The New Statesman: "Nick Cave: “I don’t think art should be in the hands of the virtuous”" - Morrissey mention (November 24, 2022)

Nick Cave: “I don’t think art should be in the hands of the virtuous”

The musician on why Morrissey matters, his deepening faith and grieving for his sons.

www.newstatesman.com

Excerpt:

One of the subjects on which Cave has recently ordered his thoughts is cancel culture, and what he describes as its asphyxiating effect on creative society. “I think the divisive nature of the cultural argument these days is religious in temperament,” he says, “and the worst of religion is puritanical, superior, self-righteous.” I ask him about Morrissey, now considered a pariah for his nationalist sympathies. “The hypocrisy is ridiculous,” he says. “I don’t care what Morrissey’s views on things are, but I do care about his legacy. I think they’re some of the most beautiful songs ever written, and they meant an enormous amount to people when they came out. Those songs saved lives. His songs talked to these lonely, disenfranchised individuals, and certainly they had a voice.

“I think we need to be careful with these sorts of things, when we’re looking around for the bad actors. The music that really inspires me is almost always made by the most terrible characters. Not necessarily cancellable, but just not very nice people. I don’t think art should be in the hands of the virtuous.”

 

[Famous when dead]

Article minus joining nag / limited reading etc:
The musician on why Morrissey matters, his deepening faith and grieving for his sons.
Nick Cave: “I don’t think art should be in the hands of the virtuous”
FWD.

 

[Dirk Blaggard]

What Nick said is true. I adore him for saying it.
lots of journo's mention M in the hope he will be slagged. They picked the wrong one with Nick. What he said is extremely true. People are so jealous of the power M had (i think he still has it, just not on Rebel without Applause)

 

[Robert Lee]

I agree with Nick Cave. Art is stifled by political correctness.

 

[ThePoliticalRevolution]

Morrissey isnt a racist. I don't know what the problem is. Anne Marie Waters better get a job!

 

[nicky wire's legs]

art, like god, doesnt exist on a moral scale

 

[🐈🐈🐈]

In a nutshell - great music, terrible person.

Bit preachy considering I once saw Nick Cave literally punch a telephone out of a young lad’s hand when he jumped on stage with him.

Something Morrissey would never do because he’s a kind and courteous gentleman.

 

[gonzax]

Very well said by Nick Cave, I totally agree.

I adore Morrissey. I don't think he's half of the things he's called, anyway, but I couldn't care less about his political views, his or anyone else's, I mean, I have friends whose ideas don't match with mine and they're excellent people, should I stop talking to them just because of that? I don't think so.

 

[🐈🐈🐈]

In addition I remember a story told which someone once told me that makes Nick Cave’s comments even more laughable and rich in hypocrisy. Having views against the media machine is quite a different thing to drunken pestering……

 

[gashonthenail]

Nick Cave is spot on with these comments. Virtue has always been very over-rated.

 

[NealCassidy]

Bowie songs sound the same even if he was a paedo

 

[goinghome]

This is an absorbing, moving and well-made profile in which Nick Cave's defence of Morrissey contrasts with Fergal Kinney's take-down of him in the same publication last month.

 

[BookishBoy]

[EDIT: oops, my bad, hadn't spotted this was already on Solo!]

Nov 24 2022 New Statesman interview with Nick Cave, mentioning Morrissey

There's a long and (as ever) fascinating interview with Nick Cave in the New Statesman.

Whole article is linked here, but the relevant section about Morrissey is:

On the Red Hand Files, fans question his violent musical past. “These days, some of my songs are feeling a little nervous,” he told one in 2020. “They are like children that have been playing cheerfully in the schoolyard, only to be told that all along they have had some hideous physical deformity… But what songwriter could have predicted thirty years ago that the future would lose its sense of humour, its sense of playfulness, its sense of context, nuance and irony, and fall into the hands of a perpetually pissed-off coterie of pearl-clutchers? How were we to know?”

One of the subjects on which Cave has recently ordered his thoughts is cancel culture, and what he describes as its asphyxiating effect on creative society. “I think the divisive nature of the cultural argument these days is religious in temperament,” he says, “and the worst of religion is puritanical, superior, self-righteous.” I ask him about Morrissey, now considered a pariah for his nationalist sympathies. “The hypocrisy is ridiculous,” he says. “I don’t care what Morrissey’s views on things are, but I do care about his legacy. I think they’re some of the most beautiful songs ever written, and they meant an enormous amount to people when they came out. Those songs saved lives. His songs talked to these lonely, disenfranchised individuals, and certainly they had a voice.

“I think we need to be careful with these sorts of things, when we’re looking around for the bad actors. The music that really inspires me is almost always made by the most terrible characters. Not necessarily cancellable, but just not very nice people. I don’t think art should be in the hands of the virtuous.”

 

[Raphael Lambach]

I never stop listening NC.

 

[Gregor Samsa]

Nick Cave. One of the most full-blown geniuses ever in rock. A style completely his own, despite gathering a ton from his influences, and at 65, he keeps evolving, keeps challenging himself and his audience and over the past nine years, he’s made his best albums.

 

[Mozagoth!]

Nick Cave and Morrissey are two extremely blessed individuals and two of my favourite in music. and Cave is absolutely on the money here. If an artist has any responsibility, it is to be irresponsible. And not only does being correct not matter, but quite frankly the idea that Morrissey is even incorrect is absurd to begin with.

On a different note, I happen to think Cave is also a brilliant novelist and scriptwriter, and wrote and scored two of my favourite films - The Proposition, and Ghosts of the Civil Dead. Makes me think Morrissey should have a go at writing more novels and maybe screenplays, just because his first didn't go down well doesn't mean he's got no talent, his lyrical capacity is enough to suggest he has a profound way with language.

 

[Lustman]

Thanks Nick !