Does Johnny Marr care about Morrissey's health?

[Anonymous]

Sometimes I think about how Johnny feels when Moz gets ill or even how he would feel if Moz dies. Surely he cares. Or not?

 

[realitybites]

A more interesting question, imo, is, does Morrissey care about Johnny's well being? If he died tomorrow would he receive the royal eulogy on TTY?

 

[Anonymous]

i think both still care and would be in the least somehow effected

 

[bhops]

A more interesting question, imo, is, does Morrissey care about Johnny's well being? If he died tomorrow would he receive the royal eulogy on TTY?

Yes I believe he would. Court case aside I thought he wrote about Johnny (and Angie) quite tenderly in Autobiography.

 

[Animalsarefriends1988]

I think there is still a deep rooted mutual respect. It's just buried under the surface.

 

[Amy]

Yes I believe he would. Court case aside I thought he wrote about Johnny (and Angie) quite tenderly in Autobiography.

If I were Johnny and I read Autobiography (and surely he has), I wouldn't find any comfort from reading the Smiths sections that wasn't completely obliterated by the character assassination in the court case pages. Morrissey depicted Johnny as a naive, cowardly, drunken duplicitous weasel of a man - a chameleon who always blends in with the people around him but has no real loyalty to anyone.

"What would they say at Salford Lads' Club if they caught the stench within these walls - Johnny Marr crying off for being held accountable for his own actions, and all Mancunian cameraderie shafted. Now, like Joyce, he too speaks with the voice of a child begging forgiveness, and the hunchbacked Weeks now looks as if he has his catch. It takes courage to make yourself unpopular with your legal bully-boys for the sake of mere loyalty, and Johnny did not have that courage. A virtuoso of to-ing and fro-ing, you might swear that you are in the company of identical triplets as Johnny stands before you."

Very hard to repair a friendship after a write-up like that.

 

[bhops]

If I were Johnny and I read Autobiography (and surely he has), I wouldn't find any comfort from reading the Smiths sections that wasn't completely obliterated by the character assassination in the court case pages. Morrissey depicted Johnny as a naive, cowardly, drunken duplicitous weasel of a man - a chameleon who always blends in with the people around him but has no real loyalty to anyone.

"What would they say at Salford Lads' Club if they caught the stench within these walls - Johnny Marr crying off for being held accountable for his own actions, and all Mancunian cameraderie shafted. Now, like Joyce, he too speaks with the voice of a child begging forgiveness, and the hunchbacked Weeks now looks as if he has his catch. It takes courage to make yourself unpopular with your legal bully-boys for the sake of mere loyalty, and Johnny did not have that courage. A virtuoso of to-ing and fro-ing, you might swear that you are in the company of identical triplets as Johnny stands before you."

Very hard to repair a friendship after a write-up like that.

It depends in what context you take it. Morrissey called it how he saw it Re. the court case, but I though wrote about Johnny really nicely overall. I was at several days of that court case and without knowing the in's and out's of The Smiths Johnny did seem very all over the place with his testimony and overall demeanor. Angie muttering away in the gallery every time Joyce whined on about how hard his life was seemed made of sterner stuff

 

[Anonymous]

It depends in what context you take it. Morrissey called it how he saw it Re. the court case, but I though wrote about Johnny really nicely overall. I was at several days of that court case and without knowing the in's and out's of The Smiths Johnny did seem very all over the place with his testimony and overall demeanor. Angie muttering away in the gallery every time Joyce whined on about how hard his life was seemed made of sterner stuff

You were there?! What was Moz like?

 

[bhops]

He looked a tad sullen, and then tired and the agitated. Clearly Joyce's team knew enough to understand that the longer they kept Morrissey on the stand the more it would further their case. Morrissey didn't do himself any favours but Joyce did even less IMHO. From memory he didn't even begin to look into his finances until after the The Smiths ended and he was trying to buy a house. I mean shouldn't he have felt compelled to do due diligence on his contractual rights within The Smiths during the time he was in the band? In full disclosure I didn't go every day but from what I saw Morrissey & Marr's team but up far more evidence and the recollection of people like Joe Moss whereas all Mike had was ropey memories of conversations he and a drug addled Andy had with Johnny on the subject. I think one of the may have been a night around at Johnny's watching 'William' being played on TOTP's.

