The Guardian: Stewart Lee's 'Honest Playlist' - 'can no longer listen to' Morrissey (September 5, 2022)

Like Reverend Richard Coles a few months ago, Stewart Lee has nominated Morrissey for the artist/song he can no longer listen to in a Guardian questionnaire, citing his 'drift to the far right'.
www.theguardian.com/music/2022/sep/05/stewart-lee-honest-playlist
It's a bit disappointing that someone as professionally obsessed with Morrissey as Lee was, doesn't mention Morrissey's clearly muddled/confused political outlook, and the (admittedly vague) support he's also given to non-right-wing figures in recent years. It's clearly the right-wing stuff that has stuck in people's minds.

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Excerpt:

The song I can no longer listen to
Sadly, Morrissey. Loads of artists end up doing terrible things, but the Smiths meant such a lot to my generation, to have him drift to the far right doesn’t sit. I remember hearing How Soon Is Now when I went to see the Smiths at Birmingham Hippodrome and dancing to it at a disco in Tucson, Arizona in 1995. It’s hard to let go of my childhood attachment to the Smiths, but I don’t know how to square Morrissey’s solo stuff with what he’s become.

 

[Anonymous]

The difference is that the right doesn't call for boycotts or advocate to silence people/artists whose views they don't agree with. They don't advocate for deplatforming....whereas the left wants to demolish and abolish anyone who says or thinks anything that differs from their views. A great example is the Joe Rogan podcast. Lefty dummies DEMANDED he be removed from Spotify because he dared to give voice to a scientist who had a different view of Covid vaccines than what is proffered by the mainstream. They didn't demand people not listen to him. They wanted his contract broken and his platform taken from him.

Misinformation and lies should be de-platformed. It's not about a "difference in opinion".

 

[Skylarker]

Misinformation and lies should be de-platformed. It's not about a "difference in opinion".

There were no lies and there was no misinformation, you fascist scumbag.

And thank you for proving my point.

 

[NealCassidy]

The left feel they are being cancelled…https://www.theguardian.com/comment...ilenced-cancel-culture?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

 

[Anonymous]

The difference is that the right doesn't call for boycotts or advocate to silence people/artists whose views they don't agree with.

Don't they? I seem to remember last year an enormous social media campaign to boycott every single retailer who had pulled out of advertising on GB News when they realised it was a nasty little platform for nasty little people with nasty little views.

 

[Superbraems]

Meanwhile, middle-class Stuart will never mention the reasons why London has turned into a complete cesspool or the daily occurrences of knife crime, assaults, muggins etc by certain demographics.

 

[Anonymous]

LOL at the picture used of Stewart Lee is him in the black/yellow trim Fred Perry polo shirt co-opted by the far right Proud Boys.

And that makes him far right?

Lots of people west Fred Perry shirts. Their origin is from a culture that believed in equality for all races.

If there was a union flag there would you say that was a symbol used by the National Front?

 

[Anonymous]

God people are so f***ing dramatic. I can no longer listen to one of the greatest guitarists ever, Bob Brozman, because he turned out to be a horrible pedophile. But Morrissey just has a few differing political opinions to me. He's not actually done anything that bad, but the way people carry on about "oh I just can't listen to him anymore" is melodramatic bullshit.

Even when he said the pedophile abuse related to a Spacey victim was the child’s fault?

 

[Anonymous]

In my experience it’s mostly just a way for Smiths exclusive fans to feel better about themselves. They weren’t really interested in his solo stuff in the first place.

Well I followed Morrissey everywhere so your point is not true.

 

[Anonymous]

How can you be so emotionally sensitive that you can’t appreciate an artists work because you have different political opinons. Is Morrissey Jack the Ripper or Bin Laden? Sometimes people need to hear people they disagree with, otherwise they just start to become mentally rigid and unexposed to alternative opinions. Isn’t the point of art to provoke thought and emotion?

There are lots of musicians that I listen to but don’t agree with them politically. It doesn’t matter. Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen, Morrissey, Noel Gallagher. Just listen. Listen and disagree. People feel the need to burn their ears off these days if they hear the most remote disagreement.

It has to do with far more than just a few political idea differences.

We aren’t talking about whether he wants to lower or increase taxes or if policies around health provision.

We are talking about his endorsement of a far right party with links to Holocaust deniers and extreme far right racist identity politics groups in Europe.

Belittling that to a few political differences doesn’t wash.

 

[Anonymous]

Meanwhile, middle-class Stuart will never mention the reasons why London has turned into a complete cesspool or the daily occurrences of knife crime, assaults, muggins etc by certain demographics.

Please post the official stats from the police

 

[Anonymous]

Lee works a lot with the Guardian and other left-wing sources so naturally he stills needs an income and can’t afford a shift to the right and lose a career.

Or maybe he has no interest like most of his fanbase of moving to the right and has nothing to do with money

 

[Anonymous]

A clever, funny guy no doubt but very stereotypical.

One could say that about you too

 

[Anonymous]

This is what I've never understood. Morrissey is demonstrably a far right loony - but that hasn't changed his music, most of it is still good!

Some people would prefer not to listen to music by “far right loonies”.

I guess people have that right not to.

 

[Anonymous]

Some people have the privilege to be able to listen to music for pleasure, others use it as a calling card to make a statement about themselves.

Morrissey has spoken many times about pop music that means nothing and is for pointless pleasure.

So not surprising people expect more than just pleasure.

 

[Anonymous]

The poor man! Maybe he should start a go fund me page for the stress of not wanting to listen to Moz because of his needy desire to love absolutely everything about the artist's non-music life. A go fu$k yourself page would probably be more apt.

He was simply asked a question in an interview and he answered it.

 

[Anonymous]

a friend of mine, who lived in Brighton and tends to know this crap, pointed out Stewart Lee, that poet who interviewed M and the DJ who protested M. Were all HUGE M fans who copied the shit of him when it suited them
Now they all work for The G and throw him under the bus because it pays. f***wits

Nonsense. It was an interview. He doesn’t need the pittance the guardian would pay.

 

[Anonymous]

Everyone still loving arcade fire and their paedo fan Bowie though

Not really no

 

[Anonymous]

You gotta love the tolerant left (obvious sarcasm). He doesn’t think like me, therefore I now can’t listen to his music anymore

I can disagree with Morrissey and or not share some of his beliefs, that doesn’t mean I try to demonize the guy or stop listening to his music.

Oh well

I draw a line at pedophile apologists and that is my freedom to do.

 

[Anonymous]

The left feel they are being cancelled…https://www.theguardian.com/comment...ilenced-cancel-culture?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

I’m more on the right rather than the left and I found his views to be abhorrent. Do you think it is only people on the left that have an issue with it? Pedophile apologist comments are not popular on all spectrums of the political rainbow.

 

[Anonymous]

It is bemusing the repeating reactions that always occur when someone says in an interview that they have an issue with Morrissey.

It happens every time and is like someone offended Mohammad or something.

Pages of people saying they don’t care what Stewart Lee thinks and vitriolic personal attacks of him because he dared to speak his mind.

The freedom to air one’s views irony.

If you don’t care what he thinks why the pages of commentary? Wouldn’t it be easier to just ignore it if it doesn’t matter to you?

Everytime this happens you just stoke the fire and bring the whole discussion back to the fore. You all do that far more than any stoking Stewart Lee could possibly do in a Guardian article whose readers for the most part already probably agree with him.

Hilarious