Good day lovely ones, I of course would never hesitate to defend the smiths, but for the most part not only did Chris do a mighty fine job himself, I think that they really defend themselves. To Joseph, I am sure his opinions are valid and substantiated and to others like him too so it is really hard to say that one opinion is right and the other wrong. All I can really say is that of course Morrissey sings about himself because is that is who he knows best. I think the one of the values of the smiths, at least for me, was the fact that I could relate to the lyrics. And the fact that the lyrics were put forth genuinely and so personally I find them that much more satisfying. If he were to try to speak for a generation of popsters instead of letting his own viewpoints draw the generation to him I think it would be all too obvious. One last thing before I get back to work, Joseph mentioned that B&S and smiths songs have had their fair share of sadness, but B&S seems to find comfort in them....I personally found an immeasurable amount of comfort in almost every "sad" smiths song so I can't really agree with him there. I don't want this to be an attack on Joseph at all, so I hope it is all taken in stride. When I first read his post, yeah, I immediately disagreed with him, but that alone is not enough to challenge the validity of his thoughts. One thing that I thought about that may or may not have made a difference, I am 22 and I think Chris is 23, so considering Joseph was at a more mature age during the smiths peak he may have had a different perspective on the scene. This is also easy for me to say since I wasn't the first to come to the smiths' defense, but anyhow take care everyone... Justin W Felonius Monk +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the reborn Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail "sinister@majordomo.net". To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to "majordomo@majordomo.net". WWW: http://www.majordomo.net/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "jelly-filled danishes" +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+