Morrissey

Not any more. He’s become a bit too fashy.

Yes. I loved him when I was in high school. Now that I am old, I still love him. My pop music tastes are frozen in 1992.

Lost

Smiths, yes. Morrissey, no.

"Every Day Is Like Sunday" is one of my all-time favorite songs.

Smiths, yes. Morrissey, no.

The first Smiths albums is genius but Morrissey disappeared up his own ass the moment he got a lick of a fame. Shame.

The Smiths are one of the greatest bands of all time. Morrissey is the biggest douche of all time.

Why do Mexican-Americans love Morrissey so much?

I'm with R4, R6, and R8. The Smiths are in my all-time pantheon. I never had much liking for Morrissey's music except immediately post-Smiths.

I loved the Smiths, and some of Morrissey's solo work was okay.

But I met him - well, sort of - in 1997 and it was enough to pretty much incinerate any love I had for his solo music. His faschy Nazi BS has kept it good and moot.

R11, more details.

There are very few entertainers that I detest, but he is certainly one of them.

Have you ever met a gay person who believes that same-sex marriage is “stupid”? Or that there were “good people on both sides” in Charlottesville? That is exactly to sort of person that he is. It’s like he’s dedicated himself to alienating people.

No never liked him. I always thought he was a malcontent whiner and that he was insufferable.

I was right.

Is it true that he only fucks Mexican twinks?

R12 I've posted about it here before. He did an in store at a Tower Records I worked at, and he defines INSUFFERABLE CUNT.

No one was allowed to be within a certain number of feet from him, or speak to him, or make eye contact, or breathe. It was just over the top. Was supposed to perform 4-5 songs, did two halfheartedly and then flounced. He was rude to fans, rude to his fan club.....just made a stink.

I understand he wasn't there to fulfill our dreams of meeting him, but there's a way to define boundaries and not be a cunt.

R16 Yes.

The video for "Suedehead" was filmed in James Dean's hometown - Fairmount, Indiana - and at the home he grew up in and the farmhouse on the property. Still occupied by his cousin.

I loved-loved-LOVED the Smiths as a teenager (Johnny Marr for me), and lost interest in Morrissey after "Kill Uncle" in 1991, around the onset of his Cal-Mex period. I was never into rockabilly, either.

Now, in middle age-hood, I even look back at The Smiths and see how very slightly underwhelming they were. They were so close to perfection so many times, but never quite hit it. If they had just taken a break, Marr gone to rehab, Morrissey done "Viva Hate" as a solo side project, and gotten back together, they could have matured into true greatness.

They were not so brilliant as to make Morrissey's diva act worth it.

That, and the celibate thing, has gotten old.

Moz wanted Johnny's ass but Johnny wasn't having any of it. It's one of the reasons, but not the sole reason for the acrimony between them.

R20 I thought Rourke was the one with the bad addiction? Johnny wanted to work with Bernard Sumner which pissed Moz off to no end. Johnny also didn't like the direction The Smiths were going. I think he described it as "too Cilla Black".

He's a royal cunt, but I do love the music of the Smiths and his first solo album. Those that followed were mediocre, and some unlistenable. On the positive side, I discovered the Killers before they had broke because they opened for him and they gave a far better performance!

I'm kind of with R10, but I don't find myself listening even to any of his early solo work or even the last Smiths album (Strangeways) now. He was always a poseur, and the recalcitrance about being labeled sexually basically curdled into homophobic closetedness, which goes well with his Trump-loving Brexitophilia and general bigotry. Disagree with R20, the Smiths' panoply of lyric irony (Morrissey) and musical virtuosity (Marr) elevate them to greatness. They can be bleak or lush or anything in between.

"November Spawned a Monster" is pretty good; but I change the station when "Everyday is Like Sunday" comes on—it's so boring.

Echoing the majority here, the Smiths are one of my favorite bands and I enjoy some of Morrissey’s early solo stuff but find him a bit of a prissy wingnut nowadays.

My favorite Smiths track:

Supposedly Morrissey said to an NME journalist in the early 2000's who asked him point-blank if he had unrequited feelings for Johnny Marr, something to the effect of, "Why doesn't anyone ever ask whether Marr was into me / that maybe he had feeling and just didn't have the guts to act" etc. His attorney (seated nearby during the interview) stepped in and said it was all off-the-record.

