JC Penney was playing Morrissey the other night - Every Day is Like Sunday - and I want it on record that I don't approve of my youth becoming the new cool vintage for kids to appropriate much the same way I appropriated peace signs and other trappings of the '60s to be cool when I was a teenager...
There is a bigger thing going on, though. Morrissey isn't just some musician - he is a voice of disillusionment, of angst, of despair - of trying so hard and finding you still do not belong. He is not the voice of insatiable retail hunger. He is not the voice of the suburban American dream. He is not the voice of a hamburger and a Coke, or of a McFlurry, for that matter. Next they will play Bengali in Platforms, all about how no matter what you buy, your otherness and desperation to fit in will ultimately sink you. And they won't see the disconnect - they will just think they're pushing tall shoes.
The Smiths - Stop me if you think you've heard this one before
The Smiths - Stop me if you think you've heard this one before
