Morrissey Central "OPEN LETTER TO JOHNNY MARR." (January 25, 2022)

This is not a rant or an hysterical bombast. It is a polite and calmly measured request: Would you please stop mentioning my name in your interviews?

Would you please, instead, discuss your own career, your own unstoppable solo achievements and your own music?

If you can, would you please just leave me out of it?

The fact is: you don’t know me. You know nothing of my life, my intentions, my thoughts, my feelings. Yet you talk as if you were my personal psychiatrist with consistent and uninterrupted access to my instincts. We haven’t known each other for 35 years - which is many lifetimes ago. When we met you and I were not successful. We both helped each other become whatever it is we are today. Can you not just leave it at that? Must you persistently, year after year, decade after decade, blame me for everything … from the 2007 Solomon Islands tsunami to the dribble on your grandma’s chin ?

You found me inspirational enough to make music with me for 6 years. If I was, as you claim, such an eyesore monster, where exactly did this leave you? Kidnapped? Mute? Chained? Abducted by cross-eyed extraterrestrials? It was YOU who played guitar on ‘Golden Lights’ - not me.

Yes, we all know that the British press will print anything you say about me as long as it’s cruel and savage. But you’ve done all that. Move on. It’s as if you can’t uncross your own legs without mentioning me. Our period together was many lifetimes ago, and a lot of blood has streamed under the bridge since then. There comes a time when you must take responsibility for your own actions and your own career, with which I wish you good health to enjoy. Just stop using my name as click-bait. I have not ever attacked your solo work or your solo life, and I have openly applauded your genius during the days of ‘Louder than bombs’ and ‘Strangeways, here we come’, yet you have positioned yourself ever-ready as rent-a-quote whenever the press require an ugly slant on something I half-said during the last glacial period as the Colorado River began to carve out the Grand Canyon. Please stop. It is 2022, not 1982.

Morrissey. January 2022.

OPEN LETTER TO JOHNNY MARR. - MESSAGES FROM MORRISSEY - MORRISSEY CENTRAL - OPEN LETTER TO JOHNNY MARR.

MESSAGES FROM MORRISSEY on MORRISSEY CENTRAL

www.morrisseycentral.com

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Marr, January 26th:


Some related posts moved to this thread: Johnny Marr responds to Morrissey's open letter via Twitter (January 26, 2022)

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Related item:

• Express: "The Smiths split ‘bruised me emotionally, it turned to s*** with Morrissey’ – Johnny Marr" via Uncut Magazine - January 13, 2022

Media items:

• BBC: Morrissey calls on Johnny Marr to 'stop using my name as clickbait' - January 26, 2022
• Daily Mail: There is a fight that never goes out: Morrissey accuses Johnny Marr of 'using my name as click bait' and insists The Smiths bandmate 'knows nothing of my life' in scathing letter - January 26, 2022
• Far Out: Morrissey pens scathing open letter to Johnny Marr: "You don't know me" - January 25, 2022
• Fiona Dodwell: "From Morrissey to Marr: Why THAT Open Letter Was a Long Time Coming" (January 26, 2022)
• Guardian: ‘You don’t know me’: Morrissey accuses Johnny Marr of using him for clickbait - January 26, 2022
• Independent: ‘Move on’: Morrissey tells Johnny Marr to stop talking about him in interviews - January 26, 2022
• MEN: 'Move on. It's as if you can’t uncross your own legs without mentioning me': Morrissey tells Johnny Marr to stop talking about him - January 26, 2022
• NME: Morrissey asks Johnny Marr to stop mentioning him in interviews - January 25, 2022
• Rolling Stone: Still Ill: Morrissey Really Wants Johnny Marr to Stop Talking About Him - January 26, 2022
• Stereogum: Morrissey To Johnny Marr: Keep My Name Out Of Your Mouth - January 25, 2022
• The Telegraph: Why Morrissey and Johnny Marr hate each other (paywalll) - January 27, 2022 (transcript at Yahoo!)

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Just a guess - reunion's off
FWD.

