Nobody Loves Us #18: Munich Air Disaster 1958

Hello everybody and welcome once again to the Nobody Loves Us countdown.

If you haven't checked it out yet, I'm counting down my Top 20 Morrissey Non-Singles each weekday until his concert at The Orpheum on October 29^th.

So far the list looks like this:

20. One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell

19. Driving Your Girlfriend Home

Which brings us to #18 on the list:

#18: Munich AirDisaster 1958 (Morrissey/White)

B-Side from the Irish Blood, English Heart single.

Key Line: “They can't hurt you. Their style will never desert you. Because they're all safely dead...”

Give this video a look to check out the song and it's (supposed) subject matter:

For those unfamiliar with the titular air disaster, Morrissey is referencing the 1958 airplane crash in Munich that killed members of the Manchester United Soccer team and injured many more. The plane contained the team, coaches, trainers, and journalists.

Before getting into the meat of the song, it's important to take a second and realize the significance of soccer teams to European communities. Based on the amount of history these teams have accumulated and the fact that, for much of the 20^th century, players were found and groomed locally, these clubs are woven into the fabric of their cities in a way that we North Americans cannot totally comprehend. They are institutions.

While the song is slight lengthwise (a brief 2:31), Morrissey, as you may imagine, is able to cram a lifetime worth of pathos into Whites musical backdrop.

White goes straight to the heart of the matter at the start of the song, leading with the sickening sound of a gurgling airplane engine. From their, rollig drums and a pseudo-string section that imply a celebration rather than a funeral march, with Mozzer takes the burden of Manchester on his shoulders, eulogizing them thusly:

“We love them. We mourn for them. Unlucky boys of red...”

(If you don't follow Premier League Soccer, Man U is akin to the Yankees of Major League Baseball. And they wear red.)

As if the grief of the incident is too much to bear, quickly turns the song autobiographical:

“I wish I'd gone down, gone down with them...”

Then, as if pulling back the tears and returning to his eulogizing duties, he laments again:

“We miss them. Every night we kiss them, their faces fixed in our heads...”

Breaking down again, Morrissey again wishes that he had been on that doomed flight. However, this time, he stays with the autobiographical theme (though he disguises it well).

“They can't hurt you, their style will never desert you, because they're all safely dead...”

If this line is read a reference to the deceased players, it's rather cryptic. When read as a commentary on Morrissey's own mortality and place in pop culture, though, it's eminently clear that he's referring to his own place in the hearts and minds of Manchester.

Really, that's the point of this song. By invoking the crash, Morrissey is setting himself up as a Mancunian icon to be discussed with the other signposts in the cities history. The “can't hurt/style” line is more a call for appreciation of himself than anything referencing the doomed soccer players (which explains the celebratory tone of White's tune all along). His line's of wishing he'd, “gone down with them,” are no wish at all, but rather a reminder that one day he'll meet the same fate.

On the album Live From Earls Court, in which this song is played to a rapturous crowd of fellow Mancunians, Morrissey expresses this sentiment in the most clear form yet, ending the album by saying, “Goodbye! Don't forget me!”

Of course, only Morrissey would liken his own existence to one of the great Machester tragedies.