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Morrissey & Marr: The Severed Alliance
The Severed Alliance is one of the most controversial rock biographies ever written. Universally acclaimed by critics, its contents outraged Morrissey, who denounced the book and called for the death of author Johnny Rogan, saying, Personally, I hope Johnny Rogan ends his days very soon in an M3 pile-up. This paperback edition features a provocative preface as well as many important amendments to the original text, previously unpublished photos, and an updated comprehensive discography.
358 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
February 26, 2015
This book is hugely overrated. The two stars I've given it are purely because The Smiths are great and their story is great but if you've obsessively read all of the Smiths-related articles and interviews on the internet, there is no point in reading this at all unless you desperately desire information on Morrissey's grandmother. Tbh, to write a dull book on The Smiths is a crime in itself but Rogan's book is also irritating in that the chapters on Morrissey's childhood are filled with quotes and details that seem fabricated. Half the time he doesn't even bother to attribute facts or quotes to anyone. His pop psychology take on Morrissey is also deeply unconvincing and so stupid (Johnny Marr lived in a house where something was filmed! Moz liked films! Thus, to Moz, Marr was leading the most fulfilled and amazing life ever!), that it is embarrassing to read.
If you want an intelligent book on Moz, 'Saint Morrissey' is an interesting read. If you want information about the Smiths - their songs and their history, Simon Goddard's pretty great. Give this book a miss, tbh.
If you want an intelligent book on Moz, 'Saint Morrissey' is an interesting read. If you want information about the Smiths - their songs and their history, Simon Goddard's pretty great. Give this book a miss, tbh.
January 6, 2012
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
I recently looked up "miserable" in a rhyming dictionary and it said, "sorry, no perfect rhymes could be found".
Lucky for us there is Morrissey.
I think Morrissey has answered the one question that the rest of humanity most dreads: if you could only have one, would you choose sex or romance?
If you choose sex and it's absent from your life, at least you can slip into left-hand drive.
If you choose romance, sometimes you have to make do with misery.
It helps if you can write about it, even if there is no perfect couplet.
I wonder if it was the absence of a perfect couplet that made Morrissey miserable.
Being only one half of a perfect couplet must be as lonely as a studio without a starlet or a drunk without a bar or a boxing joke without a punch line or the rouge without the noir.
Sorry, no perfect rhymes could be found. Lucky for us there is Morrissey.
I recently looked up "miserable" in a rhyming dictionary and it said, "sorry, no perfect rhymes could be found".
Lucky for us there is Morrissey.
I think Morrissey has answered the one question that the rest of humanity most dreads: if you could only have one, would you choose sex or romance?
If you choose sex and it's absent from your life, at least you can slip into left-hand drive.
If you choose romance, sometimes you have to make do with misery.
It helps if you can write about it, even if there is no perfect couplet.
I wonder if it was the absence of a perfect couplet that made Morrissey miserable.
Being only one half of a perfect couplet must be as lonely as a studio without a starlet or a drunk without a bar or a boxing joke without a punch line or the rouge without the noir.
Sorry, no perfect rhymes could be found. Lucky for us there is Morrissey.
April 12, 2022
It's an excellent biography of a band supremely important to me at a certain point in my life - but it's not without its faults, especially this being a second edition.
The great parts of it are that it treats its subject seriously (a trait of Rogan's, whose volume 1 alone of his biography of The Byrds runs to 1000 pages) and no differently than if he were writing a biography of Winston Churchill. The research is flabbergastingly thorough (the 60 pages of references attest to that alone) with no fact unchecked and (almost - we'll come to that later) no participant not interviewed extensively, not just those in and around the band, but schoolfriends, family members, teachers and journalists. For these 500 pages you are totally immersed in the world of The Smiths - indeed, it's over 200 pages in before Morrissey and Marr even meet.
I don't think that I've ever read such a full history of the emergence and travails of the Republic of Ireland anywhere that's not been a book specifically about the subject, but Rogan sees it nevessary to explain why this band of 4 musicians all with Irish background appeared in Manchester and not Dublin.
