Young Morrissey sitting on a car

1969 Chevy Caprice.

 

[Anonymous]

Less Look Back In Anger, more Look Back In Anger to see where the drinks trolley has gotten to.

I can just picture it.

Anonymous comment about confused sexuality/ hot aunt entirely seconded. Oh boy. Poor lad.So confused, he had to sit on his hands.

Now: have we got a photograph of Morrissey sitting on a caT? Yes please!

 

[Anonymous]

If you thought about it for, say, five seconds, the limit of your attention span I accept, you might wonder just how, circa 1969, a self-styled downtrodden, put upon working class Irish family suffering under the evil jackboot of the English, could afford a holiday in the United States?

Most Mancunian working class families of that era might get as far as Blackpool or Llandudno. This was some time before the explosion in air travel in the 70s that saw Brits start to explore even southern Spain.

It would be as strange as, say, a poor Baltimore family in late sixties alleged penury jetting off to jolly old London for their hols. Perhaps Morrissey's family weren't quite as working class as he makes out.

The picture isn't from the late 60's.

 

[Playcat2000]

The picture isn't from the late 60's.

Your right, its from the 70's.

 

[Old Mathew]

Jeez, this conversation sounds a lot like the modern day "how can people claim they're poor if they own a color television" argument.

Morrissey never claimed to have grown up in abject poverty. He's bemoaned the lack of money he had in his late teens and early twenties before the Smiths. But all of his recollections about growing up in his household never paint a picture of, say, eating gruel. His parents were working class, but they had a stereo, bought records, etc.

It's well known that he spent a summer in Colorado visiting his Aunt Mary (who had emigrated there) in the early to mid 1970s. Most likely, this picture is from that summer. It also appears from other pictures there was likely at least one other trip.

But people seem confused by the gaggle of kids in the photo, and even by Aunt Mary. Flying your teen son to visit your sister for a summer in the United States would have been unusual in 1970s Manchester, but not beyond the realm of reason, if you were working class. It's not like he was staying in 4-star hotels. He flew to the United States, and stayed with his aunt.

Yes, there's a lyrical romanticization of his past ("Still Ill") and then there's the reality of a young man with two fully employed working class parents who could afford to ship him off to his Aunty for a summer in the States. That neither makes him rich nor fake. I don't understand the confusion. He grew up working class, not on the f***ing streets of Manchester. He's never claimed otherwise.

 

[Anonymous]

If you thought about it for, say, five seconds, the limit of your attention span I accept, you might wonder just how, circa 1969, a self-styled downtrodden, put upon working class Irish family suffering under the evil jackboot of the English, could afford a holiday in the United States?

Most Mancunian working class families of that era might get as far as Blackpool or Llandudno. This was some time before the explosion in air travel in the 70s that saw Brits start to explore even southern Spain.

It would be as strange as, say, a poor Baltimore family in late sixties alleged penury jetting off to jolly old London for their hols. Perhaps Morrissey's family weren't quite as working class as he makes out.

My Dad always told me that liars always get found out in the end, to be a good liar you have to have to have a very good memory. But having said that the book could now enter the charts at number one in the fiction category (That should keep him and that silly site tru2u happy for a few "Statements" )

All me life Johnny !


Benny-the-British-Butcher

 

[Anonymous]

“My childhood is streets upon streets upon streets upon streets. Streets to define you and streets to confine you, with no sign of motorway, freeway or highway, until we went on holiday to the United States. In 1969."

And your point is?

YAWN

 

[Anonymous]

jeez, this conversation sounds a lot like the modern day "how can people claim they're poor if they own a color television" argument.

Morrissey never claimed to have grown up in abject poverty. He's bemoaned the lack of money he had in his late teens and early twenties before the smiths. But all of his recollections about growing up in his household never paint a picture of, say, eating gruel. His parents were working class, but they had a stereo, bought records, etc.

It's well known that he spent a summer in colorado visiting his aunt mary (who had emigrated there) in the early to mid 1970s. Most likely, this picture is from that summer. It also appears from other pictures there was likely at least one other trip.

But people seem confused by the gaggle of kids in the photo, and even by aunt mary. Flying your teen son to visit your sister for a summer in the united states would have been unusual in 1970s manchester, but not beyond the realm of reason, if you were working class. It's not like he was staying in 4-star hotels. He flew to the united states, and stayed with his aunt.

Yes, there's a lyrical romanticization of his past ("still ill") and then there's the reality of a young man with two fully employed working class parents who could afford to ship him off to his aunty for a summer in the states. That neither makes him rich nor fake. I don't understand the confusion. He grew up working class, not on the f***ing streets of manchester. He's never claimed otherwise.

bravo!

