20 Years Ago: Morrissey loses a court battle, then loses his way on ‘Maladjusted’ by Nick DeRiso

20 Years Ago: Morrissey Loses a Court Battle, Then Loses His Way on ‘Maladjusted’ - Diffuser
By Nick DeRiso.

Excerpt:

"Morrissey was a musician without a sound, a citizen without a country, and man outside the mainstream by the time Maladjusted arrived on Aug. 11, 1997. Beset by all sides, he’d devolve into an unhappy figure who was “devious, truculent and unreliable.”

Those were the words of Judge John Weeks, anyway, as he ruled against Morrissey in a 1996 suit over back royalties brought by his former Smiths bandmate Mike Joyce. Morrissey bristled at the characterization, to the point where his next album was basically sunk by “Sorrow Will Come in the End,” a vicious, dirge-like response to the trial.

In fact, Island Records refused to include the song in U.K. pressings, fearing a libel suit. Morrissey tried to move the album to Mercury, even as he continued to grouse about the seemingly tossed-off cover image. He left England behind in this same darkly unstable period, moving to Los Angeles."

With lots of anniversaries coming up, I guess we should get used to these reflective articles. Some Moz quotes used and the court case rehashed.
Regards,
FWD.

 

[Sidnettle]

The best thing about Dagenham Dave is the video.
For some of us, Gripper Stebson is a formative part of our youth and the video is wonderful.
The song though, really labours the chorus and it's repeated far too much.
Regards,
FWD.

The music is uninspiring... the only bit I like is the bit you guys don't the Dagenham Dave, oh Dave, oh Dave bit

 

[markem41]

When looking back, I always compare releases against what The Fall were doing. They released 'Levitate' around this time but were lost in their electronic, dancey phase and about to implode in New York. I think Maladjusted was a refreshing release at the time and there were some great b-sides as always.

 

[Motherless birds fly high]

I wrote a comment on some forum or other that I was gonna train my Jack Russell to attack Johnny Marr on sight.
This girl on it went apeshit at me. Don't know why.

 

[Anonymous]

When looking back, I always compare releases against what The Fall were doing. They released 'Levitate' around this time but were lost in their electronic, dancey phase and about to implode in New York. I think Maladjusted was a refreshing release at the time and there were some great b-sides as always.

It was for sure a return to classic morrissey. To me I think it interesting that despite the gossip and talk around the court cases and the track sorrow will come in the end how calm and settled the album sounds. Ammunition papa jack trouble loves me and alma matters all have this centered quality to them imo that sorta defies the idea of morrissey being worked up and fraught around this time

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

Then how the hell do you account for Dagenham Dave?

Are there any uptempo songs that came out around at that time that could beat it? Not in my book.

Brilliant song.. especially the repetition.


Which reminds me, and maybe at the time M was thinking of this other brilliant song. have a listen..



Dug a re dug n dug a re dug - re dug...

O Debora, always look like a zebora
Your sunken face is like a galleon
Clawed with mysteries of the Spanish Main
O Debora

O Debora

Di-di-di-di-di-di-di
O dug a re dug n dug a re dug - re dug
Di-di-di-di-di-di-di
Na-na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na

Dug a re dug n dug a re dug - re dug...

O Debora, always dress like a conjurer
It's fine to see your young face hiding
'Neath the stallion that I'm riding
Debora

Di-di-di-di-di-di-di
O dug a re dug n dug a re dug - re dug
Di-di-di-di-di-di-di
Na-na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na

O Debora, o Debora

 

[Quando quando quando]

Are there any uptempo songs that came out around at that time that could beat it? Not in my book.

Brilliant song.. especially the repetition.


Which reminds me, and maybe at the time M was thinking of this other brilliant song. have a listen..



Dug a re dug n dug a re dug - re dug...

O Debora, always look like a zebora
Your sunken face is like a galleon
Clawed with mysteries of the Spanish Main
O Debora

O Debora

Di-di-di-di-di-di-di
O dug a re dug n dug a re dug - re dug
Di-di-di-di-di-di-di
Na-na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na

Dug a re dug n dug a re dug - re dug...

