Back to the Old House

A couple of months ago, Pat came across an online auction of odds and ends belonging to English rock guitarist Billy Duffy, among them a postcard and a letter written to him by Morrissey around 1978 or so. Many people don't realize that Billy Duffy and Morrissey were in a band together when they were quite young, before either of them was famous. Anyway, the interesting part about these missives is that Morrissey wrote them in Arvada, a suburb of Denver, when he was visiting his sister. I have no idea what Morrissey's sister was doing in Arvada, Colorado in 1978 (how random!), but since Pat and I were in Denver yesterday, we decided to seek out her house. The address can plainly be seen on the envelope of the letter (HERE), so it wasn't very difficult to locate. It turned out to be almost comically ordinary. We had a good laugh trying to imagine a brooding young Morrissey hanging out there. A woman stepped outside the door while I was trying to get a picture. I wonder if it was Morrissey's sister, still living there more than 40 years on. I suppose not.

Even though Morrissey has been behaving like a twat these last couple of years, I still love the Smiths and all the music he wrote and recorded with them. It's possible to be a fan of the music and not of the person anymore, at least that's what I've arrived at when it comes to something that's played such an important role in my life.

And now, for your listening pleasure...