Idea: Smiths/Morrissey Rock Opera
My ever-growing “to do” list is my neurotic burden to bear. As I work through ways of letting it go and learning to live more in the moment, I am struck by some patterns I see. Someday I may really cut the cord and delete my list altogether, but unless and until that happens, I’m looking for new ways to shorten the list… or at least combat it somehow… as it grows by like 10 lines a day. So anyway, one of these patterns is that several items on this 3,500-line list are snippets of ideas that I know now I will never, ever get around to doing. My options are to do something with them (which as I just said, I will probably never find time to), delete them and forget them (not a tragedy in most cases, but there would be the occasional lost bit of genius), or share them with the world (and thus let me delete them off my list). So I’m starting a new category here of “Ideas I’ll Never Get Around To.” Not because you will always find them interesting to read about, but because I think it will allow me to let them go and move on with my life. Some will be big ideas, some tiny. Some genius, some not so much. So without further ado…
Who among us isn’t familiar with The Who’s “Tommy?” And I know you’ve all seen “Moulin Rouge.” A couple years ago, I myself watched “Across The Universe,” and though at the time I hadn’t yet immersed myself in The Beatles, I was moved by the overall presentation and the way those songs were woven together into a relatively coherent plot.
What I’m getting at is that I think the Smiths/Morrissey catalog is ripe for a similar musical film or rock opera. I realize that compared to The Beatles, our beloved Smiths have a tiny — if devoted — following. But I’m confident the mainstream could learn to love the music too if they were exposed to it in the right way. The Smiths had what, 72 songs in their short five-year career? And Morrissey’s been solo for over 20 years now, amassing another must be around 200 songs, right? Now, I imagine most of you reading this are devout Smiths fans like I am. And I’m sure if you’re on my wavelength right now, you can imagine vigintillions of possibilities. So many songs about longing. So many British and Italian landmarks referenced. Every song is a story in itself, but also broad enough to be applied to nearly anyone. I think this music lends itself extremely well to be meshed into a film. Of plot, I’ve given almost no consideration. And I lost my personal interest in screenwriting long ago. I’ve envisioned much more the production and the presentation than the substance. But someday, I hope someone with the interest and the talent will do a project like this. At the very least, there would be a small army of Smiths cultists rallying for it. And if it were ever performed live, I can think of a few musicians who might volunteer their services.
“Well they’re all playing lead aren’t they, all of them. John Entwistle’s playing lead bass, Keith’s playing lead drums, Townshend’s playing lead guitar, and Roger’s fuckin’ the lead vocalist. It’s insane.”
— Noel Gallagher on The Who
