Morrissey autobiography review johnny rogan

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Think of The Partridge Family – sunny and happy on a bus with David Cassidy, his mom and his cute siblings.

Then against all the odds our unlikely hero becomes a pop star himself, teaming up with a skilled guitar player named Johnny Marr to form The Smiths, one of the most influential bands of the 1980s. The Smiths, or The Partridges, divested of the word family, conjures more of a vision of one of those clans who fight amongst themselves while using any energy left over to terrorise their local area.

During the youthful, pre “success” phase of the book, Rogan paints a picture of a lad who enjoys making up clever book titles and chapter headings for novels that never happen. His only link with the music business, apart from going to concerts and listening to records, is the odd letter to a music magazine. Originally, the band considered the name Smiths’ Family.

Then against all the odds our unlikely hero becomes a pop star himself, teaming up with a skilled guitar player named Johnny Marr to form The Smiths, one of the most influential bands of the 1980s. Tom is now a sensitive Manchester lad named Steven Morrissey trying to survive life in a bleak secondary modern school in the 1970s.

The band this man went on to help create was also a contradiction. Clearly, Johnny Rogan is a fan of The Smiths’ music, but it’s hard to ignore all the bile and deceitfulness that permeated the making of it. Think of The Partridge Family – sunny and happy on a bus with David Cassidy, his mom and his cute siblings. The name implies so many things. A smith labours in a sweltering smithy, making horseshoes and ironwork.

He becomes in the words of a judge who later passed verdict on his business dealings, someone “devious, truculent, and unreliable when his own interests were at stake.” In this section of the book, I found myself sympathising with the fortunes of The Smiths’ humble drummer and bass player, who Morrissey and his partner constantly misinform about their professional and financial position.

Now we lose our hero. Rogan paints a picture of someone who seems better at the flash of insight rather than the long slog of consolidation.

Once he leaves school and joins forces with Johnny Marr, Morrissey comes up with his best title ever – The Smiths. The word family implies togetherness. The word family implies togetherness.

Now we lose our hero. Johnny Rogan does a great job of telling the story of how those paradoxes welded themselves into a band, which by some miracle survived long enough to make some famous music.