In Conversation With Morrissey - Gabfest (April 3, 2023): Difference between revisions

You still need at least six people involved to grind the wheels and be fully in the “now,” but they won’t do anything without a cut. People don’t work for wages alone anymore! Therefore you might as well stay with the established labels, and really, I had the time of my life with EMI, Sanctuary, and in the prehistory days of Rough Trade … which were actually very funny … and I don’t mean that disparagingly. I went over to Rough Trade’s lair every single day of the week … which, yes, was torture for them, but Geoff Travis was discovering just as much as I was in those days, and at least we were both determined to avoid compromise, and that worked very well.

It comes across mostly as sexual obsession. They also strongly allude to an imaginary time when I was somehow their actual flesh-and-blood friend, and this claim allows them full rights to enlightened bitterness. The one who wears Lonnie Donegan’s head and who sees himself as a barking political voice operates no differently from Mary Whitehouse in the 1970s – offended by everyone who he just also happens to be jealous of. A child with no head can see these people for what they are. They cancel YOU because they are afraid of YOU exposing THEM. Obviously I’m an advocate of free speech, but harassment and persecution were once against the law… but not now.

To have the Smiths as your distant roots gives me pride, and the reasons why we were ridiculed and rejected have now become the precise reasons why so many people love the Smiths in 2023. It’s on the rise! You see, the people are always right.  On Spotify, Smiths songs have the same number of hits as Beyonce, yet Beyonce is promoted hourly on every Selfridge’s escalator, yet the Smiths have never had any form of promotion whatsoever.    Also, there was a weekly momentum with the Smiths that cannot happen now … every Thursday brought some vibrant Smiths news, and every three months there would be a new 7-inch in Woolworths and Our Price … it was a very British way of doing things and people really enjoyed it. Suddenly Smiths’ graffiti appeared on Coronation Street …  but that edge-of-seat way of following a band doesn’t happen now because radio and charts were handed over exclusively to techno dance music.

For me to have moved along with ‘Viva Hate,’ ‘Bona Drag,’ ‘Your Arsenal,’ ‘You Are The Quarry,’ ‘Ringleader of the Tormentors,’ ‘World Peace is None Of Your Business,’ and others … well, who could be happier?

I chew on an old pencil. Well, no. I don’t get involved. I’m almost a recluse. I’ve never been on a yacht or on a horse. It’s difficult to move around because of the Smart Phone culture. Wherever I go people want a photo, or are already taking it. But, having said that, I must confess … people are always, always very nice wherever I go. I don’t think Fishy Sunak could make that claim.

'''''F: Very true! I wanted to talk about books now. As an avid reader myself (and someone who has read your novel, List Of The Lost several times!) I’m curious to know what your own favourite'' ''novels are?'''''

I love novelists such as William Makepeace Thakeray, but you have to be in a certain armchair to probe through. I also love Carson McCullers … The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter … the title must always say more than the actual book itself.

I think, in the past, we were saved by critics of serious subjects, but it’s difficult now because there are so many very successful faces in music who are obviously unexceptional in every way, and therefore there’s a certain malnutrition when it comes to inspired music writers. In the past , of course, writers such as Nick Kent or Julie Burchill would tackle off-limits subjects with a certain relish. But who is prepared to do that now? Who wants to take it all on?

I think it’s been that way for a long time, and it thrives only on the comparison game, by which I mean, a new band is thought to be incredible if they remind us of Oasis or Radiohead.  I am waiting for a band that reminds me of nobody whatsoever! I am sick to death of lobotomized faces … and it’s all about sex but without anyone actually being sexy. Sam Smith is like a female W. C. Fields.  

'''''So… with Bonfire Of Teenagers and Without Music The World Dies finished and currently unreleased, what is next for you, Morrissey? Will you now wait and focus on the release of these two projects?'''''

Who could ever have predicted these times?  Capitol will probably release ‘Bonfire’ when I’m dead.  Otherwise, there’s no one to rescue it.

Did Bob Dylan ever crack a joke?  Did you ever see Joni Mitchell bounce on a whoopee-cushion?  Or Tom Waits?  If Billie Holliday came back from the dead these journalists would probably write ‘Heaven Knows She’s Miserable Now’.  Did Nina Simone ever blow a raspberry?  Did Lou Reed ever dress up for Comic Relief?  But really, the press ALWAYS said those things about me.  It’s just suddenly important because I’ve been successful for 40 years and life should be easier now, but instead of handing me an award and celebrating the music I somehow get less press support than Shamima Begun – and she shrugged at severed heads in a wheelie-bin … yet I’m lower than her!  Even if you dislike me, this situation is wrong and is a terrible reflection of the arts and culture in modern Britain.  But I’m not interested in the negative voices anymore.