Dear God, Please Help Me

I always post up a Morrissey song every few days. He is a cradle Irish Catholic. When The Smiths rose to critical acclaim and to general stardom in the 1980s he distanced himself from the Church in the media, largely, I expect, because he felt like an outcast. The song 'Bigmouth Strikes Again' has the superb line, 'And now I know how Joan of Arc felt, now I know how Joan of Arc felt, as the flames rose to her Roman nose and her hearing aid started to melt.'

This sense of being an outsider has always permeated all of his material, which is why his following is pretty devotional and fanatical. He has always kept his sexuality to himself though he once claimed to have a supernatural grace of being beyond sexuality, almost transcending it. However, his solo material in recent years has revealed a reawakening of his Catholicism as suggested by his comment in an interview, "Those Catholics, they sear you, they do, sear you." He always maintained that whatever you want to know about Morrissey is in his songs, so there was really no need to discuss his private life. His music is an honest outpouring of his heart, from a man who has clearly suffered from a certain amount of rejection, difficulties in forming relationships and his struggles with his sexuality. This song, which is very beautiful, breathtakingly frank, honest and therefore, totally disarming.

I often dream of the singer and I wonder whether he has the spiritual gift of appearing to his fans and giving them some strange sense of consolation. He once came in my dream to listen to my band play. He became very frustrated that we were all sitting around chatting around a table and wanted to listen to our material, but I said, "Later, later, we're having a good time here." He ran off and I ran after him to say, "Morrissey, come back!" The other night he came to me and gave me a big hug, something which his fans seem to hanker after rather a lot. Amazing what the sub-conscious is capable of!

Its perfect Morrissey weather here in Brighton, by the way....it hasn't stopped pissing it down all day. Coastal town too, that they forgot to close down etc...