 

[Anonymous]

Ah some rationale at last! Can't believe some of the comments on this post.

To start with, Morrrissey would have been around 10 years old in 1969. Even Moz couldn't have looked like that aged 10. Just check the book - he visited the States at least once every year from the age of 17.

"My mother had given me the money to travel to New York in 1976, where I stayed on Staten Island with Mary, who had left Manchester in 1969. Mary was now married with two children....." He was 17 on that trip, so it was probably then - the photo of the two of them looks as if they are outside the St Patrick's Catholic Cathedral in New York.

"By the continued grace of my mother, I manage three more trips to America before 1980 enters us all, but by now Mary has moved to the less-interesting Denver....."

So, his mother paid for the air fares, which would have been a big sacrifice for a single parent in 1976. Laker Skytrain started in 1977 so the later trips would have been much more affordable.

I'm sure that the house in Stretford where he spent his teenage years was a council house. Upper middle class families did not live in council houses in Stretford in the 1970s FFS!

 

[Girl-Afraid]

Lovely Morrissey

 

[realitybites]

Jeez, this conversation sounds a lot like the modern day "how can people claim they're poor if they own a color television" argument.

Morrissey never claimed to have grown up in abject poverty. He's bemoaned the lack of money he had in his late teens and early twenties before the Smiths. But all of his recollections about growing up in his household never paint a picture of, say, eating gruel. His parents were working class, but they had a stereo, bought records, etc.

It's well known that he spent a summer in Colorado visiting his Aunt Mary (who had emigrated there) in the early to mid 1970s. Most likely, this picture is from that summer. It also appears from other pictures there was likely at least one other trip.

But people seem confused by the gaggle of kids in the photo, and even by Aunt Mary. Flying your teen son to visit your sister for a summer in the United States would have been unusual in 1970s Manchester, but not beyond the realm of reason, if you were working class. It's not like he was staying in 4-star hotels. He flew to the United States, and stayed with his aunt.

Yes, there's a lyrical romanticization of his past ("Still Ill") and then there's the reality of a young man with two fully employed working class parents who could afford to ship him off to his Aunty for a summer in the States. That neither makes him rich nor fake. I don't understand the confusion. He grew up working class, not on the f***ing streets of Manchester. He's never claimed otherwise.

Great post.

 

[Hornyssey]

I'm not sure if that year is right but I do agree it's a first generation Caprice.

I'm pretty sure the picture is reversed because the engine size is above the turn marker and I believe it's a 327. Also, Morrissey is wearing his watch on his right wrist but in the other photo linked below it's on his left. Also, it looks like a T on the hood, which would be on the driver's side since it says CHEVROLET across the front of those. Not sure if the photo lab messed up the print.

Good eye. You know you're Caprices.

YES, YOU'RE RIGHT!

 

[Anonymous]

Looks serial killerish,

 

[Reggie-Kray]

Morrissey's family were far from 'upper middle-class', as has been suggested on this thread. As a kid I lived in Whalley Range just a mile or so down the other end of Kings Road at that time, I knew some of his relatives and I had family in the avenue just near Mozzer's house and around Stretford and that area wasn't even middle class, let alone upper middle-class, it was a council estate with working-class families housed there. Maybe his relatives in the US helped fund the trips out there? His parents were also both working. I had much wealthier relatives in Canada and South Africa who were also generous. These pictures are great to see too

 

[Old Mathew]

Ah some rationale at last! Can't believe some of the comments on this post.

To start with, Morrrissey would have been around 10 years old in 1969. Even Moz couldn't have looked like that aged 10. Just check the book - he visited the States at least once every year from the age of 17.

"My mother had given me the money to travel to New York in 1976, where I stayed on Staten Island with Mary, who had left Manchester in 1969. Mary was now married with two children....." He was 17 on that trip, so it was probably then - the photo of the two of them looks as if they are outside the St Patrick's Catholic Cathedral in New York.

"By the continued grace of my mother, I manage three more trips to America before 1980 enters us all, but by now Mary has moved to the less-interesting Denver....."

So, his mother paid for the air fares, which would have been a big sacrifice for a single parent in 1976. Laker Skytrain started in 1977 so the later trips would have been much more affordable.

I'm sure that the house in Stretford where he spent his teenage years was a council house. Upper middle class families did not live in council houses in Stretford in the 1970s FFS!

Thanks for filling in the details. They fit perfectly with everything Morrissey has ever said. After leaving school, he was directionless, depressed, focused on writing. His working class librarian mother (who introduced him to Oscar Wilde and clearly loved her son and wanted to expand his horizons) sees him lazing around the house with no direction and says, "I've got a few hundred pounds saved up, what do you think about going to visit your Aunt Mary for the summer?"

