Morrissey-solo
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posted by
davidt
on Sunday February 27 2005, @08:00AM
Benton writes:
From the Sunday Times Books Diary, 27th February. “There’s a tale behind Morrissey’s memoir deal with Penguin. It seems the former Smiths frontman, when offered £1m by Faber, argued that he was worth far more — rumour suggests the astonishing figure of £10m — than John Peel, who’d trousered £2m for his memoirs. This was both ungrateful, as guitarist Johnny Marr said the Smiths’ early success was “largely due to the John Peel Show” , and misinformed; the Peel deal was about £1.5m. So he went to Penguin, settled for a paltry £2m, and heaven knows he’s miserable now. “ --- Craig M. Price also writes: The article below is from the Feb. 21-27, 2005 issue of Crain’s, a New York City publication which covers, among other things, the publishing industry. Titled “Read him like a Book,” it states in full: British cult rocker Morrissey is preparing to tell the story of his life, including his years with the influential 1980s band The Smiths. The autobiography won’t come cheap. Publishers interested in meeting with representatives of the enigmatic, famously media-shy singer-songwriter have agreed that any bidding would begin in the seven figures. “He never talks, which is why this is becoming a big deal,” says a publishing executive. According to insiders, not much is known about what the project will entail. But the expectation is that Morrissey, who has already begun writing, will deliver a revealing book, touching on such subjects as the bad blood between him and former Smiths members. The seven-figure offers have surprised some publishing executives, given the mixed success of recent rock and roll memoirs. But Morrissey has a loyal following, and scored a hit last year with his comeback album You are the Quarry. The rocker’s US literary agent, Matthew Guma of InkWell Management, declined to comment. Article also includes a small photo with the caption "Wordsmith: Former Smiths frontman Morrissey is attracting high-priced interest in his autobiography."
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Morrissey signs £2m autobiography deal with Penguin according to Sunday Times
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First one here:) (Score:0)
wow! (Score:0)
yes!!! (Score:0)
it's really coming (Score:1)
I don't doubt Moz's literary prowess when penning songs, but is he good enough for a large book?
That intro he wrote for 'Under The Influence' was quite nice though.
(User #10559 Info | http://www.dolefulorange.com/)
Re:it's really coming (Score:2, Insightful)
(User #9908 Info)
Parent
two words... (Score:1)
(User #12669 Info)
this'll be interesting (Score:0)
This could be the end (Score:1)
(User #2515 Info)
Re:This could be the end (Score:2, Interesting)
my thoughts are that he's mainly doing it to give his side as to why Mike isn't worth 25%
(User #36 Info)
Parent
hrmmm (Score:2, Interesting)
(User #184 Info | http://www.cato.org/)
Moz Book (Score:1)
Yes, I'll buy it straight away, and read it in one night... but what then?
I'll find out things that have made me curious for the last 20 years, and he will finally put an end to plenty of rumours.
But on the other hand, I'm not sure that I want those answers.
Some things are really best left unsaid.
(User #8642 Info)
Headmaster Moz (Score:0)
Congrats in advance Morrissey, for turning me on to the written word!
Not literally, but metaphorically! (Score:2, Funny)
These are metaphors from actual GCSE essays:
His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a tumble dryer.
McMurphy fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a paper bag filled with vegetable soup.
Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze.
Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.
The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the full stop after the Dr.
On a Dr Pepper can.
The thunder was ominous sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play.
The red brick wall was the colour of a brick-red crayon.
Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long it had rusted shut.
The door had been forced, as forced as the dialogue during the interview portion of Family Fortunes.
Shots rang out, as shots are want to do.
The plan was simple, like my brother Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work. (I think this was written by Gary Neville!! )
The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
Oh, Jason, take me!" she panted, her breasts heaving like a student on 31p-a-pint night.
He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
Her artistic sense was exquisitely refined, like someone who can tell butter from "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter."
She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
It came down the stairs looking very much like something no one had ever seen before.
The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a lamppost.
The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a
Formerly surcharge-free cashpoint.
It was a working class tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with their power tools.
He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a dustcart reversing.
She was as easy as the Daily Star crossword.
She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature British beef.
She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.
Her voice had that tense, grating quality, like a first-generation
Thermal paper fax machine that needed a band tightened.
It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.
(User #12673 Info)
Huh... (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm really torn, but I will buy and read the book with trepidation and not visit Morrissey-Solo out of fear of spoilers!
Now if only Damon Albarn would write his memoirs... (He says, tongue firmly in cheek and stuck there with caramel.)
