The Telegraph / James Hall: "Morrissey: ‘My whole life has relied on free speech – naturally, I’m gagged’" (September 9, 2024)

Morrissey: ‘My whole life has relied on free speech – naturally, I’m gagged’

The forthright singer’s ‘masterpiece’ Bonfire of Teenagers was finished in 2021. He reveals the ‘idiot culture’ blocking its release

https://archive.is/J2hBl - no paywall.

Morrissey: ‘My whole life has relied on free speech – naturally, I’m gagged’

The forthright singer’s ‘masterpiece’ Bonfire of Teenagers was finished in 2021. He reveals the ‘idiot culture’ blocking its release

www.telegraph.co.uk

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Related items:

• Morrissey-solo.com: "What has happened to Bonfire of Teenagers? - media request" - September 2, 2024
• The Times / Will Hodgkinson: "Morrissey says he is being censored. He isn’t" (September 10, 2024)

 

[gordyboy9]

i still dont see the controversy with the title track,would love to get the parents of the deceased kids in a room and give them a listen and the hear their thoughts.

 

[gordyboy9]

the last two posts on this site have had very few posts,james darren 31 posts and the rolling people with 25 posts,lets face it unless its controvertial most people dont post on here anymore.

me and smithy got our arses booted because the conversation drifted the other day,no wonder it drifted because there was nothing else happening on here,should get a medal for even turning up.

 

[Thewlis]

 

[Dorothy]

the last two posts on this site have had very few posts,james darren 31 posts and the rolling people with 25 posts,lets face it unless its controvertial most people dont post on here anymore. me and smithy got our arses booted because the conversation drifted the other day,no wonder it drifted because there was nothing else happening on here,should get a medal for even turning up.

Agree that people engage more with controversy and drama. But think also if there was good news like the release of Bonfire there would be lots of happy engagement too. Mozcofflaw above states they come here intentionally hoping for an announcement

 

[gordyboy9]

Agree that people engage more with controversy and drama. But think also if there was good news like the release of Bonfire there would be lots of happy engagement too. Mozcofflaw above states they come here intentionally hoping for an announcement

dorothy i think because the world has so much bad news that people are numb to it.
there was a school shooting the other day with 4 people killed,i hardly glanced at the tv if it was 50 people killed then it grabs your interest.i forget what good news looks like these days.

M should give us 30 seconds of each song on bonfire so we can see how andy watts production stands up.

 

[Amy]

I have visited Solo for such a long time. I always felt that the long-term fans kept each other going, kept up some sense of hope and excitement through bleak years for Moz, always hoping for some light at the end of the tunnel and the next thing to look forward to.

I've realised that if someone just walked away in 2018 and popped their head in today to see what's going on, they would be no worse off. All that has happened since then is arguments, tours cancelled, fights with labels, loss of the old band, ill health, walls of crap on the official website, albums that never saw the light of day. Just nothingness. And to be on Solo and analyse it all for dregs of hope, it just doesn't leave you in a good headspace. I think a five-year break sounds lovely. Maybe by 2030 we will have Bonfire .

 

[Gray Fruit]

i still dont see the controversy with the title track,would love to get the parents of the deceased kids in a room and give them a listen and the hear their thoughts.

Are you serious? You'd like to sit in a room with parents of the murdered children and play them a song called Bonfire of Teenagers that calls up imagery of their children dying in flames or vaporised? That is monstrous.

 

[Luxo]

"Naturally, I'm gagged"—in an interview with a major publication. The album isn't being "silenced." Presumably students in 1970s Britain took a basic economic class. Sellers of a product consider demand and market factors. Record companies exist to make money, not to facilitate freedom of expression. He could self-release the album, but for some reason he won't.

Not just any publication either, but one of the most right wing papers in the country owned by the billionaire Frederick Barclay.

 

[BookishBoy]

"Naturally, I'm gagged"—in an interview with a major publication. The album isn't being "silenced." Presumably students in 1970s Britain took a basic economic class. Sellers of a product consider demand and market factors. Record companies exist to make money, not to facilitate freedom of expression. He could self-release the album, but for some reason he won't.

Not to offer Morrissey any excuses here, but I was at school in the UK in the 70s and 80s and I was taught literally zero about basic economics...

 

[Luxo]

I have visited Solo for such a long time. I always felt that the long-term fans kept each other going, kept up some sense of hope and excitement through bleak years for Moz, always hoping for some light at the end of the tunnel and the next thing to look forward to.

I've realised that if someone just walked away in 2018 and popped their head in today to see what's going on, they would be no worse off. All that has happened since then is arguments, tours cancelled, fights with labels, loss of the old band, ill health, walls of crap on the official website, albums that never saw the light of day. Just nothingness. And to be on Solo and analyse it all for dregs of hope, it just doesn't leave you in a good headspace. I think a five-year break sounds lovely. Maybe by 2030 we will have Bonfire .

Agree. When I signed up for Moz Solo back in 2008 people were actually nice to each other, and it wasn't filled with right wing nutters derailing posts with conspiracy theory guff.

 

[Luxo]

Bullshit interview. Has he lost it?

“Controversial means intelligent, doesn’t it?” No it f***ing doesn’t, but as long as he thinks that it does, he will continue to make a fool of himself.

Absolutely. Revealing his own stupidity with that rhetorical question.

 

[Thewlis]

I have visited Solo for such a long time. I always felt that the long-term fans kept each other going, kept up some sense of hope and excitement through bleak years for Moz, always hoping for some light at the end of the tunnel and the next thing to look forward to.