That's what good parents do -- they sacrifice their future (savings for retirement) for their kids (maybe if he goes to the US for a summer he'll be inspired to do something with his life).

To further make my point: I'm dating a single mother. There are times when she'll do something for her son that makes me think, how did she afford that? But good mothers will empty their savings account if it will bring their child happiness. That doesn't make them rich, and that's all that happened here.

We should all be very thankful that Moz had such a loving mother. Could he have ever written such insightful lyrics about his home if he had never gone away?

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for filling in the details. They fit perfectly with everything Morrissey has ever said. After leaving school, he was directionless, depressed, focused on writing. His working class librarian mother (who introduced him to Oscar Wilde and clearly loved her son and wanted to expand his horizons) sees him lazing around the house with no direction and says, "I've got a few hundred pounds saved up, what do you think about going to visit your Aunt Mary for the summer?"

That's what good parents do -- they sacrifice their future (savings for retirement) for their kids (maybe if he goes to the US for a summer he'll be inspired to do something with his life).

To further make my point: I'm dating a single mother. There are times when she'll do something for her son that makes me think, how did she afford that? But good mothers will empty their savings account if it will bring their child happiness. That doesn't make them rich, and that's all that happened here.

We should all be very thankful that Moz had such a loving mother. Could he have ever written such insightful lyrics about his home if he had never gone away?

The problem is that 30 years later people used their money to go to Morrissey concerts for something nice and to get them out of whatever and all they get is a f***ed up huma-homosexual with two f***ed up supports and a bunch of self obsessed mememe fans who crawl into this equally self obsessed washed up musician's arse, who have "both" had it equally well in the meantime and they literally shit on all those others, because, you know, they are fat housewifes or whores or middle aged whatevers. I remember too well the upset by those who had wasted so much money for nothing. They were silenced and shut up. Because, you know, Morrissey is the centre of his own ugly universe. Yes, I met some of them, a bunch of women from Liverpool for example who couldn't afford 200 GBP for a birthday concert ticket like his American fans were so easy to cash out, or myself who had travelled to those concerts for something totally different than I eventually got. So that's the story of his youth, but the legacy doesn't translate. Not to mention his constant "the past of not me" drivels at the time. Indeed, it wasn't, and he didn't deliver on it, so why is it now? Now he is this rich successful musicians with that f***ed up devoted fan base of arseholes. Anything else is misleading or better left where it belongs, in the past where he put it. Morrissey himself doesn't really know what it means to get by without any money. He left school and was immediatly on the dole, getting benefits. He doesn't know what it means to have to pay for health insurance from nothing or having to bridge times of unemployment with the money that he earned will he had temp jobs. Some poor Americans will have their eyes quite opened by Obamacare, because they'll be faced with a similar question: where is the money for this health insurance going to come from? Questions that Morrissey or anybody else on the island with their NHS never has had to ask themselves. Here there are an awful lot of people who don't draw benefits, because even though it is said to be a "social security right" it translates into something totally different once you enter the system. Morrissey mentioned it in one of his lyrics, a government scheme designed to kill your dreams, but that's something that he has long disassociated himself from. Nobody needs his "social commentary" based on fake past memory from a millionaire with that kind of fanbase that is only reactivated to sell a book or past records, because his actions have long spoken a different language, especially during the past years.

 

[Anonymous]

Moz has a big brain like me.

The ginger kid is so cute. I hope he's not the cousin who died at age 29 in Stockton, CA. :'(

I never noticed how big his head was until everyone else started pointing it out.

 

[Anonymous]

The problem is that 30 years later people used their money to go to Morrissey concerts for something nice and to get them out of whatever and all they get is a f***ed up huma-homosexual with two f***ed up supports and a bunch of self obsessed mememe fans who crawl into this equally self obsessed washed up musician's arse, who have "both" had it equally well in the meantime and they literally shit on all those others, because, you know, they are fat housewifes or whores or middle aged whatevers. I remember too well the upset by those who had wasted so much money for nothing. They were silenced and shut up. Because, you know, Morrissey is the centre of his own ugly universe. Yes, I met some of them, a bunch of women from Liverpool for example who couldn't afford 200 GBP for a birthday concert ticket like his American fans were so easy to cash out, or myself who had travelled to those concerts for something totally different than I eventually got. So that's the story of his youth, but the legacy doesn't translate. Not to mention his constant "the past of not me" drivels at the time. Indeed, it wasn't, and he didn't deliver on it, so why is it now? Now he is this rich successful musicians with that f***ed up devoted fan base of arseholes. Anything else is misleading or better left where it belongs, in the past where he put it. Morrissey himself doesn't really know what it means to get by without any money. He left school and was immediatly on the dole, getting benefits. He doesn't know what it means to have to pay for health insurance from nothing or having to bridge times of unemployment with the money that he earned will he had temp jobs. Some poor Americans will have their eyes quite opened by Obamacare, because they'll be faced with a similar question: where is the money for this health insurance going to come from? Questions that Morrissey or anybody else on the island with their NHS never has had to ask themselves. Here there are an awful lot of people who don't draw benefits, because even though it is said to be a "social security right" it translates into something totally different once you enter the system. Morrissey mentioned it in one of his lyrics, a government scheme designed to kill your dreams, but that's something that he has long disassociated himself from. Nobody needs his "social commentary" based on fake past memory from a millionaire with that kind of fanbase that is only reactivated to sell a book or past records, because his actions have long spoken a different language, especially during the past years.

