Morrissey 25:Live - can it relight my fire? Alex Needham - The Guardian

Morrissey 25: Live – can it relight my fire? - The Guardian
A new US concert film celebrates Morrissey's 25 years solo, but can it mend fences and bring back alienated fans – like me?

Alex Needham
theguardian.com, Tuesday 30 July 2013 11.38 EDT

Excerpt:

Filmed in March, at a gig at Hollywood high school by director James Russell, Morrissey 25: Live opens with backstage shots of Morrissey in moody black and white, and breathless testimonials from fans. For those of us who deplore his Little Englander tendencies, it's great to be reminded of Morrissey's massive Latino fan base, and that his constituency is still essentially indie kids, with bushy beards and pierced septums even as they approach middle age. But the fans also provide the most excruciating moments. I've been to dozens of Morrissey gigs, but never seen the mic passed around the front row so the fans can declare their devotion to the room at large. One even said "thank you for living," a sentence which elicited groans from the hacks watching the film. Surely even Morrissey doesn't need such an extreme form of ego massage.

But what of the object of the fans' obsession? His voice is on top form, and the performance has a showbiz veteran's confidence and craft. Lit well and filmed in a hectic style replete with unusual angles and flashy jump-cuts, Moz lashes the floor with the microphone cable like a disgruntled lion-tamer, wearing a shirt which appears to be covered in a giant Rorschach test. The band are considerably less stellar. Sadistically forced into tight t-shirts by their master (Boz Boorer looks particularly uncomfortable), they get their revenge by putting the aural equivalent of hobnailed boots on some of the Smiths' most quicksilver songs: plodding would be too kind a term for The Boy with the Thorn in His Side.

 

[Chip]

I guess the video of Chinese coat factory workers using pliers to skin German Shepherds alive shouldn't cause anyone to bat an eyelash. Maybe the testimonies of Chinese nurses of how they were instructed to inject rubbing alcohol into the soft spots of newborn babies in order to kill them should make us shrug our shoulders and say "It's a choice..." I'm not uncomfortable by his words. Some sh** needs to be said out loud. You can tell a lot about a people by how they treat the most vulnerable and helpless elements of their society.

You know I missed that part of my post where I talked about how cool I am with animal cruelty and how we should judge China's lack of animal cruelty laws based on standards of cultural relevancy.

I do not in anyway condone animal cruelty and I think the practices you described are in fact worthy of condemnation and criticism. Though I am not totally convinced other than the choice of animals how much worse these practices are the some of the insane shit that goes on in factory farms across the United States.

The point is that calling an entire race/nationality/ethnicity/whatever (I am not even going to bother with the "the comment can't be racist because the Chinese aren't a race" people because I just can't) a SUB SPECIES carries some pretty heavy baggage. You know like racism, colonialism, genocide, eugenics, biological racism, etc.

I've done a far deal of political activism myself, some of which targeting the policies of a certain government and I can imagine the kind of hot water I would get in (and rightfully so) if I made a comment in a similar vein.

Sub species is a terrible, terrible, terrible word choice. And if you don't get why I think you need to brush up your history of the last....400 hundred years or so. Or at least the 20th century.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm not sure I get the distinction here. Isn't saying something racist and saying something that will be understood by the average person as racist pretty much the same thing?

Only if you don't think intentionality matters. Which is a philosophical debate that is causing me to have terrible flashbacks to discussing Kant versus Jeremy Bentham in my freshman year of college.

 

[realitybites]

Ignoring some of the strangeness of your example and getting to your main point--Morrissey's clumsy choice of words. I've sometimes suspected (and I may be alone in this) that Morrissey knows what he's doing. It reminds me a lot of what Morrissey does with his sexuality giving contradictory messages, playing with imagery, loaded word choices, etc. Is he gay or is he not? Is he asexual? Is he just toying with us? Etc. I've always found this part of his image as ambiguous as it may be to be carefully crafted by Morrissey.

I almost suspected the same thing about the race issue. He toys with skin heads, makes some crass comments on immigration, and has some rather ambiguous things to say on the National Front and some slightly less ambiguous things to say about UKIP. But then he goes and writes lyrics like "In America where the President is never black, female, or gay," includes some random anti racism stuff in his shows opening stuff (at least on the last tour), and states that the only person fight to be president of the United States is a black lesbian woman. It leads one to wonder--where does Morrissey really stand? The difference being that while Morrissey's sexual ambiguity makes him a super hip indie rock icon this is just at best very embarrassing and at worse deeply problematic.

