The Smiths and Eddie Murphy are quite an unlikely pair, and my tape collection is littered with similar matches. There's really no rhyme or reason to it, other than I acquired both records at the same time and put them on tape. Which is kind of bizarre in itself. But that's the great thing about being 15. At that age I listened to everything. Classic rock like the Doors and Led Zeppelin that you couldn't escape if you wanted to, along with metal bands like Iron Maiden and Metallica that were advertised daily on the backs of the headbangers' jean jackets, and "college rock" like The Cure, Echo and The Bunnymen and R.E.M.
Meat Is Murder came from a vinyl source. I checked it out from the local library and made a really good copy of it. So good that all of these years later it plays flawlessly. Of course that might have something to do with the medium to which I recorded it. Maxell XLII 90's folks. That's where it was at for me. I didn't do no TDK. And Sony tapes blew. For me it was the high bias Maxell XLII 90's. I used to buy them by the box. Once in a while I'd spring the extra dollar and get the 100 minute version, but I was always worried about the tape breaking. The extra weight, even ten minutes worth, usually wasn't worth the risk.
I never got into Meat Is Murder the way I did with later Smiths albums. Outside of "How Soon Is Now?" and a couple other songs I found it really hard to get into. Playing it all of these years later it sounds like a lost Smiths album to me, which in a way it is. Most of the songs on Meat Is Murder haven't been endlessly recycled on compilations and received minimal airplay on alternative stations. It's certainly the most un-Morrissey record of their releases. Unlike The Queen Is Dead or Strangeways, Here We Come, there isn't a whole lot of humor on it.
Save that for Side B and Eddie Murphy. I remember getting the vinyl record through the Columbia House Record Club when I was 12 years old. My parents confiscated it soon after hearing it, and 3+ years later I must have found it again and set it to tape. What's strange about listening to that album again is how much Eddie Murphy relies on physical humor and mannerisms, all of which are lost on an audio only recording. It isn't that I've lost an appreciation for Eddie. I certainly don't waste my money on his films, but I still like his classic period. Back before he started doing extended fart jokes for the entire length of a movie. Before he picked up the prostitute or some related thing and sort of derailed his career.
I watched Delirious recently and loved it. That movie came out just over a year after this comedy album. But seeing Eddie is a whole lot different than just hearing him. I just wish we could see him on the stage again. Stand up was clearly his strength. Maybe he'd suck at it now, but I'd sure like to see him try. It could do wonders for his career, which has to be one of the steepest declines in quality of anyone, ever.
As for Morrissey, he seems to be getting in the kind of trouble usually reserved for someone like Eddie Murphy. Recently he called Chinese people a "subspecies" for their lack of animal rights laws. Eddie is no stranger to stereotyping at the extent of the Chinese either. The most memorable centers around the size of a specific part of the male anatomy, which he compares to the size of a grain of rice. It's hard to argue which they would find more offensive.
File under: Artists that pick on the Chinese.
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