Artist.......: Morrissey
Album........: Berlin Live
Label........: n/a
Genre........: Rock
Catnr........: n/a
Source.......: DVBS
Rip.date.....: 2018-04-28
Str.date.....: 2017-10-11
Quality......: 237kbps/48.0kHz/Joint Stereo
Url..........: http://morrisseyofficial.com/
track title time
1. Berlin Live 58:41
Runtime 58:41
Size 99.73
Release Notes:
As the lead singer of the Smiths, arguably the most important indie band in
Britain during the '80s, Morrissey's theatrical crooning and literate, poetic
lyrics -- filled with romantic angst, social alienation, and cutting wit --
connected powerfully with a legion of similarly sensitive, disaffected youth.
These fans turned the Smiths into stars in Britain, exerting tremendous pull
over much of the country's guitar-based music for many years after their
breakup, and even if the group remained underground cult artists in the States,
they had a fan base that slowly, steadily grew larger over the years. Indeed, a
few years after the Smiths' breakup in 1987, Morrissey's American cult had grown
to the point where he became more popular in the U.S. than in his homeland,
where he nevertheless was never far from the music press headlines. After a
quiet period around the turn of the millennium, Morrissey launched a comeback in
2004 with You Are the Quarry, an album whose success proved that he remained one
of the most beloved figures in alternative rock.
Stephen Patrick Morrissey was born May 22, 1959, in Manchester, England; not
surprisingly a shy, awkward youth, he became obsessed with music and film as a
teenager and devoted his writing talents to penning a New York Dolls fanzine (he
was the president of their U.K. fan club), as well as a tribute to James Dean
and numerous opinionated letters to the weekly music paper Melody Maker. During
the explosion of punk in the late '70s, Morrissey unsuccessfully auditioned for
Slaughter & the Dogs and sang for a brief period with a band called the
Nosebleeds. He met guitarist Johnny Marr in 1982 and the two began writing songs
together, forging one of the most productive partnerships British pop had seen
in quite some time. The Smiths' 1983 debut single, "Hand in Glove," a love song
filled with oblique references to homosexuality, made them an underground
sensation in the U.K. and as Morrissey attracted more attention, he demonstrated
a flair for manipulating the media. His interviews were filled with blunt,
unpredictable opinions and intentionally outrageous statements and his notoriety
wasn't hurt by his stage presence (he performed wearing a hearing aid with
flowers sticking out of his back pockets) or his self-proclaimed celibacy in the
wake of much speculation about his sexuality.
Possessed of a darkly cynical bent as a lyricist, he was often misinterpreted as
advocating some of the more disturbing things he sang about, which only added to
the furor surrounding the band. The Smiths' eponymous 1984 debut was a smash in
the U.K. and in its wake, Morrissey began promoting his political views, heavily
criticizing Margaret Thatcher, and advocating vegetarianism (hence the title of
the follow-up LP, Meat Is Murder). The Queen Is Dead (1986) was acclaimed as a
masterpiece, but friction between Morrissey and Marr was growing. Marr departed
after 1987's Strangeways, Here We Come and Morrissey broke up the rest of the
band to begin a solo career.
Feeling betrayed by Marr's defection, Morrissey channeled his frustration into
creating new material with producer Stephen Street. His first two solo singles,
"Suedehead" and the gorgeous "Everyday Is Like Sunday," were significant British
hits in 1988 and his first album, Viva Hate (its title a reference to the
Smiths' breakup), was commercially and critically well received. He released
several more high-quality singles, including "The Last of the International
Playboys" and "Interesting Drug," but spent an inordinate amount of time
laboring on the follow-up album, issuing the stopgap compilation Bona Drag in
1990. In the meantime, the Madchester fad was sweeping British indie music and
when the lackluster Kill Uncle was finally released in 1991, it only magnified
the disappointment. U.K. reviewers took Morrissey to task, suggesting that the
record marked the end of his glory days and that he would never be able to match
the songs he'd written in tandem with Marr.
A misperceived flirtation with British nationalism (not helped by a couple of
seemingly racial caricatures in recent songs) tarnished his image even more in
the U.K. press during 1992, this coming amid even more frequent reports of feuds
with his managers, business associates, and ex-bandmates. All the controversy
overshadowed the fact that 1992's Mick Ronson-produced Your Arsenal was a
smashing return to form; Morrissey used his new guitar tandem of Alain Whyte
(who co-wrote much of the material) and Boz Boorer (formerly of rockabilly
revivalists the Polecats) to full advantage in crafting a crunchy, glammed-up
record. It easily ranked as the hardest-rocking of his career. Meanwhile, over
in the U.S., tickets for his upcoming tour were selling like hotcakes and he
managed to sell out L.A.'s Hollywood Bowl even faster than the Beatles had.