Though my second hypothesis is that Morrissey is just kind of ignorant and racially insensitive and a few dumb things plopped out of his mouth from time to time and he's since tried to cover his tracks, but being kind of ignorant and racially insensitive doesn't realize when he's making more dumb comments.

Talk about confusing contradictions. Why would a British, cross wearing... supposedly asexual... feminist singer volunteer to be a walking billboard for the Playboy brand?

 

[Chip]

Talk about confusing contradictions. Why would a British, cross wearing... supposedly asexual... feminist singer volunteer to be a walking billboard for the Playboy brand?

That's our Mozzer.

 

[realitybites]

That's our Mozzer.

So true.

 

[Johnny Barleycorn]

Yes, that must be it.

At last we agree.

 

[Johnny Barleycorn]

Ignoring some of the strangeness of your example and getting to your main point--Morrissey's clumsy choice of words. I've sometimes suspected (and I may be alone in this) that Morrissey knows what he's doing. It reminds me a lot of what Morrissey does with his sexuality giving contradictory messages, playing with imagery, loaded word choices, etc. Is he gay or is he not? Is he asexual? Is he just toying with us? Etc. I've always found this part of his image as ambiguous as it may be to be carefully crafted by Morrissey.

I almost suspected the same thing about the race issue. He toys with skin heads, makes some crass comments on immigration, and has some rather ambiguous things to say on the National Front and some slightly less ambiguous things to say about UKIP. But then he goes and writes lyrics like "In America where the President is never black, female, or gay," includes some random anti racism stuff in his shows opening stuff (at least on the last tour), and states that the only person fight to be president of the United States is a black lesbian woman. It leads one to wonder--where does Morrissey really stand? The difference being that while Morrissey's sexual ambiguity makes him a super hip indie rock icon this is just at best very embarrassing and at worse deeply problematic.

Though my second hypothesis is that Morrissey is just kind of ignorant and racially insensitive and a few dumb things plopped out of his mouth from time to time and he's since tried to cover his tracks, but being kind of ignorant and racially insensitive doesn't realize when he's making more dumb comments.

In many ways that is the point. He seems to be confused on some/many issues, so it can hardly be surprisingly when some get hold of the wrong end of the stick. That was the point of my previous no doubt controversial paragraph. A hundred people could read it and every one take away a different meaning, and yet strictly speaking there isn't a negative racial connotation contained in it. These days, when taking offence has almost become an Olympic sport, you find yourself feeling you have to write for the lowest common denominator. As someone who writes for a living I often run my stuff through a reading comprehension test. Nearly all of my writings can be easily understood by an average sixteen year old. I never publish anything anywhere which would be difficult for an eighteen year old of an average educational ability to comprehend. And yet...

With Morrissey it is far, far more complicated. One day he's a left winger who has right wing opinions, and on another day he seems to be a right winger with left wing views. Now normally that would not be an issue. Most people are not ideologues and for example using a current British point of contention, they might support immigration but be vehemently against illegal immigration. If you were against both of those things it would most likely indicate a very right wing point of view, if you were in favour of both it most likely would indicate a very left wing point of view.

I wondered at the time if some of his more progressive lyrics such as AINTW in the build up to the first NME case were almost there to be used in court as evidence that he was not what he was accused of being. I thought there was a certain degree of cynicism involved, but couldn't say for sure if it was his or mine. He didn't win his last NME case though, did he? They came to an understanding out of court, if memory serves.

Up until two or three years ago I would have said Morrissey was a bright guy playing the game. The Irish statement and what followed brought me round to the idea he might actually be a fool. Not because of his anti-British stance, as it's an opinion to which he is entitled. The shock for me was his complete ignorance of the role of the Queen within the British state, and his general lack of knowledge on the mechanisms of British Parliamentary democracy. A fourteen year old should know those things. It was the equivalent perhaps of someone demanding the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives immediately withdrew all US troops from Afghanistan. Without the death of the President and the VP he can't. Here we would need to wait for the death of the Minister for Public Lavatories before the Queen got a chance to make such a decision.

Rabble rousing about Ireland, which even recent weeks have proven still to be a tinderbox, is just idiotic. Thousands of people died during those times, and for him to poke the wasps' nest on high from the luxury of his LA pile was disgusting.

