MORRISSEY – NOVEMBER SPAWNED A MONSTER 7″ – Nr MINT/EXC+ THE SMITHS

Morrissey – November Spawned A Monster
(His Master’s Voice Records  1990  POP1623)

Vinyl in Nr MINT/Excellent+ condition
(there are some surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality apart from some light pops/crackles – side 1 is Nr MINT but side 2 is a little cracklier and only Excellent+)

Sleeve in Nr MINT/Excellent+ condition
– some slight wear to edges and small mark near spine

Steven Patrick Morrissey (born 22 May 1959), professionally known as Morrissey, is an English singer, songwriter and author. He rose to prominence as the lead singer of the indie rock band The Smiths, which was active from 1982 to 1987. Since then, Morrissey has had a solo career, making the top ten of the UK Singles Chart on ten occasions.

Born in Davyhulme, Lancashire, to a working-class Irish migrant family, Morrissey grew up in Manchester. As a child he developed a love of literature, kitchen sink realism and popular music. Involved in Manchester’s punk rock scene during the late 1970s, he fronted the Nosebleeds, with little success. Beginning a career in music journalism, he authored a number of books on music and film in the early 1980s. With Johnny Marr he established The Smiths in 1982, soon attracting national recognition for their self-titled debut album. As the band’s frontman, Morrissey attracted attention both for his witty and sardonic lyrics and his idiosyncratic appearance; deliberately avoiding rock machismo, he cultivated the aesthetic of a social outsider who eschewed drugs and embraced celibacy. He was also noted for his unusual baritone vocal style (though he sometimes uses falsetto). The Smiths released five further albums – including the critically acclaimed Meat is Murder and The Queen is Dead – and had a string of hit singles. Personal differences between Morrissey and Marr resulted in The Smiths’ separation in 1987.

In 1988, Morrissey launched his solo career with the album Viva Hate. This and its follow-up albums – Bona Drag, Kill Uncle, Your Arsenal, and Vauxhall and I – all did well in the UK Albums Chart and spawned a number of hit singles. Having left Britain and moved to Los Angeles, during the mid-1990s Morrissey’s image began to shift into that of a burlier figure, who toyed with patriotic imagery and working-class masculinity. In the mid-to-late 1990s, his subsequent albums, Southpaw Grammar and Maladjusted, also charted but were less well received. After a hiatus between 1998 and 2003, Morrissey released a successful comeback album, You Are the Quarry, in 2004. Relocating to Italy, ensuing years saw the release of albums Ringleader of the Tormentors, Years of Refusal, and World Peace Is None of Your Business. In 2013 Morrissey released his autobiography, followed by his first novel in 2015.

Highly influential, Morrissey is widely credited as being a seminal figure in the emergence of indie rock and Britpop. He has been acclaimed as one of the greatest lyricists in British history, and his lyrics have become the subject of academic study. He has courted controversy with his forthright opinions – endorsing vegetarianism and animal rights, condemning royalty and prominent politicians, and questioning issues of British national and cultural identity. In a 2006 poll held by the BBC’s Culture Show, Morrissey was voted the second greatest living British cultural icon, behind David Attenborough.

“November Spawned a Monster” is a song by Morrissey. It was released as a single in 1990. It was written by Morrissey and Clive Langer. It also features one of Morrissey’s former colleagues from The Smiths, Andy Rourke. In reaching number 12 in the British chart it was a marked improvement over Morrissey’s previous single, “Ouija Board, Ouija Board”, but still failed to chart as high as the singer’s first four releases. The track is one of Morrissey’s personal favourites, and has been played live many times by the singer. It along with its b-side “He Knows I’d Love to See Him” appears on the compilation album Bona Drag.

The song tackles the plight of the disabled, an unusual subject matter for a pop single. As ever with Morrissey the tone and sentiments are riddled with ambiguity. His use of words such as ‘monster’ and ‘twisted’ creates a strange mix of revulsion, sympathy and black comedy, all used to enlighten, and disturb, the audience. By forcing the ambivalent persona of tormentor and saviour, Morrissey forces the listener to confront their own prejudices head on.” The song is quoting Les Chants de Maldoror (Chant 2, verse 7), in which a hermaphrodite perceives himself as a monster and dreams of love.

In November 2014 Alex Broun’s play November Spawned a Monster, inspired by Morrissey’s song, premiered at The Old Fitzroy, in Sydney, Australia, directed by Robert Chuter (director) and starring James Wright.