Please Close The Door Behind Me - Morrissey statement at TTY

It's a long one!

PLEASE CLOSE THE DOOR BEHIND ME - true-to-you.net
20 August 2014

Morrissey statement

In response to 77 million questions I can only say this much on the subject of the Harvest drama. It is quite true that Harvest initially appeared like a saintly beacon of light, and they instantly packed us off to France where we recorded World peace is none of your business. The universe was back in balance, and we all considered this to be the very best Morrissey recording ever, and even the boo-hoo-suck-it-off elements of the press appeared to want to agree. At last I am born.

It all seemed too good to be true. It was. I believed that the rich soil of the album had several strong hit singles. Frayed tempers began when Harvest arranged the 'spoken word' films, none of which gave any clue as to what World peace is none of your business intended to be, or is. The films were OK, but they went nowhere and stayed there.

With every nerve alert, we pushed the label for a proper video for Istanbul to precede the album, not least of all because a single ahead of the album release might inch the album to a higher chart position. The label backed off, even though Istanbul received 55 radio plays in just seven days on a major US station. Instead, the label requested a fifth spoken-word film, which naturally had me fumbling around for an axe: no independent thought required. The UK label, meanwhile, created a quite fantastic television advertisement to transmit during the week ahead of the album release. I could taste excitement once again. The TV ad never appeared and my hackles bristled as my bristles heckled. The label responded with frosty aloofness, and I suddenly realized that we were not, after all, of the same species. I ploughed into them insisting upon "proper band videos, where the band play and I sing" - an evidently confusing concept that required seven weeks of explanation, detailed graphs and several drawn up maps.

The label suggested I come to Los Angeles and read passages from Autobiography in front of selected audiences. As frightening as that idea was, I hung on, desperate to believe that Harvest were not as cheap as they now looked. I hope to finish this statement whilst I'm still clean-shaven, so I will jump to the final curtain: during the weeks of the album release, the label were minus one single structural idea, and it appeared evident that each member of the team was acting in separate rooms without doors or windows. Mutual mistrust exploded between Harvest and I, and with fashionable pessimism, the label boss yawned and ordered the surface smartness of dropping World peace is none of your business three weeks after its release. There, now! This would not have happened to the Teletubbies.

Sorrily botched the project may now be, but it's worth it to get Morrissey out of our Inbox. Yes, I can be intensely persistent, and I certainly have an over-active fantasy-life, but the Harvest experience tells us that despite the blinding flash of teeth and smiles, it doesn't take much for the coin to flip and suddenly we're all compromised and shattered. All you need to do is disagree with the vanity of the label boss and your beheading will be slotted in between bottles of the most average champagne on the market. Just one weak-chinned drone can assert the fist of injustice and all of our efforts are flushed away. And thus ... they were.

I might be wrong, but I think World peace is none of your business will instantly disappear from iTunes and record stores and every download-upload-offload outlet on the planet, because Harvest technically have no right to sell it.

Most of the Harvest team are very nice, and I sincerely thank them for trying and caring so much - even if their promotional duties were fully undertaken by the Morrissey audience themselves, whose You Tube videos for World peace is none of your business fully provide the art that the label could not muster. The listeners instantly understood how entertainment could also be art. Staggeringly, I still believe that there's a label out there with my name on it, and one that will issue World peace is none of your business, and afford it the respect it deserves.

Thanks for reading this (rashly assuming that you have), and thanks once again to the Harvesters who tried.

We are boot-camp ready for Lisbon in October, so with the will of many gods, hopefully at least 38 of you will turn up.

MORRISSEY
20 August 2014



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Re: TTY Statement : Please Close The Door Behind Me

When the spoken word videos were released, people around here declared them to be works of pure genius.

Now they are called a bad idea to begin with, or only mildly interesting?

What changed? Oh wait, Morrissey's opinion did.

