Fiona Dodwell: "The poet without a home: Morrissey has been let down by the music industry" (May 31, 2021)

The poet without a home: Morrissey has been let down by the music industry

It seems inconceivable to his fans that Morrissey still has yet to find a label to work with on his upcoming record, Bonfire of Teenagers.

Poet without a home: Morrissey has been let down by the music industry

It seems inconceivable to his fans that Morrissey still has yet to find a label to work with on his upcoming record, Bonfire of Teenagers.

thepostmillennial.com

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MESSAGES FROM MORRISSEY on MORRISSEY CENTRAL

www.morrisseycentral.com

Regards,
FWD.

 

[Deleted member 28251]

FFS man, I could record a song now, played with spoons slapping against my own buttocks, and get it on Spotify by Friday. He's got no excuse.

TRUE. I’m a bit bored with seeing Morrissey hoist by his own petard. When the f*** was punk supposed to be attended by major record labels (as a condition of releasing the music?) ?

Jesus wept.

 

[GirlAfraidWillNeverLearn]

He's obsessed with veganism - unfortunately the press find it completely boring & try to make him fit into hot topics like immigration or Me Too which he has almost no interest in.

They also don't care about or understand hyperfixation.

 

[The.Truth.]

Why would Morrissey,

Spoiler

a Gemini (yes, I know )

want to work with a record label even though all he does is find fault with every one he's ever worked with, thus providing him an easy scapegoat for all problems and issues, as well as a built in adversary that he's overcome when things are going well? The answer is in the question.
In addition to wanting to make "real records" like the ones he bought when he was a kid, I believe he also wants a scapegoat to blame all, I won't say "failures" but problems, on. And this isn't some plan he has or even a weakness. To him it's just how things are. He always knows what's best and any other opinion must therefore be wrong.
When things go well it's in spite of all odds and when things go badly it's because other people would not do things his way.

 

[Mayfly]

I don't get his stance on this. Sleeper, who had a few hits in 90's and a decentish following, self funded and distributed their new album in 2018 through pledge music and managed to get it to number 18 in the charts. There's no reason at all why he couldn't
do this.

I don't know what exactly he's expecting from a record label at this point.
He already seems to have financed the recording of that album himself. He worked with a "big name" producer in a wonderful studio, so I take it that the songs are well beyond the demo stage, that is close to be finished. All other albums were recorded with a real producer in a good (or even lavish) studio after he had signed a record deal.

 

[Verso]

TRUE. I’m a bit bored with seeing Morrissey hoist by his own petard. When the f*** was punk supposed to be attended by major record labels (as a condition of releasing the music?) ?

Jesus wept.

You must be confused. Morrissey isn’t (and never was) punk. He wants recognition and support from the institution. There’s nothing DIY about his ethos.

 

[Deleted member 28251]

You must be confused. Morrissey isn’t (and never was) punk. He wants recognition and support from the institution. There’s nothing DIY about his ethos.

I’ll give you this one kid. He needs to catch up with himself.

 

[Surface]

I think BMG have the exact diagnosis - there's a reason they said nothing against him. They must know there's another narrative likely to supersede this one that would make denouncing him a bad look.

And what do you think that narrative is?

 

[WASP]

In order to sell more, he would very likely have to compromise his work thus losing the fans he has. The music industry would insist on more and more control with every record. Who are we to say that the balance he has found, when most artists either die or burn out by his age, is not the best he could possibly do with the music industry in ruin? He has done better than 90 percent. He is alive, working, surrounded by bandmates and friends who are protective and has mostly kept the ideals that make him unique to fans. And his voice sounds great!

I also think most bands who raise funds for records or start their own label are secretly bought by the industry. There's no telling how far the corruption goes. I don't know his strategy behind forcing labels to sign him but it is funny that they do every time He's making them foot the bill. I'm really enjoying watching his process.

