Saturday 21 April 2018

Morrissey-From Prophet to The Prince Phillip of Pop




I was having a sneaky post work afternoon pint a few weeks back adjacent to a table of full of refreshed old boys. Their topic of conversation was the celebrities of the seventies who ended up embroiled in charges of sexual misconduct. Bizarrely, this turned into a debate about who was the 'worst' offender. “Well” said one of the old timers “It has to be Stuart Hall”. “Stuart Hall??” chorused his pals in unison “Why Stuart Hall?” “Well” he said, supping his pint “I liked Stuart Hall”.

The British have a tendency to assume that the people they admire, particularly artistically, will have the same views and beliefs as themselves. When it turns out that they in fact do not, it hurts. It was especially galling to discover that Morrissey is in fact a massive twat. I wont bother revising why The Smiths meant (and mean) so much to me, I've wrote about it extensively on this very website. Suffice to say, in my teens and twenties they got me through some pretty dark and difficult times. What hurts is the fact that once upon a time Morrissey spoke for and about the unspoken and unmentioned. He spoke up for the marginalised people of society, the ugly, the shy, the lonely and the afraid. For the non binary. The non CIS. For the poor and the down trodden. For me and for you. How can someone who wrote 'It takes guts by gentle and shy' stumble so far into self flagellating and self fellation that he ends up a mouth piece for UKIP?

In his book, Saint Morrissey, Mark Simpson makes the case that Morrissey's bitterness, self worship and refusal to be wrong stems from years of staying to long in the closet. I think it's simpler than that. Morrissey has no-one to tell him 'look, you're talking bollocks there mate'. In his head, whatever he says is a statement of fact. When you have arenas full of fans baying at your every utterance it probably feels that way. When anyone disagrees with him they are 'out to get him'. He really is a daft old sod.

My respect for Morrissey grew thin around 2007 when, as a millionaire ex pat living in a mansion in LA, he deemed it necessary to pontificate to the British how shit their lives are and how as he never voted, we shouldn't either. Really mate? This was followed by some very dubious comments about immigration, which really sent the alarm bells ringing. These missives were totally misguided and, as he is a child of two Irish immigrants himself, incredibly hard to swallow. He was chatting shit, and deep down we knew it. Then in 2014, around the time of the release of the patchy if not totally shit World Peace Is None of Your Business, it was revealed that the Mozfather was suffering with cancer. Seemingly, all was forgiven due to the fear that he might go and die on us. This acceptance was short lived as he really went bat shit crazy. The pinnacle of his offensive prattishness was his comments after the bombing of Manchester Arena. Now, Manchester is my favourite city in the world, we have a lot of history, and everyone in my immediate family (bar my daughter) have attended concerts at the arena. This all felt very personal and eerily close to home. On the 23rd of May last year, the evening Johnny Marr took to the stage with Canadian band Broken Social Scene in an act of defiance and solidarity, Morrissey released a statement as offensive as it was bananas. Blaming immigration and Andy Burnham for the bombing was the final straw for me. I loved Morrissey but I couldn’t buy his records or go to his shows after this. Not any more.

I have been lucky, and I mean lucky, to have released myself from his grip. Hero worship is the enemy of common sense, and others remain shipwrecked on Mozzers bullshit island. The self styled 'Moz Army' are the worst offenders. These lot are little too far along the spectrum for my liking. A bit too obsessed. I'm a dad in my forties. I don't need Morrissey anymore, he hasn't been a talisman or a moral compass to me since my early twenties. But these lot are cursed, believing that saying anything negative about the quiffed Christ means they are somehow not true disciples. Ringleader of the titmice, Julie Hamill (who I actual feel a genuine sympathy for, she has some how ended up defending her hero, who is to cowardly to do it himself) has gone on record stating he is 'untitled to his opinion'. By attacking 'non whites' he is attacking my friends. This is not OK. Is it so scary to say 'actually, he's talking bollocks here'. Would you really be kicked out the gang?

Morrissey has become the darling of the right wing tweeting brigade (happily, easily identifiable by having a union jack by their username. Not quite going the full hog and having a swastika or 'TWAT' tattooed on their forehead but near enough) championing him for saying 'what everyone's really thinking but afraid to say'. Well lads, you are welcome to him. I'm not going to stop listening to The Smiths. Ever. Maybe that's the wrong choice, maybe we should stop listening to the Stooges because Iggy once said 'paki' in an interview or stop listening to Ian Curtis or Kate Bush because they voted Tory. I dunno. But I believe, maybe naively, that this is a vast difference between the Morrissey in his early twenties and the monster pushing sixty. So here is the compromise. We keep the kitten hugging cardigan wearing Wilde wannabe Morrissey and the right wing and the Moz Army and all the other lunatics take the husk of hate that he has become. Deal?

One final thought. The right wing-nuts have rallied around Morrissey because he's 'not afraid to tell it like it really is'. But I'm not sure that is totally correct. This barrage of hate is maybe just him testing the water, and maybe his private thoughts are actually full on horrifically racist. And the more people agree with his campaign of hate, the dirtier and more hateful views will rise to the top like shiny scum. Food for thought.


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