We need to talk about Morrissey

This machine (seems to) support fascists

They announced on the radio this morning that it was coming up to the 30th anniversary of the release of the Guns n Roses album Appetite for Destruction. I curled my lip in distaste - a reaction as automatic as veering away from a bad smell. But the thing is - I bought that album, in my tender teenage years, I was finding my way, musically, looking for something a little bit different, and I kind of stumbled on rock (can we class G & R as heavy rock?)  and I felt deeply conflicted when I first saw the album cover.

The cover, as I’m sure you are aware but I’ll remind you anyway, features a cartoon depiction of  a half-naked woman, slumped on the floor, unconscious, with her knickers round her ankles. The implication is that she has been raped by a robot. The image is deeply unpleasant, gratuitous and, yes, I’m going to drop the ‘m’ word, misogynistic. Even if I hadn’t  considered myself a feminist, at the tender age of fourteen, I’m sure I would have been disgusted at something which had such blatant disregard for women.
I only liked two songs on the album anyway so I didn’t have to feel conflicted about listening to the music and trying to forget about the imagery. The music was hugely unimaginative, repetitive and painful to listen to. I gave it away and found my way to the more soulful and subtle Indie music, with it’s androgynous, willowy men and empowered women. I no longer had cause to feel ashamed of any of the albums in my collection (we’ll gloss over Wham: make it Big - I did go through a period of being deeply embarrassed by that but now I’ll happily claim it!).

But of, these days, oh Morrissey!
I keep wanting to scream and I’m sure it’s been said over and over on Twitter and other places, but:
And your prejudice won’t keep you warm tonight!
You stupid fucker!
I’m thinking of starting a support group for those of us who hate Morrissey but love the music of The Smiths - who is with me?
Because I’m a bit lazy and a bit of a technophobe, I haven’t removed the music of The Smiths from my MP3 player. And every time one of their songs comes on (I always have it on shuffle) and I don’t fast forward the track, I think - oh no, I must skip past this but I really like this song! And then I feel slightly grubby and hypocritical. I feel so torn - Marr’s guitar and wall of noise and some of Mozzer’s lyrics versus present day Morrissey’s racism, xenophobia, ill-informed views and general dick-headedness.
Can we separate the man from the music? Or must I purge my music playing thingumybob of their whole oeuvre? I don’t have a problem with Johnny Marr, he still seems like a good (vegan) egg.

Johnny be good

Do you know what I’m referring to? I’m loathe to cite Mozzer’s lunatic pronouncements and insensitive claptrap, could you do me a favour and look it up yourself? The final nail in the coffin, for me, after years of trying to kind of ignore the mealy-mouthed racism, was when he compared the massacre of teenagers in Norway at a political camp in 2011, by a far right gunman, to battery farming. I don’t agree with battery farming, or eat chicken but I would never compare the cruel slaughter of children to farming practices. Surely any right minded person would have been sickened by the massacre? It didn’t even seem as if he was placing animals at the same level as humans, but in his lack of sympathy, that he was placing them above humans.

There are a few similar dilemmas surrounding music and musicians but I don’t feel as emotionally attached to anything that Snoop Dog has produced as I do to The Smiths, because, when I first started listening to them (years after they’d disbanded) The Smiths appealed to the lonely, misunderstood outsider teenager in me. As they must have appealed to many marginalised people and now Morrissey is attacking those very people! I should really metaphorically, scatter all their albums into the sea but I can’t quite make that final cut.

Does anyone else feel the same?

I’ve compiled a little list of artists/bands who evoke similar emotions to The Smiths and can offer an alternative:

Radiohead
The Beatles - (particularity anything from Revolver and Abbey Road)
Kate Bush (ah, she’s a fan of Teresa May, you say…)
P.J. Harvey
Bowie
(some of) Joanna Newsom (if I’m in the mood)

It’s a bit of a scant list, maybe when I start the support group we can introduce each other to other bands, over tea and biscuits, bands with great, quirky, imaginative lyrics and amazing sounds. I do like other music, by the way, lots of other stuff, but I’m trying to think of stuff that holds the same power; the power to harness a mood of wistful nostalgia and yearning. Perhaps, after all these years, it’s time to leave The Smiths behind, along with Shaders and Toners and heavy black eyeliner and consign it to the same place as that Guns n Roses L.P.