"Morrissey & Marr", The Smiths' obsessions & miseries

Morrissey & Marr: the Severed Alliance- Johnny Rogan

It's my fault. I read almost everything that is related with music. I have all sort of lists of "best books about music", and when I see over one of them, I always end grabbing the book. "The Severed Alliance" was labelled as one of the most insightful and powerful music books ever written. Add the (as usual) vitriolic comments from Morrissey towards Johnny Rogan, and my perennial love/hate story with The Smiths, and the conclusion was obvious: it was about time I was going to get my hands over the book.

Someone should had warned me. First, because this book ends in 1992. More than 20 years have passed now since Rogan's work was published, so it now looks like a very concrete but also very incomplete account of the lives of Morrissey and Johnny Marr. Yes, The Smiths period is related with careful, extreme detail. But the fundamental pillars of the band were this two pop icons, who have had, better said are having, long careers after the seminal band called a day. Simply said, this book need and updated version (I believe there's one?). And second, and even more important, because "The Severed Alliance" is a book for obsessive Smiths fans, done by someone who is, no doubt about it, obsessed with The Smiths. Unfortunately, that's not my case, particularly not about Morrissey, a rockstar whom I have very mixed feelings, as an artist and person.

There's no better example than the first half of the book to prove my point. The Spanish version of this book has more than 330 pages. But the first 150 are wasted on the most detailed account on the childhood, teenage years and adulthood of Morrissey, with a little bit of Marr too. The research done by Rogan is impressive, but what's the point of it? Do we need to know what the yet-to-be singer and composer dreamt, thought or wore when he was 16? It is necessary to resume the history of Ireland's independence and political turmoils in such detail just to have a historical background? The answer is no. And I hate to say this, but what I will recommend you is to mostly skip this first part. It can only bore you (almost to death). If not, congratulations, you are the quintessential Morrissey's fan.

It all turns much better once The Smiths story arise. Then all the detail, opinions gathered and author's point of view converge, providing a seriously complete picture of the beginnings, evolution, triumphs, miseries and death of the band. There's also space and time to analyse every song, and Morrissey's lyrics. A clinical dissection of the band. As much as I criticised the previous part, the rest of the book make me eager to go back checking the band's albums, which in my opinion is one of the best compliments you can say of a book on a music group. And all this praise comes from someone who has never been a fan of The Smiths, and has never been affected for their myth.

And yes, as I expected, Morrissey is scary. A really scary character.  

SCORE: 5,75/10

"Killing Yourself To Live", Myth America?

Killing Yourself To Live: 85% of a True Story- Chuck Klosterman

Misleading advertising on a book again. After enjoying "Fargo Rock City", a work where auto-biography and music are blended with pleasant results (yet also some concerns) it was a matter of time I was going to read another Klosterman's. "Killing Yourself To Live" seemed the ideal choice, being built around the premise of Spin's magazine feature on death rock icons. A road trip through "Myth America" by a passionate music commentator looked great. But that's not what the book exactly offers.

Unfortunately, America's most famous rock and roll death places, from where the plane with Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens and Buddy Holly crashed to where Kurt Cobain's shot himself, is a mere excuse to talk, primarily, about something else.

That something else is, of course, Chuck Klosterman. "Killing Yourself..." is in reality a not very subtle dose of the writer's obsessions, in particular his troubled relationships and the confusion provoked by them. This might sound like Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity", this time on a car through the States, but believe me, it doesn't have the British's book charms. And no, I won't say this can be compared to gonzo journalism either, even if there's some booze and drug situation involved. No way.

Don't get me wrong, the book is very enjoyable and, thanks to his recognisable prose and what he is talking about, meaningful to many. But Klosterman has a serious issue with digression. "Fargo Rock City" suffered from that. But this one has several parts where its practically ruined because of that. The reader will quickly have the feeling there's no focus.
 
And damn it (sorry) but Klosterman can really be engaging when he talks about music. The best parts on "Killing Yourself..." to me are about Radiohead's Kid A (spectacular), the Chelsea Hotel or the brave (and so true) comment on Nirvana's end and the creation of Kurt Cobain's myth. But he shifts, better said hides, these sorts of opinions in between an overwhelming amount of pages that go back and forth through his three most significant relationships by then.... and the music becomes just the background of the book, sadly.

Why the death of a rock star is the "smartest" move any musician can do? Why do they matter that much to us? I'm afraid we didn't know. Klosterman wasn't that interested in his own premise.

SCORE: 5,75/10

"Everyone Loves You When You're Dead", inside celebrities' mind

Everyone Loves You When You're Dead:  Journeys into Fame and Madness- Neil Strauss

Can you imagine? Having the chance of interviewing every major star of the music industry, among many other celebrities. Writing articles/critics/reviews on music and being read by milions and respected by thousands. I would love to have Neil Strauss' job. I would kill for it. That was my thought... until I read this book.

"Everyone Loves You..." is a collection of snippets from Strauss' most significant interviews (up to 228), to an impressive amount of music superstars from all times, other icons of popular culture and some other people, in one way or another related with them. This book might be then, although heavily deconstructed (again, this are just parts of interviews) one of the most amazing works of modern journalism. It is.

But even despite the numbers of surreal conversations, unbeliavable situations, unexpected adventures or grotesque, absurd moments Strauss' witnessees or takes part on it justifies the reading,  as it is amusing and immensely entertaining book, that wouldn't do complete justice to "Everyone Loves You...". This work offers a lot more.

Strauss' work is even more significant as an outstanding, gigantic task, on deconstructing the minds of celebrities. In his interviews, the author is not behaving just as a journalist, but more like a psychologist. And what he shows is basically, that fame and happiness are not synonymous. At all. As a matter of fact, the majority of celebrities on the book are suffering the consequences of their fame. Some (many) are "spoiled brats", pretentious and, quite frankly, unbearable. A few are directly stupid (look among the younger stars, wannabe celebrities or gangstas). Some built themselves an "Ivory Tower" from where nobody can disturb them (sometimes seems to work). But many are heavily traumatised people, with huge inner conflicts derived from a difficult past, familiar troubles, drugs, alcohol, etc. In a vast amount of these situations, fame didn't help a bit to deal with their issues. With the few exceptions of musicians that were capable to deal with their demons and now are looking fine, I would say the regular trend is the contrary: troubled person + fame= utter chaos. Among this "madness parade", the few "sane" celebrities interviewed on the book, happy people at control of their life, are wonderful and interesting counterpoints. Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, Springsteen, Bono, Sacha Baron Cohen or Jay Leno were among this "category".

Several interviews were just amazing (hilarious, compelling, moving, deep, shocking...). The level of intimacy that Strauss' achieves with his counterpart, or just the genuine interest of the conversation will blow your mind. The ones with Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails, Dave Pirner from Soul Asylum (desperate loneliness of the two), Marilyn Manson, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, John Hartford, the aforementioned Baron Cohen, Slipknot, Curtis Mayfield, Herny Grimes. I could go on and on... If I had to make a little complaint, is that there were too many hip-hop/artists (the gangstas) and a couple of weird coverages, the one about the wax figures in particular, that could have been dropped from the compilation, so the reading would have been even more vivid with less pages. But I do understand why are they included and that this is just my opinion.

In the other hand, there's the end of the book. I'm still mesmerized by the story of Paul Nelson (looking for his biography right away). That and the epilogue summarizes the brilliance of this book. Must-read, for music lovers, celebrity lovers, celebrities and wannabes. For anyone.

SCORE: 8,75/10