O Debora, always dress like a conjurer
It's fine to see your young face hiding
'Neath the stallion that I'm riding
Debora

Di-di-di-di-di-di-di
O dug a re dug n dug a re dug - re dug
Di-di-di-di-di-di-di
Na-na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na

O Debora, o Debora

"Brilliant song.. especially the repetition. "

Exactly this!
Nobody did that anymore in those days but Moz!
And the repetition can be such a strong element in a popsong.
He knew, he studied, and used it. Until this day.

Why do so many people think a song, a composition, a thrilling guitar line, just comes out of the air, or from some moment of magical inspiration? Of course there is that too but to me it seems for Moz it was a deadly serious craft and he knew and studied obsessively the in's and outs, the details and as he once said, or revealed:" Nobody knows or realizes the enormous streams of documentation I have at my disposal".

Very simple things like structure, verse, chorus, bridge are essential and he was that good at it he could afford to change them, making the verse the chorus and vice versa and sometimes leaving out the bridge.

 

[Idaho Udaho]

Everything happened in 1997 and it was a very exciting and eventful year on a whole and for me personally.

Why his court case did not become a legal precedent for all employees I will never know but all the marxist Moz fans were against him paying his staff while at the same time holding down jobs where they went to equal pay protest marches.

Double standards is your middle name.

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

Everything happened in 1997 and it was a very exciting and eventful year on a whole and for me personally.Why his court case did not become a legal precedent for all employees I will never know but all the marxist Moz fans were against him paying his staff while at the same time holding down jobs where they went to equal pay protest marches.

Double standards is your middle name.

Hey, what M does with his 'staff' is his own business.

 

[Johnny Barleycorn]

Dagenham Dave was brilliant!
Great popsong, ironic, funny, with compassion and a slightly jealous undertone, mark my words, I said slightly, which made it even better!
The music was fast, hard, energetic and almost post-punk but with a musical upgrade due to the great musicians.
That band was so tight, hard hitting but melody priority one.

At the time of the release of Dagenham Dave the local London ITV station sent someone to find Dave's in Dagenham. They gathered a few of them together. I'm not sure what the collective noun might be - a Wanker of Dagenham Dave's perhaps?

Anyway, they played the song to three or four of them followed by a few seconds silence until one of them finally piped up "I 'ate 'im really..."

No more was said.

For all the talk about Maladjusted I'd like to point out it also contains what is in my opinion Morrissey's worst song; the Roy's Keen.

 

[IKEA is murder]

Hey, what M does with his 'staff' is his own business.

I know I am all for that but the people backing him in that case were all against that sort of thing at their workplace.

Double standards like I said. Online it is ok not to respond to things when you understand what was meant in the first place and if you do that anyway you expose yourself a bit.

My first post hurt bad and pushed all your buttons cause you know it was about you.

 

[markem41]

At the time of the release of Dagenham Dave the local London ITV station sent someone to find Dave's in Dagenham. They gathered a few of them together. I'm not sure what the collective noun might be - a Wanker of Dagenham Dave's perhaps?

Anyway, they played the song to three or four of them followed by a few seconds silence until one of them finally piped up "I 'ate 'im really..."

No more was said.

For all the talk about Maladjusted I'd like to point out it also contains what is in my opinion Morrissey's worst song; the Roy's Keen.

Dunking the chamois? Foot in a bucket?
Strangely, he reverted to a decent(ish) piece of cover art for this one.
To be fair I can't think of a better tribute to Roy Keane - a piece of shit.

 

[Anonymous]

UK is so corrupt. Exact same scenario with Spandau Ballet and the verdict went the other direction. Total amateur hour.

Thing is he was never really as much LA as people think. He spent just as much time in uk/ Ireland but the LA lot like to thibk hes one of them

 

[The man from Uranus]

Hey, what M does with his 'staff' is his own business.

That was the entire point but you Moz fans defend his right to not pay his staff but demand to get paid yourself. Think about that for a while.

