-party-tonight-show-jimmy-fallon. Morrissey. Autobiography. 1 edition. New York, NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2013. Reynolds, Simon. “Pale Ire.” Bookforum, March 2014. https://www.bookforum.com/print/2005/in-his-long-awaited-memoir-morrissey-sheds-his-wilting-wallflower-image-12774. Sandhu, Sukhdev. “Morrissey and Me: How an Ordinary Asian Fell in Love with the Smiths.” The Guardian, December 20, 2011, sec. Music. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/dec/20/morrissey-and-me-the-smiths. Thomas-Mason·May 31, Lee, and 2019. “Remembering When Cornershop Set Fire to Morrissey Posters, 1992.” Far Out Magazine (blog), May 31, 2019. https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/cornershop-set-fire-to-morrissey-posters-1992-racism/.

Our intro music is Arpeggia Colorix by Yann Terrien, downloaded from WFMU's Free Music Archive and distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Our outro music is by DJ Michaeloswell Graphicsdesigner.

Saint Morrissey, a portrait of this charming man by an alarming fan

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