The memoir from the British singer Morrissey – called simply Autobiography – is the first rock bio published under the venerable Penguin Classics imprint.
The label is home to Aeschylus, Jane Austen and Oscar Wilde – and the former frontman of The Smiths said he insisted on the “classic” label as a condition of signing with Penguin.
While that has horrified some people in the publishing industry, the singer’s many fans drove the book to the top of Amazon’s UK chart on Friday, the day after it was published.
The Smiths and their enigmatic, gladioli-waving singer had a huge impact in 1980s Britain with alternately giddy and melancholy songs such as How Soon is Now and This Charming Man.
Reviewers have been sharply divided. The rock critic Neil McCormack gave the book a five-star review in The Daily Telegraph, calling it “the best-written musical autobiography since Bob Dylan’s Chronicles.”
However, The Independent’s literary editor Boyd Tonkin tired of Morrissey’s “droning narcissism” and “puerile litany of grievances”.
Fans will lap up the personal insights from a musician, now 54, who has long avoided talking about his private life, including his bouts of depression. There is also the inevitable score-settling: a bitter royalties battle fought by Morrissey and the guitarist Johnny Marr against The Smiths’ bassist Andy Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce is recounted at length.
A reunion for the band, which broke up in 1987, seems unlikely, although Morrissey reveals that Marr once suggested it.
"Surviving The Smiths is not something that should be attempted twice," he writes. – Associated Press
