to comment:

good poll. my vote for number 3 all albums. not obsessed. not in love (anymore). bit moz still good.

How can anyone say someone "does no wrong." Nobody's perfect...not even Morrissey! Seems like most people (myself included) are going with option #2.

one of those annoying people who complain about the polls coz I quite like them but unfortunately none of the options seemed to fit me. I adore both him and The Smiths, but I don't think he's perfect and often think 'What the hell were you thinking?'! However I don't buy all the singles and bootlegs. It's the albums for me and I try and get the B-sides and wot-not off the internet. I don't yell from the rooftops about him but I certainly don't keep it to myself either.

to be obsessed by him but not buy everything in sight. They often go hand in glove, but not always.

I definitely went through a patch of finding him the most fascinating person on the planet.
His persona when he was in the Smiths was so unique and outrageous he couldn't be anything other than mesmerising (the hair! the flowers! the blouse! the crazy one foot dancing!).

I'm obviously still very interested though I've never been under any delusions that he's perfect.
THat said, I've always admired his staunch vegetarianism and have taken personal strength from that when it comes to not murdering my own dinner.

Pass the carrot sticks chief...

...loved the Music, hated the Politics.. and am forever curious about other people's interest in him.

is the loveliest imaginary boyfriend I've ever had!

Great poll. I voted, I love him to death, but keep it to myself. It's personal.

Although, who would come on a Morrissey fan site and vote, Morri-who…well one person obviously.

I think the poll options/choices are somewhat absurd. Morrissey/The Smiths have been my singular obsession (and greatest obsession) since age 12.

I am now 32. The music is timeless, and I have never, ever found any other musical act(s) which have come even close to Morrissey's genius.

More importantly, Morrissey's music has been greatly influential in many areas of my life. Honestly!

Morrissey's words and voice had a way of consoling me and comforting me when I was very, very much alone and living in an orphanage (age 12).

The vinyl double-LP "Louder Than Bombs" was very unique and original for that era- and remains so today.

The tracks are sheer genius. "Half a Person," "Unloveable," "Asleep," "Rubber Ring," "Oscillate Wildly," "Back to the Old House," "These Things Take Time," and "Stretch Out and Wait"--

These few titles alone are breathtaking!

I owe Morrissey a great deal of thanks for saving my life.

Love always,
Ken

10th!

Anyone voting for this option is clearly a liar. After all, they take enough interest in Morrissey to visit a website dedicated to his SOLO career and to vote in said website's poll.

My response?

Moz on his own, at his best, is brilliant. But The Smiths were even better.

However, in reference to the hype surrounding ROTT, I have decided to be cautious. I am HOPEFUL, because of the involvement of Visconti, not to mention Morricone, and because of the comments that have been made about the album to date. However, I did decide to check out the archives relating to the YATQ build up (that album for me was, and remains, very disappointing) and the similarities between the comments Moz then and now, as well as between the comments of Finn and Visconti, are striking. Indeed, YATQ was said by various people before its release to have incorporated "subtle" elements of jazz, world and house music and to "twang with spaghetti western guitars"! This made it all very exciting and innovative-sounding, until one is struck with the depressing realsisation that these elements were so subtle as to be non-existent. Presumably, the jazz element was the trumpet on 'Let Me Kiss You', which lasts approximately 5 seconds, the 'world' element was the flute on 'I'm Not Sorry' and the 'house' element was the drums/acid bleeps on 'I Like You'. All of which amount to little more than the flimsiest of window dressing.

But if you compare Finn's comments with Visconti's, and Morrissey's with, errr, Morrissey, they are worryingly similar. I will reserve opinion till I've heard the songs I think.

about.

That's part of the appeal. Morrissey and Morrissey's songs are indivisible to us.

broken

Because I don't buy absolutely every record, and because my appreciation of his influence that's wider than his music is as general as it's personal, and because I don't believe he's 'perfect', and so on, what kind of fan does that make me?

MOZZISM

An organic conundrum
In the service of the ‘odd‘:
Hum his name - Morrissey -
And honour this phenomenon.

Contemporary quality
Of split self in exile;
A mosaic of mirrors
Glued with rear autonomy.

Existential processor,
Outputting fresh data,
Sorted in the presence
Of a camouflaged professor.

The concentrate distilled,
Filtered through a mind
Representing humankind,
Precipitates, when swilled: -

Metaphors and aspirations;
Good company; art;
Clear accounts and dance-music;
Joyous, live sensations;

And specially, illumination
Of passing potentials;
Glimpses of alternatives,
And pause for contemplation.

