Drownout France

Hector Was the First of the Gang

Classicists, all

Patroklus was, in fact, the first of the gang to die, to stir Achilles, and to be remembered for just that one dimension of loyalty. Hektor doesn't die till much later, and then he doesn't leave the scene until he has been dragged around the city like an anonymous American soldier in Somalia three thousand years later.

But the double-meaning of "Hector" the gang-banger subtends both epic tragedy and modern marketing. Oye, Moz has got a Mexican fan base in SoCal. The change of location has fueled a rennaissance in Morrissey's material: the sound increasingly American, the content increasingly transposed from the Irish gangsters on Mancunian streets to Bengalis in London and finally to Mexicans in East LA.

In fifteen days: Morrissey at the Olympia in Paris. Worth the airfare all on its own, chums.

Inscrutable: why Moz has yet again skipped the East Coast on a non-album support tour. He is becoming a jam band, in some ways (no albums, "frequent" touring).

Posted by amol at September 15, 2002 12:33 AM