How come Morrissey missed a big chance in 90s?
- Thread starter Kewpie
- Start date
oye terence
ampersand after ampersand
One could say it was a mistake not to tour behind his most widely acclaimed and received album of his career, but also one must keep in mind that it is few and far between that have a long lasting highly successful career (sales wise).
Trends come and go.the general public change their tastes over and over.Fan bases will always remain but those who just happen to pick up something they like or read about,what seems to be cool at the time ,will buy one album by an artist and then perhaps never buy another release by that artist ever again.
Trends come and go.the general public change their tastes over and over.Fan bases will always remain but those who just happen to pick up something they like or read about,what seems to be cool at the time ,will buy one album by an artist and then perhaps never buy another release by that artist ever again.
Worm
Taste the diffidence
Lack of touring was a big reason. Also "Southpaw Grammar" was not the best follow-up to "Vauxhall and I", at least from a commercial standpoint. I like the album a lot. I'm not bashing it. The songs just didn't build on "Vauxhall"'s momentum.
I also think the court case did a lot of damage. As much as Morrissey has informed the world how badly it treated him, I doubt we know the full extent of his personal miseries around that time.
I also think the court case did a lot of damage. As much as Morrissey has informed the world how badly it treated him, I doubt we know the full extent of his personal miseries around that time.
Yes I am that girl
AKA Maria
I could say it could be blamed on the whole transition from The Smiths to just Morrissey---SOLO. Most people are afraid of change...and maybe didn't give Morrissey the attention or media push when he needed it. So, who really knows?!? 
Kilt Uncle
Active Member
I think everything happened perfectly for him. Life is all about ups and downs and it's part of his attraction that he doesn't whore himself for anyone.
I could say it could be blamed on the whole transition from The Smiths to just Morrissey---SOLO. Most people are afraid of change...and maybe didn't give Morrissey the attention or media push when he needed it. So, who really knows?!?
Not really.
You should read the letter Morrissey wrote to Stephen Street in 1987 posted in Stephen Street's website:
http://stephenstreet.net/vivahate.html
Yes I am that girl
AKA Maria
Interesting! Thanks. But, I suppose I should've been more specific. I didn't mean the whole transition from Morrissey's point of view, but more of the fan base and the onlookers of the whole issue. Morrissey has always seemed to be one to go on his own course and follow his own rules and burn his own bridges.
But, I suppose from what the letter says he made the mistake of thinking he just wanted to record and not tour and etc. When touring is a big deal when keeping yourself up in the media and a true fanbase. I think that's why he's having a lot of success now because of all the tours he's been doing.
I think that's why he's having a lot of success now because of all the tours he's been doing.
But he's not having a lot of success now! The global fanbase (or at least the number of people buying his current stuff) is crumbling. Down from 1.2 million sales of Quarry to 0.6 million ROTT to 0.2 million YOR (on the current trajectory), yet, over the same period, he's probably never toured as much since the Smiths.
The idea that tours trigger album sales is one of the biggest myths in the music business. The things that influence sales the most (for any given artist)are radio airplay (this is the big one), awards ceremonies such as Mercury and Brits, songs on the soundtracks of successful films, and tons of critical success in the end of year polls. The only time you'll see album sales stimulated by tours are when bands play a couple of days at somewhere enormous like Wembley stadium.
Worm
Taste the diffidence
You're probably right about tours in general, but as I see it his "Kill Uncle" tour was a huge catalyst for him. Arguably the forward momentum he got from the 1991 tour led directly to "Your Arsenal" and even "Vauxhall and I". It's not so much about driving album sales as staying in the public eye. Morrissey didn't tour much for "Vauxhall", then followed it up with a "difficult" album ("Southpaw Grammar") and less than stellar singles like "Boxers". The lack of public presence became a negative.
