Something interesting about this question is the fact that one of the BIGGEST non-musical skills of Morrissey was dealing with the press and journalists.
For some reason his troubles with the Cocteau Twins came to my mind and I remembered an interview to Robin Guthrie (whom I don't really like) and in that interview he makes this statement:
Looking back, Guthrie goes on to express a certain disappointment that Cocteau Twins failed to define the decade in the same way that many other 1980s pop-oriented acts did.
"The Cure and OMD and stuff like that," he snips. "I was aware of [them] at the time, but they were this annoying f***ing background noise.... Perhaps if our personalities were a bit more hipster we would have made a bigger splash. We were too busy making records to be hipsters. It must have been difficult, all the time that you have to spend being Morrissey, not making records. He had to spend all this time doing interviews and getting his f***ing hair done."
The derogative comment is curious, because there is SOME truth in it. One of the greatest non-musical skills of Morrissey WAS giving great interviews. The derogative comment of Robin Guthrie was actually criticizing the musical talent of Morrissey, but somehow accepting that he was GOOD with the interviews (which WAS true, he was fantastic).
It is weird how that situation has changed so much... The interviews were one of his strongest skills, but nowadays he looks like an amateurish musician with no experience with the press. I know he is entitled to say whatever he wants, but his interview with Der Spiegel was a mess... and it is hard to say that he is 100% innocent about the disaster that such interview became (I mean, he has a LONG experience with the press, it used to be one of his favorite playing fields).
