Growing up in Connecticut and Massachusetts, he started playing guitar at age 13 and formed a jug band in high school.
[1] He graduated from Acton-Boxborough Regional High School in 1969[2] and studied literature for a short time at Plymouth State University before beginning his musical career.
[4] Stephen Holden, for The New York Times, wrote, "Mr. Morrissey's songs have the force of poetry...a terseness, precision of detail and a tone of laconic understatement that relate his lyrics to the stories of writers like Raymond Carver and Richard Ford.
Come Running features guitar work by Dave Alvin and the remaining members of Morphine, Billy Conway and Dana Colley.
While Morrissey was best known for his often dark, literate lyrics, he also occasionally wrote humorous songs, such as "Party at the UN" ("It's such a happy community / Everyone's got diplomatic immunity") and "Grizzly Bear", about a frustrated working-class man dating a wealthy young woman who wants to "dance till we dehydrate," while he just wants to "take her home and dance the grizzly bear."