I've Come to Wish You an Unhappy (Belated) Birthday!

What kind of Morrissey fan am I?!  I completely and utterly forgot that Saturday was the Mozzer's 51st birthday! It wasn't until my friend Jimmy comes up  to me on Saturday during Goobie's birthday party, "hey aren't you going to play some Morrissey or The Smiths today"? and I said "are you crazy? I don't want the guests or the kids to get depressed during the party!", he laughed and said, 'well I just thought that being that it is Morrissey's birthday today,  and that you're a die hard fan, you'd be playing at least some of the cheerier Smiths songs', and then it hit me! I thought, oh crap! I forgot his birthday! How dare I? so I ran to my iPod, and went through my Smiths and Morrissey playlists, and played the happiest songs I could find! 

My guilt was assuaged for a bit, but it came back to haunt me...it wasn't fair that I gave everyone else but Moz a birthday tribute post! The nerve of me! So...although I am four days late on wishing The Charming Man  an unhappy birthday, here is my birthday post in honor of my all time favorite songwriter, lyricist, and crooner, whose morose, yet witty lyrics never fail to make me chuckle, smile, and yes, sometimes brings me to tears.  Oh Moz, how I love thee! I hope you had the unhappiest of birthdays ;)

Stephen Patrick Morrissey

May 22, 1959
"Age shouldn't affect you. It's just like the size of your shoes - they don't determine how you live your life! You're either marvelous or you're boring, regardless of your age."-Morrissey

Steven Patrick Morrissey was born on May 22, 1959, in Manchester, England. Son of Peter, a night security guard, and Elizabeth, a librarian, Morrissey recalls his childhood as being morbid.  His parents divorced when he was 17. Morrissey spent his days reading, writing pages of poetry, and listening to music.  During an interview with Spin Magazine in the 90s, he said "The power of the written word really stung me, and I was also entirely immersed in popular music [Actor James Dean and nineteenth-century Irish wit Oscar Wilde] were the only two companions I had as a distraught teenager. Every line that Wilde ever wrote affected me so enormously. And James Dean's lifestyle was always terribly important. It was almost as if I knew these people quite intimately and they provided quite a refuge from everyday slovenly life," he revealed to Rolling Stone 's Henke. Morrissey also found refuge in the feminist writings of Susan Brownmiller and Molly Haskell, as well as the "terribly gloomy" and "terribly embittered" British novelist Charles Dickens. Where music was concerned, Morrissey lost himself in mid-1960s British pop hits and later, the androgynous glitter rock of the New York Dolls and David Bowie. 

Morrissey left school at 17. Jobs as civil-service clerk, hospital porter, and record-store salesman did not interest him past the first paycheck. It was guitarist Johnny Marr's 1982 invitation to join a band that finally got him out of the house. Within months, the Smiths burst onto the British music scene.

The Smiths released six studio albums  from 1983 to 1987 and found critical acclaim in both their native England and the US. They never broke into the mainstream in the US, though they became college radio legends, mainly due to Morrissey's intelligent but often controversial themes. The band broke up in 1987 over a conflict of musical interest between Morrissey and Marr. Morrissey found solo success after The Smiths, achieving a far greater status in the US than The Smiths ever had. Since the 90s he's released sixteen albums which include B Sides.   The wide popularity Morrissey holds until this day, is a testament that he will forever remain a powerful music icon for those who hold him dear to their hearts.