 

[SeniorLife]

I believe in Autobiography, Morrissey says the album Maladjusted was the point where Alain really came into his own as a back up vocalist.

 

[BrummieBoy]

At the time of the release of Dagenham Dave the local London ITV station sent someone to find Dave's in Dagenham. They gathered a few of them together. I'm not sure what the collective noun might be - a Wanker of Dagenham Dave's perhaps?

Anyway, they played the song to three or four of them followed by a few seconds silence until one of them finally piped up "I 'ate 'im really..."

No more was said.

For all the talk about Maladjusted I'd like to point out it also contains what is in my opinion Morrissey's worst song; the Roy's Keen.

Hilarious comment. Morrissey's ongoing 'bad boy' fixations really all came apart on this dire LP. Absolutely ludicrous songs like 'Dagenham Dave', 'Roy's Keen' and....well, all of them except 'Trouble Loves Me'. The tiresome controversialisms-by-rote of 'Ambitious Outsiders', the deeply boring attempt to approximate grunge on the opening nonsense prog-rock epic....but all of that overshadowed by The Court Case......

Musical historians will look back at that case as the episode whereby both Marr and Morrissey destroyed the legacy and future listenability of 'The Smiths' by daring to fight a court case that they had no moral right to oppose, no chance of winning and that comprehensively exposed their 'truculent, devious' business dealings with The Drummer and The Bass Guitar-ist. If they'd traded as 'Marr-Morrissey' from the start then it would have all been so different, but they didn't. Both Marr and Morrissey ruthlessly purloined the 'mythos of The Band', presenting 'The Smiths' as 'the last gang in town' only to be later exposed as....well, 'unreliable witnesses' is the kindest way of putting it.

Nobody can now listen to a single song by 'The Smiths' without hearing the creaking foundations of dissembling nonsense that informed this supposedly 'authentic' project from the outset. It was anything but 'authentic' even as it shamelessly rifled the cabinet of 'authenticity tropes' to pose as Anti-Thatcher. The business dealings of both Marr and Morrissey in relation to Joyce and Rourke epitomize all that was 'devious, truculent and unreliable' about the business ethics of the music industry in the 1980s. The fact that this heist was attempted whilst 'posing as Indie' just makes the cultural criminality of it all even more egregious and stomach-churning in retrospect. Nobody who values Authenticity can now listen to 'The Smiths' without hearing a carefully crafted veneer of fake 'authenticity' hiding rampant careerism at the expense of those publicly posited as 'co-workers' when they were just hired 'lawn-mover parts'.

All that's left now if for the £ Wonga Reunion Tour of Corporate Enormodomes. If that came with a full and frank admission of crimes committed against musical ethics from both Marr and Morrissey it would be an interesting coda but that's not going to happen. Morrissey remains entranced by his delusional 'victim-script'. 'Sorrow Will Come In The End'? Well, it has finally come home to Morrissey himself and his now ruined legacy. He has wasted his entire career on all this bollocks, instead of just fessin up as a greedy c*** and paying his dues to those he publicly claimed were 'brother-in-musical-arms' from the outset whilst he and Marr were shafting them behind their backs...not a good look for the history books, lads...

Purloining & appropriating Queer Culture whilst 'posing as humasexual'
Shafting business associates whilst pretending their 'brothers-in-musical-arms'
Making an arse of yourselves with 'Meat is Murder' whilst not Being Vegan....

what other 'sorrows of delusion' could be added to this 'list of the el plotto losto'?

For those of us who watched from the beginning as the Q marks rose amidst the fog of NME propagaanda (until they went postal about being trolled on multikulti) it's all rather satisfying to finally see the alabaster come crashing down and Morrissey reduced to becoming a C List draw at arenas around the world that have to fill their seats with acts to remain profitable, ditto festivals. What a fate to befall this clown, playing to mirror-image mental case 'fans' who reflect back the excesses of his delusionality. Now, that's what I call a result!........

have a nice day
BB

 

[Anonymous]

Hilarious comment. Morrissey's ongoing 'bad boy' fixations really all came apart on this dire LP. Absolutely ludicrous songs like 'Dagenham Dave', 'Roy's Keen' and....well, all of them except 'Trouble Loves Me'. The tiresome controversialisms-by-rote of 'Ambitious Outsiders', the deeply boring attempt to approximate grunge on the opening nonsense prog-rock epic....but all of that overshadowed by The Court Case......

