[Diesel]

Thank you steve, for completing my life and fixing my marriage. Please if you will indulge and tell me, what is your favourite morrisey quote; post madness era?

[RanaldoNecro]

I'm not Steve but mine is "All journalists are vile"

[Diesel]

On Ouija board, Ouija Board;

It caused some debate in the press at the time over claims it promoted occult dabbling or devil worship. Morrissey replied to these claims by retorting: "The only contact I ever made with the dead was when I spoke to a journalist from The Sun".

This is pre madness era however...

[RanaldoNecro]

Morrissey worked with Madness?

[g.]

Originally Posted by RanaldoNecro

Morrissey worked with Madness?

Can't see him in Baggy Trousers.

[The Soup Nazi]

I assume that what it's being referred to is Morrissey's appearance on 1992's Madstock Festival. From Wikipedia:

NME [...] accused Morrissey of racism on the basis of the imagery he employed during his 1992 performance at the Madstock festival in North London's Finsbury Park [which featured Flowered Up, Gallon Drunk, Ian Dury and The Blockheads, Morrissey and Madness]; Morrissey included images of skinhead girls as a backdrop and wrapped himself in a Union flag. Conversely, these actions resulted in him being booed offstage by a group of neo-Nazi skinheads in the audience, who believed that he was appropriating skinhead culture.

The neo-Nazis booed him for copyright infringement, priceless. Of course, nobody said dick just a few years later during the ridiculous Britpop boom, when Blur and Oasis also wrapped themselves in the Union Jack.

Back to Madness, between Viva Hate and Your Arsenal Morrissey tried to make a whole album (pieces of which ended up on Bona Drag) with their producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley. From Uncut:

It's hard not to see the appeal: Morrissey had long admired the Nutty Boys' eccentrically English take on ska-pop, and hoped to channel something of their style as he redefined himself as a London artist. But he also envied their audience: though Smiths gigs were notoriously rumbustious events, Morrissey was still caricatured as the stereotypical NME-reading, vegetarian, bedsit-dwelling student artist. Particularly after the break-up of the band, the loss of his "gang", and, particularly, Johnny Marr's still vital links to the Perry boy culture of Manchester (the lads who would eventually form the Oasis audience), there is a sense in which Morrissey longed to reconnect with a working-class audience — the desire which would eventually lead him to make his appearance at Madstock in 1992.

In the short term, the decision proved catastrophic. The first fruits of the collaboration with Langer/Winstanley was "Ouija Board, Ouija Board", on the face of it charming enough, suggesting Spark soundtracking a mid-period Ealing Studios confection. The timing of the release, however, ensured Morrissey was scheduled to appear on the same Top Of The Pops as both The Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays made their debuts. In this context Morrissey seemed less a venerable art-pop institution, more embarrassing old uncle. As Madchester went mad, Morrissey seemed too trad, dad.

The experience seems to have damned the collaboration before it had even begun. Which is a shame, as in retrospect it's clear it produced some of the greatest songs of his solo career. "Piccadilly Palare" is a great lost single, almost the epitaph for his failure to move to Madness-ward. Despite the Mike Barson-style piano intro, it howls into desperate life with Morrissey chronicling the fleeting, seedy glamour of early '70s rent boys. In this context, palare, the slang of the gay underworld, becomes a metaphor for Morrissey's self-perceived artistic failure to ever really cross over, to become the kind of nation's favourite that was Madness' destiny. "You wouldn't understand," he mutters. "Good sons like you never do." "No, no, no, you can't get here that way," notes guest vocalist Suggs.

"November Spawned A Monster" was even better, an extravagant homage to the New York Dolls' "Frankenstein", and, with a hysterical video shot in Death Valley, his most beautifully extreme single. Its failure to break the Top 10 seems to have been the final nail in the Langer/Winstanley coffin and so a scheduled album was redrafted as a compilation, mopping up the singles and B-sides from the early solo years. Despite its conception, Bona Drag turned out to be a superb package, highlighting the strength in depth of Stephen Street material (the inclusion of "Hairdresser On Fire", "Will Never Marry" and "Disappointed" on Viva Hate would have made an album that rivalled anything by The Smiths) and, beyond the Madchester moment, the charm and power of the Langer/Winstanley songs.