Jesus. InfoWars twerp altert

Apart from the names and spelling, everything you said there is wrong. You wally


I know FOR A FACT alot of the indie labels get hardly ANY help

The reason morrissey is selling less, Is this, people just aren't interested.

This is the trouble morrissey and his fans, well some of em, are now in the land of pure conspiracy theory.
It's so sad how much like Trump old moz is. I so miss 80s and 90s moz.

The reason people dislike Fiona is, she is a hired hand, simply the reverse of the haters. She can't write and has no original ideas, at all. She has no real insight, nothing.
She, like Sam, are the reason morrissey is less respected. They are the opposite of what morrissey used to prompt.. Style and individualism and inbuilt intelligence.

It's seems to me morrissey emails her, with ideas and points to include. I suspect whole paragraphs are dictated in one way of other.

It's no coincidence that this article came on the back of the lp announcement.

 

[Mike Rourke]

How many times has Dodwell written this article now?



It is very conceivable for any fan who isn't a brain-dead arse-licking sycophant. I thought 'Dog on a Chain' was pretty great, but sales have been going downwards with each release. He hasn't had a Top 20 single in over a decade. Rightly or wrongly, his name has become so toxic and smeared with right-wing associations that any label that signs him will face bad publicity. Plus historically he has fallen out with pretty much every label he's worked with, and bears all the hallmarks of being 'difficult'. This is someone who isn't going to do any publicity or interviews for you, but most likely will fax you ten times a week asking why there aren't more billboards up, and why isn't the album #1 in Croatia?

I can see labels willing to put up with that if they think he brings the money in, but these days - why take the risk?

No-one without a school-age demographic gets near the top 20 singles chart these days because of the influence of streaming. It doesn't really mean anything. Even acts that sell hundreds of thousands of albums like Liam Gallagher can't manage top 20 singles.
It's also not true that Morrissey's sales have gone downward with each release. 2017's Low in High School sold a lot more than 2014's World Peace despite much worse reviews.
The problem for Morrissey is that his album sales have gone over a cliff edge since 2019. Even Low in High School managed 50,000 sales but Dog on a Chain barely sold more than 6,000. BBC radio wouldn't play any of the singles apart from on a Scottish show (no coincidence that the album hit #1 there). BBC continue to A-list the songs of people from Morrissey's era such as Paul Weller, Paul Heaton, Deacon Blue etc. They even playlist stuff from acts in their 80s including Tom Jones' and Cliff Richard's recent singles, so it's not an age thing.
Fingers crossed, it was just a temporary act of protest from the BBC and they'll start playing his new stuff again, but there's obviously no guarantee and that's what would worry a record label.

 

[Gregor Samsa]

What baffles me is his autobiography is full of complaints about record companies not doing enough promotion for him, and he hasn't stopped complaining about this issue since 2013. He really has to ask himself what exactly being on a record label does for him at this stage in his career.

My point exactly.

 

[Verso]

I’ll give you this one kid. He needs to catch up with himself.

You don’t need to “give” me anything, but as always I’m impressed with how you manage to come off as a pompous blowhard even when admitting you’re wrong.

 

[BrokenFrame]

The short blunt version is autistic artist deliberately misrepresented by bigoted music press.

I could be way off.....but have you noticed that he's constantly licking his lips in his interviews? I always wondered if this was his "stim". Something about him doing that always fascinated me.

 

[Jen M]

Jesus. InfoWars twerp altert

Apart from the names and spelling, everything you said there is wrong. You wally


I know FOR A FACT alot of the indie labels get hardly ANY help

The reason morrissey is selling less, Is this, people just aren't interested.

This is the trouble morrissey and his fans, well some of em, are now in the land of pure conspiracy theory.
It's so sad how much like Trump old moz is. I so miss 80s and 90s moz.

The reason people dislike Fiona is, she is a hired hand, simply the reverse of the haters. She can't write and has no original ideas, at all. She has no real insight, nothing.
She, like Sam, are the reason morrissey is less respected. They are the opposite of what morrissey used to prompt.. Style and individualism and inbuilt intelligence.