I think what changed is that we got more insight into the matter thanks to Morrissey's statement. I thought the spoken word videos (clips more like it) taken on their own were quite weird, clever and interesting. However, without any follow up it was like an appetizer without a main course. He didn't disavow the spoken word videos. He expressed his frustration that in addition 'proper' videos were not created.
 
Re: TTY Statement : Please Close The Door Behind Me

Moz is a genius writer who doesn't necessarily follow conventional rules of writing. For example, in his book, he started many sentences with, "It is...." If I was proofreading, I would have suggested he cross that out and reword the sentence, but guess who makes more money on writing? Not me. Moz is successful for having a way with words and he can use whatever words he damn well pleases.

Anyway, I wonder which US radio station played "Istanbul." I suggested to 91X in a survey that they put Mozzer's latest album in heavy rotation, which was nice of me. :)

This is more drivel blaming the record company for everything; perhaps they (like many) believed the final product (WPINOYB) is NOT GOOD.

Here is another thing--the great writer has a pronoun usage error. Mutual mistrust exploded between Harvest and I, and with fashionable pessimism, the label boss yawned and ordered the surface smartness of dropping World peace is none of your business three weeks after its release.

The correct pronoun is "me."

Secondly, how dare Morrissey use the word "behead" after the horrible event that this ISIS nutcases just did to an innocent journalist. All you need to do is disagree with the vanity of the label boss and your beheading will be slotted in between bottles of the most average champagne on the market. Just one weak-chinned drone can assert the fist of injustice and all of our efforts are flushed away.

More of the same "woe is me." This is a despicable act.
 
Re: TTY Statement : Please Close The Door Behind Me

I think what changed is that we got more insight into the matter thanks to Morrissey's statement. I thought the spoken word videos (clips more like it) taken on their own were quite weird, clever and interesting. However, without any follow up it was like an appetizer without a main course. He didn't disavow the spoken word videos. He expressed his frustration that in addition 'proper' videos were not created.

I could see the videos being a minor draw at the Hay Festival, albeit not exactly garlanded by Andrew Motion and Ben Okri for their poetic awesomeness.

But in the real world, where people listen to music and words together? Nobody in their right mind would look at those videos and think "wow, I need a copy of this new Morrissey album!"

So, Mr Moz, you make a record where the music completely overshadows the words for perhaps the first time in your career, only to then produce a series of bizarre promotional videos that focus purely on the risibly infantile lyrics? And then, as if to throw salt on the insanity, you whack a craptastic picture of you doing strange things to a dog on the front and fail completely to do any other promotional work except put out a hit on the bloke who runs the biggest website dedicated to you?

Then moan when your new record label tells you you've soid 6 copies and you should, politely, do one?

Genius.
 
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Anyway, it was fun while it lasted. But for now "World Peace" is dead in the water. I wonder, how long will this new dry spell last? Five years? Ten years?

Thank god Stevie Nicks releases a new album soon.

Rock on, Gold Dust Woman!
 
Re: TTY Statement : Please Close The Door Behind Me

This is more drivel blaming the record company for everything; perhaps they (like many) believed the final product (WPINOYB) is NOT GOOD.

Here is another thing--the great writer has a pronoun usage error. Mutual mistrust exploded between Harvest and I, and with fashionable pessimism, the label boss yawned and ordered the surface smartness of dropping World peace is none of your business three weeks after its release.

The correct pronoun is "me."

Secondly, how dare Morrissey use the word "behead" after the horrible event that this ISIS nutcases just did to an innocent journalist. All you need to do is disagree with the vanity of the label boss and your beheading will be slotted in between bottles of the most average champagne on the market. Just one weak-chinned drone can assert the fist of injustice and all of our efforts are flushed away.

More of the same "woe is me." This is a despicable act.

Pilkunnussija.
 
Re: TTY Statement : Please Close The Door Behind Me

Wow. Even if you downloaded WPINOYB from Spotify, it disappears from your saved albums.

Sucks!
 
Re: TTY Statement : Please Close The Door Behind Me

Who didn't see this coming? I called this months before the album was released...