Eventually we'll get back to "Sonic Youth on bandcamp", but I had to type all that Uncut text, so if you didn't read it you suck.

[Diesel]

Enjoyed that, cheers. I wasn't aware of the Suggs-madness connection - I was writing in reference to latter day Morrisey quibbles which have an endless latitude in madness. For example; Meat eaters are like paedophile's. Bless. Or any quote post the skin head backdrop gig.

Anyway, I was pissed out of my head when I wrote that to Steve. I had a Smiths binge (peppered, and lightly salted with a dash of Guitar Wolf) dedicated to my ex who is a big fan. Ufffff

[The Soup Nazi]

Originally Posted by Diesel

Enjoyed that, cheers. I wasn't aware of the Suggs-madness connection - I was writing in reference to latter day Morrisey quibbles which have an endless latitude in madness. For example; Meat eaters are like paedophile's. Bless. Or any quote post the skin head backdrop gig.

Anyway, I was pissed out of my head when I wrote that to Steve. I had a Smiths binge (peppered, and lightly salted with a dash of Guitar Wolf) dedicated to my ex who is a big fan. Ufffff

Well, maybe you were so plastered you thought Steve was Steven... Patrick... what's next?

Anyway, as unbearable as Morrissey has become, in his past (you decide where you draw the line) there's an inexhaustible MOUNTAIN of superb quotes, enough to fill books (I for one have his Autobiography and Mozipedia: The Encyclopedia Of Morrissey And The Smiths). My favorite right now is a fragment of an interview he did with the NME in 2004 (I believe this was his first with that publication —which one could say has tanked as badly as the interviewee— since they thrashed him for the Madstock bullcrap):

NME: On "I Have Forgiven Jesus" you reiterate a constant theme in your work: that you find it impossible to love and be loved. Surely people are queuing up?

Morrissey: To do what?

NME: To have you as boyfriend or partner.

M: [Morrissey sniggers]

NME: Is that not the case?

M: Well, I haven't noticed any queues to be honest. I mean, there isn't one outside this hotel, is there?

NME: Nobody knows you're here!

M: Well, that's a mere detail. There's still no queue, so that scotches the idea. Well, how do I answer that question without even really knowing what the question is? [Ponders] It's the human condition, I think. Constantly looking for affection. Wondering why it isn't there when you need it to be.

NME: It must have been there at some point.

M: When do you mean? The release of "Suedehead"? [Falls about laughing]

NME: Why do you say that?

M: Just because it's ridiculous. [Thinks] Yes, to be quite honest yes it is... fleetingly. It comes in and out. But it's not something I ever speak about because it... it isn't lasting. I mean, is it lasting in your life?

NME: No, not really. Well, not so far.

M: "No, not really. Not so far." What do you mean - no?

NME: At the moment, no, but I imagine that... well, I hope I'll meet someone.

M: Well, you see, that's the trick of life, isn't it? How old are you?

NME: Twenty-nine.

M: Twenty-nine? Forget it. Buy yourself a nice budgie. That's my advice to you.

NME: Why: do you think I'd be settled down by now if it was going to happen?

M: Well, you know, you've been roaming the planet for 29 years, and if it hasn't struck you on the head by now I think you'd just better really get used to that television set and get yourself a nice comfortable armchair - which is fine, nothing wrong with that. You see, when you're a bit younger you constantly think, "It's bound to happen. I'm bound to turn around a certain corner and be faced by love everlasting". And it's a trick of the light, I'm afraid. [Drinks tea] Sorry about that. "What the palmist said".

NME: Definitely. It's a bit like being cursed.

M: All part and parcel of a Morrissey interview.

[Diesel]

The autobiography is canny, yet in equal measure absurd. For every whimsical passage about ghosts haunting the Manchester moors there will be an obsession with the chart position of his songs. You can't have it both ways. That Mozipedia looks good, mind.

Who moved this conversation from the SY bandcamp thread? And called it shyte? Stu, Moshe? The unmitigated cheek of yee!. Shyte is subjective innit, how dare thee. Did I not sacrifice enough blood at the altar of Mr Shelley? Nevermind, I'm off to remortgage the house so I can afford a couple of those bootlegs.

