la reina es muerta

March 18, 2003 12:02 PM

Guillermo, it was really nada. Back in my day, Morrissey's fans were closeted gay boys, the girls who loved them, and oddly, Mormons. Now, he's the idol of Latinos, especially in LA. Is it a cultural connection with melodramatic poetry or artistic narcissism? Is it identification with Morrissey's lyrics of disenfranchisement, or a rebellion against traditional Latin machismo? Is it the hair?
posted by padraigin (47 comments total)

Please, spare us your bad spanish and lame stereotypes. (I mean the people who post in the thread, not the FPP itself, though "La Reina ESTA Muerta").
Thanks.
posted by signal at 12:16 PM on March 18, 2003

Oops. I was so sure it was "ser" over "estar". Damn my aging brain.
posted by padraigin at 12:22 PM on March 18, 2003

"Back in my day, Morrissey's fans were closeted gay boys, the girls who loved them, and oddly, Mormons."

So which are you padraigin?
posted by jlynford2 at 12:24 PM on March 18, 2003

That's alright padraigin, you need to be born to "ser" & "estar", can't really learn it.

This might shed some light on it. Then again maybe not.
posted by signal at 12:27 PM on March 18, 2003

I was the girl who loved the Mormons. Talk about your impossible dreams.

Sigh.
posted by padraigin at 12:28 PM on March 18, 2003

I don't know why I listened (still do on occassion) to Morrissey. Maybe as a Hispanic on a campus with NO Hispanics at all, I felt some of his angst. It's funny how many dates I got just because of my Smiths and Morrissey stickers on my truck.

As far as which one I am, I think I'm a closeted Mormon. :) You should've seen my 6 inch tall hair.
posted by SentientAI at 12:36 PM on March 18, 2003

At least you didn't love the closeted-gay latino mormons.
I know one. And he likes Morrissey, I shit you not.
You can't make this kind of stuff up.
posted by signal at 12:38 PM on March 18, 2003

i saw "moz" a few years ago near LA--and it was indeed very odd... An almost 90% Latin audience, I'd estimate.

http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/03/02/cover-arellano.php
posted by magnificentsven at 12:45 PM on March 18, 2003

Morrissey brought hama7 and me together across a deep ideological divide. The more people who love Morrissey, the better this world will be.
posted by jennyb at 12:53 PM on March 18, 2003

Sighhh. Closeted gay Mormon boys. They're why I listen to Morrissey, even if they don't. but they most often do
posted by WolfDaddy at 12:54 PM on March 18, 2003

I'm not gay (not that there's anything wrong with that), not Mormon (tho' I dated one once), not Mexican (dammit!)...and I STILL think Moz is the shiznit!
I know for a fact I'm not his only straight black fan.
Perhaps Latinos just have collective good taste...or something.
posted by black8 at 12:55 PM on March 18, 2003

With the L.A. connection. Seems, KROQ & Dj/VjRichard Blade should be mentioned. The Smiths were introduced to me, by a black friend, not that one's color matters, or does it here?
posted by thomcatspike at 1:11 PM on March 18, 2003

left a link, LA connection.
posted by thomcatspike at 1:13 PM on March 18, 2003

I guess that's an interesting point, color appears to matter. Why Latino kids? Why doesn't he appeal to black kids on the same level, or Asian kids? Why isn't there a huge surge in his popularity amongst second-generation Chinese immigrants? Couldn't they identify with the same angsty issues of belonging and feeling different? What is it about Morrissey that appeals so much to Hispanics, or about Hispanics that creates such fertile ground for Morrissey fans?
posted by padraigin at 1:26 PM on March 18, 2003

briefly discussed last year. MeFi ♥ Morrissey
posted by gluechunk at 1:27 PM on March 18, 2003

I know for a fact I'm not his only straight black fan.

black8, odd, strange or just the Morrisey connection we wrote basically similar thoughts at the same time. Maybe looking at the Latino connection is going to deep. When the surface of the matter is the fact that LA has a large Latino base. Ever been to Melrose, it was some Latino guys in high school who introduced me to it too with the punk/mod scene; record shops & thrifts stores in the 80's.
posted by thomcatspike at 1:28 PM on March 18, 2003

MeFi &heart; Morrissey

Not me. I still hate the whiny-assed, carrot-filled sad sack with a passion. He is the walking epitome of everything I hated about the eighties.
posted by jonmc at 1:33 PM on March 18, 2003