Of course the next 300 pages are about the band - who, if you were a sensitive, introverted teenager between 1983 and 1987 were genuinely life-changing. Despite Morrissey's propensity to be an arse these days, The Smiths were everything to me for a few short years and this book brought all of that back to me. I was lucky enough to see them live twice (the Meat is Murder with James supporting, and the incredible From Manchester With Love gig in 1986 at Liverpool Royal Court where The Smiths were joined by The Fall, New Order and John Cooper Clark, for a superb evening of music) and those gigs are both listed in the extensive appendices, of every gig's setlist.
So, I can't fault the biography covering Morrissey's grandparents to the split, but I do think there could have been improvement (but the context means I still give 5 stars). First the lack of any direct input from Morrissey is a gaping hole, that means there is no unfiltered background of Morrissey's acts, thoughts and reasons - we only encounter him via interviews in the music press and other folks' interpretations and experiences of him. For a book like this, that Morrissey is more than 50% the subject (sorry Johnny) that means it's not giving the full story. Rogan absolutely does his best - probably THE best that could be expected, but it's still a huge issue with a book trying to be objective.
Secondly, Rogan (like most writers) falls into problems when giving his critiques of the music, much of it ends up either pretentiously pseudish or waffley vague, with occasionally over reaching, over biographical or over literal interpretations of lyrics. I sometimes think he'd have been better just giving the facts on the recordings - but then Rogan began this project because he was a fan.
Finally, as this is a second edition, i think Rogan made a mistake not adding an extra few chapters to cover the post-Smiths period and - much more importantly - the court case. It's sort of covered, in passing, but compared with the rest of the book it feels very very much like a handwave and instead of giving the reader the juicy story of The Smiths tearing itself apart again, this time in public, he preferred to spend months making sure that every single quote was laboriously referenced.
Ultimately, it's hard to see where this biography could be improved, other than an extended time frame and extensive honest interviews from Morrissey: the first is definitely achievable, the second highly unlikely.
The great parts of it are that it treats its subject seriously (a trait of Rogan's, whose volume 1 alone of his biography of The Byrds runs to 1000 pages) and no differently than if he were writing a biography of Winston Churchill. The research is flabbergastingly thorough (the 60 pages of references attest to that alone) with no fact unchecked and (almost - we'll come to that later) no participant not interviewed extensively, not just those in and around the band, but schoolfriends, family members, teachers and journalists. For these 500 pages you are totally immersed in the world of The Smiths - indeed, it's over 200 pages in before Morrissey and Marr even meet.
I don't think that I've ever read such a full history of the emergence and travails of the Republic of Ireland anywhere that's not been a book specifically about the subject, but Rogan sees it nevessary to explain why this band of 4 musicians all with Irish background appeared in Manchester and not Dublin.
Of course the next 300 pages are about the band - who, if you were a sensitive, introverted teenager between 1983 and 1987 were genuinely life-changing. Despite Morrissey's propensity to be an arse these days, The Smiths were everything to me for a few short years and this book brought all of that back to me. I was lucky enough to see them live twice (the Meat is Murder with James supporting, and the incredible From Manchester With Love gig in 1986 at Liverpool Royal Court where The Smiths were joined by The Fall, New Order and John Cooper Clark, for a superb evening of music) and those gigs are both listed in the extensive appendices, of every gig's setlist.
So, I can't fault the biography covering Morrissey's grandparents to the split, but I do think there could have been improvement (but the context means I still give 5 stars). First the lack of any direct input from Morrissey is a gaping hole, that means there is no unfiltered background of Morrissey's acts, thoughts and reasons - we only encounter him via interviews in the music press and other folks' interpretations and experiences of him. For a book like this, that Morrissey is more than 50% the subject (sorry Johnny) that means it's not giving the full story. Rogan absolutely does his best - probably THE best that could be expected, but it's still a huge issue with a book trying to be objective.
Secondly, Rogan (like most writers) falls into problems when giving his critiques of the music, much of it ends up either pretentiously pseudish or waffley vague, with occasionally over reaching, over biographical or over literal interpretations of lyrics. I sometimes think he'd have been better just giving the facts on the recordings - but then Rogan began this project because he was a fan.
