It was utter fucking pandemonium.

August 22, 2016 2:04 PM

On June 14th, 1991, Morrissey appeared on The Tonight Show to perform "Sing Your Life," and "There's a Place in Hell for Me and My Friends," as part of his Kill Uncle tour. This is the story of how Morrissey (and his fans) upstaged and perplexed Johnny Carson and now-disgraced celebrity guest Bill Cosby. 25 Years Ago, Morrissey Ruined Bill Cosby’s Appearance on ‘The Tonight Show’

The article is much less centered on the alleged rapist and much more on Morrissey's relationship with his devoted fanbase and the hysteria that accompanied the Kill Uncle tour.

The Dallas date of the tour, one of its craziest, would have to be cut short before the second encore when the intensity of the 11,000 in attendance escalated to near-riot levels. Midway through “Everyday Is Like Sunday,” Morrissey was overtaken by a sea of bodies being launched from every direction. They stomped onto and off of the stage, which was almost entirely green from trampled flowers. Although he generally encouraged the participation, when dozens rushed towards him, grabbing at his limbs and hair, kissing his neck, and tearing off his shirt, it became overwhelming. He escaped through the side curtain to safety, leaving his bewildered band to finish the song without him. Fans remained in the venue for as long as they were allowed, chanting their hero’s name for a return that never came.

Not taking any chances after that, Morrissey’s management outright canceled his show the following night in Austin, feeling the venue’s security detail—37 members and 20 more on call—was insufficient, despite being double what they had hired for a recent Slayer concert.

posted by Existential Dread (43 comments total)

"capping off the prime of his career"

Is that how the kids talk these days?
posted by humboldt32 at 2:15 PM on August 22, 2016 [2 favorites]

tl;dr; Every person involved in this incident acted like a self-absorbed asshole.

Kind of amazing that we don't see this kind of [unscripted] meltdown more often in the entertainment world.
posted by schmod at 2:21 PM on August 22, 2016 [4 favorites]

How was Moz acting like a self-absorbed asshole?
posted by Cosine at 2:26 PM on August 22, 2016 [1 favorite]

Cosine: If Moz were any more of a self-absorbed asshole, he'd have collapsed upon himself long ago.

I'm no fan of Morrissey, but this was a fascinating read. And if he had to upstage anyone, at least it was someone as deserving as Cosby.
posted by SansPoint at 2:30 PM on August 22, 2016 [6 favorites]

What people don't remember, because social change and Morrissey's increasingly awful behavior have obscured it, is that the Smiths (and early Morrissey solo releases) were one of the very few public representations of queerness available, especially for teenagers.

People mobbed Morrissey because they were closeted (or friends of closeted people, or gender non-conforming in some way, or just weirdos in a much more socially conservative US) because Morrissey represented something. He was about as out as one could be at the time (which meant a lot of hints and this-and-that about being asexual back when being asexual was often code for queer) and he dressed in a way that seemed very glamorously arty and he was from England - which was where all the good music came from, or so at least everyone felt. England, home of the National Health Service, punk rock, proto rave, goths, unspecified glamorous London things - you have to understand that both Morrissey and England occupied a particular place in the imagination of the young weird and/or queer person. Also, Morrissey was always talking about books, which came as a huge relief in the Dumb America of my youth.

People don't remember this because we're not nearly as homophobic a society now and because Morrissey has turned out to be, whoops, not just a weird queer who's satisfyingly bitter about an awful and homophobic society but an asshole and a racist.
posted by Frowner at 2:37 PM on August 22, 2016 [69 favorites]

I wonder if that was why Cosby was so peevish on his last appearance with Fallon. I just chalked it up to aging comedians seeming to lose their sense of humor over time.
posted by bleep at 2:37 PM on August 22, 2016

Nice job, Morrissey fans from 25 years ago. Making me sympathise with Bill fucking Cosby.
posted by Atom Eyes at 2:37 PM on August 22, 2016 [2 favorites]

Oh, I realize that he is one, I was asking about this time specifically.
posted by Cosine at 2:37 PM on August 22, 2016 [4 favorites]