Morrissey has always courted the outsiders and disposessed. He toured with Los Jaguares when I saw him last year. He sang songs about Mexico ... and certainly, he seems to love Mexico. Why shouldn't latinos love him back?!
posted by insomnia_lj at 1:35 PM on March 18, 2003

Then again, similar things could be said about David Byrne, too.
posted by insomnia_lj at 1:37 PM on March 18, 2003

By the way padraigin, those are some pretty obscure fan pages you linked to. But thank you. I am now desperately searching BYU directories and public records for the whereabouts of one Julie Stout (or perhaps one stout Julie nowadays). No longer need I pine for girls who only swoon at the sight of Johnny Marr's own bouffant hair-do (when it was even taller than Moz's), or who wait paitiently for Andy Rourke to resurface. (I never wanted to be with a girl who went for a drummer.) In the meantime, I am always hoping to live through another moment in music history like the instant when this one was taken. Weren't we all happier then? Back when the sad songs made us feel better?
posted by jlynford2 at 1:44 PM on March 18, 2003

Thurston Moore. Kim Gordon. Lee Ranaldo. Steve Shelley.

The epitome of everything I love about the eighties.
posted by Satapher at 1:46 PM on March 18, 2003

padraigin, great post, always good to be reminded of Morrissey on a rainy day.

jonmc, your just the walking epitome of hate, but cheers, have another, Morrissey loves you.
posted by yonderboy at 1:51 PM on March 18, 2003

jlynford2, could this be the one for which you're looking?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 1:56 PM on March 18, 2003

I will have to go with jonmc on this one. I just wanted to slap Morrissey around in the eighties - I kept waiting on the next Smiths album to be entitled, "Meet the Sad Small Penis Boys."
posted by bradth27 at 2:03 PM on March 18, 2003

yes crash, but where is she now??? That site was last updated nearly 5 years ago!
posted by jlynford2 at 2:03 PM on March 18, 2003

"where is she now???"

I'll tell you, but it's going to cost you a dollar.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 2:10 PM on March 18, 2003

Well, if we're drawing battle lines, Moz is a godlike genius. I think it's probably the hair.
posted by zygoticmynci at 2:16 PM on March 18, 2003

saw him here in santa barbara in september. a lot of my hispanic fellow citizens were there with me. i think it happened like this; morrissey adopted a rockabilly aesthetic in the early nineties, which appealed to otherwise macho rockabilly fans, many of which were hispanic.

to completely generalize...
posted by luckyclone at 2:16 PM on March 18, 2003

MeFi &heart; Morrissey

can't stand him, his music, his hair, his whinging or daffodils. did fans all around the world throw daffies at him, or was it just the sulky torontonians...?
posted by t r a c y at 2:32 PM on March 18, 2003

growing up mormon, but straight, the ansgt-ridden celibacy thing sorta fit. so please please please, let me, get what i want...

the smiths. not Morrissey solo....just wasn't the same without johnny.
posted by th3ph17 at 2:34 PM on March 18, 2003

Being a teenager in the 90s, many of the people I met that had similar musical tastes were Hispanic. For whatever reason I just assumed that there was a connection between Hispanic hipsters of the 80s and new wave that was passed down to some of their brothers and sisters. (I know I'm not wrong because I've been to many a mix tape shops in Mexican neighborhoods to buy good 80s mixes.)

Not that the Smiths and Moz are "new wave" but if one is into Depeche Mode and New Order, what are the chances that one is going to hate the Smiths? Okay, there are probably people that are going to dispute that, but you get my point.

My friends and I think that Morrissey is, plain and simple, into Mexican boys

Oh, and two of the biggest fellow Morrissey fans at my highshool were not Mormons, but Jehovah Witnesses.

t r a c y, that was a world-wide thing. The Smiths/Morrissey and flowers are like PB & J. (One of those, "If you have to ask, you wouldn't understand") situations..

Ugh, why won't he spend some of his money (GBP 8 million according to the August 1999 issue of Q) and self release an album? He's too proud, maybe.
posted by ArcAm at 2:46 PM on March 18, 2003

Well, the flowers were all from his cultivated self-image. In particular when he first appeared on Top of the Pops with Gladioli out hi back pocket, circa 1983 (This Charming Man) was probably the start. Along with hearing aids and NHS specs, cardigans and that quiff, all fashion items designed to make sure you stay celibate.

My question is, does anyone get the kitchen sink drama references these days?

As someone who can definitely say that the Smiths screwed up my life i would hate to think that any other generation is going through it.

"i was looking for a job and I found a job....."
posted by lerrup at 3:11 PM on March 18, 2003

*ahem* um, i'll dispute that. I love Depeche Mode and New Order, but Morrissey, like bestiality, has left me kind of cold. It's not for want of trying, mind you...

