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.

 

[gordyboy9]

I find this line interesting - 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

Wonder if Morrissey is suffering with something?

yes,being taken the piss out of,its a medical condition.

 

[gordyboy9]

A typical article from The Cardigan...

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/jan/26/morrissey-accuses-johnny-marr-clickbait

... which descends into 124mph eye-rolling:

"Marr is a left-wing, teetotal vegan who runs 10 miles a day. Morrissey has descended into infamy for his remarks on race and politics."

marr runs ten miles a day,only thing marr runs from is the person he used to be.

 

[Anonymous]

Talk about click bait. I think both are doing the same thing.

Who gives a shit really.

Nothing more boring than seeing two grown men, allegedly professional musicians, bicker in the public eye.

Grow up, and both move on. It isn't interesting. Just learn to ignore such commentary like everyone else does.

 

[Anonymous]

"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. And that isn’t that much of a surprise because we’re so different, me and Morrissey. But all of these different musicians, I can pick up the phone to anyone, and just pick up from where we left off.

“Everyone I’ve worked with has been great. The only thing that turned to s*** was The Smiths. Which is a shame, but s*** happens. I hate talking about the group I formed in those terms, the group I loved. But, y’know, let’s get some perspective.”

Can someone explain to me what is so viscious about Johnny's statement in Uncut magazine? I am presuming this is the one that pushed Morrissey over the edge, but if not - what interview quote got him so upset? I don't see ANY personal attack here, certainly nothing as vitriolic as Morrissey suggests, just a sense of sadness that things ended as messily as they did, and that Moz and Marr are very different people. So what got Moz's knickers in such a twist here? Genuinely confused.

 

[terrancestamp]

what is this in reference to?

The red pullover that Marr wore in the Electronic video

 

[Vegan Cro Spirit .777]

"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. And that isn’t that much of a surprise because we’re so different, me and Morrissey. But all of these different musicians, I can pick up the phone to anyone, and just pick up from where we left off.

“Everyone I’ve worked with has been great. The only thing that turned to s*** was The Smiths. Which is a shame, but s*** happens. I hate talking about the group I formed in those terms, the group I loved. But, y’know, let’s get some perspective.”

Can someone explain to me what is so viscious about Johnny's statement in Uncut magazine? I am presuming this is the one that pushed Morrissey over the edge, but if not - what interview quote got him so upset? I don't see ANY personal attack here, certainly nothing as vitriolic as Morrissey suggests, just a sense of sadness that things ended as messily as they did, and that Moz and Marr are very different people. So what got Moz's knickers in such a twist here? Genuinely confused.

He formed with Moz FFS
If he loved the group SOOOO MUCH why did he quit.
it turned to because of him the little wus
he continues to want to call Moz WTF!!!! Moz
want nothing to do with the truculent one, move on

 

[Seymour Glass]

Completely agree with Moz. Marr is a twat who wouldn't be known without Morrissey.

 

[TonyMaroneythePony]

Shots fired!!! A Smiths reunion is right around the corner for sure now…

 

[Dingoatemybabby]

"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. And that isn’t that much of a surprise because we’re so different, me and Morrissey. But all of these different musicians, I can pick up the phone to anyone, and just pick up from where we left off.

“Everyone I’ve worked with has been great. The only thing that turned to s*** was The Smiths. Which is a shame, but s*** happens. I hate talking about the group I formed in those terms, the group I loved. But, y’know, let’s get some perspective.”

Can someone explain to me what is so viscious about Johnny's statement in Uncut magazine? I am presuming this is the one that pushed Morrissey over the edge, but if not - what interview quote got him so upset? I don't see ANY personal attack here, certainly nothing as vitriolic as Morrissey suggests, just a sense of sadness that things ended as messily as they did, and that Moz and Marr are very different people. So what got Moz's knickers in such a twist here? Genuinely confused.

Right? No one can come up with anything terrible that Marr has said, just this innocuous passage. Morrissey just wanted some click bait of his own.

 

[Orson Swells]

Right? No one can come up with anything terrible that Marr has said, just this innocuous passage. Morrissey just wanted some click bait of his own.

I'm guessing it's Johnny's somewhat disingenuous revisionism he's objecting to!

