Brits are a cynical lot by and large, and Morrissey's wider reputation, beyond a diminishing fanbase, is almost non-existent. It is easy to think, when you are close to something, that it s the most important thing in the world, when in truth it almost certainly isn't. If people can go through their days without thinking deeply of Mozart, Beethoven, Picasso or Van Gogh, they can certainly forget about Morrissey.
There's a famous John Lennon quote he gave to Rolling Stone in the 70s:
I remember when I first heard that wondering how could Lennon possibly think that? All those amazing hits? Those iconic albums and Beatles moments woven in time? Carnaby Street, the Swinging Sixties, miniskirts, jumpers for goalposts, Beatles. Yet as you get older and hopefully wiser you realise he was right. When you think of his fate, you realise even more.
The first time I heard that Lennon quote was probably around the time Viva Hate was due and I probably hadn't fully recovered from the Smiths having split. My dearest wish then was that somehow VH would carry on the Smiths legacy untainted and without a pause for breath, and of course it largely succeeded in doing so. It is still a beautiful record, and is a perfect snapshot of that moment in time. Put alongside recent Morrissey output it is an intelligent, beautiful, wistful and delicate thing - but so is a runaway steamroller heading towards an infant school playground at lunchtime.
Morrissey's "last" UK gig passed without a whimper here. Few care. Let me rephrase that. Even fewer care. At the peak of the Smiths they seeped into the British consciousness, even earning the ultimate accolade of Radio 4 having heard of them...
.... but it was hardly mass adulation. They were always rather a secret, which was part of the attraction. Even when they were all over the media it felt like it was something for the cognoscenti. It became a sort of shorthand. If someone didn't like the Smiths you knew they were a wrong 'un: Next!
(Listening again to the reaction of the audience to that wonderful lyric makes you realise just how good Morrissey was.)
I've been posting less here because I find this current version of Morrissey stultifying boring. He isn't the same amusing, witty, razor sharp breath of fresh air he once was. The result of not having to think about how awful he is now has been that when a Smiths song bubbles up to the surface on my phone I can actually enjoy it for what it is, rather than projectile vomiting and grabbing blindly for the forward button.
In half a century's time, when most of us have gone some kid will go onto a music site and see a page about the Smiths. He'll check out few reviews to see what is worth having, and in a blink of an eye - probably with a blink of an eye - he'll download the most regarded of Morrissey's work. It'll include all of the Smiths output, Viva Hate and Vauxhall & I. The rest he'll leave, because the review aggregator told him to.
Morrissey won't have the great advantage John Lennon, Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley had, and instead shares the fate of Paul McCartney and Elton John of living long enough to balls it all up. For some reason only he can explain he's traded the short term benefit of breathing with the long term advantages of taking the easy way out and preserving his legacy.
Pure thoughtless self indulgence, in my opinion.