Finally, as this is a second edition, i think Rogan made a mistake not adding an extra few chapters to cover the post-Smiths period and - much more importantly - the court case. It's sort of covered, in passing, but compared with the rest of the book it feels very very much like a handwave and instead of giving the reader the juicy story of The Smiths tearing itself apart again, this time in public, he preferred to spend months making sure that every single quote was laboriously referenced.
Ultimately, it's hard to see where this biography could be improved, other than an extended time frame and extensive honest interviews from Morrissey: the first is definitely achievable, the second highly unlikely.
August 17, 2013
Spoiler alert: After reading this book (if you are a obsessive Smiths fan as I am) you might find both Morrissey and Johnny Marr to be slightly less likeable then before.
Johnny Rogan is one excellent mine-digger for information. That's all I can say!
Johnny Rogan is one excellent mine-digger for information. That's all I can say!
August 19, 2017
If this book were a novel, it would start out as a modern Tom Brown’s Schooldays. Tom is now a sensitive Manchester lad named Steven Morrissey trying to survive life in a bleak secondary modern school in the 1970s. His coping mechanism is to retreat to his bedroom and listen to music by Sandie Shaw, Cilla Black, Marc Bolan, and the New York Dolls. His only link with the music business, apart from going to concerts and listening to records, is the odd letter to a music magazine.
Then against all the odds our unlikely hero becomes a pop star himself, teaming up with a skilled guitar player named Johnny Marr to form The Smiths, one of the most influential bands of the 1980s. Morrissey writes lyrics while his partner looks after the music. Now we lose our hero. He becomes in the words of a judge who later passed verdict on his business dealings, someone “devious, truculent, and unreliable when his own interests were at stake.” In this section of the book, I found myself sympathising with the fortunes of The Smiths’ humble drummer and bass player, who Morrissey and his partner constantly misinform about their professional and financial position.
By the end, I was depressed that a childhood dream had turned into something so grubby. Clearly, Johnny Rogan is a fan of The Smiths’ music, but it’s hard to ignore all the bile and deceitfulness that permeated the making of it. I don’t know if that music was great work or not, but what I will say is that Morrissey came up with what is probably the cleverest group name in the history of popular music. This comment is not as flippant as it might seem. During the youthful, pre “success” phase of the book, Rogan paints a picture of a lad who enjoys making up clever book titles and chapter headings for novels that never happen. Rogan paints a picture of someone who seems better at the flash of insight rather than the long slog of consolidation.
Once he leaves school and joins forces with Johnny Marr, Morrissey comes up with his best title ever – The Smiths. The name implies so many things. First, there is that sense of a back to basics approach, as a reaction to glam rock, or pompous concept album rock. Yet this is not back to basics in the sense of a Punk band thrashing around on instruments they learnt to play last week. Instead, there is a suggestion of artisanship, which sets The Smiths apart from the anarchic approach of Punk. A smith labours in a sweltering smithy, making horseshoes and ironwork. These are good, honest people, who uphold traditional values. At the same time, there are darker undertones. Originally, the band considered the name Smiths’ Family. The word family implies togetherness. Think of The Partridge Family – sunny and happy on a bus with David Cassidy, his mom and his cute siblings. The Smiths, or The Partridges, divested of the word family, conjures more of a vision of one of those clans who fight amongst themselves while using any energy left over to terrorise their local area.
This book is a contradiction, its central figure a hero and villain, an idealist who treats people badly. The band this man went on to help create was also a contradiction. Their name held contradictions that their best work explored, not in some heavy intellectual way, but in the sense of a few words revealing much. Johnny Rogan does a great job of telling the story of how those paradoxes welded themselves into a band, which by some miracle survived long enough to make some famous music.
Then against all the odds our unlikely hero becomes a pop star himself, teaming up with a skilled guitar player named Johnny Marr to form The Smiths, one of the most influential bands of the 1980s. Morrissey writes lyrics while his partner looks after the music. Now we lose our hero. He becomes in the words of a judge who later passed verdict on his business dealings, someone “devious, truculent, and unreliable when his own interests were at stake.” In this section of the book, I found myself sympathising with the fortunes of The Smiths’ humble drummer and bass player, who Morrissey and his partner constantly misinform about their professional and financial position.