So what if the two of them fucked around? Seriously. The self-loathing of that band is so stupid and excessive in retrospect. Bowie and Jagger did it. So what?

Morrissey's mother died last summer. I thought maybe he'd come out (officially) or something like that afterward, having assumed his reticence in doing so had to do with his Catholic childhood and his closeness to his mother, but I gather that's not his style.

(...and the fact that I even *know* this or paid attention to that news, having had no taste for Morrissey's music after 1991 and finding his personal politics abhorrent and stupid, illustrates in a nutshell the weird kind of hold that he and the Smiths have on people who loved them as adolescents).

The Smiths are my favorite band ever, Morrissey is just a huge bigoted cunt and I have to compartmentalize him from the music now.

My partner arranged for a surprise tour of the Smiths shrine/museum at Salford Lads Club in Manchester for me and I almost died of happiness. I know MARY.

A lot of macho "straight" guys would go gay for him

I saw a Smiths cover band in Dublin once and the super drunk yobbo straight guys there were practically fellating each other towards the end.

R29 Morrissey concerts are bro fests. He's a huge racist c*nt but apparently he's pretty good to his fans.

Even the Smiths stuff was a bit hit or miss - mostly solid but the best of it was singles

I like a lot of Smiths stuff, but I was never obsessed with them.

Never explored his solo stuff.

It's a hard no from me

I went to a Morrissey concert on the 2000s, he was dressed in a cassock like a catholic priest, I was surprisingly aroused by him. He was still very handsome. Shame about his right wing antics.

Come on to my house...

Come on and do something new.

I know you love one person, so why can't you love two?

Give a little something to my love life......

In my cell well I loved you, every man has a job to do. Ronnie Kray do you know my name?

The music, somewhat. Morrissey is a glum cunt, though.

The Smiths played at my uni in the 80s when they were gathering steam and were apparently blown off stage by the support act. I've never liked them and especially the holier-than-thou posturing of Miseryguts Morrissey. Moreover, he indulged in the clickbait scam of his days by having intriguing song titles tacked onto the most banal of lyrics.

Quite surprisingly, or maybe not, he was good friends with Dead or Alive's Pete Burns. I was definitely more into Dead or Alive than The Smiths when they were big in my early teens. When I grew older and started having friends who were die-hard The Smiths fans I still failed to connect with Morrissey's singing style and the music of the band overall. I know they have good songs but I just can't stand Morrissey's sort of lazy drawl way of singing.

BTW, what the hell's up with the preview images now? Apparently Pinterest and Imgur are total no-nos since preview images are disabled for them? Which is fun since they are probably the biggest image sharing sites there are.

As a youth I was a major Smiths fan in the 1980s and I liked most of what Morrissey did solo, but after the early 1990s his releases had diminishing returns for me. His overt racism in the last several years has tarnished his reputation and my opinion of him as a person. I had seen the Smiths several times in concert and I had only seen two of his solo shows. I will still enjoy his older music but not care about any new music from him going forward.

I know it’s over but still I cling...

I hate him. I hate the Smiths. I always have and always will.

As a lonely gay in the 1980's American south, The Smiths were quite a touchstone for my journey. I decline to let whatever Morrissey has become taint that.

As a solo artiste, he peaked with "Vauxhall and I." Downhill ever since, becoming more grotesque every year (which is pretty much true of all pop stars).

The Smiths/early Morrissey almost literally saved my life and his Vauxhall and I album will always be in my top 5 important records, but I cannot stand him now. He's ruined their legacy IMO. I won't actively listen to his music, and in retrospect I find Marr to be the more important influence of the two. His guitar playing is sublime and mostly what inspired the wave of britpop that filled the airwaves in the Smiths' absence.

His recent covers album, California Son, was abhorrent. On the other hand, I loved Danzig Sings Elvis from last year. Danzig doing Pocket Full of Rainbows is just so wonderfully goofy. And don’t get me started on how much Sigourney Weaver looks like Danzig in Alien: Ressurection!

