Woods, P: Morrissey in Conversation

This remarkable book comprises the most famous statements of Britain's unlikeliest (and greatest) modern rock 'n' roll star. Collating classic music press and glossy magazine articles, Morrissey in Conversation tells the story of how he bewitched the 1980s with his former band the Smiths, piqued the 1990s, and inimitably returned in the new millennium.Contained within these pages: How the Smiths singlehandedly created 1980s indie-rock. Their anti-'rockist' credentials, feminist sympathies and militant vegetarianism. The sound of the bedsit rooms: how a celibate mother's boy became the poet laureate of the lonely. The recycling of the Smiths' 1960s influences - from their jangling guitar sound to Morrissey's iconographic use of stills from British films and TV. 'Meat is Murder': vegetarianism as a cause, and as a shock tactic in song. Morrissey's literary sensibility: from Oscar Wilde to Beyond Belief, the classic account of Manchester's 'Moors Murders'. The break-up of the Smiths, and the regret that dogged Morrissey into his early solo career. The ostracism of the music press which once lionised him, and dubious allegations of racism. Decampment to the US, as Morrissey's English heart/Irish blood became detached from their roots. The resurgence after years in the wilderness, and the widening of his wittily jaundiced worldview. Morrissey in Conversation also includes the great man holding forth on his lifelong obsessions: 1960s girl singers, the war against animal cruelty, his love of Wilde, his fetishisation of 1950s/60s pop-culture icons, his (a)sexuality, and sardonic salvoes against the mediocre.