 

[Vegan. Cro. Spirit 444]

I'm guessing it's Johnny's somewhat disingenuous revisionism he's objecting to.

if he had any self respect , which he obviously doesnt, he wouldnt talk about the smiths either
he louuuuuved the smiths so much he br0ke them up to join , of all the suco groups, 'the the'

but none of those suco groups put with his delusion like moz did, as soon
as he got uppity they put him on the street

 

[Sister I'm a Poet]

The more I read the statement "This is not a rant or an hysterical bombast", the more I think of the time Trump tweeted that he was "a very stable genius"!

 

[Morrissey's left nut]

Right.
Morrissey just had a record breaking residency in Las Vegas and Johnny is opening for Blondie

What record did Morrissey break in Vegas? Was he pressing too hard on the Sharpie & broke a Bowie record autographing the sleeve to sell to some hopeless weirdo at the merch table for 500 bucks?

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

"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. And that isn’t that much of a surprise because we’re so different, me and Morrissey. But all of these different musicians, I can pick up the phone to anyone, and just pick up from where we left off.

“Everyone I’ve worked with has been great. The only thing that turned to s*** was The Smiths. Which is a shame, but s*** happens. I hate talking about the group I formed in those terms, the group I loved. But, y’know, let’s get some perspective.”

Can someone explain to me what is so viscious about Johnny's statement in Uncut magazine? I am presuming this is the one that pushed Morrissey over the edge, but if not - what interview quote got him so upset? I don't see ANY personal attack here, certainly nothing as vitriolic as Morrissey suggests, just a sense of sadness that things ended as messily as they did, and that Moz and Marr are very different people. So what got Moz's knickers in such a twist here? Genuinely confused.

Right? No one can come up with anything terrible that Marr has said, just this innocuous passage. Morrissey just wanted some click bait of his own.

As Morrissey said ‘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 ?’

So it’s something that’s been troubling him for awhile it seems.



Earlier in this thread Vex posted ...



‘Morrissey has mentioned it before - in 2012 to GQ.

I'm sure you think too much has been made of that—of the Johnny Marr-Morrissey thing, that it was like some divorce, but it sounds like it felt like that.

Yes. And I felt the music really had its place. And it shouldn't be destroyed or curtailed. I thought the Smiths would still exist and would be on our thirtieth album. I think with time he realized he had made an awful decision. So the only way that he could substantiate that decision was to maintain that I was a monster. So that became depressing, and the aftermath of the group's existence became enormously depressing.’


In reply Amy posted ....



‘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.’

 

[Amy]

"Everything I had said at The Smiths demise had led me directly towards trouble, precisely because I could not explain to anyone exactly why the roof had fallen in.

You begin to imagine facts where originally, there were none.
A hurt sensation rises like dough every time your own name is mentioned.
People who have been close do not need to say very much in order to wound each other. The Smiths were my first life's pleasure, and were turned into incomprehensible sorrow." - Morrissey, Autobiography.

 

[F*ck j. Marr]

That shithead jhon marr is a crashing bore
So glad that morrissey went on a solo career

 

[Anonymous]

People who have been close do not need to say very much in order to wound each other. Morrissey, Autobiography.

That's probably closest to hitting the nail on the head. I honestly can't see many instances of Marr 'putting the boot in' to Morrissey in any recent interviews, but I guess it doesn't take much for Morrissey to feel personally attacked.

 

[Anonymous]

The red pullover that Marr wore in the Electronic video

i guess i'm just a bit confused about the timeline here: the "red pullover" must refer to marr's (admittedly ghastly) choice of outfit in the "get the message" video, but unless that aired way prior (like six months) to its single release (april 1991) then i can't see how morrissey managed to reference it in "our frank" (recorded in 1990, and even released prior to "message"). the two different versions of "getting away with it", which would fit chronologically, do not line up with the lyric

 

[Bill Braski]

Many of you claiming the latest Marr comments weren’t that bad aren’t taking into consideration things said in the past, and also things said to mutual friends that have made it back to Morrissey. The foundation of Moz’s latest rant was most likely laid with off the cuff comments to mutual friends over the decades.

 

[Anominous]

Many of you claiming the latest Marr comments weren’t that bad aren’t taking into consideration ... things said to mutual friends that have made it back to Morrissey.

Why would anybody be taking into account conversations between people you don't know that you have imagined?