I can't look at a photo like that and assume there's no photoshop there, because it's obvious for me (and I know about photography). Then again, it's not a "cosmetic photoshop" as to eliminate wrinkles or make Morrissey look younger. They simply increased some 2 points in the gamma... as to make the photo itself look somehow more pictoric (it reminds me of a painting by Rembrandt!). I am sure that the photo before the photoshop was
close to this image:
(same photo, but with -2 gamma points... same thing, except that less "pictoric"... but I do not see "photoshop make-up" either... just an attempt to make the photo more look a bit more like a chiaroscuro).
Other than that, he is a true poet... Besides from having that fantastic voice, he is actually incredibly skilled when it comes to playing with homophonies, double meanings, and all the figures of speech available all the time. I adore his Wolverhampton version of Sister I'm a Poet... and something I specially like about it is how a random plastic bag that ended up in his hands became part of the song... and "All alone waiting at the lights" suddenly became "a plastic bag stranded at the lights". So he certainly has that spontaneous poetic intelligence.
That's why I thought of Genesis P-Orridge of Psychic TV... s/he doesn't like rehearsing either (s/he stated many times that s/he does not rehearse at all)... and his approach to singing is often purely based on improvisation. S/he also has a decades and decades as a singer and s/he's unable to tune a guitar (but works with musicians too, just like Morrissey does).
I.e, it is obvious that Psychic TV was simply going to play "As Tears go By", which they have recorded using the lyrics of the Rolling Stones... but the live version in Tokyo suddenly became a "new song", and it is safe to assume that Genesis had absolutely no idea of the lyrics he was going to sing... the band simply played "As tears go by"... and Genesis began to sing his "new song" improvising... and the band had no idea of what the hell he was going to sing:
The big difference is that one of them has chosen an absolutely experimental genre (Genesis), whilst the other has chosen a more conventional genre (Morrissey), but the two of them are somehow proud of being outsiders. I mean, it takes some 2 or 3 years to learn the basics of guitar playing (of course, you won't play like a Jimmy Hendrix in 3 years, but if you have devoted your whole life to music, it is a bit weird to have consciously or unconsciously decided that you can't read a partiture of play the guitar, at least very basic songs)... but I really like their "outsider" approach to music, singing, songwriting... and I do not think that Tony Visconti was exactly wrong when he said: "He has a knack of pushing people away from him. It’s the way he lives his life". I know that Genesis always did exactly the same thing (I was NOT surprised when the comeback of his seminal band Throbbing Gristle ended up with the formation of X-TG, which was TG minus Genesis, because the other members didn't want him in the band).
I guess it is probably complicated for a more conventional musician to work with an "outsider" who has his own self-created rules... even if the results are jaw dropping.
Other than that, there are not many
artists like that. The usual complainers deserve something like
Oasis... catchy, predictable and boring.