Fiona Dodwell: "Sing Your Life: How Morrissey Became Music’s Greatest Lyricist" (December 21, 2022)

Sing Your Life: How Morrissey Became Music’s Greatest Lyricist

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Was hoping for a Bonfire review...
Ah well.
FWD.

Update:
Added as a post on Morrissey Central:
THE SINGING VOICE IS LOVE - December 22, 2022

 

[SuedeMoz]

Yep, there's all sorts of stuff you can do, Peter Hook did a gig from his garden and it's had half a million views, imagine what would happen if Morrissey did something similar!!

That's brilliant. It's amazing how social media and things like YouTube allow artists to communicate directly with their audience and Morrissey does almost none of it.

What about something as simple as this? Central posts a question form where fans can ask Morrissey their most important question. Little Sammy goes through and picks the top 10 or so and Morrissey answers them on video. Sure they will only be the most softball questions... but even that would play much better than the recent "woe is me" posts on Central.

 

[Surface]

That's brilliant. It's amazing how social media and things like YouTube allow artists to communicate directly with their audience and Morrissey does almost none of it.

What about something as simple as this? Central posts a question form where fans can ask Morrissey their most important question. Little Sammy goes through and picks the top 10 or so and Morrissey answers them on video. Sure they will only be the most softball questions... but even that would play much better than the recent "woe is me" posts on Central.

Yes and really easy to do, Ceremony in this video is magnificent, imagine Morrissey doing some of his popular stuff in a similar situation, it would be really popular.

 

[Luxo]

Yes and really easy to do, Ceremony in this video is magnificent, imagine Morrissey doing some of his popular stuff in a similar situation, it would be really popular.

Morrissey won't do stuff like Peter Hook does and just play his classics, because it's what other artists do and therefore totally uncool, whereas he is definitely not a conformist and definitely totally edgy.

I get it, an artist wants their new music to be heard, and I know Paul Weller shares a similar mindset in that he doesn't want it to just be a nostalgia tour. The difference is, Paul Weller can get away with that, because he's Paul Weller and is extremely popular, whereas Morrissey's star seems be waning.

He should do a massive tour, playing the classics 1988 - 2006. People would absolutely love it, and not just us die hards, but the general populace, the same ones that get bored by his new stuff when they see him live.

P.s. Regret is such a good song, I never get bored of it. I wish Morrissey could write songs like that.

 

[Surface]

Morrissey won't do stuff like Peter Hook does and just play his classics, because it's what other artists do and therefore totally uncool, whereas he is definitely not a conformist and definitely totally edgy.

I get it, an artist wants their new music to be heard, and I know Paul Weller shares a similar mindset in that he doesn't want it to just be a nostalgia tour. The difference is, Paul Weller can get away with that, because he's Paul Weller and is extremely popular, whereas Morrissey's star seems be waning.

He should do a massive tour, playing the classics 1988 - 2006. People would absolutely love it, and not just us die hards, but the general populace, the same ones that get bored by his new stuff when they see him live.

P.s. Regret is such a good song, I never get bored of it. I wish Morrissey could write songs like that.

Yes get all that but it's more about the opportunity to promote yourself, Morrissey could easily do this sort of thing an be everything he wants to be!!

 

[The Wild Turkey]

What, no Dylan?

Or Gil Scott-Heron?

 

[Redacted]

Yeah it's absolutely hard to read and I stopped right at the beginning. Because that doesn't sound like an in depth analysis. It sounds like snippets M wrote to get his points across again and again. I don't understand the necessity for this, because - again - he really doesn't need this kind of promotion. If he would let his work and art stand alone for itself he would get a better result, because many many people like it. But hearing over and over again that he's THE one artist, that is bashed by everyone just gets old and getting a fan writer to write everything you want and even to take a dig at your former colleagues just doesn't help the cause, because it looks weak and he could do so much better than that. And I mean the way/medium he uses to communicate. As a lot of people here already pointed out, do interviews, talk, get your points across yourself etc.

Her writing is so dense and repetitive. I completely agree that it is not an in depth analysis, she is just rehashing her interview.
I do think M wrote it or directed her how to write it which is pretty terrible in all kinds of way, but especially when he constantly insists "I am not political" and the article contains political lyrics and statements. It's a giant mess, M is a giant mess.
I have mentioned here before that I have worked for bands and was in charge of their social media, I don't say it to brag (trust me, there's nothing to brag about there), but to make a point. When Facebook first became a thing, a lot of bands were sort of abandoning their websites and migrating to Facebook, then twitter as well, because everyone thought things would just be contained in one or two places. We weren't using Instagram yet. If you combine these platforms and work at it, you can have a really good internet presence and only pay one person who really knows what they are doing, to run it all. I was not an expert but people can learn quickly. As has often been said, he needs someone who is not Sam to do this, I have seen fans run great groups and the band members are in them and talk to the fans. He should do something like this, and people would be thrilled to have him there.

 

[Redacted]

The irony being that Johnny has had a very successful career as a solo artist, addition to existing bands (e.g. The Cribs), song writer for other successful artists (must be good, easy money for him) and as a film score composer/writer. Johnny is doing pretty well for himself.

We will have to agree to disagree on this one

 

[Redacted]

Yep, there's all sorts of stuff you can do, Peter Hook did a gig from his garden and it's had half a million views, imagine what would happen if Morrissey did something similar!!

I just loved this, thank you for posting it. I think that is the most amazing version of Ceremony I've heard, just fantastic.

 

[Surface]

I just loved this, thank you for posting it. I think that is the most amazing version of Ceremony I've heard, just fantastic.

Same here, it's wonderful, I also think Aries which he did with Gorillaz is absolutely superb as well.

 

[Redacted]

Same here, it's wonderful, I also think Aries which he did with Gorillaz is absolutely superb as well.

Thank you!

 

[Redacted]

Having read the article again, I'm coming around to Redacted's thinking that Fiona doesn't actually listen to Morrissey.

I mean, come on, "compared to Oscar Wilde". Everyone and their dog knows that Moz was heavily influenced by Wilde and lifts words from Wilde's writing for use in his lyrics. She'll be patronisingly informing us, as if she discovered it, that Moz was heavily influenced by Shelagh Delany and Bowie next.

Morrissey himself has spoken extensively about what an influence Wilde has been on him and how he thinks and writes. It's hardly the newsflash Fiona thinks it is. I do believe Fiona does not actually listen to Morrissey, nor does anyone who can seriously deny this huge influence.