chris3
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I just ordered a slice of pumpkin pie...
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Post by chris3 on Apr 3, 2020 18:36:18 GMT
I'm a lifelong devotee (well, since discovering The Smiths in college back in '07) and I am frankly BLOWN AWAY by his new album. In my opinion it's his absolute best work since his solo debut Viva Hate. It arrived like a bolt from the blue, since his previous three albums have been quite lackluster to me and I thought he was well past his glory days. There's a song on it I consider to be top-tier Smiths level, even:
Also, this really shouldn't have to be mentioned, but just in case the conversation spirals away from the music: No, I do not agree with his politics regarding immigration, Brexit, Islam, etc.
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Post by pacinoyes on Apr 3, 2020 19:09:01 GMT
I am although he's a tricky guy to assess and always has been - I think his act worked in the context of a band (much like his drunken American rival Paul Westerberg or his sensitive kindred spirit Michael Stipe).
I don't think the Smiths made a great record besides Queen Is Dead (pacinoyes 2nd best of 1986!) but made a lot of ace singles too even if I sometimes found them (unintentionally) funny ..... Suedehead/Viva Hate were extensions of the Smiths - but as time has gone on he lost the plot and to me it isn't about his politics at all - some of the time he's just playing the media for his amusement imo - it's rather about him not being able to find another Johnny Marr and not having anything to play off - no counterpoint in the music.
I think about half of the new record really works - there's some really good stuff scattered across the album - and surprisingly so - but it wore out for me before the end - maybe his best since Years of Refusal not sure how far back that was but that was a good record.......
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chris3
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I just ordered a slice of pumpkin pie...
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Post by chris3 on Apr 3, 2020 19:17:13 GMT
Ha, I'm not so sure the comedy is unintentional. The majority of his stuff is absolutely laugh-out-loud ridiculous, and that's a lot of the appeal to me. I think a lot of people unfamiliar with The Smiths assume it's gloomy emo depressing music, whereas most of it is hilariously tongue in cheek. There's a song on Ringleader of the Tormentors (underrated album) set to an achingly beautiful Ennio Morricone orchestral backdrop where he passionately opines: "There are explosive kegs... between my legs... Dear god, please help me..." And while I agree that The Smiths were a much better "singles" band than "album" band, I'm going to put on my contrarian hat and state that personally I find Strangeways, Here We Come to be their greatest album, even better than Queen is Dead. I think I'm the only person on the planet that agrees with Morrissey and Marr on this. And I agree with you, over time his music has suffered since he never found a music songwriter on the same level as Marr. Still, I find much of the music on the new album to be shockingly great, especially compared to most of the chug-rock he's been singing over for the past twenty years. Cheers!
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Post by DeepArcher on Apr 3, 2020 19:27:55 GMT
Posted my thoughts on The Smiths recently in the poll thread about their best song ... they were one of my absolute favorite bands in high school who I've since cooled on. I barely listen to them anymore and part of the reason is Morrissey's white supremacist bullshit ... as I said in the other thread, it's not even a moral thing that has turned me off from their music, I don't think Morrissey's current toxicity in the public sphere should devalue the great art he made over thirty years ago with the other band members whose credibility shouldn't have to suffer either ... it's something on a more innate emotional level that I can rarely bring myself to listen to their music as much as I used to. That said I've been listening to them a bit more in these quarantine days, partly because my recent listening has been more focused on '70s/'80s stuff than usual (my music taste is more 21st century focused, especially in the past couple years) and partly because I feel like they keep being brought up on this board which keeps bringing them back to my attention. I still do like their music ... "The Headmaster's Ritual" and "I Know it's Over" especially are all-timer songs for me, obviously "How Soon is Now," "There is a Light...," "This Charming Man," "Panic," "Bigmouth," countless others are still iconic stuff in the canon of my musical headspace ... but as I've said, they've been kinda "beaten out" in my listening habits by other bands of their era who did something similar and probably did it better.
Have never really listened to Morrissey's solo stuff (nor am I keen to, to be honest) which is why my thoughts on him as an artist are entirely intertwined with my thoughts on The Smiths in general...