I mean, that tour specifically was such a big deal that I read about it in the Chicago Tribune as a young teen, and there were several photos of young obviously queer Smiths fans which I remember to this day. People were hysterical over him for a reason, and people really need to get that. Don't just apply today's standards to the past or assume that because it's relatively easy for many people to come out and/or be visibly queer that things were the same in 1991.
posted by Frowner at 2:39 PM on August 22, 2016 [8 favorites]

The Dallas show (which I attended!) was made into a concert film. Which always had me wondering whether the ending was at least somewhat staged.

also, I ended up with a scrap of M's gold shirt, but I don't remember how I got it. I was not in riot-adjacent seats.
posted by activitystory at 3:16 PM on August 22, 2016 [4 favorites]

People mobbed Morrissey because they were closeted (or friends of closeted people, or gender non-conforming in some way, or just weirdos in a much more socially conservative US) because Morrissey represented something.

There was also - to straight girls as well as queers of every kind - a manageable unthreatening sexuality to Morrissey that if you were too old or cool for boy bands was very difficult to get from your record store idols at that time. Everyone else was dressed like bondage pirates raiding a makeup counter armed with stilettos and cocaine and singing about doing it in no uncertain terms...and Morrissey was the shy boy reading Sartre alone at lunch but you couldn't help but notice his hair was perfect every day. Morrissey provoked a Beatles-like full-on meltdown fervor for the exact same reason the Beatles did: all the other options were terrifying.

And I think a lot of that fervor at that Dallas show (and many other mid-market shows) came from the fact that for a lot of kids Morrissey was when they first realized they could get out. Like, that the world was much much bigger than Tyler or Arlington or Shreveport and in a couple of years you could go be with your own people somewhere else.

It really was a different context then. The world was a lot smaller and you didn't know for sure that your own kind was out there anywhere else.
posted by Lyn Never at 3:19 PM on August 22, 2016 [32 favorites]

I remember my friend playing The Smith's for me in the basement of his house. He showed me the album and I said "Who the fuck names their band 'The Smiths'? That's absurd".

"Just listen" he said.

Within six months I had a suede jacket with fringe, a pair of black and white cowhide doc martins and danced by flying around in small circles. For just a brief moment in time I was a little cool.

It's not my place to judge or forgive him but I would buy him a pint for 1985-87.
posted by srboisvert at 3:44 PM on August 22, 2016 [36 favorites]

It really was a different context then. The world was a lot smaller and you didn't know for sure that your own kind was out there anywhere else.

Yup. In small towns where you and your friends were the high school weirdos, you gravitated to Morrissey because he was weird too and made it seem smart and intellectual to be as weird as you were. I went to only one Morrissey show in high school with two of my male friends (one of whom was closeted at the time) and for them, it was as damn near as going to church. You felt safe and accepted and surrounded by other oddballs.

I too lament that he turned out to be a prat in his old age. It makes me so mad.
posted by Kitteh at 4:14 PM on August 22, 2016 [5 favorites]

To be scrupuously fair, he was a racist prat then too. Bengali in Platforms was written in 1987.
posted by misfish at 4:34 PM on August 22, 2016 [1 favorite]

It was not until years later that I realized how problematic that song was. Yeesh.
posted by Kitteh at 4:40 PM on August 22, 2016

I can't explain it - I should have been the perfect target audience for Morrisey. Every other band that was at all similar? I loved them. The Smiths? Other than "How Soon Is Now," I couldn't stand them. In the 80's, his lyrics sounded to me like a parody of Joy Division - or like something that Rik of the Youn Ones would write. On my Cure-Depeche Mode-Danielle Dax-Bronski Bet-Siouxsie-New Order mix-tapes there would never be a Smith song.

About 15 years ago, something clicked and I suddenly "got" The Smiths - perhaps it was because I'd become very interested in Johnny Marr, perhaps it was was just that my opinion of Morrisey's lyrics shifted when I actually read them (they seem much more intelligent on paper to me somehow) or perhaps I just decided his vocal affectations were more charming than grating. I don't know, but I can't get enough of his work with The Smiths now.

My mental jury is still out on his solo work, but I'm coming around.
posted by Joey Michaels at 4:42 PM on August 22, 2016 [2 favorites]

I spent most of my teen years in my hometown of Manchester and saw the Smiths several times. This was when that fucker James Anderton was chief constable and was busy having his thugs raid gay bars and radical bookshops. When Saint Jim said this:

“Everywhere I go I see evidence of people swirling around in the cesspool of their own making. Why do homosexuals freely engage in sodomy and other obnoxious sexual practices knowing the dangers involved?”

