I've always loved his whole attitude towards popular culture which has always struck me as being genuinely impassioned without ever falling into the usual 'classic album' bollocks. As a fifteen year old Morrissey was probably the closest thing I had to pop icon. I'm certainly not ashamed to say that I probably got into more bands, books, films, etc, through him than i did through any other person in pop. The only person from that era who I could possibly mention in the same breath would be
Robert Forster.