Excellent and professional; sympathetic without being fawning. You must have a look.

the marr interview was very good. The moz interview isn't much of a defense as it is another bland overview of his solo career. oh well.

I feel that the Morrissey article in particular was rather dreary and painted Morrissey as being some mythical artist recluse, similar to Camille Claudel, and is still "reeling" from the so-called immense loss of Johnny Marr. Although I realize and do believe that the unification of Morrissey and Marr created many many wonderful songs - lyrically and musically - I do not, for a moment, believe that Morrissey has lost his soulmate and should be content with crying in a corner of Los Angeles. Morrissey has proven to me at least that he can and will write poignant and classic songs. He's still got it and if he needs to step back from the public eye like the one I am now participating in, well, can you blame him?

I wonder if the writer of the Morrissey essay
has actually listened to Southpaw Grammar and
MAladjusted, because the quick dismissals of them
are quite unjust. Some of the songs on those
albums and the accompanying b-sides are fantastic
and among my most listened to. For example: "Reader Meet Author," "Nobody Loves Us,"
"T{ouble Loves Me, "Wide to Recieve," "Lost,"
"This is not your Country," "Southpaw"...the list could on.

I do not find "Southpaw Grammar" in any way "dull." It ROCKS from start to finish.
I can see how "Maladjusted" can be attacked
as not venturing into new ground, but it nonetheless is a nice addition to the body of work. There always will be the major works
and the minor works.

And why no mention of My Early Burglary Years, a most wonderful compilation?

The only unfortunate low point of the solo years
(outside of the recent absence of ne material)
was Kill Uncle. I'm not sure what was going on back then that allowed Morrissey to accept such a subpar effort, but I was disturbed when I read in a Spin magazine interview at the time that Morrissey was trying to tell us the music side of his songs is not important, its all about the voice and lyrics. I thought at the time he certainly cannot mean what he is saying, but must be feeling defensive about the album. Fortunately he quickly got a group together, went on a great tour (a tour which showed us that the songs on Kill Uncle were better than we thought, when played by the band), and the albums that followed - Your Arsenal, Beethoven Was Deaf, Vauxhall and I - marked another creative peak, right up there with The Smiths.

A curious thing about the solo years has been the way so many of his finest songs have been
b-sides. I'm not sure if this is because Morrissey felt they didn't fit the albums, or
if he doesn't always know what his best songs are,
or if he does it as a way to reward his best fans and keep casual observers in the dark on just how great he is. Whatever the case, I have sometimes put togther the songs from the various periods the way I wish Morrissey had, and I have to say I feel these albums-that-could-have-been are as good as any of The Smiths' albums. The albums that we actually got, however, are not.

Therefore, there are as many great songs in the solo years as there were with The Smiths, however, there also are more average to subpar songs, and the albums themselves are not as strong from first track to last. This led to
the mistaken impression by the casual observer that he was not as good a songwriter in the 90s as in the 80s.

It also needs to be stated that as a live performer he got better and better all through the 90s.

As for what is going on now, it's very unfortunate that there hasn't been an album
in so long. I was always impressed by how
prolific Morrissey was, and one wonders if
he's still writing songs at the same pace but just not putting them out, or if he has
turned his back on it all for awhile. I so miss the excitement of speeding to the record store
to pick up the new release. I never feel quite the same excitement for anyone else's new releases. I hope he knows there are still many people waiting with baited breath for his next move.

Finally, I must disagree with what Grant Showbiz said. I don't know what Morrissey does on a daily basis right now, but it's quite impossible to be alive and not have experiences you can write about. So, as long as Morrissey is still conscious, hearing, seeing, feeling, etc, wherever he is, wherever he goes, even if he's a shut-in, he will have plenty of potential inspiration from which to write new songs. If anything, a retreat back behind the curtain for awhile, away from the pop star world, will only strengthen his future output. One gets concerned when pop stars start writing too many songs about being a pop star, an existance few people relate to.

LoafingOaf
[email protected]

Gosh - what intelligent stuff!

The interview conducted by Antonella Black can probably (if it is the same interview, the year is the same at least) be found in the The arcane old wardrobe (link provided at Morrissey's solo main page). As for the other interview, I'm still trying to find some webapge where it might have been posted.

Ah, that's what I've been doing!