(User #11921 Info)
there's always three sides to a tale (Score:0)
b's side
and the truth
morrissey is well known for bending (or even ignoring) the truth to fit - the wogan incident springs to mind so it's likely to be the mad rantings of 'damaged' individual
this said - put me down for a couple of copies
i like to have one for best - and, like the records, it will be deleted then repackaged with more photos etc...
(User #8098 Info)
You are the Autobiography... (Score:0)
He speaks in written prose..."like gelignite aiming between your eyes"-"so don't close your eyes."
His songs have been predicting this book of revelations for years...and Marr Joyce Rourke
are the Quarry.
unsubstantiated rumors - will they be addressed? (Score:0)
Also be nice if he clears up the possibility of any collaberations with Fred Durst.
Poetry isn't prose, but it matters not... (Score:1, Insightful)
I remember reading Morrissey interviews in magazines as a teenager and thinking that his quick and witty answers to any given subject read better than most novels that took years in the making, so I don't doubt for a second that "the autobiography" will be smashing.
does it really matter how it's written? (Score:2, Informative)
however, my guess is that if you're not a fan who buys everything that morrissey produces, chances are, you're going to purchase it looking for dirt.
(User #36 Info)
Parent
can't wait (Score:1)
(User #2789 Info | http://www.morrisseymusic.com/)
10 million quid seems a bit steep (Score:2, Informative)
Bill Clinton got paid about $10 million dollars for his memoir and he was president of the United States!
(User #36 Info)
Writ large (Score:0)
He never talks (Score:0)
Not good (Score:0, Flamebait)
Yes, his lyrics are great, but that doesn't make him a great writer.
Everything Morrissey has ever written, like liner notes and such, are not that good. They come across as fabricated and unnatural. He's simply trying too hard.
Maybe he can use a ghostwriter?
(User #5103 Info | http://www.patcondell.net/)
Moz dolls - book tie-in (Score:0)
money-grubbing morrissey (Score:1, Insightful)
disappointed by what I hear from some here (Score:0)
Morrissey is only MAKING IT LOOK like he is selling out because DOING SO IS IRONIC. Maybe you just don't get it
timing (Score:0)
The timing is the key. I've long thought he's going to use this autobiography as his big exit. I'm not sure what format the exit will take, but I doubt we'll be seeing much of the great man after it hits the shelves. I hope, at least, we get another album or two before that time.
broken
What I MUST know is... (Score:1)
About the sum he's demanding, Moz has consistently said he wants to do things that are very visible -- that's why he doesn't like labelless/DIY/internet floundering. As a smart poster above said, the more they pay him the more they'll push it. Hopefully there is a brilliant editor to work with him in creating the best book possible.
(User #80 Info)
Book Title (Score:1)
"Morrissey: My Love Life"
Well, that would keep the publishers happy, until they read it.
Or a song line?
"Spineless Bastards All: The Morrissey Memoirs Volume 1; My Life With The Smiths"
Certainly long enough for a Morrissey title.
Whatever he calls it, let's hope it's not got "Miserable Lie" as its working title.
(User #12542 Info)
I Am Two Books (Score:1)
Hence the 2 million quid.
(User #12542 Info)
Publishers Want The Critics Spoon Fed... (Score:1, Interesting)
Critics typically attack autobiographies for one of two basic reasons:
1. The author held back/whitewashed/watered down the dirt to make themselves come up smelling like roses; OR
2. The author went on a vengeful rampage, trying to "right" a lifetime of perceived "wrongs" and got carried away with their personal vendettas. These ones usually get so heavilly edited by the publisher's legal team, to avoid troublesome litigation, that they simply end up coming across as dull, petty, lame, spiteful tomes that can't justify their wild accusations and don't even end up naming names.
Publishers know this from experience, especially the big ones like Penguin.
Therefore, to increase the chances of across-the-board, mainstream critical approval, Penguin are certainly not going to pay good money for a "faith-based" roll of the dice; rather they are already (read "pre-contract/advance") going to know what they are getting OR have already assessed a finished draft. Either way, content is contracted up front for future guarenteed inclusion. They simply do not gamble without legally binding contracts on debut authors. Who would when this much money is involved?
A typical contract will outline, point by point, what topics will be covered and in how much detail, similar to a creative brief or spec document.
Or, quite realistically, knowing that Morrissey has been talking publicly about this book for some time, it may well be finished and a "final draft manuscript" has already been shopped around and bought by Penguin. Who knows?
