Although I recently posted about seeing Morrissey shopping in our own store, mu
sic-wise I have to admit I am completely late to the Morrissey game. It's a bit scary to admit this amongst the musically literate crowd I hang within, but what the hell.
It seems like I am just a little too young to have caught on to The Smiths, his earlier band, or to have heard any more of him than the single "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get" on the radio in 1994. In high school, when kids a few years older than me were clinging to their Morrissey CDs with dour faces, I was still bopping to The Beatles. I guess I wasn't ready for it yet. Fast forward to just a couple of years ago, and Morrissey suddenly had a new surge in popularity among the hipster crowd. At that point, I had well heard of The Moz, as he is known in certain circles, but this new over- the- top hipster cred popularity he had gained turned me off and I still never got around to listening to his music.
Finally, this last week I have picked up a Morrissey
CD-- Your Arsenal (1992)-- and listened. One very strong sign of a great CD is when it's still very new to you but you can't get the songs out of your head and they seem to be following you around constantly -- when you lay your head on the pillow at night, when you are out grocery shopping, or waiting on the train. This happened to me with Your Arsenal almost immediately. One other thing that is exciting about Morrissey is how funny his music is! I love that about him! What took me so long to embrace his music? One of the songs on Your Arsenal that is a favorite is entitled "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful". Another fave is "You're the One For Me, Fatty". His sense of humor is so dry I'm never quite sure if he's serious or not, but the fact that he's British cues me in to the fact that he's probably just being silly -- I believe we call that "tongue in cheek". And how refreshing is that? -- silly, sad songs of yearning and intelligence. I do see why all those dour high school kids saw Morrissey as the second coming. I know everyone else figured this out over a decade ago, maybe even longer, but I am just a little bit slow here! It's all kind of new to me. Still, I am glad I have waited until it felt right to me to listen. I think I'm going to end up listening a bunch more. Maybe I will finally catch up to the rest of you!
sic-wise I have to admit I am completely late to the Morrissey game. It's a bit scary to admit this amongst the musically literate crowd I hang within, but what the hell. It seems like I am just a little too young to have caught on to The Smiths, his earlier band, or to have heard any more of him than the single "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get" on the radio in 1994. In high school, when kids a few years older than me were clinging to their Morrissey CDs with dour faces, I was still bopping to The Beatles. I guess I wasn't ready for it yet. Fast forward to just a couple of years ago, and Morrissey suddenly had a new surge in popularity among the hipster crowd. At that point, I had well heard of The Moz, as he is known in certain circles, but this new over- the- top hipster cred popularity he had gained turned me off and I still never got around to listening to his music.
Finally, this last week I have picked up a Morrissey
CD-- Your Arsenal (1992)-- and listened. One very strong sign of a great CD is when it's still very new to you but you can't get the songs out of your head and they seem to be following you around constantly -- when you lay your head on the pillow at night, when you are out grocery shopping, or waiting on the train. This happened to me with Your Arsenal almost immediately. One other thing that is exciting about Morrissey is how funny his music is! I love that about him! What took me so long to embrace his music? One of the songs on Your Arsenal that is a favorite is entitled "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful". Another fave is "You're the One For Me, Fatty". His sense of humor is so dry I'm never quite sure if he's serious or not, but the fact that he's British cues me in to the fact that he's probably just being silly -- I believe we call that "tongue in cheek". And how refreshing is that? -- silly, sad songs of yearning and intelligence. I do see why all those dour high school kids saw Morrissey as the second coming. I know everyone else figured this out over a decade ago, maybe even longer, but I am just a little bit slow here! It's all kind of new to me. Still, I am glad I have waited until it felt right to me to listen. I think I'm going to end up listening a bunch more. Maybe I will finally catch up to the rest of you!
I don't even really know how to describe the feeling one gets after seeing a 
balcony. There is really only room for about 16 people up in the side balcony. So we were counting on the 100 or so people in front of us rushing to the stage downstairs. I ran up the stairs only to find the 2 people in front of me grabbing the last 2 seats. But then I noticed 2 large security types sitting in one of the sections. I asked them if they were going to stay there and they told me they were just checking out the crowd and would be leaving in a couple minutes. There are some crazy fanatical Morrissey fans and I think they were just trying to figure out the crowd for the night. They were probably counting the flowers and gifts in the audience and trying to figure out who would be the ones to try and jump on stage. So we got our seats and were actually going to eat at the show. I usually hate those people that eat at shows but in order to get there so early we sort of had to. But the amazing thing was that the whole menu was all vegetarian! Amazing! We vegetarians often have to search menus for the one garden burger or salad. Or maybe we can get the nachos with no meat. But there were like 10 things on the menu and they were all vegetarian. I was trying to figure out if Morrissey had requested some of the items or not. I got some potato latkes and they were delicious. I was just so excited I had to take the menu home with me. We hurried to finish our food before the show started though. I really didn't want to be one of those people that eats during a show. Even if it was just the opener who we had already seen two times before this. 
One of the fun parts about working at Amoeba is the occasional celebrity sighting. I thought I should tell y'all that yesterday around 6ish we had an extra special shopper in the store: none
other than Morrissey! He's playing a bunch of shows at the Fillmore so it makes sense that he would pop into Amoeba for a tic with his manager in tow. 
