'I feel like I've been had': Morrissey's collaborators respond to his politics - The Guardian

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'I feel like I've been had': Morrissey's collaborators respond to his politics - The Guardian
The former Smiths singer’s new album features guest spots from Billie Joe Armstrong and Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste. Are they not put off by his increasingly unpleasant right-wing stance?

Excerpt:

As US music magazine the Fader asked: “What possible reason could any of these people have for lining up behind Morrissey now?”

Droste declined to comment. The only artist willing to speak with the Guardian was Canadian vocalist Ariel Engle, who performs with cult indie outfit Broken Social Scene. She received a call from the American producer Joe Chiccarelli asking her to contribute backing vocals for a cover of Joni Mitchell’s Don’t Interrupt the Sorrow. “I thought, ‘Oh the Smiths, sure’,” she says. “It was $500 for two hours’ work.”

Engle says she didn’t become aware of Morrissey’s political views until the album was announced and a friend emailed to question her involvement. “It’s a very weak argument to claim ignorance,” she says, “but it is my argument. It’s not an excuse but it happens to be the truth.”

Morrissey’s manager, Peter Katsis, says he is unaware of statements made by any guest vocalists, but that the intention of the covers album was supposed to be fun. “This is where his head is at,” he says. “Maybe enough has been said with the last few albums being political.” Of Morrissey’s political views, Katsis says: “I manage his artistic career and sometimes I have to deal with things he says, but it’s not for me to comment.”

Chiccarelli echoes Katsis’s sentiment. “I can’t speak to Moz’s politics,” he says. “I’m a record-maker. I’ve known him 10 years and he’s been a gentleman and a pleasure. I consider him a friend.” When asked about the far-right figures for whom Morrissey has expressed support, Chiccarelli says: “I’d really have to research it and see if it crossed a particular line for me.”

Engle says that learning of Morrissey’s political opinions has left a “bad taste”, and that she stands in opposition to his views. “The inflammatory things he says are not my politics. I think he’s completely out of line. I grew up around multiculturalism and I am the product of multiculturalism and immigration. I feel like I’ve been had, but it’s my fault.”

The American singer LP offered a statement through a PR representative: “As I’m a huge fan of his music and poetry, I was honoured to be asked to collaborate on the album.” Representatives for Lydia Night of California band the Regrettes offered no comment, but the 18-year-old told punk magazine Kerrang!: “I’ve grown up loving the Smiths – my cat’s name is Morrissey!” Representatives for Armstrong said he was in the studio and therefore unreachable.

The guest stars on California Son are all North American, suggesting a difference between perceptions of the former Smiths frontman in the US and UK. Katsis, who is American, sees the critical focus on Morrissey’s politics as a British preoccupation.

“I don’t think they know enough about it to care about it,” he says of Morrissey’s US fans. “I don’t feel knowledgable enough to comment on British politics, therefore it’s probably not as important to me or the international fans as it is to UK fans. This whole thing has had me perplexed. The subjects are very complicated and dividing.”

The figures bear out Morrissey’s enduring support across the Atlantic. He ended 2018 with arena shows in North and South America, and has announced his first Canadian tour in 20 years for this April. In November 2017, Los Angeles City Council declared 10 November “Morrissey Day”.

“In America, he tends to be seen as the rock star who sang about queer life and spoke openly about feminism when nobody else did,” says Rolling Stone critic Rob Sheffield. “These two images define him, and he’s still seen in terms of his pioneering place in history. His grumpy old age is not really held against him. Americans tend not to follow UK politics very closely, so when he makes mind-blowingly offensive statements there might be outrage or humiliation for a few days, or hours, but then it’s back to listening to The Queen Is Dead”.




Media coverage:
 