It's seems to me morrissey emails her, with ideas and points to include. I suspect whole paragraphs are dictated in one way of other.

It's no coincidence that this article came on the back of the lp announcement.

Calling people names shuts down the conversation. And if you had facts, you wouldn't be calling me names.

The fact is that anti-corporate language is used by the far left, not just Trump. It was a staple of the Bernie Sanders' campaign. Another fact is that plenty of diverse artists are out there shouting til it hurts and making their little short films about taking a vaccine, or wearing a mask or voting because execs tell them to. The few that are not, are for free speech. The more artists that stand up for free speech, the less censorship there'll be of our music. Whether Morrissey agrees with any political party wholesale is besides the point. He's standing up for free speech. People should be going after the artists who are not joining in supporting free speech. What kind of artist does that? One who is bought by a corporation.

 

[Anonymous]

Morrissey claims to have recorded the best album of his life, yet he's looking for a record company to do what? He's recorded the album. Which means he and the band have already payed for a recording studio, producer, engineer. He should just take one more step and front the cost of getting physical copies made.

 

[Amy]

I think BMG have the exact diagnosis - there's a reason they said nothing against him. They must know there's another narrative likely to supersede this one that would make denouncing him a bad look.

What "exact diagnosis" is that? Where are you pulling this bullshit from? Have you grasped at every other possible straw to explain Morrissey and now "He must be autistic" is all you've got? BMG's only "diagnosis" is probably "entitled, narcissistic man-child who never grew up". Looking at the trail of disaster in Morrissey's wake & all of the good people he jettisoned for nothing, that's far closer to the mark.

 

[Amy]

The short blunt version is autistic artist deliberately misrepresented by bigoted music press.

You're absolutely delusional.

 

[ForgivemeJesus]

I find it amazing, after all this BS , getting billed into some of the nicest venues and selling out countless shows constantly, that these fare weather fans (obviously or they wouldn't be here on site)who want to lash out with there opinions, still broken hearted over a cancelled show due to circumstance out of his control, but will not let Morrissey speak his opinions without 7 slashes to his head....Hypocrites.
F...k them all Morrissey ,we Truly know , when the smoke clears, you are the greatest Male vocalist and lyricist of ALL TIME...And that's my opinion

 

[BrokenFrame]

You're absolutely delusional.

As an autistic person myself I can see where she is coming from. But who knows.

 

[Anonymous]

I find it amazing, after all this BS , getting billed into some of the nicest venues and selling out countless shows constantly, that these fare weather fans (obviously or they wouldn't be here on site)who want to lash out with there opinions, still broken hearted over a cancelled show due to circumstance out of his control, but will not let Morrissey speak his opinions without 7 slashes to his head....Hypocrites.
F...can them all Morrissey ,we Truly know , when the smoke clears, you are the greatest Male vocalist and lyricist of ALL TIME...And that's my opinion

Dylan is the "greatest Male vocalist and lyricist of ALL TIME". And that's a fact.

It only took one song to get me hooked. Talkin' New York. Two lines in particular from that song:

People going down to the ground
Buildings going up to the sky

 

[dneuer]

I don't know what exactly he's expecting from a record label at this point.
He already seems to have financed the recording of that album himself. He worked with a "big name" producer in a wonderful studio, so I take it that the songs are well beyond the demo stage, that is close to be finished. All other albums were recorded with a real producer in a good (or even lavish) studio after he had signed a record deal.

I've had this conversation several times with someone with at least some insight and I was convinced based on what I knew that this new release was set up by and negotiated with a (major) label. In fact, I'd have bet (and apparently lost) they had a deal in place with him stating if he agreed to work with Watt and the others involved that this non-existent label would release it. It is a bit of a surprise to hear he's got to shop the release after the fact.