Question: Did Morrissey publish a book in the past (Score:1)
It could be a fiction or a hearsay, but a girl who shared my love for The Smiths and Moz, told me once, that he wrote a book in his earlier days, prior to the Smiths. Or is it maybe, that he tried to get it into print and was denied ?!
Does any one have a clue ?
Also I would like to say that, Moz is no more than a gifted person, who's best years are past him - musically speaking. And I love him still, for saying and admitting it.
He always was truthful to himself and us.
Therefore my honest advice to all is :
Don't read anything if you don't want to wake up from a sweet dream !
(User #13744 Info)
Re:Question: Did Morrissey publish a book in the p (Score:2, Informative)
He also wrote a New York Dolls fanzine-type of thing; however, it was bound as a book, so it was of slightly higher quality than a typical zine.
(Both of the above were, in fact, published.)
An unpublished manuscript is also out there called "Exit Smiling" which Moz does NOT want us to buy (the reissue of), because he's not making one penny from his work on that. (And, sycophantic slag that I am - and glad to be - I haven't, har, har.)
If you're going to look for the books, check at used bookstores or on Ebay.
The James Dean book WITHOUT his name on the front is the first edition - the one to have.
(And it is also the one DD happens to COVET.)
Moz forever! Book, warts, and all!
DD
(User #13516 Info)
Parent
The smell of ink and paper! (Score:0)
The ranking system is rank (Score:0)
I could have mentioned your name..... (Score:1)
I've always been true to you in my own strange way
(User #12522 Info)
Carnivores and Destructors on it? (Score:0)
Asleep?
This is only a tentative observation mind, dipping the toe in the moody pool of M-Solo (I may regret posting it).
(User #10088 Info)
Morrissey, to write a good autobio: (Score:0)
-Write in the afternoon
And don't see anyone during the process.
This is the only way. You know it.
Oh it's already finished? Then
"And a treeeee cut down for no reason
a treeeee cut down for no reason
is mmmmmurderrrrrr..."
Dear dear. Sure you can't start again? Oh my my. Oh shit. Oh God please NO. Etc.
"Oh look, it's full of 3 pages-long sentences that don't mean anything, like the one in those liner notes!"
This is bad.
Oh but to be spared the " I'm using complicated words to get my O level" wording!
Franky Ms Sinatry,
I'm a sickening wreck
I've got Morrissey's autobiography
brreathing down my neck
I must mooove fast
You understand me
Before he goes down
on Literary History
("oh!")
Ms Sinatry.
Well there's still hope: maybe Morrissey took writing lessons from Nancy.
And we're just talking about style. Not content.
Moriseyy - the trueth (Score:1)
His biographers make the sort of errors his true followers never would - goodness only knows what the puffed up hacks will write about it.
I've written to the authors of the last three books about Morrissey and pointed out their howlers. The worst of the bunch by a long way was David Bret's, who couldn't even quote accurately from, "William, It Was Really Nothing" ...
"The rain falls on a humdrum town" - no, the rain falls hard on a humdrum town. If he can't get such basics right, then how much rigour was involved in the rest of the book?
For example, according to Bret, Gary Numan was lead singer with OMD. Yeah? And I suppose John Lennon was the bass player with The Rolling Stones, was he?
It goes on like that for 288 pages, stating such nonsense that:
Johnny Marr was a "guitar virtuoso at twelve";
there are 10 songs on "Meat Is Murder" (I know the American version has 10, but the original has nine);
quote: "The lyrics of Bona Drag's 'The Harsh Truth of The Camera Lie'";
they recorded the Troy Tate album in 1982;
Anna Joblanska sang backing vocals on 'Suffer Little Children' - sang? laughed/cried;
'The Headmaster Ritual' was put out as a single - where?;
and on and on and on it drivels.
Guaranteed, however, is that each review will be titled, "Heaven Knows He's Still Miserable Now" and refer to Morrissey in the opening sentence as "the King of Mope".
(User #12542 Info)
The More Stuff He Sells You (Score:0)
Any predictions on the number of "deluxe" versions of the book Penguin puts out within the first 2 years?
I say at least 2 - maybe even one with an alternate ending, as they do with DVD's. Oh yes - a tie-in DVD! Are you listening Sanctuary?
his book! (Score:1)
(User #12004 Info)
If He Knows Anything, It's Popular Culture... (Score:1, Interesting)
1. Hold way too many things back and not reveal anything of much value at all (read: boring!); OR
2. Spill your guts completely, leaving behind blood on the tiles and a team of mop-weilding, salivating lawyers (read: unpublishable!).
