The Smiths Radio
The Smiths Radio
Discussing the Queerness of The Smiths
The home for Songs That Saved Your Life Radio on WKNY 107.9FM where Jami explores the very queer roots of rock n roll and plays a lot of great music!
Listen to the episode below:
Morrissey personified queer longing in a way that resonated with everyone and gave even the most masculine men permission to feel vulnerable.
Morrissey's lyrics about unrequited love and his own insecurities were intentionally written to be universal. “It was very important for me to try and write for everybody,” he said in a 1986 interview with Rolling Stone. “I find when people and things are entirely revealed in an obvious way, it freezes the imagination of the observer."
Even though the lyrics did appeal universally, it was also quite obvious that so many of Morrissey's songs were written about queer love. He didn't come out as "huma-sexual" until 2013 but his lyrics hinted at his queerness long before then with songs like "This Charming Man," "Handsome Devil" "Last of the Famous International Playboys" and probably the queerest song of all of them, "Picadilly Palare." We'll talk about all of those songs in tonight's episode.
He sang queer pain, but it was that same agony that all young wannabe lovers feel. Anyone who saw themselves as an outsider – the reclusive, the bookish, the awkward — they were all represented by the music of The Smiths.
Music in tonight's episode includes songs by New Order, Electronic, T. Rex, David Bowie, New York Dolls, The Stone Roses, and Suede.
Here’s a peek behind the radio voice. Of course I had to rock my Smiths tee in honor of the episode.
For a deeper dive, I’ve written about Morrissey’s queer influence twice. After all, this publication is named after a Smith’s lyric…..
