Did you get the hardcover version, Julie?
I was at the huge Virgin Megastore in Times Square, New York City yesterday and I checked for it. No luck. They have a very good, comprehensive music section. They had a large stack of Morrissey in Conversation, the Essential Interviews. I was really expecting to find it there.
And thank you for that well thought-out summary and review. My guess is that you were an English major. Correct? I can usually spot them a mile away!
Yup, I've got the nice hefty brick-sized hardcover. I wonder why this book is so hard to find over here?
And Yup, English major. Guilty
I minored in Art History too, so I'm completely useless to society. Then, just to be sado-masochistic, I went back to get a degree in journalism but HATED it. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.
But back to the book, I'm now plowing through the appendix in the back which lists many of Moz's icons and influences. It's great for me because I haven't seen a lot of these films and British TV shows - especially all of the obscure stuff. He's bringing a lot of new insight into the interpretations of songs. Things I haven't heard before.
Like: Mama Lay Softly on the Riverbed. He wonders if its inspired by
La Donna Del Fiume, Woman of the River, written by Pasolini, starring Sophia Loren. He also wonders if there are parallels to Virginia Woolf's suicide.
All You Need is Me: Maybe inspired by Anthony Newley's "Piccadilly Lily" and "I'm All I Need." ??? Maybe...I'm not familiar with these, but I will be now.
(He never claims that he has a definitive answer for these interpretations because surely there isn't one).
It's just fun to see all the connections between the influences themselves. Someone was someone's lover, or starred in someone's film, or used someone else as an inspiration for their work. I just finished "Open Up and Bleed," an excellent bio of Iggy Pop and I'm recognizing a lot of the same names, especially the Warhol Crowd - Candy Darling, Jayne/Wayne County, etc.
It's funny how the things we love eventually intersect one another.
The author's connection to the Smiths and Moz is so similiar to my own - he inherited his late brother's records, I got my late sister's tapes. And so many of us have similiar stories.
!