 

[Oh my god. it's Robby!]

really, he's a just "a goof"
I don't think he really expects to be taken seriously when he says any of the things he says, do you?
I mean, I hate to say it & here of all places
but perhaps he really is just trolling for a response
at least 99% of the time

 

[Johnny Barleycorn]

really, he's a just "a goof"
I don't think he really expects to be taken seriously when he says any of the things he says, do you?
I mean, I hate to say it & here of all places
but perhaps he really is just trolling for a response
at least 99% of the time

That makes it even worse.

 

[Anonymous]

That makes it even worse.

I agree, I think he will do anything for a laugh, some of the concert footage shows him doing the funniest, yet subtle things

 

[FAN]

Well, I really doubt that this DVD and showing will be successful; unfortunately for Morrissey, his star has started to fade, and with his lackluster recent releases, one has to understand. Before people begin to bash me as a hater, I actually wish Morrissey would be successful again; this means that he needs to get back the creative juices and hook up with some fresh musicians. Oh how the old days were great.

Now, another issue. The entire BRS and MorrisseysWorld debacle. Does anyone actually think he is really involved with this? What about the latest "Real Morrissey" Twitter page? My concern with this is that is he is involved with these sites, then he has devolved away from being an artist of value and creativity to some sort of nutcase who thinks he is being witty, ironic, and cutting edge--when in fact, he is alienating the majority of his fans. He posts goodbyes and then shortly after, he is back again. He said he would not Tweet again until 500 followers, yet he has been Tweeting all day? This shows a very unstable person.

If if he is not involved, then he really should get some of his credibility back by issuing a statement stating that.

I am curious of what other long-time fans think of this garbage.

 

[CrystalGeezer]

Well, I really doubt that this DVD and showing will be successful; unfortunately for Morrissey, his star has started to fade, and with his lackluster recent releases, one has to understand. Before people begin to bash me as a hater, I actually wish Morrissey would be successful again; this means that he needs to get back the creative juices and hook up with some fresh musicians. Oh how the old days were great.

Now, another issue. The entire BRS and MorrisseysWorld debacle. Does anyone actually think he is really involved with this? What about the latest "Real Morrissey" Twitter page? My concern with this is that is he is involved with these sites, then he has devolved away from being an artist of value and creativity to some sort of nutcase who thinks he is being witty, ironic, and cutting edge--when in fact, he is alienating the majority of his fans. He posts goodbyes and then shortly after, he is back again. He said he would not Tweet again until 500 followers, yet he has been Tweeting all day? This shows a very unstable person.

If if he is not involved, then he really should get some of his credibility back by issuing a statement stating that.

I am curious of what other long-time fans think of this garbage.

Subtle.

 

[Anonymous]

If if he is not involved, then he really should get some of his credibility back by issuing a statement stating that.

He did deny it, more than once, on True To You, a couple of years ago. And you know what happened? This place was immediately filled with fruitcakes saying "A-ha! The very fact that he is denying it proves that it really IS him, as he's giving it publicity". You can't win an argument against mentally ill people like the Blue Rose Brigade. If Moz doesn't deny it, they think it's him. And when he does deny it, they STILL think it's him.

 

[Chip]

Well, I really doubt that this DVD and showing will be successful; unfortunately for Morrissey, his star has started to fade, and with his lackluster recent releases, one has to understand. Before people begin to bash me as a hater, I actually wish Morrissey would be successful again; this means that he needs to get back the creative juices and hook up with some fresh musicians. Oh how the old days were great.

Now, another issue. The entire BRS and MorrisseysWorld debacle. Does anyone actually think he is really involved with this? What about the latest "Real Morrissey" Twitter page? My concern with this is that is he is involved with these sites, then he has devolved away from being an artist of value and creativity to some sort of nutcase who thinks he is being witty, ironic, and cutting edge--when in fact, he is alienating the majority of his fans. He posts goodbyes and then shortly after, he is back again. He said he would not Tweet again until 500 followers, yet he has been Tweeting all day? This shows a very unstable person.

If if he is not involved, then he really should get some of his credibility back by issuing a statement stating that.

I am curious of what other long-time fans think of this garbage.

You know I was actually taking your post seriously until you got to this point?

I also do not understand people who think that Years of Refusal is some kind terrible low point, but believe Kill Uncle and Maladjusted are part of some kind of mythical golden period of yesteryear.