Perhaps because Morrissey has been such a widespread influence, it seems like the idea of perfection was attached to his persona. And the media (and other public opinion) tried to keep alive this idea(l) of a "perfect Morrissey" by bouncing what they perceived as imperfections through unconcilable extremes : Morrissey, kind, gentle, compassionate, antisocial, rude, umanagable, etc. Not to mention the closet gay, who nonetheless spoke in a gay language (as if gay meant another form of imperfection). When I added "unconditional love" to the end of a question I sent to him, I didn't mean to say I love him despite his imperfections. Because to me, this clivage people are making between perfect and imperfect is a facetious way of representing him. It is nonesensical too, since my idea of perfection may differ from what your idea of perfection is. Perfection to me means a form of pleasure that makes life worth living - artistic pleasure, based on the ability an artist has to reach our usually silent, extremely misrepresented depths and make it come a living organism. When depression hit me in the late 80s, it was this form of perfection that I was after: the one that could "touch" what I felt with truthful words, because beauty is not a hypocrite, mecanic speech on how to be happy, but a voiced silence on how to find happiness in truth. The 80s were really "haties" to me too, but no one was adressing this hatred with honesty. Morrissey was the first one that did, whith unlimited candidness, and I healed with this. This, to me, is perfection. Not if he's "nice" to the whole planet or not, a closet gay or not, young or not, managable or not, etc,etc.

last year, fully-armed state anti-terrorism police broke down the doors of some folks a few blocks away. Their crime was spray-painting a fence. Because their actions were animal rights related, spray-painting a fence literally became classified as a terrorist activity.

Morrissey had released Quarry shortly before all this happened, and he could not have come back at a better time. I have always thought of him fondly, ever since the days of The Smiths, but I had moved on. Suddenly, he seemed to be both very relevant and a beautiful relic, all at once.

Of course, it is his voice that has caused me to become a bit loopy - it is so remarkably strong and beautiful. He is the best port imaginable in this current storm.
       

I just voted other. I'd normally be in the top catagory but the Isle of Wight fiasco and the couple of hundred quid it cost me last year dipped my confidence slightly. I'd still defend him to the hilt mind and didn't quite sink into the second catagory.

He sat behind a million pairs of eyes and told us how we saw, what is he if not God?

Good and interesting Poll

the "Moz was in a band?" option...

Yes, yes, yes - of course I *know* he was in the Smiths and I still love the Smiths greatly, but I thought about this year and I realise that I must have listened to Morrissey every day, bar a few exceptions, but I rarely stick any of the Smiths albums on anymore.

For me, the solo career is so expansive and so full of gems - and so scarily free of stinkers (yes, shut up about Get Off The Stage and Journalists Who Lie, you) - and I just keep coming back to it time an again, esp. Vauxhall, Viva and Southpaw.

I await Tormentors with a broad grin :-D

Jessica x

He's one of my (perhaps top 5) favourite artists. I buy all his releases and I travel abroad to see several shows on a tour.

I could have ticked every option here because, as with most people I feel passionately about, my perception vary wildly from one day to the next. Sometimes I have the uncomfortable feeling that others could see him as over-rated, but I think that`s just through my familiarity with his work. I still think deep-dowm that he might be vastly under-rated and the intricacy with which he weaves his lyrics on so many different levels is yet to be given full credo. His attention to detail (even for B-sides) is astonishing. firstodie

a fag

with this poll is the "Morrissey is God" option because the idea that idols or Gods do no wrong is utterly misleading. I do love the Moz and most of what he does. Having had a bit of a difficult life myself lately and with his influence over me throughout that time I do idolise him a great deal but the idea that he is the only person in the world that doesn't drop tremendous clangers is, errr, wrong.

So that was the nearest.

Me and me lad voted for the third option. We both adore Moz and don't want to slag him off BUT having seen and met the likes of Ordinary Boys, Starsailor AND Ian Brown (all top friendly,approachable blokes) in the last month we both feel that Morrissey could and should make himself a bit more accessible to his fans. After all, he was a fan himself and surely must realise that the majority of us only want to have a normal conversation with him! (and don't want to stalk him!)
We are feeling a tad disenchanted with Moz after the way last year's tour details were released. We HOPE that gig details for the probable up and coming tour will not be released in dribs and drabs but as a proper tour schedule instead. (really it's so we can make sure we've got all our hotel rooms booked in Edinburgh, Bridlington, Liverpool, Preston,London etc!)