Musical historians will look back at that case as the episode whereby both Marr and Morrissey destroyed the legacy and future listenability of 'The Smiths' by daring to fight a court case that they had no moral right to oppose, no chance of winning and that comprehensively exposed their 'truculent, devious' business dealings with The Drummer and The Bass Guitar-ist. If they'd traded as 'Marr-Morrissey' from the start then it would have all been so different, but they didn't. Both Marr and Morrissey ruthlessly purloined the 'mythos of The Band', presenting 'The Smiths' as 'the last gang in town' only to be later exposed as....well, 'unreliable witnesses' is the kindest way of putting it.

Nobody can now listen to a single song by 'The Smiths' without hearing the creaking foundations of dissembling nonsense that informed this supposedly 'authentic' project from the outset. It was anything but 'authentic' even as it shamelessly rifled the cabinet of 'authenticity tropes' to pose as Anti-Thatcher. The business dealings of both Marr and Morrissey in relation to Joyce and Rourke epitomize all that was 'devious, truculent and unreliable' about the business ethics of the music industry in the 1980s. The fact that this heist was attempted whilst 'posing as Indie' just makes the cultural criminality of it all even more egregious and stomach-churning in retrospect. Nobody who values Authenticity can now listen to 'The Smiths' without hearing a carefully crafted veneer of fake 'authenticity' hiding rampant careerism at the expense of those publicly posited as 'co-workers' when they were just hired 'lawn-mover parts'.

All that's left now if for the £ Wonga Reunion Tour of Corporate Enormodomes. If that came with a full and frank admission of crimes committed against musical ethics from both Marr and Morrissey it would be an interesting coda but that's not going to happen. Morrissey remains entranced by his delusional 'victim-script'. 'Sorrow Will Come In The End'? Well, it has finally come home to Morrissey himself and his now ruined legacy. He has wasted his entire career on all this bollocks, instead of just fessin up as a greedy c*** and paying his dues to those he publicly claimed were 'brother-in-musical-arms' from the outset whilst he and Marr were shafting them behind their backs...not a good look for the history books, lads...

Purloining & appropriating Queer Culture whilst 'posing as humasexual'
Shafting business associates whilst pretending their 'brothers-in-musical-arms'
Making an arse of yourselves with 'Meat is Murder' whilst not Being Vegan....

what other 'sorrows of delusion' could be added to this 'list of the el plotto losto'?

For those of us who watched from the beginning as the Q marks rose amidst the fog of NME propagaanda (until they went postal about being trolled on multikulti) it's all rather satisfying to finally see the alabaster come crashing down and Morrissey reduced to becoming a C List draw at arenas around the world that have to fill their seats with acts to remain profitable, ditto festivals. What a fate to befall this clown, playing to mirror-image mental case 'fans' who reflect back the excesses of his delusionality. Now, that's what I call a result!........

have a nice day
BB

A little odd but Dagenham Dave doesn't appear on most people's copy of Maladjusted. Kind of suggests you haven't got the slightest idea what you're talking about. Clown.

 

[Anonymous]

Hilarious comment. Morrissey's ongoing 'bad boy' fixations really all came apart on this dire LP. Absolutely ludicrous songs like 'Dagenham Dave', 'Roy's Keen' and....well, all of them except 'Trouble Loves Me'. The tiresome controversialisms-by-rote of 'Ambitious Outsiders', the deeply boring attempt to approximate grunge on the opening nonsense prog-rock epic....but all of that overshadowed by The Court Case......

