More like Is Morrissey Dog?
I always found something remarkably Egyptian about this cover. The squared-off stance. The looking directly into the camera. This is Anubis, God of Death. He's a funerary God, he oversees the embalming process. In a way, he's like the foreman in charge of insuring that the preserved body is preserved according to plan so that when the spirit of the dead returns to earth after cavorting in heaven, it can recognize it's mortal body and take residence in a new one by day allowing the spirit of the person to continue. The Egyptians believed that man was made up of six parts. Without going into tl;dr detail, I'll quote the interesting part:
"The
ba, the second element of the soul, is closely linked with the human heart; it leaves the body at the moment of death and is therefore represented as a bird with a human head. It could assume any form and wander about, but it always returns to it's appointed place, the tomb. The
ba was an innate part of the individual, which enabled him to transform himself, in life as in death. Through this "bird spirit" it enabled the deceased to return to the land of the living by day, on condition that the body agreed to return at night unscathed to it's resting place in the realm of the dead. A damaged body condemned the
ba to everlasting homelessness, and thus eradicated the person's personality forever."
So, holding the baby with the metamorphized butterfly on his forehead is similar to saying, "I oversee this process." It's like a misnomer that Anubis is the God of the Dead, because he's the God of Life in a way, soul regeneration. Morrissey's owning that by saying that he entertains his own ghosts by day. Perhaps. I think it's remarkably interesting how his sleeves are cuffed where Anubis' armbands rest, his quiff is like the shepherd's ears, the baby's cloth mimic's the feathers portion of his apron, Morrissey's watch act's like Anubis's wheel of life bracelet and Morrissey's jeweled tattoo depicts hearts if I recall, relating to the description of
ba and soulwork I quoted above. Anyway...