[Diesel]

Since this thread was born out of the frustrated moderater at a scale unbelievably comparable to Morrisseys' very own uncomparable frustration, I thought it only too fitting to keep it going. At least until Morrissey finally becomes a man. So without further ado(¿) I give you, a picture of my bottle opener. Trivia; I bought it from the actual Salford lads club in Manchester. Aye, that one!
- as if any other Salford exists...

 

BUT HEAVEN KNOWS...now all together, in unison!!...

I WAS LOOKING FOR A JOB AND THE I FOUND A JOB BUT...keep it up!

Ad infinitum. Ta

[The Soup Nazi]

Originally Posted by Diesel

Trivia; I bought it from the actual Salford lads club in Manchester. Aye, that one!
- as if any other Salford exists...

Here's a Steve Gunn 8-track for you:

 

I don't think he was actually outside the Salford Lads Club, though. Kids photoshop stuff these days. Anyway, here are the tunes:

https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2017/02...iths-versions/

[Savage Clone]

He's definitely good at saying outrageous things in the press to distract us from the fact that he hasn't made a good record since 1986 and desperately needs Johnny Marr.

[The Soup Nazi]

Your Arsenal is a hell of a record. Vauxhall And I is excellent as well. Whether they're Smiths-brilliant is another thing, but they're great.

[Savage Clone]

I really can't be bothered and I never could. The Queen is Dead was the last thing that I thought was decent and I always was more about Johnny than Steve

[The Soup Nazi]

I like Marr's The Messenger a lot; the two subsequent solo albums are a bit inferior, I think. I dig his stamp on The The's Dusk and his writing on Robyn Hitchcock's "Ordinary Millionaire" (he composed the music). I saw him in 2014 or summat and even "Getting Away With It" sounded good. Now, there's shit he never should have been near: Oasis, Girls Aloud, Cribs, Killers, Modest Mouse, Billie Eilish... He has said we shouldn't be "rockists" and that T. Rex and Sparks were pop too, but come ON...

[Toilet & Bowels]

I started reading the NME in about 1995 and they were still banging on about Madness gig and continued to do so for years. It came up on the letters page all the time.

[Diesel]

In the 90's I remember the lads magazine Loaded. It had a monthly article called Heaven knows Morrissey is miserable now. Seemingly slagging him off every month because of his honest take and thus writing a song about it. An unhealthy obsession; much like mine, but crap, and bullying.

I enjoyed the Gunn interview but the tracks have disappeared. I'll track them at work tomorrow.

At some point in the early 90's Morrissey underwent somewhat of a transformation from subversive gay rockist to thuggish every day hard man. A by product of new wealth and a cofidence born of simple maturing in to a semi adult. And being a bit of a dick.

I have obligatory selfie outside Salford lads club but I think my ex may have them. I could run the gauntlet of mayhem and ask, but it's risky; die on a bed of spikes or keep the thread alive...

[g.]

I find myself at a very hard crossroads with Morrissey but that is a fucking cool bottle opener...

[The Soup Nazi]

Originally Posted by Diesel

I enjoyed the Gunn interview but the tracks have disappeared.

Apparently Matador wanted them for an official release. Recently a Gunn three-song virtual single thingumybob, Livin' In Between, appeared on Bandcamp, and two tracks are from an Aquarium Drunkard Lagniappe Session, but no Smiths; they're Misfits and Michael Chapman covers (the third tune is Neil Young's "Motion Pictures", previously an Amazon Exclusive).

Anyway, speaking of Salford, here's a Richard Thompson song about a Sunday there.

[Diesel]

Originally Posted by Savage Clone

He's definitely good at saying outrageous things in the press to distract us from the fact that he hasn't made a good record since 1986 and desperately needs Johnny Marr.

Thing is, all music creation should've stopped in 86' because nothing can touch The Smiths catalogue up to this point; (now for the self indulgent part of my latest shitpost) I've been trying to have a good time today getting isolatedly drunk listening to classic music that I love and yet, nothing is coming close to 'still ill' as far as making my emotions want to explode and drag my body down the pub ...or harbour or in to manic isolation etc. Maybe it's the ex effect, hence self indulgence. If there is one piece of advice I would give to anyone it would be - don't ever break up with a Smiths fan. Because the intellectual impact is monumental. However, mental trauma aside, surely they are the greatest.

Still ill. Fucking 'ell