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Awww. Shocked that an Afro-Caribbean former Mozhead calls you out for who you are, poppet? Of course. It's to be expected from you. Sad individuals like yourself hate to be exposed when you make lazy and sweeping generalizations of those within the community I was brought up within. You're the fool who sees multiculturalism as a "Jewish construct", yet lauds Zionist shills such as Stephen Yaxley-Lennon and his fellow wife-beater Richard Spencer for having the same nonsensical view and self-serving weaponised "victimhood" which comes as standard with the alt-right.
How revealing of you that you constantly self-justify, yet hate being put on the spot and scrutinized for your risible views. Oh well. If you see yourself as an aesthete in bovver boots, don't surprised if you're shown up and laughed at for who you are. Where I grew up in North London, the Irish where the largest immigrant community, yet they loved, laughed and mixed with others immigrants experiencing discrimination in their daily lives. My best mate at school was half-Irish, half-Greek Cypriot. Virtually all the kids that were biracial had an Irish parent where I lived ("We Irish mix very well", a lovely lady from Dublin I knew once told me).
I have a dear friend who's mother is Irish, and her father Pakistani - a survivor of partition. Like all true Londoners, she lives and lets live - a simple act that always leaves your sort seething. I myself worked within a diverse neighbourhood for nearly 20 years, and saw kids of all faiths and ethnicities getting on with their lives and growing up to be all that they could. You and your ilk hate seeing those you arrogantly and stupidly make "the other" achieve and ascend in our lives, while losers like you have nothing other than fate and an accident of birth you neither had any say nor input in as comfort for your all too apparent failings in life.
I'm black, poppet....and more than comfortable in myself. Seeing you make a prime-time pappy show of yourself with your frankly sloppy posts definitely explains your pathetic need to hide yourself. You for one - like so many here - are far too spineless to say what you think in the real world. I do so regularly. Free speech has implications and consequences you're cowardly to face up to. Is it any wonder you hide, eh? No wonder you call me "racist". Just like Trump, you hate seeing what's in the mirror when reflected back for what it is. Unlike you - and others like yourself, I can comfortably face the world as I am....unbowed and free to speak as I do.
Sweet dreams! :thumb:
I see I've got you all hot and bothered. I grew up and still live in an multicultural part of London so congrats and bravo.

I have never denied that Tommy R wasn't funded by troublemaking Zionists - I've said it many times on this site. I've also said that despite this I admire his courage in confronting a troublesome issue and putting himself on the line in dangerous situations like he does. He reminds me of the Tommies who were lied to and sent to war to preserve the 'British way of life' all to see it fade before their eyes very quickly down the line, eventually dying lonely and betrayed deaths. The real shill was Winston Churchill and his pernicious Zionist advisers. Multiculturalism is without doubt an elite-Zio construct to weaken their greatest rival: the evil white man. Top marks. Irish people are and always have been a benefit to this nation. I've said that many times too. All cultures are different - some fit in quite nicely, others clearly don't and never will.

And sorry to disappoint you, but Morrissey doesn't share your SJW opinions.

Lastly I thank you heartily for describing me as an aesthete in bovver boots. I want that carved on my grave.
 
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So? You take the smiles upon the faces of the three black motherf***ers as a sign they'll automatically attack you then, eh? So very revealing. So totally you. You're far too predictable, and your response effectively confirmed this.
Thanks for the replies. I'll get a few screenshots and pass 'em onto those who love to laugh at you. It is the civic thing to do, after all.
Ta-ta!
I'm glad to entertain you. Nobody forces you to religiously read all that I post up here, yet you faithfully do, time and time again.

Until next time fanboy x
 
Morrissey's politics are irrelevant. He can say whatever the hell he likes. Just like you and I.

His actions show us exactly the type of person Morrissey is.

Look at some of the artists he covers on California Son.

Look at all the backdrop photographs of people used on his tours.

Look who he dedicated Low in High School to.

Many of us aren't as dumb as some journalists: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/new-releases/music/9840751031/ref=zg_bsnr_nav_m_h__1_m_h_?tag=msamzn-21
Finally, someone has said that .
 
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I'm glad to entertain you. Nobody forces you to religiously read all that I post up here, yet you faithfully do, time and time again.

Until next time fanboy x

And no-one's forced you to reply, either. But you have done so. We all know why....don't we? By just even doing so, you have ever so very kindly and most effectively made and confirmed my point for me. Thanks very much for doing so. ;-D <3
 
Morrissey is spot on actually.
Oliver Cromwell is exactly their sort of person. Their methods of gaining power and wealth are an homage to him.

The so called royal family used Cromwells methods on the native population s in every country they invaded and subjugated. Take the Australian Aborigines for example who only got status as human beings in 1967 and make up only around 3% of the population today.

