Q&A: Boz Boorer, Singer-Songwriter and chief Morrissey collaborator - lasvegasweekly.com

Q&A: BOZ BOORER, SINGER-SONGWRITER AND CHIEF MORRISSEY COLLABORATOR - Las Vegas Weekly

Boz Boorer has been Morrissey’s musical right-hand man (that’s co-songwriter, guitarist and musical director) for almost 23 years. Which means he did it 18 years longer than guitarist Johnny Marr did during the lifespan of The Smiths, and yet Boorer—also the founding member of longtime U.K. rockabilly act The Polecats—remains still somewhat unknown among indie/alternative circles.

Excerpt:

Moz sometimes makes comments about not keeping friends very long, but you have worked with him now for over two decades. Why do you think your relationship works so well?

I really have no idea!

Do you find insult or fatigue with the journalists who always ask Morrissey if he’ll reunite with Johnny Marr, especially considering you’ve been his primary music man so many years now?

It's become a little boring after so many years!

Do you feel you have adequate time to make your own music and play/tour it outside of being Morrissey’s music director?

Being musical director is my main purpose, everything else fits around it.

boz_boorer_by_carmen_chaplin_t1000.jpg
 
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"Being musical director is my main purpose" aww, I love Boz!

Is "musical director" a known title in rock/pop bands? Or is it just a Morrissey thing:p
 
The interview I enjoyed the most was about his record collecting. He never really reveals much does he? Is he a bad interviee or are the questions just not probing enough?
 
"I really have no idea!" - Boz

Boz, think about it a little bit.

"Being musical director is my main purpose" aww, I love Boz!

Is "musical director" a known title in rock/pop bands? Or is it just a Morrissey thing:p
 
Girlmostlikely, I think it's just a Morrissey thing, and I would hazard a guess that it means "chief songwriter, and person who helps decide which songs by other contributors make the cut for recorded material, and what shape the live shows take". Essentially, that he's got his hand in everything Morrissey that isn't the lyrics.

And hell, maybe the lyrics as well. We need more than just Moz to blame for Roy's keen.
 
yeah going on stage as drag queen on the europeans last tour

'' I have no idea " ... me2 though he wrote some great and timeless tunes/songs

'and they say say he's mentall'...Whyteside Forever...
 
Ah, Boz -- his answers are always shorter than the questions. But I think that's part of what's kept him in good graces with Moz over the decades. As a veteran musician he manages the band, which is something M wouldn't (and couldn't) do.

One day I'd like M and B to be interviewed together. Moz is always respectful of Bozman but it'd be nice to see a side-by-side q&a with a respected music journo (who would you choose?)
 
I think 'musical director' basically means he's the leader of the band, and directs the other musicians to get the appropriate sound as requested by Moz. Obviously all the big decisions - what songs are under consideration for the setlist/album etc, come via Moz, and he just leaves it to Boz to whip the rest of the unit into shape, rehearse the band, look after the nitty gritty of the live sound, etc.
 
Ah, Boz -- his answers are always shorter than the questions. But I think that's part of what's kept him in good graces with Moz over the decades. As a veteran musician he manages the band, which is something M wouldn't (and couldn't) do.

One day I'd like M and B to be interviewed together. Moz is always respectful of Bozman but it'd be nice to see a side-by-side q&a with a respected music journo (who would you choose?)

Nick Kent?....;)
 
Well that was a remarkably uninformative 'interview', must have taken all of 8 seconds to conduct.
 
I've long since given up on the notion of an "informative" interview with Boz. He is the proverbial "company man." Fair enough, given that his work with Morrissey puts food on the table (and studios/vacation homes in Portugal) - but I'm sure he's even more protective than need be on even the most basic questions.

I'm curious if a Fifteen Minutes With... has been proposed to Alain Whyte, now that he will no longer be working with Morrissey by most accounts. That would be truly fascinating if he were to be more expansive.
 
considering the amount of ignorant shite he has to deflect from brain dead morons here and elsewhere its not surprising he is a little gaurded.
solid bloke and terrific, yes bummie terrific, musician. co written Morrisseys best ever material yet still the wankers wail.
 
