This charming man shines over Istanbul // canavarlar

This charming man shines over Istanbul
Emrah Güler

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Referring to his heroes James Dean and Oscar Wilde, Morrissey once
said, “People who possess that much allure, no matter what they produce
or do with their lives, are very rare.” Any Morrissey fan could have said
these words and the ones that followed, for him actually: “It's easier to fall
in love with images and myths. They don't answer back, they don't deceive
you. There's no danger. I've taken precautions choosing them, and I have
such good taste.”

A crowd with “such good taste” filled in the Parkorman concert venue in
Istanbul, last Saturday. For crying out loud for years, “Please, please,
please, let us get what we want,” we had the chance to see Morrissey on
stage. Lord knew it was the first time in Turkey.

Rock concerts are somewhat the modern-day religious ceremonies, and
stages are altars of mass worship. However, what makes a true concert
experience is a combination of the heated anticipation, the concert itself
and the disorienting aftermath.

For years the rumors of Morrissey taking to the stage in Turkey had
surfaced with such surprising details that each eventual misinformation
became a bigger letdown. When we saw Morrissey staring at us teasingly
from the posters of Efes Pilsen's One Love Festival this spring, we knew it
was time for Morrissey fans in Turkey to unite. Genuine fans bought the
tickets right away. Then there were those we tried to persuade to come
with us, never tiring of doing small sessions to show that some of the
songs they really like are, in fact, the Smiths and Morrissey songs. We
might have overdone and talked about the failed relationship between
Johnny Marr and Morrissey, of course.

As the concert date came closer, we mortal fans exchanged quotes
from “Uncut” interviews with one another and spent nights discussing
Hector and William and Billy Budd. As we sang along to “There is A Light
That Never Goes Out” with drunken fervor, we speculated on who drove
Morrissey in his car. We tried frantically learning the lyrics to the new
album, “Ringleader of the Tormentors.” And as we continued listening to
the new album, realized surprisingly that Morrissey doesn't
have “numerous reasons to cry any more” and that “at last” he is “born.”

That's entertainment

Then came the concert night. As we watched the previous bands, we
started hearing about Morrissey's unsuccessful attempts at closing down
the sales of meat after a certain hour. A friend reminded me what
Morrissey had said once, linking this vegetarian act of policing to the
possibility of not having any of the Smiths songs that night: “I would rather
eat my testicles than reform the Smiths. That's something as I'm a
vegetarian.”

Then there was Morrissey on stage. There was the “light that never goes
out” before our eyes. Wearing a tuxedo, we wanted to believe that he
actually is desperate for our attention. Without a need to please the Turks
with simple, slurpy welcoming words in Turkish, he just said “Merhaba.”
Then checking the crowd, he shouted the names of two of the greatest
entertainers, one Turkish, one-half English-half Irish. Zeki Müren, the late
Turkish singer well known for his brand of camp, flamboyant clothes and
flashy, theatrical revolutionary stage shows. And Morrissey.

In the thrilling moment of the opening act, we found out that he would be
singing the Smiths' songs and that we would be able to eat meat, as
Morrissey began his show with the lines “Panic on the streets of London.”
As the crowd shouted “Hang the DJ” in unison, he continued with songs
from his latest album and the previous one, “You are the Quarry.” He
threw in an occasional Smiths' song like “Girlfriend in a Coma” or “How
Soon is Now.”

For those who had seen Morrissey on stage (and for those who had seen
his concert footage), the typical brand of Morrissey was there. His flirtation
with the microphone cord. His unexpectedly quick move, bending
backwards with one hand holding the microphone, the other loose, almost
touching his foot. And then there were the curious sexy numbers, like a
constant change of shirts and throwing the sweaty shirts to the audience.

The audience (an average of 10 years older than the previous night's Black
Eyed Peas' concert), not only sang along to each song, but they knew the
right tone of “ooohs” and “aaahs,” which are plenty in any Morrissey song.

Now my heart is full

When he started singing “Let Me Kiss You,” his ballad for unrequited love
from his previous album, he sang “I've zigzagged all over Istanbul,”
replacing the “America” in the lyrics. Probably not literally true, this tiny
change of geography was very much in line with Morrissey's persona as “a
man of nowhere.” After leaving England, and having lived in Los Angeles
for seven years, Morrissey had found a new home in Rome.

An unusual home for Morrissey, for that matter, as the recent album seems
to show that he had found some sort of reawakening, tranquility,
happiness and mutual love and sex in the city of “dolce vita.” So much so,
that when he sang “At Last I am Born” from the new album, the guitar in
the background was painted in the colors of the Italian flag.

The mere 80-minute concert ended, in typical Morrissey fashion, abruptly
with “Irish Blood, English Heart.” As Morrissey himself puts, “The moment is
the performance, and when it's over the communication is over as well.” It
seemed to prove once more that all this is not a profession for Morrissey,
but rather a vocation.

Then came the final part: The aftermath. Prolonging the journey back
home, turning the public transportation into moving Morrissey karaoke
bars, forcing the driver to sing “Hang the DJ.” The next day, there was the
Morrissey afterglow. I was a Morrissey veteran with a cigarette burn on my
face and multiple bruises on my body. I showed my cigarette burn proudly
as a veteran of the first Morrissey concert in Turkey. “For a time, you are
mine. Let's hold fast to the dream. Who knows if it's real? Or just
something we're both dreaming of. What seems like an interlude now...”