We won't even talk about what they did in Africa, and India.
The crown exported food from Ireland during the successive famines in Ireland including 1845 the year when a Conservative estimate of 1million people died. Elizabeth did apologise for that and various other atrocities on her first visit to Ireland a few years ago but as she is a direct descendent of Vlad the Impaler I would take it with a grain of salt. Her dear old mum did coin the term "wogs" after all.
The Irish are the only white country in the world to have been treated as badly as the natives in non white countries, by the colonising English forces.
Oliver Cromwell killed 41% of the Irish population in what is now termed ethnic cleansing because he considered the Irish subhuman. In addition he sent entire areas in Ireland to Barbados as slave labour for the sugar plantations.

Oliver Cromwell was picked as one of the top ten Britons of all time in a BBC poll in 2002.
But then the victors write the history and obviously most people don't question it.

This post is full of myths and inaccuracies. It's late so I'm just going to make a few very quick points.

1. No Morrissey isn't spot on. He's historically illiterate and I already gave the reasons why. The Royal Family's "methods of gaining power and wealth" have nothing to do with Cromwell. Those methods were in use long before Cromwell was born. They have no reason to salute him, and they don't do so. Morrissey wrote the lyric to be provocative but apparently without doing any research first. It ruins the song.

2. Aboriginal people not counting as human until 1967 is not true, it's a myth just like African-Americans counting only as "three-fifths of a person". It's a wild oversimplification of the truth. Here's an article about it:
https://www.google.com/amp/amp.abc.net.au/article/9550650

3. "Her dear old mum did coin the term "wogs" after all." --- I very much doubt that. Sounds like another myth. I looked it up and can find no evidence for your claim. Maybe she was reported to have used the term at one stage but it's unlikely that she "coined" it.

4. "he sent entire areas in Ireland to Barbados as slave labour" -- the Irish were never slaves. Some were indentured servants yes, as were many other groups of people, including some English people. Google the difference between slavery and indentured servitude.

5. "Oliver Cromwell killed 41% of the Irish population" -- I don't know where you pulled this statistic from but it sounds like nonsense. Again, I can find nothing online backing up that statement.

6. "she is a direct descendent of Vlad the Impaler" --- I had never heard this, and considering the rest of what you wrote, I doubted that it was true either. But I googled it and apparently they're descended from Vlad's illegitimate half-brother, not from Vlad himself. It's hardly relevant either way.
I could spend more time debunking what you wrote, but like I said, it's late. Anyway, it's something that anyone with an internet connection can do, including you. Spend some time researching the claims you made and you can debunk yourself, instead of going through life believing in historical myths and half-truths.
 
They may be confounded by Morrissey's choice of songs, but it is simply a sign of their lazy journalism.

The songs concerned (Dylan & Ochs) were both written in the 60s, at a time when a young generation stood up to rebel against the ruling norms. Both songwriters were also known for their strong pacific views (You can add Buffy Saint Marie to that list too). As a teenager, Morrissey was attracted to that spirit and shared their pacifist views. I doubt that his relationship to the ideas expressed in the songs probably has changed much over the years.

The world today is an entirely different beast, and we are all grappling with it in our own way. I don't think that Dylan, Ochs and Morrissey would find themselves at the same side of the (political) spectrum today. Why didn't the Guardian & co contact Dylan and Ochs to ask them how they feel that their songs are being covered by a racist twat? They obviously don't care, as they gave their permission.

You can deplore the turn that Morrissey's political views have taken since then and in response to recent developments. I feel no need
to defend his views either. But that doesn't erase where he comes from, does it?


:thumb:

but....

Phil Ochs is dead.
 
The problem was children being blown up in Manchester in the name of Islam, never ever forget that, I won't be forgetting that. Morrissey, I think, supports Anne Marie Waters for her support of animal welfare. Tommy Robinson, as much as people seem to hate him,.. I do believe he's done his bit to stop radical Muslims having their way in the UK, he's probably saved peoples lives, and probably saved children from being abused, he puts pressure on people who would just take over if he wasn't there. Islamic terrorists breed off the weak, so be strong.

There's a user here, Rifke, who was posting vile stuff laughing about the Manchester bombing. I've been trying to get her to apologise just once since but some people are beyond redemption.
 
just popped in,sees page 22,and popped out again.better things to do on a sunday.
 