By the end, I was depressed that a childhood dream had turned into something so grubby. Clearly, Johnny Rogan is a fan of The Smiths’ music, but it’s hard to ignore all the bile and deceitfulness that permeated the making of it. I don’t know if that music was great work or not, but what I will say is that Morrissey came up with what is probably the cleverest group name in the history of popular music. This comment is not as flippant as it might seem. During the youthful, pre “success” phase of the book, Rogan paints a picture of a lad who enjoys making up clever book titles and chapter headings for novels that never happen. Rogan paints a picture of someone who seems better at the flash of insight rather than the long slog of consolidation.
Once he leaves school and joins forces with Johnny Marr, Morrissey comes up with his best title ever – The Smiths. The name implies so many things. First, there is that sense of a back to basics approach, as a reaction to glam rock, or pompous concept album rock. Yet this is not back to basics in the sense of a Punk band thrashing around on instruments they learnt to play last week. Instead, there is a suggestion of artisanship, which sets The Smiths apart from the anarchic approach of Punk. A smith labours in a sweltering smithy, making horseshoes and ironwork. These are good, honest people, who uphold traditional values. At the same time, there are darker undertones. Originally, the band considered the name Smiths’ Family. The word family implies togetherness. Think of The Partridge Family – sunny and happy on a bus with David Cassidy, his mom and his cute siblings. The Smiths, or The Partridges, divested of the word family, conjures more of a vision of one of those clans who fight amongst themselves while using any energy left over to terrorise their local area.
This book is a contradiction, its central figure a hero and villain, an idealist who treats people badly. The band this man went on to help create was also a contradiction. Their name held contradictions that their best work explored, not in some heavy intellectual way, but in the sense of a few words revealing much. Johnny Rogan does a great job of telling the story of how those paradoxes welded themselves into a band, which by some miracle survived long enough to make some famous music.
August 19, 2007
Exhaustingly researched, this book is recommended for true fans. If not an obsessive fan, skip the first 150 pages and you will still love it. It is researched so well, the first 150 pages read like a daily list of morrissey's life. "What did he eat on friday, 24 June, 1980" is not in truth a joke that is funny anymore. The author -Johnny Roghan- is intuitive in his writing enough to know when not to include information, but only after page 150 (when The Smiths actually form as a band). If you are a big enough fan to sit through the Morrisey had an egg then sprained his ankle whilst doing nothing in Manchester in 1979 stage of the book, then enjoy. If you are not as hardcore of a fan, still read the last 150 pages, they are a testament to good journalism. Objective, often to the point these scribblings of the lives of Marr (MAHAR), Morrissey, Joyce, and as far as I am concerned equally important Rourke are well thought out (even gossip wise). Well then, enjoy.
Hands down the best bio of rock I have read since "The Dirt", and even then at least "The Smiths" had the music, melodies, thoughtful lyrics, and personally believed holiness to back it up (I BELIEVED, TOO).
The author even shows notable restrained thought when describing the debacle that "The Smiths" became near the end. I personally champion Rourke's masterful use of the bass guitar as on par w/ Marr. That my friends, is not in the book, but he should have been championed as one of (if not the best) bassist in history. Cheers to him for winning a settlement against my two heroes in life, Mr. Morrissey (tempermental as always), and Marr (loved and still lost).
Mr.Jeremy David Hyde
Hands down the best bio of rock I have read since "The Dirt", and even then at least "The Smiths" had the music, melodies, thoughtful lyrics, and personally believed holiness to back it up (I BELIEVED, TOO).
The author even shows notable restrained thought when describing the debacle that "The Smiths" became near the end. I personally champion Rourke's masterful use of the bass guitar as on par w/ Marr. That my friends, is not in the book, but he should have been championed as one of (if not the best) bassist in history. Cheers to him for winning a settlement against my two heroes in life, Mr. Morrissey (tempermental as always), and Marr (loved and still lost).
