The Last of the Famous International Playboys — Morrissey Lyrics

Song Facts:

• Genre: Rock, Indie Rock


• Lyricist: Morrissey


• Composers: Morrissey


• Soundtrack: Featured in the movie "Challengers"

Artist Info:

Morrissey is an English singer-songwriter; his voice has always been set as very peculiarly and poetically full of ironic wit; his themes for voice emphasize basic nature, enduring, and human vulnerability. He got his fame in the 1980s as the frontman of The Smiths, the band that came to have much influence on the subsequent course of alternative rock. After the band had been dissolved, Morrissey went on a solo career, which proved to be ultimately successful, putting forth highly challenging topics referring to intricate, normally provocative social matters. His is characterized by the eloquent and often sardonic lyrical content set against a backdrop of melodious tunes. Morrissey left an indelible impression in indie rock and, to some extent, on pop culture in his native land, wherein he had a number of faithful followers as a testimony to the same.

Annotations and Meaning:

"The Last of the Famous International Playboys," by Morrissey, is a song in which the very nature of the title carries its satirical, self-reflexive commentaries on themes of fame, crime, and identity. The protagonist of the song declares himself "The last of the famous international playboys," a title holding equal parts glamor and a sense of the end of an era. References of Reggie and Ronnie Kray—a celebrated gangster twin in London—who reigned in their criminal activities way back in the 60s apparently make the similarity between the notion of notoriety for their crimes and media stardom.
The verses, "Dear hero imprisoned / With all the new crimes that you are perfecting / Oh, I can't help quoting you / Because everything that you said rings true," make one feel as though the persona of the criminal is to be fascinated with them and actually places them at a hero-like pedestal. This speaks volumes on how society glorifies infamous characters by turning criminals into heroes, which the song points out.
Morrissey further looks at the allure of badness as wrapped with celebrity culture with the use of irony.

Descriptions of things he's done to make himself look more attractive sound impossibly attention-seeking: "So the things I do, / Just to be more attractive to you." This points out how people would go to lengths of what they do just for the public image they need to uphold to retain the people fascinated with the taboo. The recurring verse that the character "never wanted to kill" and is "not naturally evil" seems to grapple with the idea of constructed versus innate identities and seems a critique of how society molds actions and perceptions of individuals.