Awww. Shocked that an Afro-Caribbean former Mozhead calls you out for who you are, poppet? Of course. It's to be expected from you. Sad individuals like yourself hate to be exposed when you make lazy and sweeping generalizations of those within the community I was brought up within. You're the fool who sees multiculturalism as a "Jewish construct", yet lauds Zionist shills such as Stephen Yaxley-Lennon and his fellow wife-beater Richard Spencer for having the same nonsensical view and self-serving weaponised "victimhood" which comes as standard with the alt-right.
How revealing of you that you constantly self-justify, yet hate being put on the spot and scrutinized for your risible views. Oh well. If you see yourself as an aesthete in bovver boots, don't surprised if you're shown up and laughed at for who you are. Where I grew up in North London, the Irish where the largest immigrant community, yet they loved, laughed and mixed with others immigrants experiencing discrimination in their daily lives. My best mate at school was half-Irish, half-Greek Cypriot. Virtually all the kids that were biracial had an Irish parent where I lived ("We Irish mix very well", a lovely lady from Dublin I knew once told me).
I have a dear friend who's mother is Irish, and her father Pakistani - a survivor of partition. Like all true Londoners, she lives and lets live - a simple act that always leaves your sort seething. I myself worked within a diverse neighbourhood for nearly 20 years, and saw kids of all faiths and ethnicities getting on with their lives and growing up to be all that they could. You and your ilk hate seeing those you arrogantly and stupidly make "the other" achieve and ascend in our lives, while losers like you have nothing other than fate and an accident of birth you neither had any say nor input in as comfort for your all too apparent failings in life.
I'm black, poppet....and more than comfortable in myself. Seeing you make a prime-time pappy show of yourself with your frankly sloppy posts definitely explains your pathetic need to hide yourself. You for one - like so many here - are far too spineless to say what you think in the real world. I do so regularly. Free speech has implications and consequences you're cowardly to face up to. Is it any wonder you hide, eh? No wonder you call me "racist". Just like Trump, you hate seeing what's in the mirror when reflected back for what it is. Unlike you - and others like yourself, I can comfortably face the world as I am....unbowed and free to speak as I do.
Sweet dreams! :thumb:
North gate?
 
Didn't Morrissey endorse Corbyn & Labour in the last election?

Also, Morrissey's comments about Trump have been very negative. "Who Will Protect Us From the Police" also doesn't sound like some kind of pro-police mantra.
 
They may be confounded by Morrissey's choice of songs, but it is simply a sign of their lazy journalism.

The songs concerned (Dylan & Ochs) were both written in the 60s, at a time when a young generation stood up to rebel against the ruling norms. Both songwriters were also known for their strong pacific views (You can add Buffy Saint Marie to that list too). As a teenager, Morrissey was attracted to that spirit and shared their pacifist views. I doubt that his relationship to the ideas expressed in the songs probably has changed much over the years.

The world today is an entirely different beast, and we are all grappling with it in our own way. I don't think that Dylan, Ochs and Morrissey would find themselves at the same side of the (political) spectrum today. Why didn't the Guardian & co contact Dylan and Ochs to ask them how they feel that their songs are being covered by a racist twat? They obviously don't care, as they gave their permission.

You can deplore the turn that Morrissey's political views have taken since then and in response to recent developments. I feel no need to defend his views either. But that doesn't erase where he comes from, does it?

Ochs would love Morrissey. Ochs is my favorite artist. On the Phil Ochs message boards on the various social network sites, many were somewhat bothered by Moz's choice to cover "Days of Decision," but then they reconsidered after hearing about Morrissey's love of James Baldwin.

And forgot the covers record - most of the songs on "Low in High School" are liberal protest songs. Play "I Kill the Living" to some Texas Republican, you'll end up in the hospital.
 
I stopped listening to Morrissey after his shift in political leaning. It was his music that pulled me out of a right-white nationalist stance in 1993 at 15. At my late 30s/ early 40s to see and hear what Moz has become is heartbreaking to me. So I just walk away.
 
He can certainly say whatever he likes. But spending money to support a racist, misogynistic person like Morrissey just makes one a supporter of his world view by proxy.

You cannot separate Morrissey the individual from Morrissey the singer.

If you want to spend money on Morrissey fine, but you don’t get to distance yourself from the ideology he supports when you are basically giving him livelihood. Pah.




Morrissey's politics are irrelevant. He can say whatever the hell he likes. Just like you and I.

His actions show us exactly the type of person Morrissey is.

Look at some of the artists he covers on California Son.

Look at all the backdrop photographs of people used on his tours.

Look who he dedicated Low in High School to.

Many of us aren't as dumb as some journalists: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/new-releases/music/9840751031/ref=zg_bsnr_nav_m_h__1_m_h_?tag=msamzn-21
 
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
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