Spiked: "The fire in Morrissey" (December 31, 2022)

The fire in Morrissey now

The fire in Morrissey now

Why the perpetual outsider offends all the right people.

www.spiked-online.com

Hi,being a dinosaur, I can't transfer a article from the Spiked website, if someone can help please. It's a good read.

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Link added and additional note posted by BrummieBoy:

Michael Collins is a writer, journalist and broadcaster. He is the author of The Likes Of Us: A Biography of the White Working Class.

This essay was originally published in Arena HOMME+.

UPDATE Jan. 3:

Link posted on Morrissey Central:

MICHAEL COLLINS. - MESSAGES FROM MORRISSEY - MORRISSEY CENTRAL - MICHAEL COLLINS.

MESSAGES FROM MORRISSEY on MORRISSEY CENTRAL

www.morrisseycentral.com

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Related item:

• [Morrissey Central] "INTERNATIONAL SHOCK! MORRISSEY APPEARS ON THE COVER OF A MAGAZINE! THE WORLD ENDS, DOMINIONS FALL …" (December 3, 2022)

 

[1Dev]

South East London hasn't gone away you know.

 

[Anonymous]

This a serious attempt to offer an interpretation of Morrissey’s current political and cultural resonances. I don’t usually frequent Spiked, but I think this boasts decent enough prose with plenty of points made.

The article highlights Morrissey’s career long sensibility and covers the most recent moments too, reading them, helpfully, as further elaborations of perennial themes. The liberal references to other poetic figures is also a welcome touch.

The content of the argument can be challenged. Morrissey remains controversial. However, he is far harder to dismiss than some of his recent reception would imply. Most crucially, the form of this writing is vastly superior to many of the other sympathetic pieces that have been posted to Central in recent weeks. It takes Morrissey seriously, which is not a bad place to have a debate from.

 

[NealCassidy]

How so?

"You say, "God, spare me this corruptor"
God says, "You don't know how lucky you are"
The paragon knows, the paragon knows..."

Lines from Lover-to-be, but is the word paragon or pentagon, and in either case, what does it mean, please, anyone?

Exactly . Shit on the working class.

 

[gashonthenail]

No Gash - because it's only ethno nationalists like yourself that think there's a problem with someone being English by birth & Nigerian by heritage.

… my sister and I growing up, never really felt we were Mancunians. My Irishness was never something I hid or camouflaged. I grew up in a strong Irish community. Of course, early on I’d be teased about it, I was called `Paddy’ from an early age… this was back in the 1960s when it was a bitter and malevolent slur. But that’s how Manchester people are – they’re extremely critical of everything and everybody… I used to come back to Dublin… the people seemed happier and more carefree and Crumlin seemed so open – certainly more so than the confines of Hulme. We were quite happy to ghettoise ourselves as the Irish community in Manchester, the Irish stuck rigidly together. (Morrissey, Irish Times, 20 November 1999) https://www.irishtimes.com/news/paddy-english-man-part-1-1.252576

I did not express any opinion or view on the matter of parentage. You did.

 

[Malarkey]

I did not express any opinion or view on the matter of parentage. You did.

You were unable to grasp the concept that a person can have multiple identities based on their location, citizenship & heritage.

Which is a concept ethno nationalists have difficulty grasping.

 

[Watson]

My favourite Morrissey songs are:

Now my heart is full, Come back to Camden and I'm not a man.

Whoops! Apologies... Wrong website. Again.

Happy 2023 everyone...I hope all of your hopes and dreams come true during the next 360-odd days.

 

[Dirk Blaggard]

Some meaningless terms thrown around...mmmmm....sounds familiar.

Mate, the thing is the anti woke that the right churn out are just as f***ing retarded as the woke
They say this mental racist stuff then say " of course guess that makes me a racist now. LOL"
Feck me, Sure people can label stuff racist that isn't racist but they can also label some stuff racist that is f***ing racist Jesus mate.
you have said some fecking shitty stuff mate, and I tell you. You said that to my wife and I would kill you. Simple as. In fact last time I was in the UK a couple of people ended up in the emergency ward.
There are some "bad bad people on the right" ain't that the f***ing truth Lots of my mates in 'pool are as working class and as white as you can get but they will f*** you up, you try that racist shit . They are mine and M's white working-class mate
Im from Bristol and there were some real racist retards there, real f***ing pond life. The good thing was it meant the working class stood against them and stuck up for the blacks. Same as where I live now, in Hastings.
This guy was probably into Paul Weller until he married a black woman then he "moved the needle" What a c***

 

[A Man Escaped]

My favourite Morrissey songs are:

Now my heart is full, Come back to Camden and I'm not a man.