It was just standard stuff for the north of England at the time.
I was and am Bi and it was a seriously scarey place to live.
The Smiths were a revelation. We all knew that the talk of asexuality was a screen, a way of dealing with an environment that was as toxic to us as an atmosphere of cyanide. Add to that the extraordinary music and many of us felt we had a group of superheros on our side.
And then Morrissey pissed it all away.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 4:49 PM on August 22, 2016 [8 favorites]

For the sake of the young folks who watched the video, someone should clue them in as to what that mostly white, thin, rectangular box with some artwork was that Johnny held up. As an "old," I would, but I can't remember what they were called other than useless material that, for a while, inundated landfills all over the US.
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 4:50 PM on August 22, 2016

On my Cure-Depeche Mode-Danielle Dax-Bronski Bet-Siouxsie-New Order mix-tapes there would never be a Smith song.

Same here, but I definitely kinda-understood my Smiths-listening friends' motivation more than the metal or country or mall-pop kids. It was very much "not for me but it's clearly important to you" at an age when I didn't do that about many things. I also got the click about 20 years after the fact, though by then I knew it'd be better not to pursue it at all.

mostly white, thin, rectangular box with some artwork was

Longbox.
posted by Lyn Never at 4:55 PM on August 22, 2016 [3 favorites]

Thank you, Lyn Never.
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 5:00 PM on August 22, 2016

As a nerdy white poet-minded unrealized-bisexual somewhat-self-righteous girl in SoCal in 1991 there was something (everything!) about Sing Your Life that made it a perfect anthem. I had the album on cassette; too poor to have CDs then.

(I totally came to The Smiths backwards, somewhat to the dismay of my sweetie, who is only a few years older than me, but was a 100% New Waver in the late 80s in a semi-rural town. Eventually I would come to the realization that How Soon Is Now is one of my personal ideas of a perfect song.)
posted by epersonae at 5:20 PM on August 22, 2016 [2 favorites]

It was much easier to hear the Smiths' actual albums than that first Morrissey solo album, at least around here. I remember when I heard it and "Bengali In Platforms" came on and I was just confused, because it sounded really....racist? But surely Morrissey wouldn't be racist against someone who was positioned in the song as an outsider? That didn't make sense. Like, for years I would try to figure out that song because I figured it had some meaning that I was just too dumb to grasp. It wasn't until he started showing up on stage with a Union Jack (or at least, until the news of that made its way to pre-internet Frowner) that I realized it wasn't me.

It was absolutely, 100% not what the Smiths/Morrissey represented to suburban US teens in the late 80s/early 90s. I'm not saying that white people of my general type were awesome racial justice activists or even awesome never-say-dumb-shit-or-make-dumb-assumptions types about race, but consciously-understood racism and hostility to immigrants were part of the whole ignorant-suburban-America thing that the music represented an escape from. It would not have occurred to us that Morrissey could be racist because no one who wasn't from dumbshit awful Reagan/Bush American could possibly buy into that stuff, right?
posted by Frowner at 5:20 PM on August 22, 2016 [6 favorites]

And also F*** YEAH KROQ: "Much of Morrissey’s popularity in the area could be attributed to heavy rotation from the area’s influential radio station, KROQ, one of the few outlets to lend support."
posted by epersonae at 5:22 PM on August 22, 2016 [4 favorites]

From yesterday's Guardian:

Manchester Arena
Sporting a blood-soaked bandage and mourning recent celebrity deaths, the singer delivers an emotional set – then issues an enigmatic farewell
posted by ActingTheGoat at 5:36 PM on August 22, 2016

Everyone else was dressed like bondage pirates raiding a makeup counter armed with stilettos and cocaine and singing about doing it in no uncertain terms

You make bands like Poison and Motley Crue sound so much more fun than they really were.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 5:46 PM on August 22, 2016 [13 favorites]

You make bands like Poison and Motley Crue sound so much more fun than they really were.