The last release I bought was Maladjusted. I only like 2 songs on it: Satan Rejected My Soul and Roy's Keen. Once in a blue moon I will check out the Morrissey Solo site, a site he detests. I haven't found him interesting since about 2004. I hate the way he sings now...all kinda throaty. His biggest mistake since the demise of The Smiths was ending his collaboration with Stephen Street. Those singles from '88-'91 were phenomenal and just as good, if not --dare I say--better, than The Smiths. But, they were so important to me in my youth. There was no one I would've wanted to meet more than Morrissey, but I absolutely would not want to now.

Morrissey is a cunt.

I read his Autobiography and it's interesting how closely the quality and the enjoyability of it parallels his career. It starts off really well. He's a natural writer. It's funny and honest and ironic and self-deprecating and sad and absorbing until just a little after the Smiths break up.

And then it becomes an unpleasant trudge through page after page of whining and score-settling and bitching. It's unreadable. He clearly rejected having an editor and did it all himself.

What R1 said. I loved the Smiths and Morrissey has a great voice, but he’s a fascist. He’s been openly so for decades now.

I tried, all through the 80s to like them. And I really wanted to. But their music is boring as fuck.

I love the Smiths, Johnny Marr is a true guitar hero. I always love his jaunty tunes and the juxtaposition of his guitar lines against Morrissey's pained warblings is funny...for a while... despite enjoying the band as a whole, I have long wished for all my favorite Smith's songs in strictly instrumental versions, free from Morrissey entirely.

I've never paid attention any of his solo work. His personality is that a lonely wanker.

Thanks for that, R51. I was considering getting a copy and wondering if anyone here had read it.

Morrissey's references to his relationship with Jake Walters were "excised" from the original U.S. edition of his memoir...eventually replaced, but seriously. How stupid does he think American readers are? Is he ashamed to be gay? Does he actually have a team of PR people who advised him in the 21st century to conceal 3 oblique references to a same-sex relationship in a book being published in the U.S. (...as opposed to, say, Iran)?

I find him baffling. Not intriguing. And not in a good way. I'm upset with myself for having wasted so much energy in him as a young person.

He a good little dancer. But not a triple threat.

My lesbian acquaintance is obsessed with him. She even followed him around the world on his tour for awhile.

I used to love him, and still love The Smiths records and his old solo stuff, but he seems crazier now than ever. I did see him about 5 years ago, in concert. Miraculously, he showed up! The only person I could get to go with me was one of my straight guy friends. The crowd was mostly straight, my age and older. It was a decent show, but very few of the "hits".

A friend of mine brought her new boyfriend over the other night. Super nice guy, but very country, and the first thing he noticed was my Morrissey album that was at the front of my shelf. He was like, "wow, man you like Morrissey, too??" I would have never pegged him as a Morrissey fan, but there you go.

I discovered The Smiths my senior year in high school (little Southern town), just in time for them to break up shortly after. They were perfect for all the teenage bullshit angst I was feeling. "I Want the One I Can't Have" really touched how I felt about my crush--a guy in my class.

But yeah, he's turned into a total cunt.

The Smiths were great.

R57 "She said: Eh, I know and you cannot sing! I said: That's nothing, you should hear me play piano!"

Loved the Smiths. Hate Morrisey's political pronouncements. I don't know if he's serious or just being contrary, but I will never spend another dime on him.

I don't have a problem separating art from the artist. Morrissey is a humorless, nasty curmudgeon who only becomes worse with age, but I will always love the Smiths and a bit of his solo work. He has to live with himself and I think that must be punishment enough.

Love him in the Smiths, but never cared for Morrissey on his own (as many above have said.)

Robert Smith, on the other hand, seems to be a lovely, humble, and funny person.

A professional right-wing troll. He probably posts on DL.

R65 Agreed. Robert Smith was so funny with that chirpy interviewer when The Cure was inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. Always found that spat between him and Morrissey hilarious.

He is a nasty cunt who thinks very highly of himself. That's what a friend who worked at an event where he performed said.

[quote]I love the Smiths, Johnny Marr is a true guitar hero. I always love his jaunty tunes and the juxtaposition of his guitar lines against Morrissey's pained warblings is funny...for a while... despite enjoying the band as a whole, I have long wished for all my favorite Smith's songs in strictly instrumental versions, free from Morrissey entirely.

