Robbie Williams: I wanted to be Morrissey

A Lonely Soul

New Member
I searched for this but couldn't find an existing thread, apologies if it does in fact exist...

In last Friday's Irish Times there is an interview with Robbie Williams witht he following offending paragraph...

Eclecticism, both lyrical and musical, is the key to this album. “I want to be Jay-Z. I mainly want to be Neil Tennant. I wanted to be Stephen Duffy for a little while. I wanted to be Morrissey for a little bit. So there’s all of these people I would like to be, and considering I didn’t really have a music philosophy coming into Take That or leaving Take That – other than ‘I want this to sound great’ – I kind of allow myself to go all over the musical map, and I have done with this album again.”

You can read the full article here, though I suggest not to bother!

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/theticket/2009/1016/1224256752014.html
 
He might as well throw his lookalike Norman Wisdom into that mix. Norman had a lovely voice.

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Robbie Williams wanted to be Morrissey 'cos he can only write shite songs!
 
Nobody could ever touch Morrissey for any reason when it comes to performing..there is only one Moz!
 
He used to (possibly still does) blast 'Suedehead' out of his windows to any waiting paparazzi etc

Useless fact no 469843.
 
Being a reasonable-sized fan of Robbie (ie, he's done some amazing stuff, he's done some shit stuff) I've begun to realise how much Morrissey's lyrics seem to have influenced him.

Personally, I know that people here won't agree, but I think Robbie is pretty damn good. Not life-changing-Morrissey-good, but 'that was nice to listen to' good.

I agree that one can see clearly the influence of Morrissey on RW. In this case I think it was RW's PR machinery striking once again so that he pops up with as many google news alerts as possible. It is surprising that he did not mention five more musicians. Last month he gave an interview in Cologne that I read about in the newspaper there on Saturday. Interview was going to be on Monday. They were scared for his savety because of all the fans expected. Yes, right, that's why they announced it in the newspaper to make fans come an give him the superstar look. They needed the crowd to show how popular he is. From what I have seen not that many showed up though. :lbf: He is all right though, answers your questions if you haven't understood some part of his drug lyrics. :thumb:
 
I agree that one can see clearly the influence of Morrissey on RW. In this case I think it was RW's PR machinery striking once again so that he pops up with as many google news alerts as possible. It is surprising that he did not mention five more musicians. Last month he gave an interview in Cologne that I read about in the newspaper there on Saturday. Interview was going to be on Monday. They were scared for his savety because of all the fans expected. Yes, right, that's why they announced it in the newspaper to make fans come an give him the superstar look. They needed the crowd to show how popular he is. From what I have seen not that many showed up though. :lbf: He is all right though, answers your questions if you haven't understood some part of his drug lyrics. :thumb:

Whether you like his music or not (and I realise I'm swimming against the tide) I don't think you can argue that he doesn't have his own musical heroes - him and the Pet Shop Boys have worked together often, as has Neil Hannon. He always talks fondly of Morrissey when he has spoken of him.

It always astonishes me that people think pop artists are only allowed to listen to chart-pop music and have never had a chance to have their own tastes.
 
Whether you like his music or not (and I realise I'm swimming against the tide) I don't think you can argue that he doesn't have his own musical heroes - him and the Pet Shop Boys have worked together often, as has Neil Hannon. He always talks fondly of Morrissey when he has spoken of him.

It always astonishes me that people think pop artists are only allowed to listen to chart-pop music and have never had a chance to have their own tastes.

I am just wondering about the difference between having one's one own taste and developing a musical philosophy. I know that my musical philosophy results from the sum of my musical taste. What do you think?

One may think of his music and lyrics whatever one likes, but he can sing.
I once sang Feel karaoke in the booth of a radio station and it was recorded. I picked the song because it was the one I knew best on the list. What I was not aware of until then was how incredibly up and down this song goes!
 
Hmmm, interesting...

As a side note, I read the title wrong and for a moment thought it said "Robin Williams- I wanted to be Morrissey", and was like "Um- what?" until I realised my mistake. :p

Now there's a thread I could get behind. He's certainly someone whose blood pressure could benefit from a healthy injection of Moz.

I was under the impression that Robbie Williams didn't write most of his own stuff. I do agree that the way he responded to the question felt like a conscience effort at 'tagging'.
 
In fairness to RW, he doesn't take himself too seriously and genuinely admires Morrissey. Remember this? :lbf:

http://www.morrissey-solo.com/article.pl?sid=06/05/23/0843240
Yes, I remember this from The Jonathan Ross show, Robbie seemed to be in awe that Morrissey had actually spoken to him! Didn't they live near to each other for a time in LA too, as Robbie said he had written to Moz asking to meet up or record something together but Moz never replied!
 
I am just wondering about the difference between having one's one own taste and developing a musical philosophy. I know that my musical philosophy results from the sum of my musical taste. What do you think?

Interesting point (if slightly off-topic, forgive us).

I'd have to say I'm not sure how far I agree with you. I mean, if you look at my last.fm my tastes are mentally different and quite hard to pin down. I absolutely cannot sing or write or play, but if I could I'd be happy to be a pure pop artist - so if I was a Westlife-style, soppy balladeer because it's what I'm best at (in theory), does this mean if I say I like Morrissey and Jarvis Cocker that I'm trying to make myself look cooler?

It seems pop artists are unfairly deemed as trying to ride a trend when they mention someone obscure or unexpected are in fact quite knowledgeable about styles of music they don't record within (Lily Allen and Lady GaGa spring to mind at the moment). Obviously this isn't the case across the board but I'm sure it's probably more true than it isn't.
 
There's one of his album covers I keep seeing in HMV that always reminds me of the Your Arsenal cover. It's not an obvious homage, but it always strikes me.
 
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