I think Moz needs to capitalise on the success of his book by working with new musicians, or engaging with someone like Alain again. Choosing to play 'people are the same' and a cover of 'satellite' at the Nobel Award show was a miss-step (although maybe he just doesn't have better new songs). I like 'people' & 'scandanavia' and the other new songs but at best they are bsides. How hard can it be to get some good tunes together?
P.s. I'm reading Len Brown's 'meetings with Morrissey' book and it is a more enjoyable read than the autobiography.
 
Do you find a lot of Yanks are mostly ignorant or underexposed to rockabilly? When you do these sort of gigs in the US, can it feel like you’re the Englishman teaching American youth about the music of their own heritage—and is that weird at all?"


Oh good grief. Really? What an arrogant and mis-informed thing to say.

Yeah, bunch everyone up into one big musically ignorant group. We need the interviewer to tell us about rockabilly and how us Americans know nothing about it.

Sorry but this question ticks me off. People who take music seriously (in the U.S. and anywhere for that matter) know what rockabilly is, the importance of it and who the originators of it are.

Talk about living in an ivory tower. Interviewer Mike Prevatt is a condescending moron.
 
Do you find a lot of Yanks are mostly ignorant or underexposed to rockabilly? When you do these sort of gigs in the US, can it feel like you’re the Englishman teaching American youth about the music of their own heritage—and is that weird at all?"


Oh good grief. Really? What an arrogant and mis-informed thing to say.

Yeah, bunch everyone up into one big musically ignorant group. We need the interviewer to tell us about rockabilly and how us Americans know nothing about it.

Sorry but this question ticks me off. People who take music seriously (in the U.S. and anywhere for that matter) know what rockabilly is, the importance of it and who the originators of it are.

Talk about living in an ivory tower. Interviewer Mike Prevatt is a condescending moron.

they don't realize that we know but just don't care. It's mostly a dress-up roleplay scene and not very much about the music. Funny how white people want to relive the 1950's forever.
 
I think Moz needs to capitalise on the success of his book by working with new musicians, or engaging with someone like Alain again. Choosing to play 'people are the same' and a cover of 'satellite' at the Nobel Award show was a miss-step (although maybe he just doesn't have better new songs). How hard can it be to get some good tunes together?

Quite right - squandering the prestige of a Novello slot by playing People Are The Same was ridiculous. It's such a rubbish, dreary, nothingy song (musically and lyrically) that you really can't blame record companies for their disinterest, if that's the best he can offer in the 5 years since YOR was written.
The only glimmer of hope we have, really, is that there is a new songwriter on board - the keyboard player (apols for forgetting his name), who it seems is actually a talented musical composer and not just some bloke who can put a few fuzzy chords together with the feeblest of guitar and singing melodies sitting on top.
 
Get back to your mid 90s song writing Boz! The time when you were good!

Hell, that interviewer was terrible though. Sounds like it's more of an interrogation!
 
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I think 'musical director' basically means he's the leader of the band, and directs the other musicians to get the appropriate sound as requested by Moz. Obviously all the big decisions - what songs are under consideration for the setlist/album etc, come via Moz, and he just leaves it to Boz to whip the rest of the unit into shape, rehearse the band, look after the nitty gritty of the live sound, etc.

Well Morrissey is paying for it now by sticking with this 'Director' This bloke and the other muppets have directed him on a one way ticket to karaoke central for the last several years whilst enjoying the ride on the gravy train.


Benny-the-Butcher
 
I know I stand alone, but I really like People are the Same Everywhere. It's one in a long line of light bouncy pop ditties -- All You Need is Me, You're the One for Me, Fatty, Sing Your Life, Alma Matters etc. And before anyone brands me a brainwashed fan with no critical faculty, there are plenty of Morrissey songs I'm not too keen on.
 

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