Musical historians will look back at that case as the episode whereby both Marr and Morrissey destroyed the legacy and future listenability of 'The Smiths' by daring to fight a court case that they had no moral right to oppose, no chance of winning and that comprehensively exposed their 'truculent, devious' business dealings with The Drummer and The Bass Guitar-ist. If they'd traded as 'Marr-Morrissey' from the start then it would have all been so different, but they didn't. Both Marr and Morrissey ruthlessly purloined the 'mythos of The Band', presenting 'The Smiths' as 'the last gang in town' only to be later exposed as....well, 'unreliable witnesses' is the kindest way of putting it.

Nobody can now listen to a single song by 'The Smiths' without hearing the creaking foundations of dissembling nonsense that informed this supposedly 'authentic' project from the outset. It was anything but 'authentic' even as it shamelessly rifled the cabinet of 'authenticity tropes' to pose as Anti-Thatcher. The business dealings of both Marr and Morrissey in relation to Joyce and Rourke epitomize all that was 'devious, truculent and unreliable' about the business ethics of the music industry in the 1980s. The fact that this heist was attempted whilst 'posing as Indie' just makes the cultural criminality of it all even more egregious and stomach-churning in retrospect. Nobody who values Authenticity can now listen to 'The Smiths' without hearing a carefully crafted veneer of fake 'authenticity' hiding rampant careerism at the expense of those publicly posited as 'co-workers' when they were just hired 'lawn-mover parts'.

All that's left now if for the £ Wonga Reunion Tour of Corporate Enormodomes. If that came with a full and frank admission of crimes committed against musical ethics from both Marr and Morrissey it would be an interesting coda but that's not going to happen. Morrissey remains entranced by his delusional 'victim-script'. 'Sorrow Will Come In The End'? Well, it has finally come home to Morrissey himself and his now ruined legacy. He has wasted his entire career on all this bollocks, instead of just fessin up as a greedy c*** and paying his dues to those he publicly claimed were 'brother-in-musical-arms' from the outset whilst he and Marr were shafting them behind their backs...not a good look for the history books, lads...

Purloining & appropriating Queer Culture whilst 'posing as humasexual'
Shafting business associates whilst pretending their 'brothers-in-musical-arms'
Making an arse of yourselves with 'Meat is Murder' whilst not Being Vegan....

what other 'sorrows of delusion' could be added to this 'list of the el plotto losto'?

For those of us who watched from the beginning as the Q marks rose amidst the fog of NME propagaanda (until they went postal about being trolled on multikulti) it's all rather satisfying to finally see the alabaster come crashing down and Morrissey reduced to becoming a C List draw at arenas around the world that have to fill their seats with acts to remain profitable, ditto festivals. What a fate to befall this clown, playing to mirror-image mental case 'fans' who reflect back the excesses of his delusionality. Now, that's what I call a result!........

have a nice day
BB

The lawn mower quote never came from Morrissey. It was a genius (if hugely cynical) move by Joyce Michael's legal team to use the term, hope that it would stick, and forever be linked to Morrissey. Simple folk (including you, apparently) have ever since assumed it was how Morrissey himself described the Smiths' rhythm section. Joyce accepted his financial terms during the Smiths, and, oddly, even continued to work with Morrissey for a good couple of years after they split. It was only after the Morrissey work dried up that he decided to take legal action about his Smiths financial arrangements. Funny that.

 

[Anonymous]

Hilarious comment. Morrissey's ongoing 'bad boy' fixations really all came apart on this dire LP. Absolutely ludicrous songs like 'Dagenham Dave', 'Roy's Keen' and....well, all of them except 'Trouble Loves Me'. The tiresome controversialisms-by-rote of 'Ambitious Outsiders', the deeply boring attempt to approximate grunge on the opening nonsense prog-rock epic....but all of that overshadowed by The Court Case......

Musical historians will look back at that case as the episode whereby both Marr and Morrissey destroyed the legacy and future listenability of 'The Smiths' by daring to fight a court case that they had no moral right to oppose, no chance of winning and that comprehensively exposed their 'truculent, devious' business dealings with The Drummer and The Bass Guitar-ist. If they'd traded as 'Marr-Morrissey' from the start then it would have all been so different, but they didn't. Both Marr and Morrissey ruthlessly purloined the 'mythos of The Band', presenting 'The Smiths' as 'the last gang in town' only to be later exposed as....well, 'unreliable witnesses' is the kindest way of putting it.