You forgot to mention that Tosserrey went to the "Salford school of hard knocks"
He's become a fookin laughing stock these days and I wish him a Johnny Rogan car crash death


Benny-the-British-Butcher

 

[Anonymous]

James Maker also visited Aunt Mary in Denver. He could afford it because he had a job at a travel company where he had his own chair.

Ah some rationale at last! Can't believe some of the comments on this post.

To start with, Morrrissey would have been around 10 years old in 1969. Even Moz couldn't have looked like that aged 10. Just check the book - he visited the States at least once every year from the age of 17.

"My mother had given me the money to travel to New York in 1976, where I stayed on Staten Island with Mary, who had left Manchester in 1969. Mary was now married with two children....." He was 17 on that trip, so it was probably then - the photo of the two of them looks as if they are outside the St Patrick's Catholic Cathedral in New York.

"By the continued grace of my mother, I manage three more trips to America before 1980 enters us all, but by now Mary has moved to the less-interesting Denver....."

So, his mother paid for the air fares, which would have been a big sacrifice for a single parent in 1976. Laker Skytrain started in 1977 so the later trips would have been much more affordable.

I'm sure that the house in Stretford where he spent his teenage years was a council house. Upper middle class families did not live in council houses in Stretford in the 1970s FFS!

 

[Johnny Barleycorn]

Anyone would think I accused him of being Little Lord Fauntleroy, rather than mention how unusual it was to fly long haul to the States after packing your suitcase and checking you had your passport and tickets six times in a working class suburb of Manchester.

Whether it was 1969 or 1976 it was still very unusual. Perhaps he sat on Peter Ustinov's lap.

 

[Anonymous]

Huh?? What the **** has this to do with a photo of Morrissey in 1976?

The problem is that 30 years later people used their money to go to Morrissey concerts for something nice and to get them out of whatever and all they get is a f***ed up huma-homosexual with two f***ed up supports and a bunch of self obsessed mememe fans who crawl into this equally self obsessed washed up musician's arse, who have "both" had it equally well in the meantime and they literally shit on all those others, because, you know, they are fat housewifes or whores or middle aged whatevers. I remember too well the upset by those who had wasted so much money for nothing. They were silenced and shut up. Because, you know, Morrissey is the centre of his own ugly universe. Yes, I met some of them, a bunch of women from Liverpool for example who couldn't afford 200 GBP for a birthday concert ticket like his American fans were so easy to cash out, or myself who had travelled to those concerts for something totally different than I eventually got. So that's the story of his youth, but the legacy doesn't translate. Not to mention his constant "the past of not me" drivels at the time. Indeed, it wasn't, and he didn't deliver on it, so why is it now? Now he is this rich successful musicians with that f***ed up devoted fan base of arseholes. Anything else is misleading or better left where it belongs, in the past where he put it. Morrissey himself doesn't really know what it means to get by without any money. He left school and was immediatly on the dole, getting benefits. He doesn't know what it means to have to pay for health insurance from nothing or having to bridge times of unemployment with the money that he earned will he had temp jobs. Some poor Americans will have their eyes quite opened by Obamacare, because they'll be faced with a similar question: where is the money for this health insurance going to come from? Questions that Morrissey or anybody else on the island with their NHS never has had to ask themselves. Here there are an awful lot of people who don't draw benefits, because even though it is said to be a "social security right" it translates into something totally different once you enter the system. Morrissey mentioned it in one of his lyrics, a government scheme designed to kill your dreams, but that's something that he has long disassociated himself from. Nobody needs his "social commentary" based on fake past memory from a millionaire with that kind of fanbase that is only reactivated to sell a book or past records, because his actions have long spoken a different language, especially during the past years.