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

It is difficult to discern what he wants in a label - like wants the attention of a tiny indie label, with the grandeur of a big name. I think he should swallow his pride and just sign with a small independent label, or make his own company, and get just a publishing deal with a giant. He could approach directors he likes to make the music videos he wants, surround himself with a few shrewd execs.

He also needs to accept that he's not Bowie, and the world isn't going to flock to his new album which is dropped from the ether - he needs a proper promotional schedule.


I totally agree with you although i would say even though he is not Bowie he is certainly not very far behind! I think he needs to surround himself with real professional and artists! He also needs to be more business-minded, labels/Record companies treat him like shit but then again he is not the easiest person to manage. He should go independant like Prince does for example! Or at least did.
 
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.


Whatever!!!' You're so off-topic
 
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.
Fan, you have the most badly suited username in the history of the internet. Plug that into your boring dictionary. Your comment about the recent beheading is stupid.
 
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.

Exactly! The spoken word videos were a nice teaser and got us excited and wondering what would be next. It is a crying shame that Moz's excellent new album was dropped into the world and left to fend for itself.
 
Re: TTY Statement : Please Close The Door Behind Me

I have genuinely laughed once, that was when he said in the 2004 (?) Jonathan Ross interview, after Ross invited him for Christmas Dinner, that Brussels sprouts had feelings, or something along those lines.

I think face to face and in the real world, he'd be quite a laugh and quite laddish. But I honestly don't find his lyrics funny, nor his statements. This doesn't mean that I don't appreciate his lyrics and writing. I notice the points which are funny, to others, but they simply don't amuse me, that's all.

Ok no probs. Thanks for explaining :)
 
Re: TTY Statement : Please Close The Door Behind Me

I really can't understand how some don't like this album. It is excellent. Moz's voice is at his best. The music is layered and catchy. And the production is top notch. Been listening to it in the car every day since its release and I love it more and more as time goes by. I honesty can say that I understand how it is difficult to be a fan of the man at times. But if you don't love or even like this album, you are essentially not even a fan of his music. So why hang out on Solo? I don't get it. I really don't. Maybe you are fans of discussing Morrissey? I do get that. But to say you don't like WPINOYB just boggles the mind.

Boggles me too. Top album. I don't even mind driving to work anymore cos I've got World Peace to listen to. The 90 seconds of shite at the start of Not a Man makes me swerve in anger but apart from that it's all great. I love all the bonus tracks too, maybe even more than album tracks.
 
Re: TTY Statement : Please Close The Door Behind Me

In the spirit of the other fan made videos for WPINOYB, this press release was given the same treatment:

 
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Re: TTY Statement : Please Close The Door Behind Me

No it isn't. It is WAY better. :p

Infinitely better than Refusal. A different universe. I'll refuse to listen to Refusal for years when I can listen to even a piece of World Peace, but that's my own business.
 
Re: TTY Statement : Please Close The Door Behind Me

"Everybody's laughing, it's really laughable, ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha h ah ha, ho ho ho ho, ha ha h ah ha ! "
Have you seen James's video for their song 'moving on' ? Fookin genius , love it and their latest album, such a lucky band ! He hates it when James are so successful.

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

I've read this a few times now, and I really am surprised (in the best way) by how positive it is and how forward-looking his attitude seems to be. There's a clarity to his words that I wouldn't have expected given everything that's gone on over the past few months, and with the amount of anger (much of it justified) that he's expressed in other recent TTY posts.

I'm so glad he wrote this. I'm sure there are a lot of well-meaning people at Harvest (whose names we'll never know) who are glad, too.

Boy, your fawning is nauseating.
 
Re: TTY Statement : Please Close The Door Behind Me

who are you a "FAN" of exactly? Clearly it is not Morrissey, and yet you waste your time here talking so much about him. I guess I see that as odd since I have yet to join a Justin Beiber fan site, register as a " FAN," just to slag him off.. i'm willing to bet you don't work... probably take money from the state to live... you have some "injury" right? bad headaches, can't stand too long, join message boards of artists you despise just to pass the time... meanwhile you listen to some shit that could maybe pass as music on Ibiza after everyone takes a collective Xanax? did I call it? i'm right aren't i? woe is you.. i mean, i mean, you just spent time out of your day to "inform" a group of people that you are unhappy with the actions of a celebrity, whom you've never met and has no impact on your life... maybe you thought this was a TMZ site? If not, head on over to TMZ.com, truly, they invite people to judge nameless, faceless celebrities..

and now my dentist appointment, i knew i could pass the time schooling one of the mentally challenged..

Sorry clown, I was busy today--the school where I teach started back this week. Actually, too many loners in the U.S. take money from the government, and the current administration is such a cause of the problems here--Obama is a joke--and insult.

I have been a fan since the The Smiths, and until the past three releases, continued to give him a listen. WPINOYB SUCKS. IT SUCKS.

All of you on this site who can do nothing but kiss his arse are such lemmings that it is laughable.

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

No one seems to realize that we may get new music out of this. If the album gets removed from stores and Morrissey re-releases WPINOYB with a new label he will have to add new music to the release. Can't double dip without giving us an incentive. Don't know many people who would re-purchase the album when it's just a new cover with the same songs. Morrissey himself has stated that he has albums worth of material.
 
Would a official video make much difference for a album? Do people watch MTV or TV anymore? Fans made videos anyway. Don't people mostly watch music videos off youtube now anyway? Maybe he could have got fans to make an official video? A competition? That would be cool. Lack of promotion is a problem (or lack of advertising to be more precise) - especially when i think the album this time was strong (I don't think the previous few albums were). It's sad when he produces the goods after creative criticism - and then it isn't promoted. Morrissey is right - he produced a strong set of songs. It's a shame. But I think the disintegration of the relationship in public with the label will make it almost impossible to get another deal - he's probably pushed the 'unmanageable' trait too far and no major will take the risk again. He isn't young and another 5 years in the wilderness won't be good. The options get narrower - a indie label, his own label and distribution deal, the Morrissey/Marr album or write books. I can't help but feel this is likely his last solo venture in this vein. Sad, but if he has come to a close as a solo artist - it's certainly a strong swan-song - and he proved many critics (including myself) wrong.
 
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Re: TTY Statement : Please Close The Door Behind Me

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!


Oke bye :thumb:
Go please, to the Stevie Nicks forum.
We don't miss you when you go.
 
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