Morrissey and Marr – pre severed alliance
In a recent interview with Krishman Guru-Murthy, Johnny Marr publicly distances himself from Morrissey’s more outspoken statements that have been widely interpreted as endorsements of racism and far right bigotry.
Wisely in my view, Marr has resisted the temptation to go any further by joining in the rising tide of venom towards his ex-Smiths partner.
To understand what he’s opting out of, you only have to read the scurrilous one star review of Morrissey’s latest covers album ‘California Sun’ in The Guardian. This makes it plain that there are now many who are no longer able the separate the man from the music.
The mood of zero tolerance was also evident when a lone complaint by a commuter in Liverpool led to posters for ‘California Sun’ being removed from the entire rail network.
I would be the first to concede that Morrissey has brought much of this unprecedented backlash upon himself. Publicly lending his support to ‘For Britain’ was for many the last straw. Prior to this, his comments against Halal meat and China’s abysmal record on animal rights could at least be defended on the grounds that they reflected his radical veganism. Now he seems to have bitten off more than he can chew.
Morrissey has a history of exaggerating for effect and knows that moderation doesn’t generate the required level of publicity. This is a man who likens animal slaughter to murder and once sang about a dream of Margaret Thatcher being guillotined.
Like all narcissistic populists, Morrissey works on the basis that there’s no such thing as bad publicity. But these days, different rule books seem to apply to the worlds of politics and entertainment. The likes of Trump, Farage and Johnson revel in the controversies they provoke and gain support from a public who distrust those who take the moral high ground. Continue reading
In the British Indie music scene the meeting of Marr and Morrissey is comparable in importance to that of Lennon and McCartney. Nevertheless, this biopic of Steven Patrick Morrissey is not about this alliance or indeed any aspect of the music the two made together with The Smiths.
Steven Patrick Morrissey has, to some extent, always courted equal measures of praise and ridicule. The mean-spirited criticism by the NME and other hacks within the music press was less evident while The Smiths were still together mainly because only those with cloth ears would have dared criticise the band’s four magnificent studio albums and peerless run of singles.
