CrystalGeezer
My secret's my enzyme.
Yawnfest: Morrissey's Cover of Human Being a Tribute to Tarot's Visconti-Sforza's Lesser Arcana
"The Tarot is undoubtedly the most ancient pack of cards and set of world symbols working." writes The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols. When Morrissey puts pen to paper he is a direct link to the same symbols the tarot makers designed, except he's wraps it up in the package of prose. The circumstances of his life and the disconnect he feels to something or someone "real" is very much linked to this burden of being a potent symbolic muse. A tarot deck contains 22 cards in it's Major Arcana and 56 cards in it's Minor Arcana. Without going into exhaustive detail, the minor Arcana has four suits: cups, coins, batons and swords. Used primarily for divination, the Minor Arcana is closely linked to the Major in symbolism, but the Major represents "the movie" while the Minor can be likened to the "outtakes and extras" on your DVD.
I maintain that Morrissey's catalog represents for the most part a verbal representation in various phases of "occult initiation" to the Major Arcana, while his cover songs reflect that of the Minor Arcana.
Human Being, a cover of a New York Dolls song, is a classic choice reflecting the mood of Morrissey's ever-present situation of being a man, with needs, who lives among those living and who doesn't fit in. For those unfamiliar with the lyrics:
Uno due tre
Well if you don't like it
Go ahead, find yourself a saint
Go ahead now,
Try to find a boy
Who's gonna be all the things I ain't
What you need is
A plastic doll with a fresh coat of paint
Who's gonna sit through the madness
And always act so quaint
Oh yeah yeah yeah
With your new friends
You're really making a scene
I've seen you bouncing around
From machine to machine
And you know
They're never real
They're never what they seem
And you can try to generate some warmth
And you'll see just what I mean
Oh yeah yeah yeah
And if I'm acting like a king
Well, that's 'cause
I'm a human being
I want too many things
And that's 'cause I'm a human being
And if I've got to dream
I said well I'm a human being
And if it gets to be obscene, yeah
I'm a human being
And I just go around
With my head hung down
Just like a human being
And all those human beings
I can hold my head so high
Just like a human, I'm a riff raff human being
Won't you give me a little sip
Why don't you try me on a drag of that cigarette
Why don't you try to give me something that
I'll never ever forget
But now don't you blow it all
On a million dollar bet
Because you're liable to lose it
On the best lovin' you've had yet
Oh yeah yeah yeah
And if I'm acting like a king
Well that's 'cause
I'm a human being
And if I want too many things
That's 'cause I'm a human being
And if I've got to dream
I said well I'm a human being
And if it gets to be obscene, yeah
I'm a human being
And I just go around
With my head hung down
Just like a human being
And all those human beings
I can hold my head so high
Just like a human, I'm a riff raff human being
In fact I'm talking about the human race
Trying to cover up the big disgrace
Yeah yeah yeah
Yeah, yeah, oh yeah
Well I may think that this whole scene is
Too appalling for me
Or I may be the type who is just a-mad about
Everything that I see
But I can't cover this with history
Or make it just what I want it to be
I'm blowing my change on the fan magazines
With all the Hollywood refugees
Said yeah yeah, oh yeah
And If I'm acting like a king
That's 'cause
I'm a human being
And if I want too many things
That's 'cause I'm a human being
And if I've got to dream
I said well,
I'm a human being
And if it gets to be obscene, yeah
I'm a human being
What instantly struck me as interesting was that in Morrissey's cover, compared to The Dolls, he counts off the song in Italian. It immediately led me in thought to the beautiful and oldest known tarot deck, the Visconti-Sforza set, (which like the hermetic androgyne I always refer to Morrissey as half of, exists in complete with the exception of four cards, but the deck is separated among different private collections. It should be reunited.) Though there is significant debate on who or how many artists painted the deck, it is generally attribute to being the work of Bonifacio Bembo, painted as a wedding present for Francesco, the first Sforza duke of Milan. Returning to the topic of the song, Morrissey declares that if he is acting like a King, well it's because he is a human being. The following are the King card for each of the four suits of the minor Arcana:
What struck me as peculiar is the gentle and soft nature of this King, who in the first three suits demurely crosses his legs while on his throne, as though concealing a greater truth. Reflecting the line in Morrissey's Pretty Girls Make Graves, "I'm not the man you think I am" comes to mind as we study his soft features and curly hair. The anomaly of this group of cards considered as a whole is the stance of the King of Swords. (Sound familiar?) Michael Dummett in his book The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards writes of this particular card,
The King of Swords, with legs wide open, might allude to (also imagery from Morrissey's pretty girls) the sun that shine from his behind, or being in the employ of Venice, her behind which is colloquially her fanny.
straightface: Just go with it.) The fact she holds a sword is because she doesn't have her own. Which might explain why, returning to Human Being, it might get obscene. So without going into to much more detail I maintain that Morrissey's cover of Human Being reflects the female aspect of his androgyneness by drawing us to this beautiful and elusive uber-feminine King of Swords. Go back and read the lyrics now and it makes sense. (I feel like I should go into more detail of the lyrics and how this choice of a cover song ties into PGMG like the King of Swords ties into the Empress of the Major Arcana, but I gotta drive somewhere before it starts raining.) 
