Join My Boycott of Morrissey

(unlike binjomania's post, which is just moronic)

That life is hard enough when you belong here
That life is hard enough when you belong here
Oh...
Shelve your western plans
Oh...
Shelve your western plans
’cause life is hard enough when you belong
Life is hard enough when you belong here
Oh...
Shelve your western plans
Oh...
Shelve your best friends
’cause life is hard when you belong here
Oh...
Life is hard enough when you belong

This line is so fucking galling on almost every single level; even as a roleplaying song I find this whole thing to be completely, totally loathesome and repellent.

I'm not entirely sure but I think Morrissey is the ONLY artist I've ever been a huge borderline-obsessive fan of who's recorded a song that made me actively hate him. To this day I won't purchase any of his solo recordings because I don't want my money going to him (also I am filling in my Smiths collection with used records; sorry other Smiths members for fucking with your residuals but your lead singer turned out to be one of the biggest tools in the universe).

I'm not even going to get started and the cloying "Bengali, Beh-heh-hengali" bits AAAAAAAAAAARGH what a fucking awful song.

She's an ugly girl, does it make you want to kill her?
She's an ugly girl, do you want to kick in her face?
She's an ugly girl, she doesn't pose a threat.
She's an ugly girl, does she make you feel safe?
Ugly girl, ugly girl, do you hate her
'Cause she's pieces of you?

She's a pretty girl, does she make you think nasty thoughts?
She's a pretty girl, do you want to tie her down?
She's a pretty girl, do you call her a bitch?
She's a pretty girl, did she sleep with your whole town?
Pretty girl, pretty girl, do you hate her
'Cause she's pieces of you?

You say he's a faggot, does it make you want to hurt him?
You say he's a faggot, do you want to bash in his brain?
You say he's a faggot, does he make you sick to our stomach?
You say he's a faggot, are you afraid you're just the same?
Faggot, Faggot, do you hate him
'Cause he's pieces of you?

You say he's a Jew, does it me that he's tight?
You say he's a Jew, do you want to hurt his kids tonight?
You say he's a Jew, he'll never wear that funny hat again.
You say he's a Jew, as though being born were a sin.
Oh Jew, oh Jew, do you hate him
'Cause he's pieces of you?

Okay even though I know that wasn't a serious comment I totally saw red for a second.

pathetic yes but as I say they tend to grow out of it

Momus should join a cultural studies program.

are you afraid that they will find out that they had lunch with you?

well, i'm not afraid of cornershop. cornershop! cornershop! cornershop!

It would actually be helpful to respond in some way to the great big whacking post I made rather than the one about yesterday's lunch. Also, and I think relevantly, fancying skinheads makes you a white British gay man over 40, not a racist.

OK.

A letter I wrote (got published) won my mom Bellmore Life's Mother-of-the-Year 1981. Well, second place.

What I said was that just because Morrissey has skinhead fantasies doesn't mean he's gained any great moral insight from them. To elaborate a little, I don't think such fantasies necessarily compel a person to think one way or the other about skinheads or relationships of power. Or racism, for that matter.

I am from Newfoundland, and I know first hand that people in rural areas in Eastern Canada live off the land, not off reguritating the same fucking garbage up for over two decades for a legion of sorry ass closeted homosexuals and wankers. His pathetic whining has gone on for too long now.

As for seals (baby seals included) being clubbed to death - that simply isn't true. The majority of seals are killed through hunting guns. Lots of animals die everyday, I think Morrissey is picking the wrong battle.

Also, here is a poster highlighting how ethnocentric Morrissey's arguement is, especially pertaining to Native peoples of Canada. Morrissy IS A RACIST!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v348/lewk_pook/60317-page3.jpg

They got little hands
Little eyes
They walk around
Tellin' great big lies
They got little noses
And tiny little teeth
They wear platform shoes
On their nasty little feet

Well, I don't want no Short People
Don't want no Short People
Don't want no Short People
`Round here

Short People are just the same
As you and I
(A Fool Such As I)
All men are brothers
Until the day they die
(It's A Wonderful World)

Short People got nobody
Short People got nobody
Short People got nobody
To love

They got little baby legs
That stand so low
You got to pick 'em up
Just to say hello
They got little cars
That go beep, beep, beep
They got little voices
Goin' peep, peep, peep
They got grubby little fingers
And dirty little minds
They're gonna get you every time
Well, I don't want no Short People
Don't want no Short People
Don't want no Short People
'Round here

I'm not really interested in Morrissey anymore, but I think his main problem is that he credits his fans with more intelligence than perhaps some of them have. I guess some of them are unable to see the different layers & interpretations present in some of his more ..er.. "open to interpretation" lyrics. Randy had to SPELL IT OUT to people (see above lyric) and *still* some of them didn't get it (didn't "Short People" get banned in a few states?).

