National Review / Armond White: "Morrissey’s ‘Bonfire of Teenagers’ Exposes Pop Treachery" (July 20, 2022)

Morrissey’s ‘Bonfire of Teenagers’ Exposes Pop Treachery - by Armond White.

Excerpt:

"Against feckless public response to tragedy, Morrissey pinpoints the thoughtless way pop culture can be misused to anesthetize the populace. This is as challenging as “The National Front Disco” except that the new tune elegizes youth culture’s demise. Its solemnity brings back that woeful moment when Rolling Stone’s inexcusable August 1, 2013, cover glamorized Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a precursor to the British press’s absolving of Salman Abedi. Morrissey’s chorus of “Go easy on the killer” seethes with righteous anger."

Morrissey’s ‘Bonfire of Teenagers’ Exposes Pop Treachery | National Review

In Vegas, an angry ballad scrutinizes England’s 9/11.

www.nationalreview.com

Regards,
FWD.

 

[Anonymous]

I think for most original Smiths fans it's an extreme publication.

 

[Nakedbrunch]

Armond white has vastly different politics to me but he writes very well and I'm always intersted in what he has to say, especially regarding Morrissey.

 

[Emotional Guide Dog]

I don't really get this concept that you can't be angry and compassionate at the same time.

There's also this attitude that by being compassionate you're somehow being complicit - like 60,000 people attending an entertainment event six weeks after an Islamic terrorist blew one up isn't a massive eff you to the aims of Islamic terrorism.

Compare that to Covid, as the writer here does, where people continue to chose to hide away, 'One Love' was the exact opposite.

 

[gordyboy9]

y

Once again, support from extreme right-wing sources. Who's surprised?

National Review - Bias and Credibility

RIGHT BIAS These media sources are moderately to strongly biased toward conservative causes through story selection and/or political affiliation. They may

mediabiasfactcheck.com

you would,go easy on the killer.

 

[Les Tameside]

Which newspapers wanted Salman Abedi absolved? I can’t say I’ve come across this forgiving mood in any British tabloid or broadsheet.

 

[The Seeker of Good Songs]

"Jury, you've heard every word
But before you decide
Would you look into those "Mother me" eyes..."

 

[Seymour Glass]

The only question is why isn't Bonfire of THE Teenagers?? Sounds so much better. Oh and...... WHEN THE HELL IS IT COMING OUT??

 

[snoddywilko]

Morrissey is famously not racist. But his recent views are highly regarded by racists.

But are they? Really?

Which of his views specifically are highly regarded by racists? And which racists are you referring to?

 

[Raphael Lambach]

Also - it's written by Armond White - who is also writing for Out.

Armond White - the provocative film and music critic

Armond Allen White is based in New York, where the freethinker writes his sharp reviews of culture, films and music. Always provocative.

www.out.com

In his Twitter account there's a Godard quotation.
I don't believe a right-winger writer would do so.

 

[Malarkey]

In his Twitter account there's a Godard quotation.
I don't believe a right-winger writer would do so.

I think he's a misfit-outsider more than anything else.

 

[Raphael Lambach]

I think he's a misfit-outsider more than anything else.

Perhaps, he's more interested in art than political statements.

 

[marred]

Armond White is a professional contrarian. Look up his movie reviews. He praises Michael Bay and CGI comic-book movies in order to provoke fights. He does score some good points against the critics who laud pretentious garbage, but his mode is to go in the extreme opposite direction. He's constantly feuding with Spike Lee. I don't know if his fondness for Morrissey is sincere and long-running, or if he is a come-lately to this kind of panegyric, but the latter would not surprise me.

Well Spike Lee is a total race grifting twat... so there's that.

 

[bhops]

The "fact checking" site doesn't rate them as 'extreme'.
'Right biased', 'high credibility' & 'mostly factual' isn't quite the same?
FWD.

Everything to the right of Karl Marx is the 'extreme' Right according to Uncle Numpty.

 

[bhops]

I don't really get this concept that you can't be angry and compassionate at the same time.

Compassionate to whom?

 

[Emotional Guide Dog]

Compassionate to whom?

The victims, those affected, the city itself. We'd already been blown up once and we thought that was the past.

I'm sure there's some people that wanted compassion for the terrorist but most of the people I know would've happily killed him a second time.

 

[Redacted]

Very good article, he makes some really great points
ETA: Husband says Armond White is 'a massive Morrissey fan'. has written album reviews, other articles and something about a book.

 

[Lucifer Sam]

Well Spike Lee is a total race grifting twat... so there's that.

Nevertheless a talented filmmaker.

 

[bored]

The victims, those affected, the city itself. We'd already been blown up once and we thought that was the past.

I'm sure there's some people that wanted compassion for the terrorist but most of the people I know would've happily killed him a second time.

I don't think there is an iota of anger from Morrissey to the victims. The city is a vague and nebulous concept when you start trying to define it. One might view it as the average working class people who live there. Others might think about the local politicians and police and the policies in place.

Anyway, I digress.. He's angry at the bomber.

If someone killed someone I love and then killed themself I would be angry with them forever. I would struggle to not look back on that day without feeling immense anger toward that person.

Of course I would have great compassion for others who were victims and their families.

When people then get together and have a tribute concert and sing, "Don't Look Back In Anger" I'd be completely insulted.

 

[Juan Dulces]

Nevertheless a talented filmmaker.

True. Lee started making movies when people of his race in America were finding much more of their own voice in the country, regarding both in entertainment and more importantly overall progress in society. The struggles described in Lee's films are basically universal tales for any and all peoples, with the exception of occasionally showing how African-Americans specifically encountered discrimination with some regularity. Things are still not perfect or equal in America regarding these types of things, but they are better than they were in the States when the early Spike Lee films came out.

I don't think Lee is a racist. We all get discriminated against, stereotyped - and if you don't think it happens to you, wait until you're old. Some of us, by choice or natural life (i.e, genes, location, gender), experience discrimination much more than others, which is very unfortunate but sadly I am sure that it will never be gone entirely. Any kind of repetitive pain will harden the person, making them resistant against 'feeling' the pain. However, the strength that it takes to no longer feel the pain is essentially taken from one 'shelf' (on the inside) and placed on another. Now that first shelf (possibly caring/forgiveness/tolerance for all) is at least reduced if not emptied. A person can be forever changed, but that doesn't mean that Lee acts with or is consumed by hate.

 

[Anonymous]

Nobody cares what the National Review has to say about music.

That last line "when the Bonfire of Teenagers album is finally released by some brave record label, the TikTok generation should heed its warning" is comedy gold!