Simon Bird (Inbetweeners) 'can no longer listen to' Morrissey (January 27, 2023)

“I refuse to give up on The Smiths, but the cognitive dissonance that’s required to listen to Morrissey now is too much. It’s a shame because it’s an incredible song.”
The song is Now My Heart is Full.
www.nme.com/features/tv-interviews/simon-bird-soundtrack-of-my-life-3388152

 

[Emotional Guide Dog]

If you say something like 'I'll still listen to The Smiths but not his solo work' presumably you weren't listening to much solo stuff to begin with.

It's also weird that you'd pull the political views card and write on the other side that the none-more-white Smiths are fine while the multicultural solo work is not.

 

[Mayfly]

I can't wrap my head 'round the logic of this. Morrissey is as much involved in The Smiths as he is in his solo work. Perhaps even more so, if you consider the sleeve designs. Who does he think wrote The Smiths' lyrics?

I totally agree with you, but don’t expect these people to think too hard.

These people think that The Smiths = 50 % Morrissey and 50 % Johnny Marr, the latter still enjoying their full support. Countless people have already said that JM can’t be held responsible for Morrissey’s ugly mouth. The same should hold for Boz or Alain or Jesse, but their music comes under the name of Morrissey. And it seems that pronouncing the name Morrissey has become too toxic a thing to do for these moralists. When they say that they are listening to the Smiths, at least they are not mentioning his name directly.

And then there is the bandwagon effect Of social media.

 

[Deleted member 29227]

Hasn't there been a few statements from other 'nonsense non-stars' such as this over recent years?
Can't recall who they were (& why even bother trying to remember), but the theme was the same, 'I can listen to the Smiths, but not Morrissey'. Complete nonsense all round from attention seekers.

 

[ACTON]

What a twat.

 

[Anonymous]

I can't wrap my head 'round the logic of this. Morrissey is as much involved in The Smiths as he is in his solo work. Perhaps even more so, if you consider the sleeve designs. Who does he think wrote The Smiths' lyrics?

The narrative most of my friends who have dumped Moz have hit on is that it is only after the Smiths split that he turned into a 'giant racist'. I'm not so sure how well that holds up, but it allows them to hang onto their Smiths records whilst the rest was binned.

 

[NealCassidy]

Of course he listens, it just desperate virtue signalling which unfortunately for anyone other than the headstrong is inevitable and help a z list celebrity, we should not be surprised. See also Tyson fury, Jordan Peterson, Nigel farage blah blah

 

[The Irish Hare]

“I refuse to give up on The Smiths, but the cognitive dissonance that’s required to listen to Morrissey now is too much. It’s a shame because it’s an incredible song.”
The song is Now My Heart is Full.
www.nme.com/features/tv-interviews/simon-bird-soundtrack-of-my-life-3388152

Hold the page, New headline. Dirty Bird parrots he can't listen to Morrissey but can listen to him as The Smiths. If that doesn't work for attention he will change his pronouns to "nitwit" and shout obscenities from his illustrious TV shows, at unsuspecting passer-boys. Waiting for the filming to finish on "Inbetweeners Da Movie - Revenge of the Clowns.

 

[Johnnie Ray]

Another one of these massive overly PC hive mind retards. How we love them.

The complete OPPOSITE of how a Morrissey fan used to think. Only the dumb ones remain. Sad...especially for Morrissey.

 

[Johnnie Ray]

Inbetweeners? What is that? Are they those annoying guys who did that "I Would Walk 8000 Miles" song?

GD, instead of being a f-ing moron, pull up google and type Inbetweeners or if that is too many letters, try Simon Bird. Google is a cool new invention which renders being dumb obsolete!

 

[Johnnie Ray]

I have to say, I cannot stand 95% of the few remaining Morrissey fans. These are the bad old days for sure.