(BTW: If you're ever in Budapest, you have to check this out.)
posted by kaibutsu at 3:45 PM on March 18, 2003

"...Morrissey, like bestiality, has left me kind of cold..."

Do tell.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:07 PM on March 18, 2003

I buy the mexican boys theory.

Part of me loves Morrissey. Is It Really So Strange is still one of the most ridiculously sublime things ever recorded: I got confused - I killed a horse / I can't help the way I feel.

Then again, the other part of me really understands where jonmc et.al. are coming from. All you Morrissey-haters out there might want to track down a copy of Morrissey Rides A Cock Horse by the infamous Warlock Pinchers. It expresses the anti-Morrissey position nicely.

I have always had a conflicted relationship with Moz. Now I'm considering that it might be because I'm a bisexual, lapsed Mormon.
posted by varmint at 4:12 PM on March 18, 2003

MeFi &heart; Morrissey

Not me.

Me neither

actually check out this stuff, from an old Morrissey interview with The Face:

What would you find in Room 101, the room in Orwell's 1984 where Winston Smith is confronted by his worst fear?
Could anything be more horrifying than garlic and onions? I have this pathetic phobia about them, everything, especially the smell frightens me to death.

In Room 101 I'd find Morrissey, and a big stack of Smiths cd's, and a boombox. Of course there would be no garlic around to fend him -- and his fucking music -- off
posted by matteo at 5:07 PM on March 18, 2003

The more people who love Morrissey, the better this world will be.

true.

why do hispanics like morrissey ?

they identify with the catholic guilt , end of story.
posted by sgt.serenity at 6:19 PM on March 18, 2003

What's wankier than a cover band? A tribute band.

And what's wankier than a tribute band? A Morrissey tribute band!
posted by RakDaddy at 7:02 PM on March 18, 2003

right people, we clearly have a division of opinion here between the morrissey fans on one side and the unwashed philistine scum of the earth steal a dying grannies pension book barbarian hordes from the foulest, churniest, blackest bowels of hell on the other..but let's not get too heated about it, ok ?
posted by sgt.serenity at 7:14 PM on March 18, 2003

"churniest". That's the best word EVER.
posted by padraigin at 10:33 PM on March 18, 2003

Ooh! I was raised Jehovah's Witness. Could THAT have something to do with it?
Anyway, I think color matters when discussing the Mozzer 'cause of supposed stereotypes about "what X does" and straight six foot 2 inch, 280 pound black men aren't supposed to listen to music by fey, skinny white guys. Ha! I also like Mark Eitzel...
De Gustibus Non Est Dispudantum, I guess.
posted by black8 at 12:16 AM on March 19, 2003

I was never really exposed to Morrissey until college and I instantly knew that in a perfect world this man would be dead. I was unfortunately subjected to a roommate whose two main hobbies were 1.) listening to morrissey and 2.) moping.

Every morning I rise and thank God that I was fortunate enough to have some Pavement cd's on hand to counter-balance the musical jackassery that went on within that tiny room. If not for for a few carefully chosen cd's this barbarism would have gone unchecked.

Luckily for me, my self-hating, sexually confused, only-seconds-from-self-mutilating roomate moped himself right out of college mid-year. This roomate-free semester afforded me the freedom to kill every last brain cell that had even the slightest inkling of the Smith's or Morrissey. I'm a happier man for it.
posted by ttrendel at 12:44 AM on March 19, 2003

Men who don't like The Smiths (I'll leave Morrissey's solo career out of it apart from Viva Hate) are repressed homosexual thugs. FACT.
posted by Summer at 3:18 AM on March 19, 2003

What about his dabbling with right wing imagery and 'Bangladeshi in platforms'?

I used to love the smiths - as a solo artist and a reborn myth, I think he is vastly overated fat bloke who wants to be a northern poet.
posted by dprs75 at 6:09 AM on March 19, 2003

Bengali in platforms? A much-misunderstood song about the alienation immigrants feel despite their best efforts to fit in. "It's hard enough when you belong here".
posted by Summer at 6:13 AM on March 19, 2003

yay summer ! hear ! hear !
- never trust a man/woman/animal/vegetable/mineral who doesnt like morrissey !
did i say like? i meant adore.
posted by sgt.serenity at 7:39 AM on March 19, 2003

the context is:

Oh, shelve your Western plans
And understand
That life is hard enough when you belong here

explain than one away suedehead
posted by dprs75 at 7:47 AM on March 19, 2003