Nobody can now listen to a single song by 'The Smiths' without hearing the creaking foundations of dissembling nonsense that informed this supposedly 'authentic' project from the outset. It was anything but 'authentic' even as it shamelessly rifled the cabinet of 'authenticity tropes' to pose as Anti-Thatcher. The business dealings of both Marr and Morrissey in relation to Joyce and Rourke epitomize all that was 'devious, truculent and unreliable' about the business ethics of the music industry in the 1980s. The fact that this heist was attempted whilst 'posing as Indie' just makes the cultural criminality of it all even more egregious and stomach-churning in retrospect. Nobody who values Authenticity can now listen to 'The Smiths' without hearing a carefully crafted veneer of fake 'authenticity' hiding rampant careerism at the expense of those publicly posited as 'co-workers' when they were just hired 'lawn-mover parts'.

All that's left now if for the £ Wonga Reunion Tour of Corporate Enormodomes. If that came with a full and frank admission of crimes committed against musical ethics from both Marr and Morrissey it would be an interesting coda but that's not going to happen. Morrissey remains entranced by his delusional 'victim-script'. 'Sorrow Will Come In The End'? Well, it has finally come home to Morrissey himself and his now ruined legacy. He has wasted his entire career on all this bollocks, instead of just fessin up as a greedy c*** and paying his dues to those he publicly claimed were 'brother-in-musical-arms' from the outset whilst he and Marr were shafting them behind their backs...not a good look for the history books, lads...

Purloining & appropriating Queer Culture whilst 'posing as humasexual'
Shafting business associates whilst pretending their 'brothers-in-musical-arms'
Making an arse of yourselves with 'Meat is Murder' whilst not Being Vegan....

what other 'sorrows of delusion' could be added to this 'list of the el plotto losto'?

For those of us who watched from the beginning as the Q marks rose amidst the fog of NME propagaanda (until they went postal about being trolled on multikulti) it's all rather satisfying to finally see the alabaster come crashing down and Morrissey reduced to becoming a C List draw at arenas around the world that have to fill their seats with acts to remain profitable, ditto festivals. What a fate to befall this clown, playing to mirror-image mental case 'fans' who reflect back the excesses of his delusionality. Now, that's what I call a result!........

have a nice day
BB

Dear Thomas Shelby,

Dagenham Dave is on Southpaw Grammar.

Yours sincerely,

FBI Agent Dale Cooper

 

[Calamine Lotion]

Hilarious comment. Morrissey's ongoing 'bad boy' fixations really all came apart on this dire LP. Absolutely ludicrous songs like 'Dagenham Dave', 'Roy's Keen' and....well, all of them except 'Trouble Loves Me'. The tiresome controversialisms-by-rote of 'Ambitious Outsiders', the deeply boring attempt to approximate grunge on the opening nonsense prog-rock epic....but all of that overshadowed by The Court Case......

Musical historians will look back at that case as the episode whereby both Marr and Morrissey destroyed the legacy and future listenability of 'The Smiths' by daring to fight a court case that they had no moral right to oppose, no chance of winning and that comprehensively exposed their 'truculent, devious' business dealings with The Drummer and The Bass Guitar-ist. If they'd traded as 'Marr-Morrissey' from the start then it would have all been so different, but they didn't. Both Marr and Morrissey ruthlessly purloined the 'mythos of The Band', presenting 'The Smiths' as 'the last gang in town' only to be later exposed as....well, 'unreliable witnesses' is the kindest way of putting it.

