The Last of the Famous International Playboys by Morrissey

Album: Bona Drag (1989)

Charted: 6

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The song is, in its base form, a hero-worship of the Kray Twins, who were infamous London gangsters that have since died. The song's protagonist claims that he "Did not mean to kill, I am not naturally evil," possibly being a reference to copycat killers.

It's not out of character for Morrissey to write from the perspective of the deranged and abhorrent. Check out his 1992 song "Jack The Ripper."
Morrissey wrote this song with his producer, Stephen Street, and released it as a single in 1989.

After his group The Smiths broke up in 1987, Morrissey put out a solo album in 1988 called Viva Hate that had two UK hits: "Suedehead" and "Everyday Is Like Sunday." "The Last of the Famous International Playboys" was his next single and seemed to augur in another album, but instead he just kept releasing more singles, eventually compiling them along with some unreleased songs on a compilation called Bona Drag in 1990.
"The Last of the Famous International Playboys" was the first song by either Morrissey or The Smiths to make a Billboard chart in America - it went to #3 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart.

The Smiths were very popular in the UK, where they were based, but couldn't break through in the US, where they were darlings of college radio but couldn't get much further. Morrissey's solo career started the same way but then he gradually found a following and was able to draw crowds to his live shows there in the early '90s.
Morrissey's Smiths bandmates Andy Rourke (bass) and Mike Joyce (drums) played on this track. Later in 1989, Rourke and Joyce took legal action to claim a greater share of royalties from their contributions to The Smiths, which soured their relationship with Morrissey and scuttled any chance of reuniting the group.
Morrissey's videos could be a bit lazy - "November Spawned A Monster" is all just him hanging out in a desert. In "The Last of the Famous International Playboys," he and his band perform the song in front of a green screen but don't bother compositing anything onto it. There is a subplot, though, with actor Jason Rush seen wandering about.

Comments: 3

Steve from Chino HillsI believe this song is also satire about the lack of personal space fans give celebrities. Reggie and Ronnie Kray were famous gangsters in England in the 1960s. It's absurd to think that someone would be so devoted to the Kray Brothers that they would kill people just to follow them to prison just to try to get a chance to try to impress them. But after showing the list of who he killed to the Krays the subject confesses that killing and death really isn't in his nature. He just did it to be famous and to make himself look attractive (interesting) to the Krays. Morrissey is a quiet, private man and invasions of his privacy from adoring fans must weigh on him.
Dan from Norwalk, CaThe Krays (1990), written by the Bethnal Green born artist and dramatist Philip Ridley, starred brothers Gary and Martin Kemp of the band Spandau Ballet as the Krays.
Simon from Manchester, EnglandHe also mentions the international playboys, he refers to himself as such and he has also stated the few international playboys that left their status' behind, one of them includes David Bowie AKA Ziggy Stardust.

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