Maybe all artists should just assume everyone's an idiot & not use their art to explore ideas? Yes, judging by some of the reactions on this thread, that's exactly what they should do.

Well if getting your politics sorted out means you end up supporting a murderous Labour government just because they are "Labour" I'd prefer not to have mine sorted out either.

but morrissey is still VERY OLD NEWS and has FRANKLY SHODDY since THE EIGHTIES.

This is lame rank-pulling. Do you really think that only "minorities" (whoever you think that should encompass - simply everyone who is non-white?) should be allowed to adjudicate on what is offensive and what is not? In any case I'm assuming you're not Bengali - so why are you suddenly an expert on what Bengalis may or may not find offensive?

Perhaps people would prefer the knuckle-knawingtedium of the likes of Billy Bragg, but at least there'd be no misunderstandings.

hah! fwiw, musically i'd far rather listen to billy bragg's "don't try this at home" than anything morrissey has ever been involved with.

as for "short people" and "bengali in platforms": the difference is that one is an acerbic piece of social commentary written by a wordsmith of wit and intelligence, and the other is a bad joke by an arsehole.

Yet some people still see it as an attack on the Southern mentality, while others are shocked by his use of taboo words. I'm not saying that Morrissey is as witty or intelligent a writer as Randy, but I am saying that anybody's lyrics are open to misinterpretation.

And you're right about Don't Try This At Home, it is a great record. I'm more of a tunes guy myself, don't much care about lyrics. Just as well, when you consider the line "Just because you're gay, I won't turn you away". Well, Bill, that's very decent of you, thanks very much.

You know, Luke, what Moz said was stupid, but this is worse. People who remain closeted have their reasons, and I'm surprised at your callousness. Not everyone comes careening out of the closet at birth, but I'm glad it was so easy for you.

And what's wrong with a good wank, exactly?

He also quotes BGCSISDAW in The Smiths' "Well I Wonder".

Ms Smart and Ms Mitchell are, of course, both Canadian.

Is there a review of 'Ringleader', (surely to be sold with a sticker saying "His Most Uranist Album Yet") that DOESN'T quote those lyrics from "Dear God Please Help Me" alluding to legs? Apart from mine in Plan B magazine, obviously.

He's still the most interesting artist in the big league pop world.

i can instantly see four things potentially wrong with this sentence

I always want to go up to Bragg after a show and force him to prove this.

"Just because you're gay, I won't turn you away
Unless you get your nob out, I might just get you carried out..".

It may reference Elizabeth Smart, but also Bill Naughton & Carry On Teacher. Anyhow, it's a fine track on a fine album: Morrissey's best, I would say. Bengali is weak, Margaret on the G is weaker, but as a whole it's far more interesting than Vauxhall & I, AND, dare I say, streets ahead of anything the Smiths would have come up with had they stayed together.

As to the argument raging above I will happily admit it's a hell of a lot easier to give Morrissey the benefit of the doubt re: bigotry if you're of European descent or othered in ways similar to those he evokes in songs. I suppose to understand what Dan et al might be feeling, you might borrow a different set of words (Guardian MLK obit) about the loss of another kind of hero which express the same sort of bereft disappointment: 'This is a day when even one's Harlem friends look the other way or act as though their grief is private; they have lost someone related to them, but not to you.'

*Ken Graveney/ b. 16.12.24/ Right-arm fast-medium bowler, left-hand bat/ Gloucestershire
*Tom Graveney/ b. 16.6.27/ Right-hand bat/ England, Gloucestershire, Queensland, Worcestershire
*David Graveney/ b. 2.1.53/ Slow left-arm orthodox bowler, right-hand bat/ Durham, Gloucestershire, Somerset

someone probably made that joke already

82.

My Peter Frampton line was pretty good, I think.

Man, I kind of got into it with people on this thread.

I rescind all my previous defenses of his politics, he's clearly round the right-wing reactionary racist bend at this point.

(Defenses which i appear to have made in some other thread)

tom d swapping cricket puns with esteban buttez, ilx really hasn't changed haha

There used to be this quite common discourse in the 80's whereupon anyone finding Morrissey an unbearable hack and feeling instinctively that he was very bad, weren't quite "getting it" or something. It is weaker now, but I still sense the same idiotic wankers these days!