They were more fun than Morrissey, but then again so's a root canal.
posted by jonmc at 6:13 PM on August 22, 2016 [4 favorites]

Yeah, put me down for also having conflicted feelings about Morrissey. He really is a huge asshole, and while the militant veganism is just tiring, the racism is seriously not on.

At the same time, the Smiths were one of the last mainstream bands I was into before fully submerging myself in the punk scene of the late-'80s/early-'90s (which, ironically, became mainstream soon after), and "How Soon Is Now" is still one of the best songs about being lost, but finding yourself at the same time.

Even his solo stuff- "Everyday Is Like Sunday" still speaks to me on a very primal level, and "Suedehead" is quite possibly a perfect song. Even though I never saw it at the time,* when you look at the Smiths' performance of Still Ill in the context of what else was happening in 1984, both in terms of the mainstream and alternative scenes, it was completely unlike anything else that was going. You can start to understand why people connected with him so strongly. Does that mitigate his present terribleness? I'm not sure.

And now, apparently, he is the idol of young Latinx people from the west coast. It's a funny old world.


*"Even Though I Never Saw It At The Time" is my entry into this year's Fake Smiths Song Title contest.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:14 PM on August 22, 2016 [4 favorites]

Everyone else was dressed like bondage pirates raiding a makeup counter armed with stilettos and cocaine and ...

Up until stilettos I thought you meant Adam Ant
posted by zippy at 6:19 PM on August 22, 2016 [17 favorites]

My friend Steve back in the day used to say, "Did you know Robert Smith of the Cure and Robert Cure of The Smiths are the same person?"

It took me DECADES to realize there was no Robert Cure in The Smiths.
posted by xingcat at 6:21 PM on August 22, 2016 [26 favorites]

I'll give Morrissey this... we have him to thank for this amazing Sparks song.

And "How Soon Is Now?" is actually a good song, but something something stopped clock. And really, I give all the credit to Marr for that guitar part.
posted by SansPoint at 6:27 PM on August 22, 2016 [5 favorites]

And now, apparently, he is the idol of young Latinx people from the west coast. It's a funny old world.

Actually, one of my fellow Olds, who is Latino and from LA, was a big ol' Smiths fan back in the day and used to dress like Morrissey. The first Smiths fan I ever actually met, for that matter, was one of the two Black students in my year. I guess this might be one of those things where being two nations separated by a common language helps the Americans out a bit.

When you come right down to it, actually, I still dress substantially like high-and-palmy-days Morrissey with maybe a bit of Postcard Records thrown in.

Back when I wore girl clothes, one of the very, very best days of my life was when I found a pair of black and white striped tights in my size in a suburban shopping mall. How I treasured those things! They were probably my favorite piece of clothing, except maybe for the Docs that I ordered from the back of Spin magazine back when all the Docs were made in the UK.
posted by Frowner at 6:29 PM on August 22, 2016 [5 favorites]

Semiotics aside the Smiths were a musical revelation (along with REM, Wedding Present, U2, a few others) who invented what used to be called college rock and never since has had any kind of non-stupid name but is extremely emotionally effective and catchy. Like Dylan, he manages to pack a ton of meaning into so few dang notes.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:55 PM on August 22, 2016 [1 favorite]

I was nuts about The Smiths and Moz back in the day when I still wore eyeliner, when it was still possible to mistake his literary pretensions for the real thing. For me, the allure was always that idea of blurring the literary with rock songwriting, and when you're a kid, it's pretty easy to believe there's some serious literary depth to his work--I mean, he namechecks Keats, Yeats, and Wilde, uses big words like "flatulent," etc. Man was it a let down to realize his lyrics were so utterly juvenile and that he was such a hateful jerk later in adulthood. For the money, Frankly, Mr. Shankly still cracks me up. Hard to get past all the vaguely fascist themes and barely bridled misogyny in his stuff though.
posted by saulgoodman at 7:12 PM on August 22, 2016 [1 favorite]

Long after Johnny Carson was gone, Stephen Colbert got revenge.