 

[Vegan Cro Spirit 555]

I never liked JM and his fake good guy persona he tries to push.
Everyone can see how desperate he is for attention
He left the Smiths without a second thought when he thought he was going towards greater success, he didn't cared about M feelings there exactly how he doesn't care for M feelings now.
Now that it is clear that Marr needed Morrissey more that Morrissey needed Marr he tried hard to get in touch and work with him again.
It didn't work so all is left is mentioning M in every interview knowing very well what he's doing (unless people is willing to believe he doesn't know that M name will be used as clickbait in the title)

very astute observation

didnt LePew quit and went on holiday with the MS because he couldnt
be in a group that covered a 'Cilia Black track'. Wasnt that the first in a long series of 'stories'?
schnogging with dudes yes
making cilia black songs no

that was 35 YRS AGO!!! why not concentrate on his all his unimportant activities since like when he was in the Mouse group with that dork who was 'the best lyricist'
talk about the mouse

yes a tatted 60 year old with a plastic hair who thinks hes a teenager is going to 'let it rip'.

 

[NealCassidy]

Morrissey calls on Johnny Marr to 'stop using my name as clickbait'

The singer calls on his former Smiths bandmate to "move on" and "stop using my name as clickbait".

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[NealCassidy]

Still Ill: Morrissey Really Wants Johnny Marr to Stop Talking About Him

Morrissey issued an open letter asking his former Smiths bandmate, Johnny Marr, to stop talking about him in interviews.

www.rollingstone.com

 

[NealCassidy]

Morrissey tells Johnny Marr to stop talking about him in interviews

‘Must you persistently, year after year, decade after decade, blame me for everything?’ former Smiths frontman asked of his old bandmate

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Famous when dead]

Peaked a couple of hours ago:

(UK trending).
FWD.

 

[Marr sucks]

Morrissey remains hilarious and witty while johnny marr and his fans continue to prove they are brain dead jimmy fallon watching idiots

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

That's the same quote reproduced over and over. He doesn't mention Morrissey - isn't that what he wanted? LOL.

@Sister I'm a Poet @Janice

That was my point. It was just one quote that was turned into clickbait.

I also said in my post, that I will not comb through every boring Marr interview, and I said in my post, that here is one thing Johnny said that may have irked Morrissey, I already mentioned that Morrissey’s name wasn’t mentioned, but that didn’t matter, because everyone knew what Marr was getting at.

 

[I'm vaccinated]

Mmm justt Publicity. I wonder after the yo- yo attacks. Maybe a new show for both of them? . And I don't care if they don't get along ( that happens every where ). I just want shows separate or together.,, Keep the jabs coming. !! I'll go to each show.

 

[Albert I]

So, the Smiths reunion will be for 2022?

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

Yes, but when I ask to give an example of a heinous thing that Marr has said about Morrissey, you don't answer. Because he didn't really...

but he has ...

Yep, and before that as well.

"He defends it (his decision to leave) simply now by saying that Morrissey is evil and The Smiths was a terrible experience. That's how he defends his terrible decision." - interview with Dave Fanning, 2002

And that's the root of all of this. When Johnny is asked about The Smiths, he's often compelled to justify his reasons for leaving. And every time he does, he blames Morrissey completely - for firing managers and producers, for making him record cover versions, for showing no interest in "new ideas", for not turning up to the Wogan show, for being possessive, etc. And Johnny might have every reason to say those things in 1987 but he's said them over and over, year and year, and has never let it go.

Every time the topic comes up, he says something else to suggest that The Smiths ended because he couldn't bear M for another second, and he looks bitter. In Autobio, Moz mentions numerous instances of this - right down to memorising headlines that the papers printed - so there is NO way on earth JM doesn't know that those comments wound him. At one point he even writes, "If the headline is wrong, Johnny does nothing to correct it."

And in the time he's spent "not correcting" the crap that the papers print, Johnny has been praising his other collaborators to the skies - even though most of those projects were glorified session work. We're all brothers, we're all best mates, X bloke is the best I've ever worked with, Y is the best band I've been in, etc. He knew those comments would hit home.

I really hope JM gets in touch privately now.

Nicely put.

 

[kissmyshadestoo]

It just stinks that their "relationship" has been brought down to this.....

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

Maybe Johnny should insist all interviews be conducted via email, allowing him to weed out all the Morrissey related questions.

That’s one way, sure.

Or he could be interviewed by his son and be asked challenging questions like "What's your favourite guitar colour dad?"

Yeah, that’s more of Marr’s speed.

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

Weirdly, Marr wanted to reform with Morrissey about 15 years ago - which seems odd if the Smiths was such an unpleasant and difficult time for him. A tremendous amount of revisionism has taken place on Johnny's behalf in the last five years or so. You can't help but feel he's done it to distance himself from Morrissey because he desperately wants to look good in the eyes of the media.

