No, the interview with Sam about the finished Bonfire songs was in July 2021 and the open letter came in January 2022Wouldn’t those songs be on BoT though, or am I getting the chronology of events wrong?
From an April 2019 interview with Sam:Definitely. I was pretty sure I remember him saying something about the Notre Dame fire...but when I google it, only this shows up:
There's also this bit in his open letter to Johnny Marr 'I have not ever attacked your solo work or your solo life, and I have openly applauded your genius during the days of ‘Louder than bombs’ and ‘Strangeways, here we come’, yet you have positioned yourself ever-ready as rent-a-quote whenever the press require an ugly slant on something I half-said during the last glacial period as the Colorado River began to carve out the Grand Canyon.'It probably won't be, but 'Many Icebergs Ago' might possibly be Marr related? As soon as I read the title, my mind skipped back to that bit in 'Autobiography' where they briefly reconnected: 'I decide to write to Johnny - hacking into mountains of ice'. OK, it's pretty tenuous, but there you go!
"Many icebergs ago" is about the first 22 years of his career, when he created an unbeatable oeuvre as a recording artist.Many icebergs ago could be about environment, ambient, global warming.
Yes, one of Morrissey’s favorite films, the 1958
film of course ….
we all have suspicous minds at some point.I am sure Suspicious minds is dedicated to his fans
Methinks that's as likely as me writing a History of the British Conservative Party.Definitely a French-themed album with Boulevard, Notre-Dame and Pigalle.
And what about Neil Cassady?Just realized that The Night Pop Dropped may be about Iggy Pop.
i have a hunch the song is about hunchbacksmy secondary school was called notre dame high school,obviously there is the catholic connection.
I thought that about "I Ex-Love You", which sadly we'll probably never hear now. Supposedly it has 'that unmistakeable Smiths sound.'I know "songs about Marr" is always a highly debatable topic and I don't necessarily think that Morrissey would write songs about him nowadays. But these are the first songs that were written after the open letter incident. After your post I thought, that he said something similar in the open letter and he did in regards to "many [time period] ago".
In fact he uses the sentence "many lifetimes ago" twice in the letter, which is interesting because I don't think that he would repeat himself intentionally with the same exact wording, so it seems that was a highly charged and important fact he wanted to make clear. Saying that and looking at the title it could very well be about the feelings you have towards someone you knew a long time ago and that has disappointed you (and not necessarily only about Marr). I know it's a stretch, but it's meant to be a guessing anyway.
Yeah, I was curious for that one, too, does it sound even more smithy than Rebels? It was also written years before the letter. But maybe it had been a long way coming...I thought that about "I Ex-Love You", which sadly we'll probably never hear now. Supposedly it has 'that unmistakeable Smiths sound.'
And what about Neil Cassady?
i have a hunch the song is about hunchbacks
Yeah, I actually posted a Charles Laughton clip in another thread. Though, as cool as that would be, I can’t even guess what his song Notre-Dame may be just by the title.
though what I found interesting in the clip above is the reference between, architecture, stone and the desire of not feeling and M’s reference to stone/architecture accepting his love in TMAAParis, I’m sure Morrissey’s familiar with the film, being a fan of Laughton.
On second thought …
Notre Dame - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
en.m.wiktionary.org
Looking at Norte Dame, it means ….
Our Lady (the Virgin Mary)
So maybe the song is actually about a woman, a ‘dame’