"The Tarot is undoubtedly the most ancient pack of cards and set of world symbols working." writes The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols. When Morrissey puts pen to paper he is a direct link to the same symbols the tarot makers designed, except he's wraps it up in the package of prose. The circumstances of his life and the disconnect he feels to something or someone "real" is very much linked to this burden of being a potent symbolic muse. A tarot deck contains 22 cards in it's Major Arcana and 56 cards in it's Minor Arcana. Without going into exhaustive detail, the minor Arcana has four suits: cups, coins, batons and swords. Used primarily for divination, the Minor Arcana is closely linked to the Major in symbolism, but the Major represents "the movie" while the Minor can be likened to the "outtakes and extras" on your DVD.
I maintain that Morrissey's catalog represents for the most part a verbal representation in various phases of "occult initiation" to the Major Arcana, while his cover songs reflect that of the Minor Arcana. Human Being, a cover of a New York Dolls song, is a classic choice reflecting the mood of Morrissey's ever-present situation of being a man, with needs, who lives among those living and who doesn't fit in. For those unfamiliar with the lyrics:
Uno due tre
Well if you don't like it
Go ahead, find yourself a saint
Go ahead now,
Try to find a boy
Who's gonna be all the things I ain't
What you need is
A plastic doll with a fresh coat of paint
Who's gonna sit through the madness
And always act so quaint
Oh yeah yeah yeah
With your new friends
You're really making a scene
I've seen you bouncing around
From machine to machine
And you know
They're never real
They're never what they seem
And you can try to generate some warmth
And you'll see just what I mean
Oh yeah yeah yeah
And if I'm acting like a king
Well, that's 'cause
I'm a human being
I want too many things
And that's 'cause I'm a human being
And if I've got to dream
I said well I'm a human being
And if it gets to be obscene, yeah
I'm a human being
And I just go around
With my head hung down
Just like a human being
And all those human beings
I can hold my head so high
Just like a human, I'm a riff raff human being
Won't you give me a little sip
Why don't you try me on a drag of that cigarette
Why don't you try to give me something that
I'll never ever forget
But now don't you blow it all
On a million dollar bet
Because you're liable to lose it
On the best lovin' you've had yet
Oh yeah yeah yeah
And if I'm acting like a king
Well that's 'cause
I'm a human being
And if I want too many things
That's 'cause I'm a human being
And if I've got to dream
I said well I'm a human being
And if it gets to be obscene, yeah
I'm a human being
And I just go around
With my head hung down
Just like a human being
And all those human beings
I can hold my head so high
Just like a human, I'm a riff raff human being
In fact I'm talking about the human race
Trying to cover up the big disgrace
Yeah yeah yeah
Yeah, yeah, oh yeah
Well I may think that this whole scene is
Too appalling for me
Or I may be the type who is just a-mad about
Everything that I see
But I can't cover this with history
Or make it just what I want it to be
I'm blowing my change on the fan magazines
With all the Hollywood refugees
Said yeah yeah, oh yeah
And If I'm acting like a king
That's 'cause
I'm a human being
And if I want too many things
That's 'cause I'm a human being
And if I've got to dream
I said well,
I'm a human being
And if it gets to be obscene, yeah
I'm a human being
What instantly struck me as interesting was that in Morrissey's cover, compared to The Dolls, he counts off the song in Italian. It immediately led me in thought to the beautiful and oldest known tarot deck, the Visconti-Sforza set, (which like the hermetic androgyne I always refer to Morrissey as half of, exists in complete with the exception of four cards, but the deck is separated among different private collections. It should be reunited.) Though there is significant debate on who or how many artists painted the deck, it is generally attribute to being the work of Bonifacio Bembo, painted as a wedding present for Francesco, the first Sforza duke of Milan. Returning to the topic of the song, Morrissey declares that if he is acting like a King, well it's because he is a human being. The following are the King card for each of the four suits of the minor Arcana:
What struck me as peculiar is the gentle and soft nature of this King, who in the first three suits demurely crosses his legs while on his throne, as though concealing a greater truth. Reflecting the line in Morrissey's Pretty Girls Make Graves, "I'm not the man you think I am" comes to mind as we study his soft features and curly hair. The anomaly of this group of cards considered as a whole is the stance of the King of Swords. (Sound familiar?) Michael Dummett in his book The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards writes of this particular card,
The King of Swords, with legs wide open, might allude to (also imagery from Morrissey's pretty girls) the sun that shine from his behind, or being in the employ of Venice, her behind which is colloquially her fanny.
straightface: Just go with it.) The fact she holds a sword is because she doesn't have her own. Which might explain why, returning to Human Being, it might get obscene. So without going into to much more detail I maintain that Morrissey's cover of Human Being reflects the female aspect of his androgyneness by drawing us to this beautiful and elusive uber-feminine King of Swords. Go back and read the lyrics now and it makes sense. (I feel like I should go into more detail of the lyrics and how this choice of a cover song ties into PGMG like the King of Swords ties into the Empress of the Major Arcana, but I gotta drive somewhere before it starts raining.)
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