Morrissey is Telling Us Something

Morrissey has a new album coming out Feb. 17, appropriately titled "Years of Refusal". This will definitely be a top album of 2009 for Linguistics Lounge, just because Morrissey is nothing if not consistent. In honor of this living genius, I've decided to dedicate an extra-lengthy post to the Mozzer today.

In sociolinguistics, when we look at discourse, one thing we can analyze is the narrative, or the story of a sequence of events. I like to extend the idea of discourse analysis to include imagined conversations-that is, rather than actual conversations with two parties present face-to-face, musicians are having conversations with their audience when they write their lyrics.

For the past 25 years, Morrissey has been having an imagined conversation with us. Here now, is Morrissey, narrating to us. I've translated where appropriate.

When we begin, Morrissey is a young lad, about to go out but fretting about his lack of suitable attire, because he really wants to impress us.

However, Morrissey is eventually convinced to go out to the club, and try to have a good time. Things don't go so well.

Clearly, Morrissey is frustrated by his lack of ability to pick us up at the club. He goes home, he cries, and he wants to die. However, he remains undeterred, and continues on his quest for love, resuming the life of a swinging bachelor.

Despite causing pain to others and himself, Morrissey is young and alive, so he's really in to going out.

Things seem to be getting happier for Morrissey. After a fun night at the club, he goes home and hopes something will develop between us.

Although Morrissey thinks we're pretty great, he needs to persuade us to be attracted to him.

Morrissey knows we don't love him back, but hopes that via enough convincing, he can change our mind.

However, in the end, we reject him. He sinks into a deep despair.

Yet, just when we believe that things have reached their blackest for our downtrodden narrator, he tells us that he will defiantly carry on, resigned to the fact that we don't love him but that he must go on living.

There we have it, a constructed narrative discourse that Morrissey has had with us for 25 years, from his first single with The Smiths to his latest single off of his new album. Here's to 25 more years as Morrissey's audience!