Death for no reason: the story of the soldier on The Smiths’ ‘Meat is Murder’ album cover
No one’s going into The Smiths’ discography expecting a pick-me-up. All you need to look at is the titles to songs like ‘Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now’ and ‘I Know It’s Over’ to know that this is the kind of music reserved for the moody times when you’re stuck in your thoughts and wondering what life is really worth as you slowly read the work of Kerouac. For as well-read as Morrissey wanted you to know he was, they were just as much a visual band as they were an auditory band when making the cover for Meat is Murder.
Then again, that’s before people knew what the song was about. Considering the frontman’s habit of sticking his foot in his mouth and talking about how almost everyone in the world is an asshole except for him, the title track implies that anyone who has ever consumed meat is a murderer and should be dealt with accordingly.
While Morrissey’s insistent push of his own tirades would make most want to buy a hamburger out of spite, the cover shot was more politically pointed than people thought. Compared to the foreboding cover of the band’s debut with a man’s bare torso, seeing a young soldier with the album title plastered across his helmet is a far more striking image.
Taken from archival footage from the Vietnam War, the man on the cover is Corporal Michael Wynn, who had served overseas in South Vietnam. Although the soldier shot is already a striking image, it’s already twice as poetic as the title would suggest. Being only 20 years old when the photo was taken, the slogan of ‘MEAT IS MURDER’ is a far more gripping declaration than ‘MAKE LOVE NOT WAR’.
Looking at how many war veterans were treated when they returned and during the war, many did tend to feel like meat. Compared to soldiers who typically walked home heroes, many of those from Wynn’s generation were subject to ridicule the minute they got home, having to deal with people who thought that they were evil for fighting the war as they continued to struggle with everyday functions due to the onset of PTSD.
Wynn said that he wasn’t safe from bits of ridicule, either, saying, “It took me longer than it should have to get that pride because of the way Vietnam Veterans were treated upon their return and for years after. I experienced this firsthand and, for years, did not mention that I was a Vet. I hope veterans are never treated like that again.”
If you look at everything that Morrissey talks about in the album, though, the photo doesn’t seem that far off from modern life. When he’s not getting up on his soapbox, ‘The Moz’ is talking about the real problems that afflict society, such as getting sorted out just for existing in ‘The Headmaster Ritual’.
The key line of the entire album is ‘death for no reason’, and you can practically see the sadness behind those words in Wynn’s eyes. This isn’t the look of someone going into war with his best face forward. This is a little boy trying his hardest to keep himself together in a world waiting for the opportunity to turn on him, and somewhere in between the guitar licks, the Smiths captured that dread onto the slabs of vinyl as well.