Answer #2. Yes, he is not perfect, but I am damn pleased with his solo career and the amazing songs that were brought forth.

I grew up with the Smiths music. They were the soundtrack to my youth. Now that I'm older, I see his growth as a songwriter and the little bits of himself he reveals in "I Can Have Both", "Speedway" and "Come Back to Camden", just to name a few. I've recently purchased "Maladjusted" and "Southpaw Grammar" to get reaquainted with this particular period. There was alot going on in my life at the time and I've sort of missed out on these releases. Morrissey's soft little voice against hard-playing guitars does stir my spirit.

I try to hear all the b-sides with the help of some friends here. They really are his hidden gems.

I'm a little intrigued with option #3. How is that someone who collects all the records and catches the concerts when he comes not consider themselves "obsessed?" How does one manage not to be "obsessed?" Or is this just an option pertaining to those that write for music magazines? Hmm. Just wondering.

If you take this morrissey forum away from him, what does he have left?

every three or four months, new material would be released and, without exception, it would contain fantastic new songs. in interviews, Morrissey was untouchable. he had an amazing intellectual clarity with an original, informed and witty view on pretty much any subject you could think up. sure there was plenty of controversy but Moz was always the 'goodie' taking on McDonalds, right-wing politiicians, the meat industry, the royals etc.
however, come the late 80's, perhaps with the release of Ouija Board, the quality of his songs nosedived and never really recovered. sure, there have been a few good songs along the way, but he's spent much of the last 15 years releasing patchy albums and badly chosen singles. the controversy's continued but it's no longer the pure, saintly Moz against the bad guys. he got caught up in serious racism accusations which he didn't satisfactorily deal with at the time and made a number of inflammatory, if deliberately misinterpreted, comments in the press. he's spent most of the last 10 years utterly obsessed with a court case and this obsession has had a huge and negative impact on his artistic muse. You are the Quarry, seven years in gestation, needed to be an amazing record, one of his best. incredibly, it was his best seller, but the album was nowhere near his best, voted something like 7th ot 8th out of all Moz/Smiths albums on this very website.
here's a sobering thought; every Smiths single contained more truly brilliant songs (i.e. at least 2) than you are the Quarry (which just had 1).
he remains an interesting guy in the bland pop arena. he's still a breath of fresh air. some of his recent songs are pretty good.
but he can no longer be considered god like.
however, I'm still looking forward to Ringleader...

...that DT could add some sort of firewall or text recognition that prevented all posts that had 'Free Yourself' and 'broken' in them?

Okay, nobody would be able to post that they were depressed because their MP3 player was ‘broken’ or advise a fellow user to 'free yourself' from an unreasonable lover or something.

Okay this control could be bypassed by ingeniously changing the names of the guilty to 'busted' or ‘3yourself‘, but please - try something! I think they are passed the point of reconciliation and there is more chance of peace in the middle east, but if you don’t want to hear about that you just don’t watch/read the news!

I am off to watch the 22.30 ITV news!

Any chance you two (3 or 10) might give it a rest for a bit?

...whose fervor for the man and his music has waned considerably since "Morrissey, You are the Quarry" was released last year. I have all his albums and many of his singles (and all the Smiths stuff, of course), but I visit them less and less as the years pass. I've seen him live a number of times, too, but if he were to roll into my town next week, I don't think I'd be in attendance. For some reason, "Quarry" really soured me on Morrissey. Apart from one or two tracks, I can't stand the record. What can I say more except: "[it] says nothing to me about my life"? I'm mildly intrigued to hear the new record next year. I mean, who can turn a deaf ear to the triumverate of Morrissey, Visconti, and Morricone? It sounds like an insane, demented, and wonderful law firm (if the words "wonderful" and "law firm" can be used together). Until "Ringleader" is released, I just can't be bothered to listen to or care about Morrissey. After that, who knows?

...is my first choice :-)

The first choice is funniest thing I've read in ages ("any and all SLAGS"), but I just couldn't bring myself to choose it...

BUT I do seem to spend a large portion of my time defending Moz against the many slags that seem to crop up all too often. How many more times will I hear "depressing" and "Morrissey" in the same breath..FFS!

ingenius poem broken!!!!!

We can safely make fun of freeyourself today knowing there are no public libraries open for him to respond to our comments!!!

9/10

the last verses capture the empty desperation of freeourself's middle age.

The funniest thing about that is that you spent so much time writing it.
Your obsession with freeyourself now takes up as much of your time as your previous obsession with naked pictures of children, and look where that got you.