Nobody can now listen to a single song by 'The Smiths' without hearing the creaking foundations of dissembling nonsense that informed this supposedly 'authentic' project from the outset. It was anything but 'authentic' even as it shamelessly rifled the cabinet of 'authenticity tropes' to pose as Anti-Thatcher. The business dealings of both Marr and Morrissey in relation to Joyce and Rourke epitomize all that was 'devious, truculent and unreliable' about the business ethics of the music industry in the 1980s. The fact that this heist was attempted whilst 'posing as Indie' just makes the cultural criminality of it all even more egregious and stomach-churning in retrospect. Nobody who values Authenticity can now listen to 'The Smiths' without hearing a carefully crafted veneer of fake 'authenticity' hiding rampant careerism at the expense of those publicly posited as 'co-workers' when they were just hired 'lawn-mover parts'.

All that's left now if for the £ Wonga Reunion Tour of Corporate Enormodomes. If that came with a full and frank admission of crimes committed against musical ethics from both Marr and Morrissey it would be an interesting coda but that's not going to happen. Morrissey remains entranced by his delusional 'victim-script'. 'Sorrow Will Come In The End'? Well, it has finally come home to Morrissey himself and his now ruined legacy. He has wasted his entire career on all this bollocks, instead of just fessin up as a greedy c*** and paying his dues to those he publicly claimed were 'brother-in-musical-arms' from the outset whilst he and Marr were shafting them behind their backs...not a good look for the history books, lads...

Purloining & appropriating Queer Culture whilst 'posing as humasexual'
Shafting business associates whilst pretending their 'brothers-in-musical-arms'
Making an arse of yourselves with 'Meat is Murder' whilst not Being Vegan....

what other 'sorrows of delusion' could be added to this 'list of the el plotto losto'?

For those of us who watched from the beginning as the Q marks rose amidst the fog of NME propagaanda (until they went postal about being trolled on multikulti) it's all rather satisfying to finally see the alabaster come crashing down and Morrissey reduced to becoming a C List draw at arenas around the world that have to fill their seats with acts to remain profitable, ditto festivals. What a fate to befall this clown, playing to mirror-image mental case 'fans' who reflect back the excesses of his delusionality. Now, that's what I call a result!........

have a nice day
BB

Okay but I want to say first that the song "Maladjusted" is great. If it's no good then he doesn't have any good ones. That's just opinion though and doesn't matter.

The other thing I think is interesting is this idea of The Smiths fooling everyone that they were a real band. I think the very idea of a band that is a gang and sort of out to take on the world, united as one, is pretty much always a myth anyway? I am just curious about your thoughts on this. It seems like The Smiths might have actually believed that, like many bands do, until the point that the money starts coming in.
And where does that idea come from? The Monkees all lived in the same house and ate cornflakes together at their shared breakfast table but they were a fantasy for kids kind of based on The Beatles. The Beatles were marketed as being the sort of group you're talking about but I don't think they ever really were, and if so, again, it stopped when the money started coming in.
The other part of this myth is that there are always people behind the scenes who tell "the star" that they don't need these other people, that the rest of them are just getting in the way. I'm sure that Morrissey especially, and Marr also, both heard this a lot.
My problem with them isn't that they may have sold a false image. I think that is just how things are done. I don't think there are any bands that really follow this noble ideal of a band of artists sharing equally and respectfully. Any successful bands, I mean.
So all I'm suggesting is that maybe if we were fooled by this ideal at some point then we can't point the finger just at the band who fooled us. They may have been fooled as well. Didn't the band start out dividing things equally and then switched it later? And Joyce and Rourke didn't really notice because 10% of A Lot is more than 25% of Not Very Much At All.
I agree with a lot of what you say but I am just curious if you don't think that the audience should take some responsibility for believing a lie about a mythical world where art is more important than ego or cash.

 

[Ben Budd]

I really like Maladjusted. It has some pretty poor tracks on it, Roy's Keen, Sorrow spring to mind, but I find the highs of Alma Matters, Trouble Loves Me, Wide To Receive all very wonderful. Also He Cried and Ammunition are just plain enjoyable. I really don't find it too sonically different from what was to come following the comeback in 2004. I guess it was just easier for people to push away from Maladjusted and, to an equal extent, Southpaw Grammar to make the comeback look all that more reaffirming.

Lost should have been on the original release, mind you.