...as you can see from their visit to James Dean museum...
Notably, in Alain's FB post sharing the visit, he included a picture of a page from the James Dean Museum guestbook that Morrissey signed during the "Suedehead" shoot in February 1988. Alain referred to him in the caption as "my friend," which, at face value, would seem to indicate that he and M parted amicably.
Another thought for the pot. When most people leave the M camp, they do it discreetly and move on to other things, they take the high road.
Can you really imagine someone with an ego like Jesse drifting quietly away, if he was confronted and things didn't work out? I can't. I think if Jesse was asked to leave, he would make sure to burn the house down on his way out. He would have a public meltdown and everything M ever said in drink, in anger, every unpleasant detail would be out there for the world to see. Maybe that's why it's not as easy to resolve the issue as we might think.
My gut feeling is that the roots of Jesse's sense of entitlement - for lack of a better word - chiefly came from:
1. All four of the
Ringleader singles were chosen from his co-writes - this after Alain had contributed co-writes to all four
Quarry singles.
2. Morrissey featuring him on camera - at points awkwardly - for the Les Inrockuptibles interview at the time of
Ringleader's release. He allowed Th'Lads to sit in on the Hangin' With MTV interview in 1992 but - to my knowledge -he never "featured" Alain or Boz in such a notable way. The effect, intentional or not, was "here's my favorite."
I know M claimed in
Autobiography that his friendship with Alain "curdled" - but Alain was on the record in interviews at the time that he was glad to be asked back for
Ringleader and wanted to tour in spite of his efforts to launch Red Lightning at the time. I can't blame Jesse for ingratiating himself to Morrissey and, to some degree, a true friendship has developed over time. But it cannot be overlooked that those choices/developments had to deal a negative blow to Morrissey's partnership with Alain. Plus, if the rumors are true that Boz "dismissed" Alain from the
Refusal sessions, there can only be one source of the directive.
Yes. One of the strangest constellations ever. Alain didn't like to be part of the band anymore in 2004, then played guitar on ROTT, composed and appeared in videos as a drummer, only to write a few pieces on Refusal and disappear completely.
I don't know what you're basing the first statement on. When Boz's "Tour Diary" used to be available on his old website, Alain had been in contact with Boz and Lyn between his departure after Dublin Castle and prior to the UK festival dates in August 2004 then subsequently prior to the U.S. tour in fall 2004. I recall Boz saying he was "raring to go," or something to that effect. Alain had had some combination of personal and health issues that prevented him from continuing the tour - it wasn't from any lack of desire.
And he didn't just write "a few pieces" on
Refusal: he wrote five tracks to Boz's and Jesse's three apiece, as well as three contemporary B-sides (if you include "My Dearest Love," which was recorded at the same time) and at least four other unfinished tracks ("Teresa, Teresa," "I'm Looking Forward To Going Back," "When I Was Young," "I Was Bully, Do Not Forget Me"). Per usual, Alain's co-writes comprised the vast majority - essentially, a full album's worth of material in all. To be excluded from performing on that much of one's material had to be more than a bit galling, especially after the the goodwill/faith
Your Arsenal,
Vauxhall And I and
You Are The Quarry alone should have merited.
www.morrisseycentral.com
And if this were the case, people will of course wonder if it was an intentional choice on M’s part.
