*sigh*

*sigh*

*sigh*

This is my reaction to pretty much any Smiths song that comes up on my iPod. Multiple sighs of joy. I wish I understand why I have such a deep and visceral reaction to the Smiths, but it is beyond me. Part of it might be the odd mancrush I have on Steven Patrick Morrissey, some of it might be the delightful conflict that exists in the Smiths between Morrissey’s lyrics and Johnny Marr’s guitars, and some of it might just be totally irrational. Seriously, though, the Smiths brilliance, I think at least, stems from the fact that Marr wrote wonderfully happy pop songs to which Morrissey promptly wrote the most melodramatic and melancholy lyrics he could. “There is a Light that Never Goes Out” is a perfect example – here is a beautiful, lilting guitar melody and Morrissey beautifully crooning:

“and if a double decker bus crashes into us/to die by your side/is such a heavenly way to die/and if a ten-tonne truck kills the both of us/to die by your side/well, the pleasure, the privilege is mine”.

Just pause for a moment and let that sink in. Try to read the lyrics without the sing-song melody that accompanies it and then remember “this is from a pop song.” A pop song about getting killed by a giant truck and how great it would be as long as, you know, you’re along for the ride. Brilliant! If this isn’t genius that should be accompanied by some sort of Nobel Prize, then I really, honestly don’t know what is. UNESCO recently called for nominations for World Heritage sites, and I, for one, am going to write in asking that the Smiths be preserved for future generations to listen in wonder to the paradoxical beauty that are Morrissey and Marr.