Mr.Jeremy David Hyde
April 29, 2016
Three stars for being thorough. But I never got what I wanted out of the book, which was a look at how Morrissey and Marr interacted, of their relationship. It's not the books fault, it was a biography, after all. But I kept hoping I'd get a better look at the relationship, but it was mostly on-the-record information. I'd love to read an embellished, even a little imagined, The Story of The Smiths based on this biographic report.
It was rather enjoyable to read how their songs came together, and I would not have skipped over the first 150 pages of their family histories. I think the next 400 pages could have been condensed. It was presented in an orderly, chronological order, and many aspects from several sources started to feel repetitive.
I do have a deeper appreciation for The Smiths, and the talents of both Morrissey and Johnny Marr. I'm glad I read it... I'm glad I'm finally finished.
It was rather enjoyable to read how their songs came together, and I would not have skipped over the first 150 pages of their family histories. I think the next 400 pages could have been condensed. It was presented in an orderly, chronological order, and many aspects from several sources started to feel repetitive.
I do have a deeper appreciation for The Smiths, and the talents of both Morrissey and Johnny Marr. I'm glad I read it... I'm glad I'm finally finished.
June 22, 2011
Im afraid that i will have to echo many of the sentiments in other reviews of this book for i also found it to be quite a sluggish read, firstly having to slosh through the first hundred pages or so with little to nothing of any interest to fans of either Morrissey or Marr, secondly the almost overbearing tone of writing by Rogan is at times enough to make your eyes fall out from rolling them so much at what you had just read. that aside i must admit for any perspective fans this is a book to start off on because beyond its inadequacies its a book that covers much of what any fan should know on the smiths if they are willing to buy a book on them. therefore i would recommend this to anybody trying to break into the world of The Smiths but for anyone who was already, like me, already acquainted with much of the smiths backstory it isnt much but reprocessing what you already know.
April 14, 2018
In-depth study of The Smiths, starting back a couple of generations with Morrissey and Marr’s Irish families. Combines thorough research and a fan’s enthusiasm, without glossing its subjects, particularly in the material on the post-split ‘worker Smiths’ lawsuit. One bonus is the appendix of set lists: I could date my seeing them at the Edinburgh Caley Palais on 14 June 1984.
April 11, 2009
Often held as the greatest work in modern music literature, this is the book that caused Morrissey to famously wish death on Johnny Rogan. The level of research is staggering. Perhaps not for those without an interest in Morrissey or the post-punk music scene.
December 13, 2007
This is a brilliant book, exhaustively researched etc and every Smiths fan must read it (even if Morrissey says not to)!
August 9, 2007
a little longwinded but by far the best morrissey book out there.
July 29, 2021
Brilliant book excellently researched. I loved the research into his Irish roots all of the Smiths are of Irish heritage. It is great that a fan of Morrissey will have a fuller understanding of the Irish in Britain reading this book. Rogan even goes into detail about Irish politics and economics very interesting.
I would advise anyone you has a passing interest in the Smiths to read this. It is probably best read a few times as there is so much information here.
A comprehensive account of a high watermark in music history.
I would advise anyone you has a passing interest in the Smiths to read this. It is probably best read a few times as there is so much information here.
A comprehensive account of a high watermark in music history.
April 23, 2022
Johnny Rogan should be lauded for his exhaustive research, but this book is too long. Must we really start the book with a whole chapter on Irish history and include photographs of Morrissey’s grandparents and aunts? This is a good read for diehard fans of The Smiths. Also an eye-opener for all the Morrissey haters out here—he’s not a monster (spawned in November or otherwise).
November 26, 2022
Johnny desmonta la trama Smiths y lo hace a veces con destreza, pero su obsesión por llevar todo al plano económico y de fobias personales lleva a una lectura provocativa y acaso amarillista. A eso se suma una traducción muy molesta. De todos modos queda claro que la alianza Morrissey Marr es una de las más fascinantes del pop.
January 25, 2019
Hey why's only one of em on the cover?!?