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Yes I am that girl
AKA Maria
Radio airplay is lacking, although, I haven't listened to the radio since 2004. YATQ probably got a fair amount of radio airplay than any of the recent albums. Well, at least from what I've experienced here in California. So, I don't know.
Radio airplay is lacking, although, I haven't listened to the radio since 2004. YATQ probably got a fair amount of radio airplay than any of the recent albums. Well, at least from what I've experienced here in California. So, I don't know.
First of the Gang got tons of airplay, the other singles not so much.
YATQ also benefited from being the first Moz album in 7 years.
Levels of anticipation were pretty high, in and way in which they weren't for ROTT or YOR...
Yep, Kill Uncle was a pretty important tour, partly because it was his first proper tour since the Smiths and, yes, it kinda did lead into Your Arsenal.
The KU tour was the first time in his 'solo' career that he felt as if he was in a proper band again.
It was cool that they all stuck together for so long but it's a real shame that Alain and Gary are no longer in the band.
However, that discussion is probably for another thread!
Yes I am that girl
AKA Maria
Indeed, But 'Irish Blood, English Heart' got tons of airplay itself also.
YATQ was the album that sort of put Morrissey back in the limelight. It's just nice to see that he's putting out albums consistently--instead of waiting another 7-10 years to put out another one and hoping it gets the same attention and anticipation as YATQ did.
lainey
Active Member
well put.
Stanley the 2nd
Active Member
Morrissey should have been involved in the whole britpop thing but sadly wasn't. I think it was a combination of bad press, the racism argument and not actually releasing anything that was mainstream, ie Maladjusted and Southpaw . He was put out to pasture at the end of the nineties and the end looked nigh. So really a combination of reasons. If he'd released something like You are the Quarry after Vauxhall & I the outcome might have been different.
speedfreaks ball
psychobilly member
brit pop was simply riding too high and ruling the roost, not much else.
Johan de Witt
Senior Member
He should have been involved in Britpop, and he could easily have been.
All the major Britpop-bands adored The Smiths. Morrissey could easily have had his picture taken with The Gallaghers and Damon and Brett and Jarvis, but he refused to even go out on the road and promote his greatest album. He decided to stay at home for most of 1994 and 1995, only to come out late 1995 as a David Bowie-support act! It really was his worst career move.
We don't know what got into him that led him to this decision... Probably a combination of the court-case, the racism-issue, stubbornness, Jake... We'll never know.
Worm
Taste the diffidence
You definitely got the last part right. We'll never know.
As for coat-tailing with Britpop, I don't know if he could've done that. Sure, Oasis liked The Smiths and Blur (grudgingly, as I recall) liked them as well, but that would've been the first nakedly commercial attempt for sales that Morrissey had ever made. Think how odd that would've been-- doing the Paul Weller thing and borrowing some of Britpop's fire. How unsightly and disapppointing that would've been. Morrissey would've been dishonest to grasp at Britpop because I don't think he liked any of the bands. To this day has he ever claimed to like an Oasis record? All I've heard him say is he likes the Brothers Gallagher as characters. That's it. Blur and the rest, forget it.
I wouldn't have wanted to see Morrissey posing with Damon Albarn on the cover of the NME when secretly he despised Blur. Clearly he mucked matters up but, bad career moves aside, I respect his unwillingness to cater to the public's sudden change in taste.
Johan de Witt
Senior Member
Of course I wouldn't have wanted that either. I meant the posing metaphorically. He could have 'played the game' a little more, granting the weeklies an interview, going to the right gigs etc.
Personally I don't think he liked any of those Britpop-bands any less than Franz Ferdinand, Killers, Ordinary Boys etc a decade later, when he DID play the game.
Worm
Taste the diffidence
You're probably right. Then again, he was a little older, his position had changed. More of the "Mozfather" image (which I never liked). Back in 1994 it just would've looked odd to piggyback on Oasis' success.
Not sounding like he did. Not looking like he did. He was still better than all of them.
But anyway. Like you said, we'll never know.