I've realised that if someone just walked away in 2018 and popped their head in today to see what's going on, they would be no worse off. All that has happened since then is arguments, tours cancelled, fights with labels, loss of the old band, ill health, walls of crap on the official website, albums that never saw the light of day. Just nothingness. And to be on Solo and analyse it all for dregs of hope, it just doesn't leave you in a good headspace. I think a five-year break sounds lovely. Maybe by 2030 we will have Bonfire .

Since 2018? We’ve also had 2 new albums and 2 recorded ones, hundreds of live shows including Vegas and NY residencies, headlining Cruel World, the return of Alain Whyte, and quite recently some nice reminiscences about the Smiths days and a possible yes to a reunion.

It’s not all negative, really, unless you only want to see it that way.

 

[Billy A]

Some cringeworthy statements - “Controversial means intelligent, doesn’t it?" - no, very often not the case. And “Every major label in London has refused Bonfire of Teenagers whilst also admitting that it is a masterpiece” - have they really?
But I agree with the sentiment behind the "#BeKind crew” – a social media movement promoting empathy – “who will smash your face in if you disagree with them.”
Thank goodness for the Five goes to Smugglers Top comment - he still has his humour. Also I wish he had explained the reason behind why he won't self-release.

From watching/reading previous interviews and getting an understanding of his train of thought, I think by saying "Controversial means intelligent, doesn't it?" he means that in today's social climate, anyone who goes against stupidity (which he goes on to refer to as “Idiot Culture”) is deemed controversial when what they are saying is common sense. I think he means that people have become so stupid that anyone with an ounce of intelligence is seen as controversial because they are seemingly now the minority. That's what I think he means in the context of what he's saying. I don't think he means that applies to everything anyone says.

He has mentioned previously why he doesn't intend to self-release (I think it may have been in one of those interviews released on his website with questions asked by his nephew). Basically, he's old-fashioned; he prefers having a big company behind the release. Having to self-release and/or release songs online is too modern and not in keeping with the romance of the old ways of doing things.

 

[Anonymous]

From watching/reading previous interviews and getting an understanding of his train of thought, I think by saying "Controversial means intelligent, doesn't it?" he means that in today's social climate, anyone who goes against stupidity (which he goes on to refer to as “Idiot Culture”) is deemed controversial when what they are saying is common sense. I think he means that people have become so stupid that anyone with an ounce of intelligence is seen as controversial because they are seemingly now the minority. That's what I think he means in the context of what he's saying. I don't think he means that applies to everything anyone says.

He has mentioned previously why he doesn't intend to self-release (I think it may have been in one of those interviews released on his website with questions asked by his nephew). Basically, he's old-fashioned; he prefers having a big company behind the release. Having to self-release and/or release songs online is too modern and not in keeping with the romance of the old ways of doing things.

Some class A rationalization there, some real mozbot thinking. Nice one.

 

[Luxo]

Basically, he's old-fashioned; he prefers having a big company behind the release. Having to self-release and/or release songs online is too modern and not in keeping with the romance of the old ways of doing things.

Or maybe it's because he'd be on the line for the costs of releasing and promoting the album, knowing it wouldn't sell very well.

 

[BookishBoy]

Since 2018? We’ve also had 2 new albums and 2 recorded ones, hundreds of live shows including Vegas and NY residencies, headlining Cruel World, the return of Alain Whyte, and quite recently some nice reminiscences about the Smiths days and a possible yes to a reunion.

It’s not all negative, really, unless you only want to see it that way.

I have no idea how you do it, but I do admire your positivity about these things!

 

[Amy]

Since 2018? We’ve also had 2 new albums and 2 recorded ones, hundreds of live shows including Vegas and NY residencies, headlining Cruel World, the return of Alain Whyte, and quite recently some nice reminiscences about the Smiths days and a possible yes to a reunion.

It’s not all negative, really, unless you only want to see it that way.

2 new recorded ones we haven't heard, except in live snippets. Alain came and left again. Moz cancelled entire tours. The Smiths reunion stuff is spiked with sniping at Johnny. Sorry... I'm happy for you if you still find things to enjoy and I don't want to detract from that but for me it's dregs, dregs, dregs. Morrissey's frustration and anger with the situation is clear in his interviews, and it bleeds into everything else, and I've just had enough now.

 

[SteveWS]

I guess that many of us are rather fed up of reading newspaper features like 'Fans say Morrissey has ruined their lives by no longer being what they wanted him to be (or thought he was)'. Many of these pieces are often far too biased, and just look suspiciously like ill-disguised hatchet-jobs set up by hostile journalists...journalists who, even nowadays, would likely crush each other in the rush to gain a Morrissey exclusive ("He's always 'good copy'").

However, the 'Morrissey Problem', I think, for many sincere fans is actually this: not that he's supposedly let us down (in some way or other) but that he's continually letting himself down. This Telegraph feature is a case in point: it feels very much like he's lying to himself, never mind the rest of us.

 

[Billy A]

Or maybe it's because he'd be on the line for the costs of releasing and promoting the album, knowing it wouldn't sell very well.

A record company only fronts the costs though and Morrissey would have to pay them back through a percentage of sales or agreed other means (pays for the loss to the label). It's just as much a risk for them as it would be for him. Due to the amount of negativity on Morrissey at the moment, a label is unwilling to sign him. It is very likely that he'll never be signed again. Record companies don't tend to take money from an artist's gigs, and that's usually where an artist makes their money.

He should self-release though. Unfortunately, he needs to prove himself and just getting the album out there is the quickest way of putting all this behind him.

 

[SteveWS]

We're all used to Moz being self-dramatising and, previously, this habit of his was funny and often tongue-in-cheek; nowadays, though, the humour's gone out of it.