I can't say it is really a surprise that Harvest wanted to coast off the success of Autobiography. It wasn't entirely a bad idea, either. Harvest wanted to make maximum profit with minimal investment while Morrissey was once again, in that moment, a commodity. Of course, they bungled it from the start by waiting too long to start promotion.

However, with that said, Morrissey is still culpable because he literally took no initiative to promote the album. It wouldn't have taken much to grant a few interviews or ask for a performance slot on a talk show. Also, he should have bit the bullet and not taken away Harvest's biggest and best way of promoting him & his album - social media.
 
Re: TTY Statement : Please Close The Door Behind Me

"Holy mother of dog - this is the best one yet! Finally, someone has figured out late-period Morrissey's strengths. These little gems are smart, beautifully filmed and they make use of Morrissey's spoken word abilities (which are considerable and have always been criminally underutilized). Morrissey finally seems to have conquered that peculiar, self-conscious awkwardness that has plagued so many of his videos. He's done a great job here, and so has the director.

If I didn't know who Morrissey was, and I saw this series, I'd certainly want to know more. Well done.

Anaesthine. May 19 2014, 04:31pm commenting on Istanbul spoken word.

Mozza220559 - May 19, 2014, 05:24 PM Reply
This is really beautiful. My favourite.

I really love this new side to Morrissey, it really suits him.

Mozza220559 - May 19, 2014, 05:24 PM Reply
This is really beautiful. My favourite.

I really love this new side to Morrissey, it really suits him.

Benny-the-British-Butcher
 
Re: TTY Statement : Please Close The Door Behind Me

The Morrissey Album World Peace Is Awesome forum just called - it's missing your post.

Ah....there's that wit we American's are missing. Except the last time I said something like that I was in the 7th grade.

You MUST be English.
 
Re: TTY Statement : Please Close The Door Behind Me

Who didn't see this coming? I called this months before the album was released...

I can't say it is really a surprise that Harvest wanted to coast off the success of Autobiography. It wasn't entirely a bad idea, either. Harvest wanted to make maximum profit with minimal investment while Morrissey was once again, in that moment, a commodity. Of course, they bungled it from the start by waiting too long to start promotion.

However, with that said, Morrissey is still culpable because he literally took no initiative to promote the album. It wouldn't have taken much to grant a few interviews or ask for a performance slot on a talk show. Also, he should have bit the bullet and not taken away Harvest's biggest and best way of promoting him & his album - social media.

I agree the fault likely lied on both sides. While we'll probably never get to hear Harvest's side, it was nice to get a more detailed account from Morrissey. It may be that once he realized the relationship with Harvest had gone sour, he threw his hands up and viewed any further attempts at promotion as a waste of time. After all, you basically can't buy or hear the record online anymore. What remains, physical copies already in record stores (although looks like you can still buy it on Amazon)?
 
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Re: TTY Statement : Please Close The Door Behind Me

I can't believe he used the term suck it off.
How crass of Morrissey.
 
Re: TTY Statement : Please Close The Door Behind Me

I agree the fault likely lied on both sides. While we'll probably never get to hear Harvest's side, it was nice to get a more detailed account from Morrissey. It may be that once he realized the relationship with Harvest had gone sour, he threw his hands up and viewed any further attempts at promotion as a waste of time. After all, you basically can't buy or hear the record online anymore. What remains, physical copies already in record stores (although looks like you can still buy it on Amazon)? In other words, the only way forward is to regroup and reboot with a new record deal.

That really is no excuse as far as I'm concerned. Essentially, you're saying that Morrissey would rather be petty (instead of promoting his own work) and sacrifice an album (he claims to believe in and be his best work) because he was upset that Harvest wouldn't do something that he wasn't willing to do himself?

They did all they could (within reason) to promote the album without his participation...and he even managed to sabotage that. The only reason the album has been pulled is because of him and, in the end, it is going to hurt him more than them.
 
Estamos à tua espera.

Morrissey, Portugal está à tua espera. Todos te amamos.
 
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