Looking for a documentary... help

DJCeremony

Member
Hey everyone. About 2 or 3 months ago I watched a part of a documentary online. I'm trying to find it again, but can't seem to!

It had a portion about Viva Hate, and featured interviews with both Vini Reilly and Stephen Street, who had very contradictory stories regarding who wrote the songs on Viva Hate. Each was essentially laying claim to the writing and calling the other a liar. It was super interesting... does anyone know what I'm talking about and can suggest a link? Thanks!!
 
I've seen this.
I wonder if it's from the unauthorized documentary called 'Morrissey The jewel in the crown' which can be found on youtube.
 
Yes - that's the one. Vini Reilly is a great guitarist but his claim to have written half of Viva Hate is clearly bonkers. The man is plainly insane.
 
He undoubtedly came up with the guitar parts. That's normally considered "arranging" rather than "writing", but he probably thinks his work is too good to be dismissed as mere "arranging". Possibly misleading and a bit disrespectful to Stephen Street, but I don't think "insane" is fair.
 
He undoubtedly came up with the guitar parts. That's normally considered "arranging" rather than "writing", but he probably thinks his work is too good to be dismissed as mere "arranging". Possibly misleading and a bit disrespectful to Stephen Street, but I don't think "insane" is fair.

First I was going to disagree but you are right, except that arranging and writing definitely overlap. I would say though that arranging generally means taking other people's material using as little as a melody line and fleshing it out with other instruments. It will obviously sound different if arranged for solo guitar than for a band. But when a piece hasn't been performed previously and the arranging is part of the initial recording, and the arranger is embellishing I can see how the arranger would honestly feel cheated by not getting some sort of lesser writing credit, generally speaking. I don't know who did what in this case.
 
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