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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 6, 2022 23:00:10 GMT
Yeah, um, that reunion thing is totally never happening From Morrissey on his "official" website - an open letter. So bitchy *********************************************************************************************OPEN LETTER TO JOHNNY MARR.This is not a rant or an hysterical bombast. It is a polite and calmly measured request: Would you please stop mentioning my name in your interviews?Would you please, instead, discuss your own career, your own unstoppable solo achievements and your own music?If you can, would you please just leave me out of it?The fact is: you don’t know me. You know nothing of my life, my intentions, my thoughts, my feelings. Yet you talk as if you were my personal psychiatrist with consistent and uninterrupted access to my instincts. We haven’t known each other for 35 years - which is many lifetimes ago. When we met you and I were not successful. We both helped each other become whatever it is we are today. Can you not just leave it at that? Must you persistently, year after year, decade after decade, blame me for everything … from the 2007 Solomon Islands tsunami to the dribble on your grandma’s chin ? You found me inspirational enough to make music with me for 6 years. If I was, as you claim, such an eyesore monster, where exactly did this leave you? Kidnapped? Mute? Chained? Abducted by cross-eyed extraterrestrials? It was YOU who played guitar on ‘Golden Lights’ - not me.Yes, we all know that the British press will print anything you say about me as long as it’s cruel and savage. But you’ve done all that. Move on. It’s as if you can’t uncross your own legs without mentioning me. Our period together was many lifetimes ago, and a lot of blood has streamed under the bridge since then. There comes a time when you must take responsibility for your own actions and your own career, with which I wish you good health to enjoy. Just stop using my name as click-bait. I have not ever attacked your solo work or your solo life, and I have openly applauded your genius during the days of ‘Louder than bombs’ and ‘Strangeways, here we come’, yet you have positioned yourself ever-ready as rent-a-quote whenever the press require an ugly slant on something I half-said during the last glacial period as the Colorado River began to carve out the Grand Canyon. Please stop. It is 2022, not 1982. Morrissey. January 2022.Johnny Marr has responded with a tweet Dear @officialmoz. An ‘open letter’ hasn’t really been a thing since 1953, It’s all ‘social media’ now. Even Donald J Trump had that one down. Also, this fake news business…a bit 2021 yeah ? #makingindiegreatagain
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Post by ibbi on Feb 7, 2022 13:49:26 GMT
Yeah, um, that reunion thing is totally never happening From Morrissey on his "official" website - an open letter. So bitchy *********************************************************************************************OPEN LETTER TO JOHNNY MARR.This is not a rant or an hysterical bombast. It is a polite and calmly measured request: Would you please stop mentioning my name in your interviews?Would you please, instead, discuss your own career, your own unstoppable solo achievements and your own music?If you can, would you please just leave me out of it?The fact is: you don’t know me. You know nothing of my life, my intentions, my thoughts, my feelings. Yet you talk as if you were my personal psychiatrist with consistent and uninterrupted access to my instincts. We haven’t known each other for 35 years - which is many lifetimes ago. When we met you and I were not successful. We both helped each other become whatever it is we are today. Can you not just leave it at that? Must you persistently, year after year, decade after decade, blame me for everything … from the 2007 Solomon Islands tsunami to the dribble on your grandma’s chin ? You found me inspirational enough to make music with me for 6 years. If I was, as you claim, such an eyesore monster, where exactly did this leave you? Kidnapped? Mute? Chained? Abducted by cross-eyed extraterrestrials? It was YOU who played guitar on ‘Golden Lights’ - not me.Yes, we all know that the British press will print anything you say about me as long as it’s cruel and savage. But you’ve done all that. Move on. It’s as if you can’t uncross your own legs without mentioning me. Our period together was many lifetimes ago, and a lot of blood has streamed under the bridge since then. There comes a time when you must take responsibility for your own actions and your own career, with which I wish you good health to enjoy. Just stop using my name as click-bait. I have not ever attacked your solo work or your solo life, and I have openly applauded your genius during the days of ‘Louder than bombs’ and ‘Strangeways, here we come’, yet you have positioned yourself ever-ready as rent-a-quote whenever the press require an ugly slant on something I half-said during the last glacial period as the Colorado River began to carve out the Grand Canyon. Please stop. It is 2022, not 1982. Morrissey. January 2022.Johnny Marr has responded with a tweet Dear @officialmoz. An ‘open letter’ hasn’t really been a thing since 1953, It’s all ‘social media’ now. Even Donald J Trump had that one down. Also, this fake news business…a bit 2021 yeah ? #makingindiegreatagainWell... He can sure still write
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Post by pacinoyes on Dec 3, 2022 12:06:24 GMT
New Interview taped in Oct but just recently released - his first sit down on TV talk in quite a while I think? - and he either does NOT disappoint.......or REALLY disappoints......ymmv
Calls "Diversity" ...the new..."Conformity" .......references Italy and Germany as different cultures - which should help his relationship with Capitol Records (um - no, not really) .........also talks about MAR deleting threads and pacinoyes' slightly negative review of his new single......
Those were jokes people, calm yourselves ............Another Sunny Day.........So I'll Meet You At the Cemetry Gates......
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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 14, 2023 13:11:37 GMT
From his website .........he totally hates Sam Smith btw........
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Post by pacinoyes on Jun 16, 2023 16:11:05 GMT
In marvelously cranky form - this is from today - heaven knows he's miserable now : www.morrisseycentral.com/messagesfrommorrissey/387636-bonfire-of-teenagers-is-none-of-your-businessArtist-friendly Capitol Records (Los Angeles) have no plans to release ‘Bonfire of Teenagers’ two and a half years after the album was recorded. Morrissey’s new comment on the situation: “It’s a clear display of how censorian the music industry has become. It is a new part of the music industry that does not work and that nobody likes. Music should be the primary democracy, as all art should be, and any effort to keep people away from it simply invites deeper discussion.
There is no point banning ‘Bonfire of Teenagers’ because somebody somewhere might be offended if they heard it. Why waste time on other people’s mental incapacities? And where is Capitol’s support for the kids who were murdered in that Manchester bonfire on 22 May 2017? Although Capitol claims to be a label of ‘diversity’ it is very difficult to see their humanity.
If you are only prepared to release music that draws people’s minds away from thinking then you are unfit for any contact with creative people. Songs are literary compositions, and writing music should be an unrestricted open form. It seems to me that Capitol Records cannot observe the possibility that their artists or their potential customers have ever thought. But silencing certain artists achieves nothing, and simply makes the bonfire burn taller and louder. The moral perspective at Capitol Records who is sitting like a hen on an egg on ‘Bonfire of Teenagers’ is Michelle Jubelirer, who played no small part in removing ‘World Peace is None Of Your Business’ from the shelves in 2014 - determined that it could not sell or be heard.
The same creeping culture of censorship at Capitol Records has taken place with ‘Bonfire Of Teenagers’, and the civic structure of Capitol now appears fascist. I still have hope in the music industry, but there are evidently several powerful faces within it that have no honest interest in music … and you follow them into the shadows at your peril.” MORRISSEY.
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Post by pacinoyes on Oct 19, 2023 20:36:04 GMT
He's such a cranky bitch to security this is last night
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Nikan
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Post by Nikan on Oct 19, 2023 20:43:28 GMT
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