John Weekes loathed Morrrissey though, anyone in the courtroom could see that. I felt it was something of a hatchet job. I wish I'd taken notes! Rogan was definitely scribbling away so maybe he will one day come out with a definitive account of the trail. My only reservation about that was he did seem very chummy with Andy and Mike and he seemed to disappear off with them in the lunch breaks, so I'm not sure what his bias may be on the matter.

 

[Anonymous]

If I were Johnny and I read Autobiography (and surely he has), I wouldn't find any comfort from reading the Smiths sections that wasn't completely obliterated by the character assassination in the court case pages. Morrissey depicted Johnny as a naive, cowardly, drunken duplicitous weasel of a man - a chameleon who always blends in with the people around him but has no real loyalty to anyone.

"What would they say at Salford Lads' Club if they caught the stench within these walls - Johnny Marr crying off for being held accountable for his own actions, and all Mancunian cameraderie shafted. Now, like Joyce, he too speaks with the voice of a child begging forgiveness, and the hunchbacked Weeks now looks as if he has his catch. It takes courage to make yourself unpopular with your legal bully-boys for the sake of mere loyalty, and Johnny did not have that courage. A virtuoso of to-ing and fro-ing, you might swear that you are in the company of identical triplets as Johnny stands before you."

Very hard to repair a friendship after a write-up like that.

Johnny has more reason to feel aggrieved about Morrissey dragging him through the whole sorry process that Morrissey has to feel aggrieved about Johnny's unwillingness to fight to the death, throwing good money after bad just to drag out a painful process. Let's face it, the case was over before Weeks even sat down.

Anyhow, I think Johnny will probably have been more annoyed about how Morrissey describes other people rather than himself. You'd have to be a pretty doe-eyed sychophant not to read the stuff about Geoff Travis and Craig Gannon and not realise that, brilliant artist though he may be, Morrissey is also a bit of a c***.

 

[Anonymous]

Johnny said the same about Craig Gannon. So he must be a c***, too. Well ...

 

[Anonymous]

Johnny said the same about Craig Gannon. So he must be a c***, too. Well ...

When was this? The last interview I read with Johnny where he talked about Craig he was complimentary and apologetic about the way he was treated when he was in the Smiths. He said something like "Craig handled himself in exactly the right way".

 

[Amy]

When was this? The last interview I read with Johnny where he talked about Craig he was complimentary and apologetic about the way he was treated when he was in the Smiths. He said something like "Craig handled himself in exactly the right way".

Maybe the years have mellowed Johnny a bit, but he certainly never liked Gannon at the time. I seem to remember an anecdote about Gannon eating a bacon sandwich on the tour bus and being called "disgusting" by JM, who also thought that he didn't pull his weight in the band and caused problems by smashing up hotel rooms, etc. No love lost there.

From The Severed Alliance: "Trying to have a conversation with Craig was just impossible after about five minutes. He had nothing to say and little to contribute. [...] Musically, he fitted in, but he was a lazy bastard and that's all there is to it."

 

[Anonymous]

Maybe the years have mellowed Johnny a bit, but he certainly never liked Gannon at the time. I seem to remember an anecdote about Gannon eating a bacon sandwich on the tour bus and being called "disgusting" by JM, who also thought that he didn't pull his weight in the band and caused problems by smashing up hotel rooms, etc. No love lost there.

From The Severed Alliance: "Trying to have a conversation with Craig was just impossible after about five minutes. He had nothing to say and little to contribute. [...] Musically, he fitted in, but he was a lazy bastard and that's all there is to it."

This is all a long long time ago, though. There's no doubt Craig was treated badly when he was in the Smiths, by Johnny in particular. And, sure, maybe you can fairly accuse Johnny of a bit of sly c***ery with the bacon sandwich thing. But he was barely an adult. Dedicating whole pages of a book to attacking someone with transparent half-truths and distortions nearly three decades on, without pausing once either for breath or to dilute it with something less vitriolic, is another level.