 

[Emotional Guide Dog]

The narrative most of my friends who have dumped Moz have hit on is that it is only after the Smiths split that he turned into a 'giant racist'. I'm not so sure how well that holds up, but it allows them to hang onto their Smiths records whilst the rest was binned.

There were arguments about Panic, he wasn't far removed from The Smiths when he wrote Bengali In Platforms (albeit I think that's clunky rather than racist), then there was the odd comment here and there in The Severed Alliance.

Frankly, all I've ever seen and heard of Moz outside of the music would suggest he's never been a particularly pleasant human being. I don't consider that a reason to bin the records.

 

[Gregor Samsa]

The complete OPPOSITE of how a Morrissey fan used to think. Only the dumb ones remain. Sad...especially for Morrissey.

Huh? Moz fans used to be overly PC hive-mind morons? That’s definitely not true.

 

[William Fisher]

The narrative most of my friends who have dumped Moz have hit on is that it is only after the Smiths split that he turned into a 'giant racist'. I'm not so sure how well that holds up, but it allows them to hang onto their Smiths records whilst the rest was binned.

Moz didn’t change, the world did.

 

[ThePoliticalRevolution]

Moz didn’t change, the world did.

Broadly speaking, this is correct.

 

[gashonthenail]

I love The Inbetweeners. I love Morrissey.
Do I care what Simon Bird's views are? No, not at all. See how that works?

 

[Seymour Glass]

Wow, what a brave stance you've taken Simon!!! We're all VERY impressed, whoever you are.

 

[Seymour Glass]

GD, instead of being a f-ing moron, pull up google and type Inbetweeners or if that is too many letters, try Simon Bird. Google is a cool new invention which renders being dumb obsolete!

He was joking you imbecile.

 

[Young And Alive]

Don’t forget his quality work in Friday Night Dinner. Why the urge on this site to putting down the critic as a person?

Well, he’s putting down Morrissey as a person on the spurious assumption that Morrissey is a racist, when anyone capable of using Google would uncover the truth that he actually isn’t.

Don’t dish it out if you can’t take it.

 

[Young And Alive]

The narrative most of my friends who have dumped Moz have hit on is that it is only after the Smiths split that he turned into a 'giant racist'. I'm not so sure how well that holds up, but it allows them to hang onto their Smiths records whilst the rest was binned.

I would like to hear their take on the hallowed Johnny Marr being eager to work with Morrissey again as recently as 2008.

I mean, if Morrissey is racist then why was Johnny (the epitome of cool and who can do no wrong) willing to work with him again 20+ years after The Smiths split?

 

[Mike Rourke]

I totally agree with you, but don’t expect these people to think too hard.

These people think that The Smiths = 50 % Morrissey and 50 % Johnny Marr, the latter still enjoying their full support. Countless people have already said that JM can’t be held responsible for Morrissey’s ugly mouth. The same should hold for Boz or Alain or Jesse, but their music comes under the name of Morrissey. And it seems that pronouncing the name Morrissey has become too toxic a thing to do for these moralists. When they say that they are listening to the Smiths, at least they are not mentioning his name directly.

And then there is the bandwagon effect Of social media.

Yes, it's ultimately about badging and branding.
Morrissey never became a genuine solo artist like, say, Paul McCartney, who went from being one of several musicians, songwriters and singers in a band, to being completely solo in all these fields.
Morrissey never wrote music or played an instrument. He just wrote words and sang, exactly as he continued to do in all the different set-ups after The Smiths from the Stephen Street collaborations onwards.
With Johnny Marr as songwriter and musician, Morrissey released music under the name 'The Smiths'. With all the songwriters and musicians since Johnny Marr, Morrissey has released music under the name 'Morrissey', but it's always just as much a band set-up as it was in the Smiths.
This was never really a problem until the name 'Morrissey' became super-toxic, and lots of people no longer wanted to be seen buying an album by 'Morrissey' or going to a live concert by 'Morrissey', even though Morrissey was just as big a part of the whole set-up when the outfit he was in was called The Smiths.