With another May 22nd upon us, so another year passes by in Morrissey’s melancholy life. Now 56 years old, the ever-pained Mancunian will never truly age for his fans–stalled somewhere in the phase of his youth where he was writing music reviews for Melody Maker and just starting out his career in The Smiths.
As detailed in his instant Penguin classic, Autobiography, Morrissey’s sole solace during his early life was a steady diet of David Bowie and The New York Dolls. He has also stated that he is “still his teenage self” and no one “ever truly becomes an adult.” That being said, Morrissey has essentially made it impossible to see himself as an aging man, but rather, an eternally morose entity.
With no signs of ceasing the lifelong themes of loneliness, isolation and existentialism explored in his music (World Peace Is None Of Your Business being the latest record to prove that point), Morrissey remains a beacon of hope for the hopeless–a bright light by way of his darkness. His age will never change that.