3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Why must I whisper so quietly about my love for Morrissey?
Yet, in a rush to "cancel" Morrissey, we risk discarding one of the most brilliant and idiosyncratic lyricists and vocalists of modern music – an artist whose contribution will arrive in history as more important than any polarising or contrarian statement he is so eager to express.
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Morrissey is not a politician or someone with any institutional power, so to hold him or any artist to the same standard is a strange allocation of moral righteousness.
He is certainly saying the opposite of what I believe, some of which I find rather vile, but then I also realise that the personal opinion of an artist matters little in the grand scheme. That's not what he's here for, ultimately, and not what should be judged at the end of it all. The ability to judge art on its own terms further eludes us, and many are happy now to rewrite the narrative of Morrissey and his contributions.
Detractors who cannot help but give The Smiths their due credit have no issue reducing the critical role he played in the group, as if doing so assuages the guilt of their enjoyment from any controversy of his they might not like.
Johnny Marr, Morrissey, Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke of The Smiths (Image: Getty Images) 'I listen to The Smiths for Johnny Marr's guitar' is a sentence often banded about to distance the band and their significance from their main figurehead. With all due respect to the intricate, melodic guitar lines of Marr, the personality, substance and concept of the group was fully the brainchild of Morrissey. The emotional tilt? Morrissey. The artistic direction of faded soap opera actors, Warhol freaks and classic film stars that adorned the group's iconic covers and aesthetics? Morrissey, through and through.
The mindset that informed the well-revered artistic impulses of The Smiths remains in his recent work, yet this turn towards right-wing controversy has tainted and perhaps blinded the perception of it. 'Spent the Day in Bed', a single from 2017, features the chorus refrain of 'Stop watching the news because the news contrives to frighten you, to make you feel small and alone', a sentence that would not be surprising loudly proclaimed from the mouth of Alex Jones. Yet it is the same kind of definitive cultural statement that could be seamlessly placed on The Queen Is Dead or any other beloved record, where its inclusion would not raise eyebrows at all.
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His past work, seemingly once perfectly understood at some point in time, sees unfair re-interpretation through his recent views. 'Bengali in Platforms', from his 1988 debut solo album Viva Hate, is a classic Morrissey character sketch of a Bengali boy struggling to fit in after immigrating to the UK. What was once a song that seemed highly empathetic to the plight of the outsider is now highlighted as an example of Morrissey's racism perpetuating through his art.
But one wonders if those staking that claim have even bothered to listen to the song and have considered the slightest bit of nuance within it. 'He only wants to embrace your culture and to be your friend forever,' he sings, very unlike a man who would eventually sport a For Britain pin on his blazer.
The contentious climactic line of its chorus, 'Shelve your Western plans and understand / because life is hard enough when you belong here', could very well be the artist extending sympathy to the further alienation that immigrant status creates for life in the UK, where the grass is not necessarily greener per se, and where moving in the world cannot fix the inherent contradictions, despair and loneliness of the human condition. Yet taken at face value, the song goes from a considered and nuanced portrait to just a flat confirmation of Morrissey's boorish proclamations. That is a shame.
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Morrissey is currently happy to play the provocative villain surrounded by pitchforks, something that he has always done in different ways, and it's obviously not helping his case. His record deal with Capitol Records ended in 2022, with an unreleased album called Bonfire of Teenagers stuck in purgatory while his former label holds onto the rights.
Perhaps this is what being cancelled is, but to think someone like Morrissey can be in any way a victim in this scenario is hyperbole. He is a figure that can exist rather comfortably outside of the mainstream music industry, where he does not have to answer for any of his beliefs or opinions.
Regardless, he is still the holder of quite an artistic legacy, and attempts to rewrite this will essentially be in vain once the cultural moments shift yet again.