As much as I loved Morrissey's vocals, it really was all about Marr's guitar work for me. I used to wish that the opening strains of How Soon Is Now would precede me walking into every room.

I think I gave the first solo record of his a shot but was kind of bored by it and never listened to any more from him after that. Agree with everyone else that he is way too douchey as a person. However, The Smiths live on. So many incredible songs. Trying to choose between The Smiths or The Cure is like trying to choose The Beatles or The Stones. But driving on empty roads in the middle of the midnight desert in Nevada listening to Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me or Disintegration blaring at top decibel out of my car speakers was quite the experience.

Marr was also transcendent with the band The The for several years. The album Mind Bomb from '89 is amazing and I listened to it religiously.

R69, great album, saw the the live and they were very good!

Morrissey is a self loathing old Queen. He hates everything and everyone. Insufferable cunt of the first order. Please can the straights have him back? We don't want him.

Love him..,he is one the greats in my opinion.

I thought he has cancer?

R71-

Honey, look around you.

Smiths were groundbreaking and influential. Sadly, Morrissey has become one of the worst celebrities on Earth. He needs therapy.

R71

That’s a little harsh…music is one thing ..personal life another…learn to separate the two

He's either a twat or a cunt, depending on who you ask.

I had the Meat Is Murder album and loved it. Morrissey went from being a pretentious twat to an insufferable twat. Musically I didn’t pay attention much after Everyday Is Like Sunday, which I agree Is an amazing song and holds up well. Takes me back.

R9 thank you, I’ve been wondering this for years. I knew a Mexican PhD student (now professor) who was a big fan, his email was Moz (for Morrissey) & he explained to me like 20yrs ago about so many Mexicans being into him. I kinda tuned him out & forgot about it, until i saw some news special about Morrissey & they showed all these East L.a. Cholos (no offense, I think that’s what they wanted To be called) who were huge fans.

When I worked in a music store in college, I remember there was a CD single with OP’s photo. I remember saying incredulously, “You mean he actually goes out in the sun!?” Co workers laughed, but this one Morrissey stan who worked there declared it was NOT FUNNY. He was genuinely offended. He’s probably a DL lesbian now.

How can you look into my eyes, and still you don’t believe me🎶🌽🎶🌽

Love the Moz!

Come on to my house. Come on now do something new. I know you love one person so why can't you love two?

Ouija Board.....

Piccadilly Palare

He seems like someone who’d be terrible in bed —someone who would just may there and ask. “Can we finish?” in an exasperated tone halfway through lol

R76 His music and musical persona are indivisible.

Don't be so condescending.

There was one (just one!!) moment in the past 25+ years that I felt a stirring of my old fondness for Morrissey. I was going through a breakup in 2006, I hadn't listened to any of Morrissey's solo work since the early/mid 90s, and had just bought an iPod, which was unique in that you could buy just one song from an artist as opposed to getting stuck with the whole LP, so I decided to see if Morrissey's new stuff was any good.

I listened to the opening lines of "Come Back to Camden" and it had this incredible warmth to it--"There's something I wanted to tell you / It's so funny you'll kill yourself laughing / But then I look around, and remember that I am alone"--it made me remember how being a Morrissey/Smiths fan was like having this entre-nous with him. It's too bad it didn't play out like that IRL.

There are plenty of flaky assholes in celebdom, and it's pointless to look to even the most charismatic stars for coherent moral views on things, but the disappointment was bitterer with Morrissey because, at his best, he had that amazing and rare ability to create and draw people in to a sense of intimacy that felt real.

He had an ass like bread pudding, but he couldn’t live forever.

Total douche but I would have fucked him in his prime

His prime was a few decades ago. Now he's a fat prat.

I liked Morrissey when he was young and beautiful, but as he got older he lost his looks, plus he became more and more grandiose and pompous.

I love him like a drunk uncle who espouses insane bullshit when fucked up. I got to see The Smiths in 86, and him twice in the 90s, and fucking loved way too much of his stuff through the years - who the fuck else would release a single entitled I Have Forgiven Jesus at Christmastime? (Ballsiest celeb holiday single choice since Oh Father). But he's in danger of becoming Randy Quaid real quick if he doesn't reign it in.