His confidence renewed by his American success (to the point where he
permanently moved to Los Angeles), Morrissey delivered an equally strong
follow-up in 1994's calmer Vauxhall and I, which even got him his first Top 50
singles chart entry in the U.S. with the MTV-supported "The More You Ignore Me,
the Closer I Get." A hit-and-miss compilation, The World of Morrissey, followed
in 1995, after which he switched labels (from Sire to RCA) for the first time
since the Smiths' debut album. Also issued in 1995 was the prog rock-informed
Southpaw Grammar, which confounded many and perhaps prevented him from expanding
his American audience past a now sizable group of longtime listeners. In 1996 he
moved to another new label, this time Island, and released Maladjusted the
following year. It failed to sell well outside of his most fanatical followers
and his relationship with Island ended in 1998.
In the years that followed, Morrissey remained a massively popular touring
attraction on the strength of his singular identity, despite the fact that he
had yet to land another record deal. Finally, he signed his Attack label to
Sanctuary, and released his first studio album in seven years, 2004's You Are
the Quarry featuring production by Jerry Finn (blink-182, Sum 41, and Green
Day). The album's leadoff single, "Irish Blood, English Heart," garnered
considerable press, radio, and music television attention, and established a
comeback of sorts. The concert recording Live at Earls Court followed one year
later, as did the DVD concert Who Put the "M" in Manchester?, which saw a brief
theatrical release.
His second full-length for Sanctuary, Ringleader of the Tormentors, was produced
by Tony Visconti (T. Rex, David Bowie) and released in spring 2006. Recorded in
Rome, the album also featured some orchestration by famed composer Ennio
Morricone. Around this time, Morrissey's longtime guitarist and writing partner
Alain Whyte left the band. Although Whyte continued to contribute songs for
Morrissey, he was largely replaced on album and in live shows by guitarist Jesse
Tobias.
In 2009, Morrissey released Years of Refusal, his first under Decca after label
changes found Sanctuary being absorbed into the Universal Music Group (which
owned Decca). Produced by Finn and once again showcasing guitarist Tobias, Years
of Refusal found Morrissey going for a more stripped-down, back-to-basics rock
approach. Sadly, Finn suffered a cerebral hemorrhage just after wrapping
production on the album. He fell into a coma and died just over a month later on
August 21, 2008. Despite the tragedy surrounding it, Years of Refusal was
largely hailed as Morrissey's best album in years.
Over the next few years, Morrissey busied himself with rejiggered reissues of
his solo material and various other compilations surfaced, including the 2009
B-sides collection Swords and the 2011 set Very Best of Morrissey; he also
played live with semi-regularity. Early in the summer of 2012, he announced in
an interview with JuiceOnline.com that he was tentatively planning to retire in
2014. Morrissey then spent much of 2012 and 2013 touring the world, either side
of an early-2013 period of bad health that saw him hospitalized first for an
ulcer and then for a bout of pneumonia. A film of a March 2013 show at L.A.'s
Hollywood High School saw a cinema release as 25Live that August and was issued
on DVD and Blu-ray before the end of the year. His autobiography -- published
through Penguin Classics that October -- was well-received and became a number
one best-seller in the U.K.
In January 2014, despite his earlier proclamation of retirement, Morrissey
signed a new record deal, this time with Capitol. Six months later he released
his tenth studio album, World Peace Is None of Your Business, on Capitol's
Harvest imprint. In promotion of the album, Morrissey shot several short films,
released online, in which he delivered spoken word versions of the title track
as well as the singles "Istanbul," "Earth Is the Loneliest Planet," and "The
Bullfighter Dies." By August of 2014 Morrissey was once again without a label,
having parted ways with Harvest. He also revealed that he'd undergone treatment
for an undisclosed form of cancer. Nonetheless, he continued touring, wrapping
up the year with a two-month stint in Europe.
In January 2015, following several live shows in the U.K., Morrissey appeared in
a high-profile concert at New York's Madison Square Garden supported by Blondie.
That March he released a fifth single from World Peace Is None of Your Business,
the digital download "Kiss Me a Lot." Also in 2015, Morrissey announced the
publication of his debut novel, List of the Lost, for Penguin. In 2017 he
returned with the Low in High School LP.
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