THAT MAN!!!!

System
System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
edited June 8 in AAT student discussion
Anybody find themselves torn between loving The Smiths and hating the obnoxious **** that is MORISSEY?

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  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:THAT MAN!!!!

    I find myself torn between liking the Smiths more and liking Morrissey more. I think it depends on which I am listening to at the time.

    He has his moments, but I seem to be able to forgive him almost anything.

    I once read an article (favourable - so a rare one) about him that said something like "Morrissey fans are so loyal [or somesuch word] that if he were ever photographed strangling a kitten the online communities would be bombarded with posts claiming that the kitten was to blame for its demise.

    Which is about true. I am not sure I could stretch that far, but I don't care what he does mostly. There's just something about him.

    OK - try me - what has he done now?
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:THAT MAN!!!!

    Ive just been listening to a few of his interviews past and present. He is just obnoxious, he said in one of them 'I dont perform, I 'have' an audience' and then went on to say he couldnt mix with any other bands at the festival because he didnt see what they had to offer, they all seem to sound the same, he didnt have a good word for anyone!!

    And what really annoys me is that it was his guitarist in the Smiths, Johnny Marr, that made them so memorable!
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:THAT MAN!!!!


    My favourite comment: from Steve Wright after he'd played one of his singles "and that's the way you sing if you learned to play a piano with just white keys".

    :roll:
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:THAT MAN!!!!

    I would not deny that he seems obnoxious. Completement. But I find it genuinely funny, because I know that a lot of the time his tongue is firmly in his cheek. His sense of humour is one of the things that I love about him.

    "How can I be intimidated by a man [Richard Madeley] who married his own mother."

    As to Johnny Marr - yes he was great. But the whole sound of the Smiths made the Smiths the Smiths. But I could argue that Boz Boorer is a significant enough part of his sound that if you were to remove him, the sound and the songs would alter. Morrissey has never been an island like that. He might now release music under the name Morrissey, but to all intents and purposes he is still part of a band. A different one to the Smiths, with a different sound, but a band.

    I do not doubt that if Boz did decided to leave the band, Morrissey would find someone to replace him, and would contnue to make music - which would sound different to the music they make now. I see the SMiths and Morrissey as totally separate entities, but they share a common link - Morrissey. Morrissey has never pretended that what he is doing now is the Smiths part deux.

    My two pennies worth.
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:THAT MAN!!!!

    No point repeating myself:

    http://www.last.fm/group/I+Think+This+Music+Sucks/forum/14552/_/24735

    I might need to dig out that flame proof suit again.
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:THAT MAN!!!!

    Bryony, I much prefer Shane Macgowan as a visionary frontman of a band anyday!
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:THAT MAN!!!!

    I would not flame.

    I don't mind people saying they prefer The Smiths to Morrissey. I don't mind people saying they like neither. What does bug me every so slightly is when people assume that because Morrissey was in the Smiths, Morrissey's music is inferior to The Smiths. They are different, is all. Obviously they are easier to compare than... chalk and cheese, say, but Morrissey never set out (IMHO) to do what The SMiths did.

    To me that is like saying The Smiths were Morrissey. I know what I am trying to say.

    I like both musical outputters, but could not say which I like more, because it depends on my mood. Sometimes I need There is a Light, sometimes I need Come Back To Camden.

    I also think that by always comparing the two is quite insulting to the musicians. Morrissey sings, writes the lyrics. He always has a co writer and a band. They are just as important in making the music pleasing to my aural organs. Because that is what it is all about.
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:THAT MAN!!!!
    Paul22 wrote:
    Bryony, I much prefer Shane Macgowan as a visionary frontman of a band anyday!

    Shane MacGowan - now he's a character! Very interesting. I am not sure how I would define him, but I have a lot of respect for his (musical) output.

    Oh yes. 8)


    Edit - I wouls like to add - it is so nice to have an intelligent debate about Morrissey. Normally people simply say "Morrissey is crap and miserable," but fail to back that up as that is all they heard in Smash Hits. So thank you.
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:THAT MAN!!!!

    I could never bring myself to listen to them through school, but I got hold of The Queen is Dead a couple of years ago, and Ive milked it, then I got the very best of, and I have recently got hold of Hatful of Hollow, and Meat is Murder, which I will listen through this weekend!

    I am huge Macgowan fan, I love the whole catalogue, if ever you want to read the best song lyrics ever written in my opinion look up 'Lullaby of London' by the pogues, or even better listen to it!!

  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:THAT MAN!!!!

    As lyricists go - Shane MacGowan is one of the best. And in terms of delivery as well.

    My favourite Smiths album is Strageways Here we Come. The Queen is dead is also great, but I could never quite see why it is always hailed as their seminal work.

    I need to go home and listen to the Pogues now. I have snippets of their songs going round my head. I haven't given them enough of my attention lately.
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:THAT MAN!!!!

    Have you heard the first album? Red Roses For Me? Everyone needs to have that!
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:THAT MAN!!!!

    Hmmm.. top lyricists for me include

    Darren 'Hefner' Hayman
    David 'Pere Ubu' Thomas
    Robert 'The Nightingales' Lloyd

    and the big daddy of them all Mark E. Smith.

    I'd never contend that Mozzer doesn't have a way with words, it's just the music that does nothing for me, same goes for The Smiths.

    I prefer Rum, Sodomy and the Lash, Paul, but I don't think this is the place to discuss my sex life :P
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:THAT MAN!!!!

    hehe Chris, that is also a great album yes!! Have you heard the one in between 'If I should Fall from grace with God'?
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:THAT MAN!!!!
    I find myself torn between liking the Smiths more and liking Morrissey more. I think it depends on which I am listening to at the time.

    I prefer The Smiths to Morrissey. I was especially unimpressed by 'You are the quarry' the other year.

    On the other hand, I have been known to absently sing 'Meat is Murder' while cooking. (and no, I'm not a vegetarian)
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:THAT MAN!!!!

    Actually I was wowed by You are the Quarry. I am not so delighted by Ringleader, though. I'd say Vauvhall and I and Your Arsenal are top, too.

    Lyricists - Nick Cave, Vic Chestnutt, Morrissey, Patti Smith (maybe she should be first...), Tori Amos (mostly), Natalie Merchant (a brilliant lady.)

    And Paul, no I am sorry I don't remember hearing that abum. But I will try to find it.

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