Paint a Vulgar Picture

This song really used to bother me. Largely because I never felt that I was really getting under the skin of the song. Many ideas would fill my head, although none of them seemed to fully reflect what the song was trying to tell me.

The problem was that I slipped into the extremely obvious trap of thinking that there was actually a dead star on the hands on the record company. That a star had died and that the record company was trying to milk it with various reissues and that Morrissey was reminiscing about when he once met them in their prime, even though he was turned away. However, as always, the obvious is not what is going on here.

The song is about a certain artist to whom Morrissey is particularly fond of, however, is distraught to find that after hitting hard times the artist has sold-out and gone against his musical beliefs in order to pursue a greater level of fame. This is what the “dead star,” the fact that this star is no longer profitable in his current situation, and the record company need to rectify that. However, they have a plan, “Re-issue! Re-package!” We are told of his need to “re-evaluate the songs,” i.e. make them more commercial. What is interesting is the line:

“You could have said no, if you wanted”

The reason for the interest this line is because later on in the song we hear how Morrissey “touched” him at the soundcheck, although the artist does not seem to realise it at the time. Morrissey seems to have had to chance to meet his idol and felt like he connected with him on some level. Morrissey also seems to have wanted to follow him on his pursuit of fame and glory, although he was shrugged off, and simply dismissed as another working class lad with ideas above his station.

Another interesting line in the song is

“You just haven’t earned it yet baby”

This is in reference to an earlier song by The Smiths, which is about artists wanting fame and success quick and easy, and not willing to put in the hard graft needed to reach the top. Although in the case of this song I interpret it to signal the distress of the inevitable downfall of this fickle success.

The final verse of the song has Morrissey “dancing down to his knees” and reminiscing in with his favourite music, feeling that no matter what this artist did in the latter part of his carrier the memories of his “true love” can never be parted, a even if they will “never meet again”.

This song points out many of the flaws in the commercial music business at the time, and ones that still ring true to this day. Much of what is pointed out seems to directly point towards Live Aid, which, when asked in an interview, Morrissey commented, “it is right to feel concern over the people of Ethiopia, but not it is not right to continually torture the British public.”

Many of the critics of both Live Aid and Live 8, of which I am one, felt that although some of the artists on the various bills around the world were doing it for a needy cause, most of them were only there in order to push their records up the charts. Ever notice how many of the “media whores” released back issues or best ofs after the concert? Or announced a World tour?). Morrissey seems to indicate the fact that most artists are willing to ‘sell out’ and let the record company push them in any direct they like in order to sell more CDs, even if that means ripping off their fans.

This song also contains some ironies, such as the vast amount of compilations that The Smiths have released (especially as Morrissey’s latest greatest hits collection contains new tracks and live versions of old tracks, surely in a motive to sell more records) also Morrissey’s struggle to get signed after leaving Mercury.

Album: Strangeways Here We Come

This Charming Man

The first issue to be dealt with in This Charming Man that springs to mind is who is the charming man? Is it the narrator of the song or that mysterious man in the car? However, that will be discussed later.

On first listening to this song, Marr's upbeat riff conjured up pleasant thoughts of a young man passing the time on the side of a Lancashire hill whilst his bicycle was broken, being saved by a charming man in his car. However, the song is a lot darker and more complex than that.

The song opens with the lines:

"A punctured bicycle, On a hillside desolate"

I believe that the man in the song is Morrissey himself. That there is no bicycle, nor is there a hill. The punctured bicycle is way that he feels, deflated, broken down. The hillside is his prospective on the world around him, a desolate downward slope that the UK is heading down.

Not only is there not a bicycle nor hill, but there is neither a car. The car in this song represents another way of life, and much more carefree way of life. The character in the song can escape from having to "pamper life's complexities" via smooth leather on the passengers seat, leather here representing luxury and comfortable living. Of course it is better to be in the passenger seat, as being the driver involves responsibility and knowing where you are going in life. A passenger just has to lay back and enjoy the ride, knowing that everything will be taken care of for them and they will arrive at his destination safe and sound.

Going back to my opening question, who is the charming man? I feel that it is indeed the former. The charming man is in fact the narrator in the song. When I think of what it means to be charming, I think of someone who is caring and understanding, someone who would preoccupy his or her time to the worries of those around him or her, and what can be done to make the world a better place. This fits in very well with the character we have in this story, although it seems unfortunate that he gives in for the simpler way of life, the way of not caring, much like most people do in life. One important word to plunder on here is the fact that it is "in this charming car" not his, implying that the car does not belong to the charming man. Maybe the car is someone else’s life. Therefore, maybe he has not simply given up. Maybe he has met someone; someone who will look after him, take care of him, so that he need not worry anymore about life. This would take account for the line "can nature make a man of me yet", as Morrissey may be asking if this could be the person that could finally make him a man and have sex with.

Many have said that this song is about homoeroticism, and I can understand where they are coming from (especially with the line "a man said..."), although I am not one who believes that Morrissey is in fact gay. In addition, once you assert that assumption that the charming man in this song is in fact the person on the hill and not the one who pulls up in the car, then there is nothing stopping that person from being female.

Of course it does matter not whether the person is male or female. What matters is that this song is about changing perspectives, becoming more relaxed and comfortable in your life. Life is extremely short and why waste your time worrying over this that you ultimately have no control over?

However, as always, things have take a dark turn in this story. It seems that not all is well for our charming man, it seems that this "jumped up pantry boy" has tried to rush things, taken the relationship too far too soon, as we are told that he has to "return the ring". The line "who never knew his place" seems to imply that there was an element of false hope, and that this was nothing more than just a quick fling (this subject has been dealt with in other Smiths songs such as William It Was Really Nothing and Last Night I Dreamt Somebody Loved Me, which will be discussed in a later blog entry). It seems that our charming man has misread the situation, and dived in with a proposition of marriage, only to be horrendously rejected by his beloved. Furthermore, "he knows so much about these things". So maybe that was the reason for why he was feeling deflated in the first place, a previous rejection. Although I imagine that his handsome good looks will ensure that there will be another romance around the corner soon.

However, these are only my personal thoughts on the song, and is far from a definitive interpretation on the song. You could listen to this song a hundred times and probably infer a hundred different things, such is a magic of the lyrics, and ones that I will continue to hum down the streets for many years to come.

Album: The Smiths (1984)

Highest Chart Position: #8 (after being rereleased by Warner Music in 1994)