Johnny Marr is pretty brilliant and is still at the Not For All The Money In The World point when it comes to working with him again. After 30-some odd years. That says everything.

Like Kate Bush, a little goes a long way and listening to an entire album is too much

I still sometimes like their music and I agree with Morrisseys animal rights believes but he can be annoying. I’m not always in the mood.

Love him, love his music. He’s brilliant.

This is my top example of all time of separating the art from the person. The Smiths are just such an indelible part of my growing up, to cut their music out would be like cutting out a piece of my own soul. I could just never do it.

If they were to reunite I would probably die.

Drama Queen…^^^

He could top so many macho guys

Like so many in this thread, it is sad what Morrissey has become-a self-hating right wing turd. I liked him in the 80s and early 1990s. To me though, Johnny Marr was the star of the show. His guitar playing really lifts some limited, mediocre vocals and a solid rhythm section into something special.

R101 Andy Rourke doesn't get enough credit for his melodic bass lines.

Used to.

Boy George must have the dirt on him

[quote]I used to wish that the opening strains of How Soon Is Now would precede me walking into every room.

A few years ago I replied to a "what music would you want playing when you entered a room" question on Reddit with this exact answer.

The documentary about Morrissey and Latino fans, Is It Really So Strange? has two great moments: A guy who worked in a record store describing Morrissey and a leather daddy coming into the store to check out his own CDs A Latino interviewee saying, “Yeah, he is really white.”

He really is the only male singer I can think of that has straight men fainting and throwing their panties at him.

the tower record in store mentioned above really says it all...... @

I do enjoy some of The Smiths' songs (to be honest, only know a handful), but rarely listen to them because they are so miserable. And part of me probably doesn't like listening too much to the honesty in them.

But at the same time, it becomes a drag listening to someone talk about how hopeless everything is.

Morrissey the Smiths lyricist was a subtle, ironic, self-deprecating, soulful. Morrissey the person seems like an embittered contrarian who's never fully dealt with his personal insecurities and redirects them against other people.

I always took Moz's "Woe is me, I'm miserable" pose as just a kind of joke, or just a sort of humorous self-aggrandizement, a pose taken to draw attention to himself, dandyism, and that was all. HIS depression didn't depress ME. Maybe it was due to the energy in the music itself, which was intense. I declined to go see them one time, because the tickets were a whopping $20. In retrospect, maybe it was a mistake.

^(That show was in a club that held about 200 people...)

Love the music. Hate his views.

It's a real quagmire for me that I eventually had to decide to just not think about anymore.

2012 Concert in Chile is a favorite.

Tori Amos tells a story that in her early days, just as she was getting known, she was backstage at some show where Morrissey also was. He came backstage to walk past her and she just said: "Hey, I really admire your work" or something and he snapped at her: "What the fuck do YOU know about music?" and stormed off.

He sounds so bloody disagreeable. Yes, the woman who was a child prodigy and accepted to the Peabody conservatorium at FIVE years old knows nothing about music. Talk about eye rolling!

Johnny's new song has a nice Smiths sound without having to provide any more money to Morrissey.

Morrissey is a terrible person who I have no more time for. I like the Smiths, but mainly for Johnny Marr’s stellar guitar playing.

His vocals are the worst part of The Smiths' music.

I'd love to see the biopic actor who plays Moz.

Yes I adore both The Smiths and a lot of his solo work.

I no longer adore him as a person. He's been overtaken with bitterness and ugly impulses that have manifested in nationalistic nonsense and sometimes racism.

It's now clear in retrospect he always had these tendencies (see "Bengali In Platforms").

While he once knew the value of ambiguity in all things, now he's an old man he has shown his uglier side clearly.

I still love the music, just not him.

The Last of the Famous International Playboys...love the song, love the music video! ❤❤❤❤❤

I can't imagine he'd be good at sex

He seems like too much of a fussy uptight guy to eat ass

Yes love his music.

He seems like a boring lay

I have heard enough.

LOCK ‘IM UP!

Miley Cyrus is guesting on his next album. Luckily for me I stopped buying his crap 25 years ago.

He seems insufferable

Morrissey is a depressing self-obsessed downer. He takes himself farrrrrrrrr too seriously and needs a vicious face slapping.

Straight people were into The Smiths in the eighties - not the gays.