Theo
Active Member
I never liked how Morrissey put a brand new cover on the special edition of "Viva Hate." (It also disturbed me that the bonus tracks on that edition included Morrissey songs from an entirely different period of his solo career. This should also be forbidden.)
It is my understanding he's putting a new cover on "Southpaw Grammar" for it's reissue.
It is acceptable to do some tweaking of the cover to clearly mark it a different edition of the album. For example, altering the coloration of the special edition of "You Are The Quarry".
But whatever Morrissey thinks of the cover of "Southpaw Grammar" today, it's no longer his or anyone else's right to try and "correct" that today with an entirely new cover.
"Southpaw Grammar" is an album with these songs in this exact order:
1. "The Teachers Are Afraid of the Pupils"
2. "Reader Meet Author"
3. "The Boy Racer"
4. "The Operation"
5. "Dagenham Dave"
6. "Do Your Best and Don't Worry"
7. "Best Friend on the Payroll"
8. "Southpaw"
With this cover:
Remastering the songs is allowed. Changing their order or sticking other tracks within the track listing is not. Bonus tracks should appear after the final album track and be clearly marked as bonus tracks on the track listing. These bonus tracks must be from studio sessions or live performances that took place during the "Southpaw Grammar" period of his career. Any changes to the cover art for the reissue should be to signal that this is a special reissue of the album, not to erase the old cover out of existance in its entirety.
Morrissey frequently disparages the covers of "Southpaw Grammar" and "Maladjusted" nowadays. He suggests other people are to blame, etc etc. Whatever happened in those days is what happened. You can't re-do it now. I think both those albums are way better than the stuff he's been putting out the last couple years. No, I don't like the "Maladjusted" cover art much, but it's the cover of the album and always will be. I do like the cover of "Southpaw Grammar". But this is neither here nor there. I liked the original cover of "Viva Hate" and, if it had been the cover of some other recording, I liked the new cover on the "Viva Hate" special edition. It just didn't belong on the front of "Viva Hate." A person should know the album is "Viva Hate" upon first glance of the cover, without reading the words on the front.
Now, a person might say an album is like a novel, and novels constantly have new artwork stuck on them. But do you want record companies to stick new cover art on Smiths and Morrissey albums into the future, long after he's dead? The cover is part of the album. The covers of novels have always been up to the publishers. "Southpaw Grammar" is the 8 songs and cover that was originally released, and so it should remain until the earth is burned up by the sun.
The only exception to this rule is if, at the time the album was made, there had been a dispute between artist and record label and the record label did not allow the artist to use the cover he originally had intended, or if different covers were released in different parts of the world. In such cases it becomes like when a movie director puts out the "director's cut" of a movie. This is to be distinguished from the movie director who looks back on his movie a decade later and the ten-year-older director decides if he were making the movie today he'd do things differently and so now he's gonna change the movie in hindsight. This should not be allowed, yet it has occured on occassion. I like to be able to go back to a movie as I grow older and know that the movie has not changed, only I and the world have.
Please don't tell me I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, or that I'm just trying to invent controversy where there is none because I'm bored. It is my hope someone will intervene and tell Morrissey he is not allowed to stick a new cover sleeve on "Southpaw Grammar" that reflects his tastes in 2008, but he may tweak it to indicate it is a special edition so long as it preserves the aesthetics of the original cover sleeve. In this way, "Southpaw Grammar" will still be the "Southpaw Grammar" that people either loved or loathed when it was first released, and the "Southpaw Grammar" remastered special edition with bonus tracks will not seek to correct any "mistakes" from the past or revise history, but simply be offered to allow people to have and enjoy a special version of the same old album, and perhaps encourage people who didn't appreciate it at the time to give it another chance.
It is my understanding he's putting a new cover on "Southpaw Grammar" for it's reissue.
It is acceptable to do some tweaking of the cover to clearly mark it a different edition of the album. For example, altering the coloration of the special edition of "You Are The Quarry".
But whatever Morrissey thinks of the cover of "Southpaw Grammar" today, it's no longer his or anyone else's right to try and "correct" that today with an entirely new cover.
"Southpaw Grammar" is an album with these songs in this exact order:
1. "The Teachers Are Afraid of the Pupils"
2. "Reader Meet Author"
3. "The Boy Racer"
4. "The Operation"
5. "Dagenham Dave"
6. "Do Your Best and Don't Worry"
7. "Best Friend on the Payroll"
8. "Southpaw"
With this cover:
Remastering the songs is allowed. Changing their order or sticking other tracks within the track listing is not. Bonus tracks should appear after the final album track and be clearly marked as bonus tracks on the track listing. These bonus tracks must be from studio sessions or live performances that took place during the "Southpaw Grammar" period of his career. Any changes to the cover art for the reissue should be to signal that this is a special reissue of the album, not to erase the old cover out of existance in its entirety.
Morrissey frequently disparages the covers of "Southpaw Grammar" and "Maladjusted" nowadays. He suggests other people are to blame, etc etc. Whatever happened in those days is what happened. You can't re-do it now. I think both those albums are way better than the stuff he's been putting out the last couple years. No, I don't like the "Maladjusted" cover art much, but it's the cover of the album and always will be. I do like the cover of "Southpaw Grammar". But this is neither here nor there. I liked the original cover of "Viva Hate" and, if it had been the cover of some other recording, I liked the new cover on the "Viva Hate" special edition. It just didn't belong on the front of "Viva Hate." A person should know the album is "Viva Hate" upon first glance of the cover, without reading the words on the front.
Now, a person might say an album is like a novel, and novels constantly have new artwork stuck on them. But do you want record companies to stick new cover art on Smiths and Morrissey albums into the future, long after he's dead? The cover is part of the album. The covers of novels have always been up to the publishers. "Southpaw Grammar" is the 8 songs and cover that was originally released, and so it should remain until the earth is burned up by the sun.
The only exception to this rule is if, at the time the album was made, there had been a dispute between artist and record label and the record label did not allow the artist to use the cover he originally had intended, or if different covers were released in different parts of the world. In such cases it becomes like when a movie director puts out the "director's cut" of a movie. This is to be distinguished from the movie director who looks back on his movie a decade later and the ten-year-older director decides if he were making the movie today he'd do things differently and so now he's gonna change the movie in hindsight. This should not be allowed, yet it has occured on occassion. I like to be able to go back to a movie as I grow older and know that the movie has not changed, only I and the world have.
Please don't tell me I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, or that I'm just trying to invent controversy where there is none because I'm bored. It is my hope someone will intervene and tell Morrissey he is not allowed to stick a new cover sleeve on "Southpaw Grammar" that reflects his tastes in 2008, but he may tweak it to indicate it is a special edition so long as it preserves the aesthetics of the original cover sleeve. In this way, "Southpaw Grammar" will still be the "Southpaw Grammar" that people either loved or loathed when it was first released, and the "Southpaw Grammar" remastered special edition with bonus tracks will not seek to correct any "mistakes" from the past or revise history, but simply be offered to allow people to have and enjoy a special version of the same old album, and perhaps encourage people who didn't appreciate it at the time to give it another chance.
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