mitchco a go go!

(Pre-Script: Check out today’s guest post (by yours truly) at the always excellent Almost Four Stars!)

I recently got into a small tiff on another blog with someone about Lady Gaga. I didn’t realize it at the time, but evidently we were arguing about whether or not said Lady is a “musical genius.” And the argument evidently also eventually resolved itself in her favor, after the other party located this video:

I don’t know if I’m qualified to proclaim someone a “musical genius,” and even if I were, few people whose musical output lies entirely in the twenty-first century would receive that title from me. Lady Gaga may or may not be a musical genius– she’s definitely a respectable songwriter thus far– but the only thing the above video proves is that she used to be a catastrophically bad (or at least, very immature, as she was 19 when this video was taken) lyricist. My favorite is at the end (around 6:57), where the judge proclaims, “Norah Jones, look out!”

I would like to submit, for your approval, a photograph of another budding artist at the age of 21:

This is Steven Morrissey in 1980. He’s not yet Morrissey, but still Steven. You can tell by the flaccid hair which, like the rest of him, is on the dole. From a July 1984 interview in The Face, conducted by Elissa Van Poznack:

The Face: Is Steven Morrissey dead?
Morrissey: Yes. When The Smiths began it was very important that I wouldn’t be that horrible, stupid, sloppy Steven. He would have to be locked in a box and put on top of the wardrobe. l needed to feel differently and rather than adopt some glamorous pop star name, I eradicated Steven which seemed to make perfect sense. Suddenly I was a totally different person. [....] But it was very important that Steven be drowned nonetheless.

Just as I won’t say that Lady Gaga is a musical genius, neither will I call her a Morrissey. But there is something to this, the glamorous popstar reinvention of self. Just ask Davie Jones, or Nick Currie, or Stefani Germanotta. Sometimes facing your destiny requires turning your back to your past, and Lady Gaga has taken the leap. I, for one, applaud her for it. The world already has enough Norah Joneses.

Tags: lady gaga, morrissey

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under music, what are these young homosexuals doing. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.