Worm
Taste the diffidence
Re: UK Sunday Times Article: Heaven knows I’m Muslim now - Morrissey lines up Iran gi
Nice post as always, Dave.
Weighed against your valid concerns is the idea of unmediated communion between pop star and audience, which each of us experiences every time we see Morrissey live. The very experience of seeing Morrissey, even in a censored format, might have a positive effect on the people at the show. On this point Morrissey might be doing something rather intelligent: going straight to the people in the knowledge that music of any kind, no matter how it is "cleansed" by censors, can bring people closer together.
It would be interesting to compare this to a Western artist playing in Moscow, or the role smuggled Western pop records, even those with no political content, played in the end of the Soviet regime almost twenty years ago. What may be a short-term P.R. victory for the Iranian government may in the long run start (or continue) a process of liberalization. Governments will play their games but people generally get the right message so long as they can hear it-- or better yet shake their asses to it.
In any case I think the whole topic is a non-starter. This news bit about Morrissey lining up an Iranian gig pops up once a month, it seems, but I don't see anything new about this report. Morrissey and his management can talk about playing a show in Tehran the same way I can talk about submitting the necessary paperwork to win the lottery.
I don't see how he can justify playing in a country in which he will have to agree to have his actions and his lyrics approved.
I can understand the desire to play the Middle East and I don't think that playing in any country means an endorsement of that country's actions, laws, or politics. I understand that he may think that playing there will be a positive thing in some way.
But giving up his artistic freedom to do it seems very unlike how I think of him. Regarding the danger he would be putting himself in, someone said that it's unlikely he would be in danger from the government of Iran, as they will gain from this, whereas if he were "lashed" they would lose in public opinion. So is Morrissey willing, not only to compromise his artistry, but to be used as a propaganda tool?
Sure, let's all be open-minded about Iran. We have the right in our society, to accept a country in which human rights are brutally suppressed. Go to Amnesty International and search "Iran". This isn't US government propaganda, it's a list of documented cases by a respected human rights organization.
I don't begrudge him his eccentricities and his need to do this for whatever reason, whether ego-driven, or as some sort of Goodwill Ambassador Tour. I can't support it though. The good of it, if he can go through the humiliating process of being approved by some cultural ministry of censorship, is that some people will have an experience of a lifetime to hear his music live. I'm not sure they'll be getting the real deal though. Censored Morrissey is not Morrissey. And being used by a government that is far worse than the nations he vilifies in song and in action, seems more like the action of a clueless pop star than an intelligent artist.
Nice post as always, Dave.
Weighed against your valid concerns is the idea of unmediated communion between pop star and audience, which each of us experiences every time we see Morrissey live. The very experience of seeing Morrissey, even in a censored format, might have a positive effect on the people at the show. On this point Morrissey might be doing something rather intelligent: going straight to the people in the knowledge that music of any kind, no matter how it is "cleansed" by censors, can bring people closer together.
It would be interesting to compare this to a Western artist playing in Moscow, or the role smuggled Western pop records, even those with no political content, played in the end of the Soviet regime almost twenty years ago. What may be a short-term P.R. victory for the Iranian government may in the long run start (or continue) a process of liberalization. Governments will play their games but people generally get the right message so long as they can hear it-- or better yet shake their asses to it.
In any case I think the whole topic is a non-starter. This news bit about Morrissey lining up an Iranian gig pops up once a month, it seems, but I don't see anything new about this report. Morrissey and his management can talk about playing a show in Tehran the same way I can talk about submitting the necessary paperwork to win the lottery.