Morrissey's book is so dense with incredible writing. Most likely the greatest book ever written by a pop star. Absolutely astonishing. I challenge anyone to name another autobiography with that kind of literary value, true or not.

I still remember when I was 13 and spent an entire night trying to figure out Johnny Marr's incredible guitar part of 'still ill':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8b3UkqTQNI


And around the same time...I remember smoking alot of hashish and having my head done in by the beautiful descending chords of perhaps one of the greatest titled pop songs ever....'Last Night I dreamt that Somebody loved me':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_qPTyy4itI

And an absolute masterpiece that I first heard the chords in 'Ferris Bueller's Day off'...later heard the real song....again, while smoking hash. The greatest pop lyricist of all time accompanied by one of the greatest pop guitar players/songwriters. The mandolin at the end of this song is magic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiqOsKngc-c

What are your fave Smiths songs? How did you discover them? What do they mean to you?

Mannnn! The soundtrack to my post teen years and trying to find my place in High School. Those Smiths ballads were on repeat. Just got Moz's book and I have to read every line twice cause it's written in some kind of song form with the great visual references.

youtubes taken down pretty quick

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/flashback-the-smiths-play-their-last-ever-gig-20140313

for me, it lost a little bit of steam once it got to when they formed the smiths--and through his solo career, touring, yaddayadda (although, that story of the kid in toronto with his eyeliner running down his face, balling his eyes out and pleading to him "i just want to touch you" as he got back on his tourbus--kinda crazy). and he could've lopped off a good 20 pages from his recounting of the mike joyce trial--

--but that first half about his childhood? amazing. at some parts i was like "is this guy a better writer than a singer??" (he'll always be in my top 5) i'm not a audiobook guy, but i'd buy a copy of maggie smith reading that thing (i started thinking of her character in Downton Abbey as i read, the biting wit was just spot on...whenever i'd see the ellipses? knew some quotable was coming up).

i also appreciated how much praise he threw at iggy/lou reed/patti smith for shaping him during his teens. and hilarious how as he got further in his career, the more shade he threw at bowie.

my first intro to them: smiths best of 1 & 2 (the ones with the yellow and pink cover that came out in like 1988)--got them from the bmg music club, and i just wore those out 9th-11th grade. they were my favorite group then. and then i loaded all their stuff on my phone to listen while i read the autobiography..and realized they're still my favorite group. in my opinion, they don't have a bad song.

my favorite recordings:

- "half a person" (studio version--perfectly summarizes them. gorgeous arpeggiated marr guitar line..and moz.."if you have 5 seconds to spare, then i'll tell you the story of my life"?--goddamn)

- "rusholme ruffians" (from Complete Peel Sessions--mike joyce is the villain with them now, but he was also a fantastic drummer. guy is in a clyde stubblefield-type pocket on this one)

- "there is a light that never goes out" (from Unreleased Demos & Instrumentals--heard this version about 20 years after only hearing the one from Queen is Dead..somehow, this one's even better)

...however, he *is* also a racist asshole and I find it hilarious that people give him a pass year after year after all the dumb shit he continue to say whereas a guy like Ted Nugent (who has a strong discography himself) gets chastised for the same things. Why? Because he's not as "intelligent" in tewrms of explaining his racism? Fuck that, I remember when Morrissey, in a swedish interview in 89-90 was genuinely offended by the amount of black performers on Top of the pops saying that you pretty much have to be black to get on Top of the pops nowadays in spite of "everything" telling the opposite. Americans might not get how racist this dude is but his way of thinking is just like all the right-wing parties in europe...

Whatever, I like a lot of racist assholes myself but I could never get into the Smiths; they were the emo of my generation alongside the Cure here in sweden and I hated those kids. Musically, while Marr is great, he's not *that* good and I'll maintain that the similar sounding HOUSEMARTINS both wrote better songs and had an infinitely more appealing attitude:blue-collar unity as opposed to Morrisseys snobby elitism. *That* band was the shit-whatever qualities the Smiths had were overwhelmed by Morrisseys annoying persona and if the lead-singer/purveyor of melody is/sounds like a cunt and have a voice that fits, it's hard to enjoy the efforts of a melody/vocal-driven pop-rock band, regardless of how good their guitarist might have been (and he was never as good as Curt Kirkwood on "Up on the sun"-that's *my* jangly post-Byrds trip for eternity ...)