As a fan who has been around since the mid-late 90s on this website (more as an observer in recent years), I wanted to post a message of good will to the inimitable Morrissey and his band. Despite all the vicious attacks on Morrissey's character and on the talent of his band, I am looking forward with relish to seeing him live in London next month, and to his next album, assuming he gets a deal and gets it out where it belongs - on the record store shelves.
I too had doubts about Jesse - and expressed them stridently around the time Ringleader was released - but 'Years of Refusal' was a striking record and blew any doubts out of the water. The finest songs on YOR rank for me alongside Morrissey's finest work, up there with The Queen is dead, The Smiths, Strangeways, Viva Hate, Vauxhall and Quarry. 'Something is Squeezing my Skull' is his most potent album-opener since TQID and served as bootlaces to the lips of those who dared question his ability to pack a punch thirty years on. 'Mama Lay Softly on the Riverbed' is arguably my favourite solo song since the 1980s. It took a little while for Jesse to settle in but I do think he's proven himself to be a fine musician on YOR. YOR is the morrissey record I reach for most often two years on. It's that good.
That Morrissey is still able to do it at age 52 is a miracle; that he is able to do it with such style and eloquence - and a ferocity of spirit that belies his years - is all the more remarkable. Someone who has been - and remains - so great is beyond criticism as far as I'm concerned. I hope he continues for as long as he is able and that he continues to attack this spineless, vacuous, mechanical society we've created.
The great thing about Morrissey is that he never grows up - he remains what he has always been: an outsider, an extremely articulate pre-adult, grappling with the questions most of us simply put on the backburner and learn to forget about. The transformation into adulthood - for most of us - is a trick of the light, an illusion. Morrissey will not forget, will not acquiesce, will not simply roll over and play submissive to the powers that be. And thank God for that.
I have watched recent events unfold with interest and a raised eyebrow. The falling out between Morrissey and this website is obviously terminal and I do feel it's up to Morrissey whom he wishes to sing to. Why should he have to sing to David Tseng if he wishes not to? Having said that, David is, as a few of you have observed, out of pocket and it wouldn't hurt for someone to compensate David. I can see both sides.
My loyalty is to Morrissey, not to David Tseng. Let's get behind our hero and wish him well as he trails a blaze in his fourth decade in popular music. Is there another artist with his legacy? No. Morrissey single-handedly created indie music, influenced almost every band presently doing thr rounds, helped re-invent guitar music (along with Marr and the Roses), has influenced and changed pop culture in ways that even now we struggle to grasp, and has thrilled fans over three decades with great songs. The four classic Smiths albums alone would guarantee his place forever in our hearts. That's a record few bands except perhaps the Beatles, Stones and Bowie can match. but when you hurl in his magnificent solo work, his legacy is more or less peerless.
A lot of the people who frequent this site are haters; some are adolescents; many more are bitter and hankering after 'the good old days.'
Morrissey is not going back to a bedsit in Daveyhulme. He's not going back to Johnny Marr. Morrissey remains the one authentic voice in popular music with the capacity to shred my heart, make me laugh and cry in the same song. Nobody else can do this.
In summary, I shall return to my dignified silence on this site, I'll continue looking for news here, and I'll continue watching morrissey live with the same love I have always felt for an artist i adore. Yes, I hope david receives a refund for the Copehagen fiasco, but I feel it's Morrissey's right to ban him if this is what he wants.
You don't get psychobabble, 2.4 children and perspiration with Morrissey: he's a true artist, and different rules apply. If you don't understand this, then perhaps the past 15 albums+ have gone straight over your head.
Ernest Hemmingway, Oscar Wilde, Vincent Van Gough, George Orwell, Mozart - none of these people were Mr Average; none of them were necessarily people you would want as nextdoor neighbours; but they changed their art forever - they inspired themselves, they dreamed, they created and they left their footprints in our spirits. Morrissey is in that company. His personal qualities are similarly unimportant to me.
Morrissey, I look forward to seeing you in London and I hope you realise this site does not speak for all or indeed many of us. This site is a joke. You are real.
Ever your fan,
broken
