"Your boyfriend, he went down on one knee / Well, could it be he's only got one knee?"
At some point, the easiest way to take a cheap jab at the Morrissey solo catalog became quoting "King Leer". I've lost track of the number of times I've seen his entire post-Smiths career dismissed with a dangling of that opening couplet. Even now, when we have 20 years worth of solo recordings to consider, "King Leer" is the rock journalists' handy tool for not really having to pay attention. The baffling part of this, aside from the laziness of some rock journalists, is that I consider the album, the song and, indeed, those very lines to be worthy.
It's important to remember that the song is supposed to be funny. I'm not sure why Morrissey is so often meant to be taken as a figure of intense seriousness and relentless, straight-faced sincerity. That he can be miserable or sad or angry is clear, but from the very beginning his songs have been laced with humor, raciness, hypocrisy and numerous other layers of nuance and character. It's one of the reasons his work tends to resonate differently at different ages -- the layers reveal themselves, the references (and, of course, self-references) become clearer. As I get older, I find his work to be much funnier and much sadder than I did before. It's also what makes humanity the core appeal of his songs. In song, he fails and he loses his temper and he triumphs and he makes naughty, mean jokes.
So what about that obnoxious boyfriend? Most of the criticisms I've read seem to suggest that the line is nonsense -- it rhymed, it fit the structure, it made it to the record. To me, though, it doesn't take much effort to come up with a number of worthy reasons for its existence. This boyfriend is a loser -- he talks too much about nothing (although Morrissey points out that his true gift is "the gift of the grab") and, frustrated and jealous, Morrissey also calls him cruel. But he is, of course, the object upon which Morrissey's jealous bafflement and frustration is focused. How has he earned the loyalty of this love interest? "Your boyfriend, he went down on one knee": the promises, the acts of devotion and slavish attention. Is it possible that this boyfriend has spent so much time professing his love and dedication on one knee that he might as well not have another? It seems to me that the lines function perfectly well as a sarcastic jab. What does he need the other knee for if he's only using the one? Because clearly that's only perceptible reason he's having any success.
If, for the sake of the song's narrative, we accept the argument that those lines have a job to do and do them well, then it's also interesting to think about them in the context of Morrissey's general lyrical output. Nothing in the song suggests that this boyfriend is literally knee-less, but I don't think it entirely impossible that Morrissey would treasure that potential literal meaning. Morrissey's catalog is full of references to the disabled -- either as metaphors for any sort of outsider or as literally disabled individuals ("November Spawned a Monster" is the most obvious, but Kill Uncle also features "Mute Witness".) It's become a kind of coded aspect to his work in expressing the ways in which we might feel broken, unable to reconcile ourselves with perceptions of normality or even to simply test our strength in the face of something uncomfortable. Do you dare love the handicapped -- even kiss them? You won't find too many other songwriters navigating these waters.
Nor will you find too many songwriters as concious of the self-referential lyric as Morrissey. In the catgeory of songs referencing the handicapped, "King Leer" isn't really one of those songs. It's a deliciously mean, horny little song about a shallow love interest who is, nonetheless, an object of increased desire due to the attentions of the even more unworthy boyfriend. But it's also an opportunity to throw the red herring in -- to wink a bit and remind you that this is Morrissey, and the ridiculous suggestion of a one-kneed boyfriend is too enticing to resist. Any chance to tie this funny little song in to the greater arc of the Morrissey catalog seems just about the kind of thing he would get a kick out of.
Is it possible that there is a sexual reference being made, too? Would it be wise, in discussing Morrissey, to dismiss that possibility?
One would think that the swishy cocktail jazz music, with its brushed snare drum and snappy flute accents, would have framed this song in such a way that the joke would have been well received from all it's potential angles. There is something in the casual reckoning of Morrissey that does generate an expectation of moral and emotional gravity, and the Kill Uncle album, in general, has always stood to me as the best example of Morrissey's ability to explore his themes with a lighter touch. The production (by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley) reminds me of a 60's Mickie Most production. The instrumentation is the most varied of any Morrissey record, with a lot of acoustic instruments (prominent piano, upright bass and strings) and the rockabilly touches less directly hard rocking and more decorative. Indeed, the more rocking songs are the least convincing. "King Leer" is light and breezy in a way that could be considered ironic -- exactly the kind of shuffling wink that should make you think there's a snarky comment, sick joke or sexual reference being made.
The arrival of two towering masterpieces, Your Arsenal and Vauxhall & I, on the heels of Kill Uncle have overshadowed it and cemented its reputation as the "disappointing second album", but it also functions well as a fascinating detour. Not until Ringleaders of the Tormentors would Morrissey again stretch his instrumental palette the way he does on Kill Uncle. A catalog as deep and expansive as Morrissey's needs these kinds of detours. There is irony in the musically varied and texturally diverse Kill Uncle being singled out for criticism when the easiest criticism of Morrissey has so often been his lack of imagination in arrangement or choice of bandmates (an argument for another time.) It is a lighter album, a slighter collection of songs than those haunted, angry albums to come, but the catalog as a whole would be weaker without it. There is always room in the songbook for clever, nasty little song about a pathetic boyfriend.
"King Leer"
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