By now, through bitter experience, Moz knows better than most all about critical and audience "blowback" when he releases (perceived) below par work. I would expect that he would know exactly what type of negative reaction to expect from either of the two above scenarios and will, I believe, sensibly avoid both.
I have no doubt the man has read many, many biographies in his time (he has mentioned Steve McQueen's and Boy George's in interviews to name but two). I'm confident he'll know that what you leave out is equally important to what you include and I'm sure will walk the appropraite fine line to make it a great read, but still avoid a summons.
So have faith all you cynics and naysayers! He'll deliver an entertaining read whether it's vicious, spiteful, loving or honest!
The really tough trick here will be to walk that fine line and to also retain the ongoing tension with his fans: wondering about, but never really KNOWING, this very appealing, paradoxical, talented and mysterious man.
After all, do we want to know?
Well, do ya punk?
Autobiographical Error (Score:1)
I'll tell it all for free!
signed,
Craig, Jake, and Mike Stipe
I think Moz landed a good deal. If we are talking U.S. figures here, then that's a good deal. I would have thought that in England, his story would have been worth much more. And for all the clones questioning his ability as a writer: get with it. This is Moz we are talking about here. Yeah, a book is much different than writing songs, I get that. But if there's one thing Moz likes, it's to paint his own portrait. Finally, he gets to either set things straight, or confuse things even more. Either way, it will be in his favor. No way Moz makes himself out to be the bad guy. So you know those stories about Mike and Andy are going to be classic. A man with his emotion doesn't write a boring flop on that subject.
I think the real question here, is how much of his life will he reveal? Is it just going to be a rehash of all his interviews and songs bashing the Judge, or is he going to show some real insight and candid honesty? Moz will be the victim, we already know that. But how much will Moz show so that we the reader will be able to decipher for ourselves what was fiction? Clearly Moz's ability as a writer will show in a positive way. How can it not? The only way we will be disappointed with the book is if Moz doesn't detail the truth (whether it's his 'truth' or not), or if he doesn't reveal any truth. I don't think he's going to comment on how Boz gets roided up for shows or that his team never has his back. For 2 mil, don't expect any revelations.
(User #720 Info | http://www.jimrome.com/)
My two cents (Score:1)
I think he's clearly a gifted writer-no doubt! But I hope he gets a good editor. His liner notes while stylistically unique with new insights often show his lack of a formal education. And EVERY writer needs an editor. Just hope he doesn't get offended. Either way I'll still buy it the first day it comes out and read it immediately.
(User #9668 Info)
Here Mike have some toilet roll ... (Score:1)
The truth will be told boys. I wonder what Morrissey will have to say about Mr. Marr.
This is the moment we have all been waiting for. I don't think Morrissey will be saying anything on his sex life. He won't go that far into depth but surley .. Morrissey is bond to wow the world !. -- World stand back and watch the man in the shadow unfold. --
(User #13749 Info | http://somedizzywhore.com/)
Morrissey's Bio (Score:0)
One thing is for sure--he has a kind heart. He may be nasty at times, but at the end of the day he's doing what he believes in.
Thanks to Morrissey--I'm now a vegetarian. He shed the light on what truly goes on with the meat industry. Not only is the meat industry cruel, it is actually very disgusting what they allow in meat. Even for those who don't care about animals, if you have any concern for yourself you need to find out what these corporations are up to.
Check this out--this is just what KFC is up to. It only scratches the surface of the true mess that goes on in the meat production process. (Not for the squeamish)
http://www.kentuckyfriedcruelty.com/
RABMOZZER is a pedafile (Score:0)
it's quite amusing... (Score:1)
Steven signs with Penguin. Penguin...
That made my day ;)
(User #3893 Info | http://blogawayla.com/)
Re:so... (Score:0)
He is one hypocritical bastard and I don't know if people on here are just simply thick or can't see the wood for the trees.
The only problem I have is that I LOVE HIM
Parent
Re:so... (Score:2, Interesting)
(User #2151 Info | http://www.goddessology.co.uk/)
Parent
Re:so... (Score:0)
Parent
Re:so... (Score:0)
Whenever there's a new announcement there's always the predictable posts moaning that he is going to be making money from it. So what.
Seems to me you are the ones obsessed with money.
Parent
in comparison to professional athletes (Score:1)
(User #184 Info | http://www.cato.org/)
Parent
Re:so... (Score:1)
Now to get on topic, i think Morrissey will have to put a little more in this autobiography than i originally thought for the figure provided. But i still believe that we will learn less than we all believe we will about such a guarded individual. Lots of bitching about others, but little perception about himself is what i predict.
(User #1889 Info)
Parent