Yep.

We're at the point now where Johnny can write an article for the Spectator and receive no flak at all. Imagine if Morrissey had done that...

Too true.

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

ok so you won't mind linking me to them then

Members Vex and Amy have already linked/mentioned articles from 2002/2012 as examples of what Morrissey may see
as Marr making him out to be the monster in regards to The Smiths split.

 

[Anonymous]

I never liked JM and his fake good guy persona he tries to push.
Everyone can see how desperate he is for attention
He left the Smiths without a second thought when he thought he was going towards greater success, he didn't cared about M feelings there exactly how he doesn't care for M feelings now.
Now that it is clear that Marr needed Morrissey more that Morrissey needed Marr he tried hard to get in touch and work with him again.
It didn't work so all is left is mentioning M in every interview knowing very well what he's doing (unless people is willing to believe he doesn't know that M name will be used as clickbait in the title)

Marr was a victim of his own ego. By 1987, Morrissey was calling the shots in The Smiths, he was the creative driving force. Morrissey coined the vocal melodies and lyrics that turned Marr's music into songs. Morrissey designed the album covers. Morrissey did the publicity generating, inimitable interviews. Morrissey was the frontman and focal point of the band in the eyes of the public and for the live audiences. Morrissey fired the managers, or bid others do so on his behalf. It had gotten to the point where Morrissey was even refusing to put lyrics on Marr's musical submissions if he felt they weren't up to scratch. Marr had to either accept being Morrissey's bitch, or walk.

That's not the ego part of it, of course - that's just basic self-respect. The ego part was his not being able to see or accept that although his input was crucial, it was not really an equal creative partnership, and that he (Marr) didn't create the songs - Morrissey did. Marr simply created the music, and even there he would never acknowledge the significant input of Rourke and sometime Porter.

Consequently, going forward in his career, Marr sought to maintain the 'Morrissey/Marr were a modern day Lennon/McCartney' myth, which was simply never true. Lennon and McCartney were demonstrably both capable of writing great songs on their own - before, during and after The Beatles. But Marr couldn't, and can't. Because he can't coin interesting, memorable vocal melodies and he writes shit lyrics.

Consequently, Marr has only ever been as good as his collaborators - and his collaborators, with the exception of Morrissey, have been crap or mediocre. The exception being Tennant/Lowe, although even there, they hardly knocked it out the park with the Electronic collaborations, and he didn't co-write anything on PSB albums.

And this is why the media only really want to interview him in order to talk about Morrissey - because, regardless of the musical virtuosity of his work over the years, in terms of actual songs, he just hasn't created or co-created any that come within light years of The Smiths - so naturally that creative partnership is what still interests people most, and naturally it's what the media know they need to ask him about if they want to sell their papers/magazines/generate clicks/whatever.

And Marr knows, in turn, that if he wants to maintain a decent public profile, he needs the media, and therefore he has to play by their rules.

Morrissey is just calling him out on this, the way loads of us have been doing on this website for years. He's basically saying "your post-Smiths career has traded on my name and on The Smiths" - and he's right.

 

[Nathan1967]

I really hope JM doesn't dignify this diatribe with a response.

He did, immediately, because of course he did.

 

[Eives]

Let the music do the talking. Please Moz find an outlet to put out your new album so we can enjoy it fully rather than being stuck with Marr’s late 80’s, looking for attention sound. Your records are pure artistry.

 

[Moz Fan]

Let us know why he would be bothered in your opinion.

Quote from JM’s latest interview:

“It won’t come as any surprise when I say that I’m really close with everyone I’ve worked with – except for the obvious one... Everyone I’ve worked with has been great. The only thing that turned to s*** was The Smiths, which is a shame...”.


Quote from Morrissey’s open letter to Johnny Marr:

“Would you please stop mentioning my name in your interviews?

... If you can, would you please leave me out of it?

... Must you persistently, year after year, decade after decade, blame me for everything...

... You have positioned yourself ever-ready as rent-a-quote whenever the press require na ugly slant on something I half-said..."

IMO, anyone who isn't an ice-cold human being would be bothered, especially when guilty as charged.

 

[Anonymous]

Superb. And totally true !

Nice one Morrissey.

Hazard

 

[Multi]

this is the best thing Moz has written in years!

and for those that are defending Marr by him being asked about Moz in interviews: all he has to do is politely decline to comment.

Moz is 100% in the right!