happy birthday to Morrissey, who helped millions of misfit, unhappy, outcasts feel slightly -only slightly- less lonely.
i am 36, and found the smiths when i was 13, (curled under the duvet, listening to john peel on headphones, in the days when radio 1 was still on the old medium wave, complete with the fizzle and pop of atmospherics).
back in the good old antedeluvian (pre internet) days there were no websites to help you , no school counsellors, no childline, and noone had depression- you were just badly behaved and needed to shape up. you were beaten up for being gay, and weird, and a freak if you read books, looked odd, or just didnt fit in.
i love the smiths beyond anything ive heard since, because they saved my life when i was a teenager- they were the only proof i had that somewhere else there were other people who didnt fit in. misfits were never on tv, never walked down the streets in my area, didnt exist.
just unspeakably good lyrics, and johnny marr's gee-tar- oh... a joyous union.
the smiths came into my life like an A-Team for the depressed and disenfranchised.. there is a light that never goes out.
'i sat in my room and i drew up a plan'.
sterling stuff, and hats off.