Whoops! Apologies... Wrong website. Again.

Happy 2023 everyone...I hope all of your hopes and dreams come true during the next 360-odd days.

"Heart"and "Camden" yeah but I'm not a man. Really?.

Each to their own. Happy new year.

 

[Stephen Hofmann]

It's not the same as yours I know that much, mate
He is pro-British culture but he is pro the culture of a lot of countries. Hes international. Which is why he lived in Italy and America and likes Mexico. He likes countries to keep their identity. My current wife is black and she met him when she used to work for a record label and she in no way got the racist vibe. Remember I've been a fan since the first Smith's LP and went to gigs when there were only 20 people in the room. I have met M a load of times, Im not his friend but I have spoken to him enough to know he ain't a racist and he has a bit more about him than your average tory boy . He was not a tory boy in the Smiths, the 90s or up to 2015. I haven't spoken to him in the last 7 years but I do not think he would be one now.
He is also pro-black power , anti-monarchy, anti thatcher and Blair, pro gay rights (when all the tories weren't) . He also said he admired Jeremy Corbyn at one point.
So no mate, he is nothing like you

I meant the author of the piece, Michael Collins. His love of black politics seems a very recent phenomenon...strangely appearing when his stock was at its lowest. I've never suggested he was a Tory.

 

[Stephen Hofmann]

How did you find his book? I found the article quite interesting—and a cut above anything I’ve read on Morrissey for quite some time.

Worth reading....there's a good interview with him on youtube.

 

[gashonthenail]

Worth reading....there's a good interview with him on youtube.

There are a couple of good documentaries by him too. Well worth a watch.

 

[MILKISMURDER]

A thoughtful, in-depth article. Far superior to the usual level of journalism regarding Morrissey.

 

[Name]

My favourite Morrissey songs are:

Now my heart is full, Come back to Camden and I'm not a man.

Whoops! Apologies... Wrong website. Again.

Happy 2023 everyone...I hope all of your hopes and dreams come true during the next 360-odd days.

Happy 2023 as well. I'm not a man was incredibly powerful / moving live.

 

[BookishBoy]

This article seems to have some interesting things to say but it's in serious need of some editing to help it make more sense: structurally it's all over the map! (No wonder Julie Burchill was praising it to the skies on Twitter...)

 

[Thewlis]

Meanwhile Miley Cyrus was performing with David Byrne the other night.

David Byrne and Miley Cyrus Cover David Bowie at New Year’s Celebration

The musicians performed Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” and Byrne’s “Everybody’s Coming to My House”

pitchfork.com

 

[gordyboy9]

dont quite understand the bit where he says thelma houston took out more than she put in on the track bobby dont you think they know,thought she was great on that song.

 

[Redacted]

Meanwhile Miley Cyrus was performing with David Byrne the other night.

David Byrne and Miley Cyrus Cover David Bowie at New Year’s Celebration

The musicians performed Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” and Byrne’s “Everybody’s Coming to My House”

pitchfork.com

Oh no, what did poor David Byrne do to deserve this.
Moz, you have been replaced, but it's just as well because Miley Cyrus sounds like a dying goat when she sings.
I breathlessly await some bitchy Central post about this.

 

[Thewlis]

When Johnny left The Smiths, one of the first things he did was joining David Byrne's band

 

[BookishBoy]

dont quite understand the bit where he says thelma houston took out more than she put in on the track bobby dont you think they know,thought she was great on that song.

That sentence didn't make sense to me, either!

 

[gashonthenail]

'Why the perpetual outsider offends all the right people.'

Michael Collins is a writer, journalist and broadcaster. He is the author of The Likes Of Us: A Biography of the White Working Class.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/12/31/the-fire-in-morrissey-now/

The book won the George Orwell Prize in 2005 and received very positive reviews for its writing. Orwell was of course one of the first socialist thinkers to notice that many on the left despise the working class. Their rapid eradication from political discourse has been profound - and not least their actual physcial eradication in terms of numbers in England´s big cities. Like some threatened Amazonian tribe - they stand on the edge of extinction within a few generations. All that culture and community - gone. Sad - and tragic.

Michael Collins (writer and broadcaster) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org