Now that I'm middle age and firmly in a specific marketing demographic, I notice a lot of eighties alternative music playing at places like Whole Foods. The high school weirdo inside me still feels a pang of joy when "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" comes on. Damnit Moz, you were not supposed to be a prick.
posted by Eikonaut at 8:07 PM on August 22, 2016 [2 favorites]

my big sister turned me onto the smiths when i was in junior high. morrisey was aight but johnny marr played guitar like a fucking angel
posted by murphy slaw at 8:07 PM on August 22, 2016 [1 favorite]

(I was actually thinking of Adam Ant, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Dead or Alive, and the Bogey's catalogue kind of all at once. My puberty was deeply confusing.)
posted by Lyn Never at 9:43 PM on August 22, 2016 [2 favorites]

God I loved Morrissey when I was a depressed teenager and I love to revisit that every now and then. He is kind of a boring shit when you grow up though.

But I have to say I have always HATED Carson. He never, ever seemed funny to me at all. I have never been able to see his draw, his allure. He has always just seemed like an old dudebro who somehow got a show cuz his five friends on the network wanted it. Like, "John can't get a job, but he's funny sometimes, like when he makes that face, huh, huh, so uh, no one watches after the news right? Put him on then. He gets a job and he is still our friend. High fives!" And then it fucking turns into this thing of boring white guys saying shit. And on it goes.
posted by Belle O'Cosity at 11:40 PM on August 22, 2016 [2 favorites]

As I was listening to some old Smiths, I was thinking: fellow mefites, if you were a big Smiths fan but feel either that you've outgrown some of the lyrics or that Morrissey has not held up well as a human, might I suggest Orange Juice, especially You Can't Hide Your Love Forever? It sure doesn't have any queer content and is campy-funny rather than campy-dramatic but it scratches some of the same itch musically, has the earliest use of the term "hipster" that I can recall and, although it has some stupidity about romance and girls, basically isn't misogynist as far as I can tell from listening to it at work with low sound.

Also, I cannot help but be charmed by Edwyn Collins, who seems like a decent guy. He had a stroke (from which he has recovered) quite young which left him able only to say "Grace Maxwell" (his wife's name) and "the possibilities are endless". While he was recovering he drew birds, getting better and better as he recovered his coordination. I actually shelled out some money for a handkerchief made of specialty fabric with the bird drawings on it - Put This On made them. I have it in a frame, though.
posted by Frowner at 7:56 AM on August 23, 2016 [4 favorites]

Morrissey is scheduled to headline Riot Fest this year and I have tickets. So I figure I have about a 15% chance of seeing him live!
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:21 AM on August 23, 2016

Interesting to read what the Smiths meant to different people. I was and remain a big fan of the Smiths but haven't paid any attention to Morrissey a couple of years into his solo career. I was not at all surprised when the Smiths broke up. In terms of monetary success his solo career has been better than the Smiths but I still believe he made a huge mistake with firing manager after manager and having Johnny Marr manage the band as well as compose the music and run into the wall that was Morrissey not bothering to promote the Smiths by appearing in videos (which at the time were fairly important I gather) and generally being difficult about touring. No wonder Marr quit. Right after the break up Morrissey was all over promoting through videos.

Without Marr I don't think Morrissey would have had a chance in music. Without Morrissey, Marr would have still been in music but would not have the distinction of The Smiths. They made a great and unique team for a variety of reasons but as is often the case, personality and ego worked to destroy it.

I've seen Marr several times in concert but would never bother seeing Morrissey. His bands butcher Smiths songs and there's to much of a cult of Morrissey atmosphere and he refuses to tour in Canada anyway. No loss that to me, though if you're a Canadian fan I imagne it would be dissappointing.
posted by juiceCake at 8:24 AM on August 23, 2016

Stephen Colbert got revenge: I would have actually roflol'd if Johnny Marr had come out.
posted by epersonae at 12:44 PM on August 23, 2016

I came to the party quite late, and all I can definitively say about Morrissey is that I still find "Vauxhall and I" thoroughly listenable.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 1:54 PM on August 23, 2016 [1 favorite]

Belle O'Cosity: "But I have to say I have always HATED Carson. He never, ever seemed funny to me at all. I have never been able to see his draw, his allure. He has always just seemed like an old dudebro who somehow got a show cuz his five friends on the network wanted it."

It's okay if you don't like Carson, but I don't think you are the biggest guy on late night TV for 30 years running just by knowing a couple guys at the network.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:42 PM on August 24, 2016 [2 favorites]