The Smiths - Still ill

I wouldn't be able to tell you for sure exactly when the first time I listened to Morrissey's unique voice was, it could have been in one of those many tapes my brother used to have, or maybe our older brother played it, but it's also likely that I might've seen a video on TV - I have faint memories of watching the video to 'Ask' somewhere, or something like that.
I do have a memory, though, of being with my family down in Algarve, and at the time, for some reason, I thought that Morrissey was actually called Morrisson, and somewhere I overheard people talking about Van Morrisson. I thought they were actually talking about Morrissey and I tried to get closer to them so I could get in on the conversation, but someone pulled me away and off we went, far from a conversation about Morrissey that existed in my mind only.
Starting when I was about six or seven, I was studying English, and as I grew older I started to get along with not only my fellow students, who were, for their greater part, older than me but with some of the faculty as well. Marina - on who I had such a crush on - was my fifth year teacher, and she was still fairly young - twenty something or so, and then Richard - to whom I'd like to apologize profusely in person for putting him through the wringer so often back then - were some of the people I could talk to about music.
Back then I used to sport my metal shirts all the time - Napalm Death, Obituary, Carcass, Overkill, and a bunch of others. These shirts would prove to be a point of contention between and the school board, because some of them were downright offensive. Did I care? Not really, no. Hey, I was young.
But they'd also come to be a springboard for some really good talks about music. Richard, a born Mancunian, would talk with me about some of these bands I listened to, and explained to me how much originated from the punk movement - crust, grindcore, extreme metal, it all came from that punk/hardcore source.
He, being older than I, obviously knew of many bands I did not know, and some I only knew of in passing. The Smiths was one of them, and I grilled him on them, and eventually he got me some tapes with their records. Richard got me some other stuff as well, including some Vini Reilly, the Buzzcocks, very early James, as well as New Order - he blew me away when he told me that they were Joy Division minus Ian Curtis. I had no idea!
Yet it would be those tapes with the songs of Moz and Marr and Joyce and Rourke that would capture me forever. Think what you will about Morrissey and what he's known for saying, I can still detach myself from that and still enjoy that music - I will do so forever.
I've always entertained the notion that in my lifetime I'd see The Smiths reuniting, but that is highly unlikely, not to say outright impossible.
If you're curious about the stories behind their albums and songs, I highly recommend Simon Goddard's books on the matter, 'Songs that saved your life' and 'Mozipedia : The Encyclopedia od Morrissey and The Smiths'.
By the way, I did not completely dislike 'England is mine', the Morrissey biopic.