Welcome to... _________________________________________________ | \ | S T R A N G E W A Y S > |________________________________________________/ A forum for Morrissey and The Smiths. Volume Two, Issue #9 To post to Strangeways, please send mail to Kevin at kkawado@bonnie.ics.uci.edu. Please be sure to put 'Strangeways' somewhere in the Subject line so that I know what is to be submitted to this list. <-----> Administrative-type stuff: 1) To obtain the KROQ Morrissey Concert Tape of the Hammersmith Odeon, email Bob Gaj (gajarsky@pilot.njin.net). The tape is 90 minutes. 2) Archives of _Strangeways_ and other useful tidbits about the Smiths/Morrissey are available via anonymous FTP to quartz.rutgers.edu. The lyrics and discography are also contained here. I'm working on updating the discography and will mail it out in the next issue of _Strangeways_. If there are any other questions, please feel free to email me at the above address. I think that's about it...enjoy. =K= <-----> From: Rosenbla Subject: Strangeways Date: Sun, 19 Jan 92 14:09:03 CST I just got a great "live import" from Holland dated July 1, 1991. It has the following songs on it: Mute Witness Will Never Marry Pregnant For The Last Time Everyday Is Like Sunday Cosmic Dancer Disappointed Our Frank That's Entertainment I've Changed My Plea To Guilty Piccadilly Palare Sing Your Life King Lear Last Of The Famous International Playboys November Spawned A Monster Actually, Asian Rut is played before King Lear, but is not listed on the track list. The cd has great sound and it's called "Higher Education." Morrissey's back up is listed as the "Stray Kittens"...is that what they were called? It's made in Italy and I ordered it from a place called Vinyl Virus P.O. Box 1164 7526 U-Weiher Germany I got it for just over $18 plus shipping, but you'll probably find it at your local "live import" dealer for more. If you are interested in possibly ordering from them, e-mail me. (I'm not affiliated with Vinyl Virus in any way, but I have access to a catalog.) Regarding the "Reel Around the Fountain" controversy, I don't think that it has to do with child molesting, although the first half of the song's lyrics could be read that way. I always thought that, as a whole, the song dealt with Morrissey's difficulty with relationships (with a girlfriend). Christine <-----> From: Jarnail Singh Gill Subject: Strangeways: Morrissey on Amnesty program Date: Sun, 19 Jan 92 16:32:23 PST A few backs, Muchmusic (Canada's music video station) broadcast the Amnesty International 30th Aniversary program. At the beginning of the show we are told it is going to be a 3 hour broadcast, but Muchmusic somehow managed to cut it down to 1 hour. As a result, we only get about 5 minutes of each act. Most of the acts were playing with the house band (headed by David Gilmour), but Morrissey performed with his own backing band. We only got one song from him, "Your friends hate it when your successful", and to tell the truth, his performance seemed rather half hearted. I thought he was great on the Tonight Show appearance he did in the summer, but he seemed to be lacking something this time. Anyways, I don't know if anyone saw it in the States, but you didn't miss much. None of the other acts left much of an impression on me either. Everything seemed really phoney, and staged. It reminded me of American Bandstand. Jerry. <-----> Date: Sun, 26 Jan 92 13:59:55 -0500 From: Pi Subject: Tiny Bits Of Meat Here's the concert reiew of Morrissey's 7-8-91 Columbia,MD show as taken from the Washington Post: Evaluated in a more objective setting, the music played by Morrissey and his backing group last Monday at the Merriweather Post Pavilion would probably have seemed awkward and a little crude; though it provides surprisingly angelic backing vocals, the singer's new rockabilly band is something of a blunt instru- ment. In the context of the tremendous enthusiasm demonstrated by the oddball idol and his admirers, however, the show sounded fine-and sometimes outright great. Always adept at revitalizing pop cliches, Morrissey managed to make fresh such hoary gambits as throwing the tatters of his shredded shirt into the audi- ence and offering his mike to stage-side fans so they could "Sing Your Life." More impressively, he managed to construct a solid set without enlisting any Smiths songs. Supplemented by covers of the New York Dolls' "Trash" and the Jam's "That's Entertainment," such eccentric singles as "Interesting Drug" sound- ed first-rate, and as the final encore, "Disappointed" had everything one could ask of a "How Soon Is Now" surrogate. -Mark Jenkins Here's the concert cancellation announcement of the Birmingham,AB show as taken from the Atlanta "Creative Loafing" magazine: Depressing: Bad news for Atlanta Morrissey fans who were planning on making the drive to Birming ham for his Nov.22 show there: it's been cancelled due to the singer's "exhaustion," making this the second time he's used that excuse, disa- ppointing his southeastern fans - The Smiths sold-out show at the Fox in 1986 was also axed at the last minute, causing even more distress and depression among the city's Morrissey followers. Anyone desiring a refund for tickets to the Alabama Theatre show should call 1-800-277-1700 for more information. My friend and I were sitting around listening to Joy Division but wondering when Morrissey would release anything new, and I told my friend "Ian's dead you know," and he said "So is Morrissey." Oh well, we'll never learn. Pi <-----> From: Jarnail Singh Gill Subject: Strangeways: Johnny Marr Date: Tue, 28 Jan 92 12:52:22 PST anyone heard what Johnny Marr is working on these days? what about Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce? the last i heard of those two was a few years back when they were touring with Sinead O'Connor (before her mainstream success). are there any other guitar players out there? i've been trying to work out that opening riff in 'suedehead', and i'm failing miserably. can anybody help? also, does anybody know of any guitar transcriptions available for Smiths songs? the only one i have is for "bigmouth", which was published in "guitar" a couple of years ago. i haven't really been keeping up with the guitar magazine's lately (most of them are glam metal bullshit anyways), so i was wondering if any more Marr interviews have appeared. i've only seen two marr interviews in guitar magazines, in "guitar" and "guitar player", both in early 1990. Marr is just as bad as Morrissey when it comes to ripping up other peoples music. in his two interviews he was really attacking the 'million notes a minute' guitar players and most of the crap that appears on the cover of guitar magazines. i applaud him though for staying away from the mud slinging (aimed at one particular ex-Smith) and sticking to the music. that's why i prefer the guitar magazine interviews, we learn about the music without the usual crap music magazines throw in there to make headlines and sell copies. by the way, i really hated the Electronic release. i liked his work with Kristy Macoll though. it would be great if Marr put out a solo release of instrumental's. i really loved the instrumentals he did with the Smiths, especially "Ocillate Wildly", which strangely enough, was the first Smiths song i ever heard. bye bye, jerry. <-----> Date: Fri, 31 Jan 92 1:19:53 EST From: Bob Gajarsky Subject: questions for strangeways. a couple questions... 1) what groups originally did "work is a four letter word" and "golden lights"? 2) does anyone out there have either a morrissey concert from thes tates with "that's entertainment" and "trash" on it, or a smiths concert tape from "the queen is dead" tour? will trade for these - i'll send my list of stuff, smiths and otherwise, that i can trade for these shows. also - this is for a friend of mine, and he doesn't have any videos to trade, but maybe you can work something out with him- does anyone have a VIDEO of the jones beach show? my friend hugged morrissey, and wants to get his hands on a copy of the video - i think he'll pay, as well (though don't quote me on that). thanks a lot - bob gaj