This ended up being quite a history of Irish/British politics and society, and really dug through the nuances of the art and the personalities of the band. It was tougher to read than I expected, but was highly satisfying.
This ended up being quite a history of Irish/British politics and society, and really dug through the nuances of the art and the personalities of the band. It was tougher to read than I expected, but was highly satisfying.
May 22, 2019
At first I found it boring, it reminded me of the other book I read about Morrissey, the one that made me kinda hate him. But it grew on me, and I liked how the author incorporated words of the Smiths songs into the story. Now I have to go listen to all the Smiths albums.
July 11, 2019
A long book but definitely the definitive Smiths story. The financial aspects of the book are very interesting given what happened with the court case a few years after this book was originally published
April 20, 2023
Once you get past the endless pages of the Morrissey family history it’s quite a good book. Can tell there’s definitely a bias against Morrissey however. Also the often referring to the future court case overshadows a book about one of the best bands ever.
June 16, 2025
This was leant to me by a teacher who found out I had an obsession with the smiths,and let’s just say I loved it.
It’s obsessively researched and wild(e)ly interesting and I would read it 1000000 times over!!!GO READ IT!
It’s obsessively researched and wild(e)ly interesting and I would read it 1000000 times over!!!GO READ IT!
April 27, 2018
Great book, although I really wasn't interested in his ancestors at all. Otherwise, the book is fantastic!
January 7, 2020
Heaven Knows "this book" Miserable Now :(
February 17, 2021
Too much detail
A good story well told but too many acknowledgments at the end. Otherwise very enjoyable with many great insights. Good
A good story well told but too many acknowledgments at the end. Otherwise very enjoyable with many great insights. Good
July 9, 2022
Found it a bit sycophantic in parts... Why spend 100 pages on Morrissey's childhood and only like 10 on Marr's?
December 8, 2024
Very informational, includes interviews from The Smiths themselves. I hear the author used some shady tricks to get info out of Marr?
March 7, 2025
I love the smiths :)
February 17, 2017
The definite post-mortem
November 4, 2010
This book was perhaps a tad overstuffed and overly detailed for the first 100 pages or so (love the right-on complaint from the reader below: "did we really need to know about Morrissey's *grandmother*?") but once Rogan got into the nuts and bolts of the formation of the group and their brief, tumultous, but often glorious history, I plowed through the last half of the book in a day, as my love of The Smiths rose like a phoenix from the ashes of my years as a twentysomething fanboy. I had a major crush on Morrissey back then, never knowing what an often-insufferable diva he was, but so many his of songs still rank high in the Top 100 in the soundtrack of my life and probably always will. Rogan is an obsessive biographer and his passion for his subject shines clearly through here. As a bonus, he writes really well about music, capturing the essence of many of the greatest Morrissey/Marr compositions. I would recommend this to any bona-fide Smiths or Morrissey fan without hesitation.
September 13, 2017
I am 86% certain I read this book 10 years ago. I know I read a book about The Smiths at that time, but I am blanking on the details. I remember it as a difficult read, during a difficult time. Perhaps it was all the more depressing because I myself was then depressed. Or maybe there was more detail than I wanted to read. That sounds familiar. I'm now considering reading another book about The Smiths. I thought I might try Simon Goddard's The Smiths: Songs That Saved Your Life. At this point, 25 years after The Smiths saved my own life (bit of hyperbole there, although they certainly made it more bearable), I'm more interested in reading about the songs than about the band members.
June 12, 2008
If you know me at all, you know that I am an obsessive, adulating fan of both The Smiths and Morrissey - although I suppose the sentiments of most Moz fans are equally extreme. That adoration aside, I've found this book to be an extremely valuable read for its loquacious writing, historical accuracy, and generally fascinating assessment of the phenomenon that was/is The Smiths, or Morrissey/Marr. The facts that this guy digs up are astounding - he has an insatiable thirst for knowledge of the UK (and worldwide) music scene, and namedrops like crazy. If you're a Moz lover, music fan, or even a history buff or non-fiction devotee, you'll love this book. It even has an extensive section on 1930s IRA politics!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews