'I feel like I've been had': Morrissey's collaborators respond to his politics - The Guardian

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'I feel like I've been had': Morrissey's collaborators respond to his politics - The Guardian
The former Smiths singer’s new album features guest spots from Billie Joe Armstrong and Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste. Are they not put off by his increasingly unpleasant right-wing stance?

Excerpt:

As US music magazine the Fader asked: “What possible reason could any of these people have for lining up behind Morrissey now?”

Droste declined to comment. The only artist willing to speak with the Guardian was Canadian vocalist Ariel Engle, who performs with cult indie outfit Broken Social Scene. She received a call from the American producer Joe Chiccarelli asking her to contribute backing vocals for a cover of Joni Mitchell’s Don’t Interrupt the Sorrow. “I thought, ‘Oh the Smiths, sure’,” she says. “It was $500 for two hours’ work.”

Engle says she didn’t become aware of Morrissey’s political views until the album was announced and a friend emailed to question her involvement. “It’s a very weak argument to claim ignorance,” she says, “but it is my argument. It’s not an excuse but it happens to be the truth.”

Morrissey’s manager, Peter Katsis, says he is unaware of statements made by any guest vocalists, but that the intention of the covers album was supposed to be fun. “This is where his head is at,” he says. “Maybe enough has been said with the last few albums being political.” Of Morrissey’s political views, Katsis says: “I manage his artistic career and sometimes I have to deal with things he says, but it’s not for me to comment.”

Chiccarelli echoes Katsis’s sentiment. “I can’t speak to Moz’s politics,” he says. “I’m a record-maker. I’ve known him 10 years and he’s been a gentleman and a pleasure. I consider him a friend.” When asked about the far-right figures for whom Morrissey has expressed support, Chiccarelli says: “I’d really have to research it and see if it crossed a particular line for me.”

Engle says that learning of Morrissey’s political opinions has left a “bad taste”, and that she stands in opposition to his views. “The inflammatory things he says are not my politics. I think he’s completely out of line. I grew up around multiculturalism and I am the product of multiculturalism and immigration. I feel like I’ve been had, but it’s my fault.”

The American singer LP offered a statement through a PR representative: “As I’m a huge fan of his music and poetry, I was honoured to be asked to collaborate on the album.” Representatives for Lydia Night of California band the Regrettes offered no comment, but the 18-year-old told punk magazine Kerrang!: “I’ve grown up loving the Smiths – my cat’s name is Morrissey!” Representatives for Armstrong said he was in the studio and therefore unreachable.

The guest stars on California Son are all North American, suggesting a difference between perceptions of the former Smiths frontman in the US and UK. Katsis, who is American, sees the critical focus on Morrissey’s politics as a British preoccupation.

“I don’t think they know enough about it to care about it,” he says of Morrissey’s US fans. “I don’t feel knowledgable enough to comment on British politics, therefore it’s probably not as important to me or the international fans as it is to UK fans. This whole thing has had me perplexed. The subjects are very complicated and dividing.”

The figures bear out Morrissey’s enduring support across the Atlantic. He ended 2018 with arena shows in North and South America, and has announced his first Canadian tour in 20 years for this April. In November 2017, Los Angeles City Council declared 10 November “Morrissey Day”.

“In America, he tends to be seen as the rock star who sang about queer life and spoke openly about feminism when nobody else did,” says Rolling Stone critic Rob Sheffield. “These two images define him, and he’s still seen in terms of his pioneering place in history. His grumpy old age is not really held against him. Americans tend not to follow UK politics very closely, so when he makes mind-blowingly offensive statements there might be outrage or humiliation for a few days, or hours, but then it’s back to listening to The Queen Is Dead”.




Media coverage:
 
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I’m a veggie Labour voter. I think the Guardian and NME are a little confounded by the left-leaning protest songs on the album. It really ruins their narrative.
 
If Twitter Moz fans are anything to go by, yere generally.....the veggie, vote Labour, stereotypical lefties not really understanding the world these days.

Awww. Poor poppet. To make such a silly, ill-informed statement shows how very sheltered your existence really must be. :rolleyes:
 
Is Moz running for president or releasing some songs?
 
We hate it when our friends are anything but PC
and if they're gay it makes it even worse
and if we can destroy them
you bet your life we will destroy them
if we can hurt them
well we may as well
it's really laughable
ha ha ha......


Updated 2019 swedish version
 
If Twitter Moz fans are anything to go by, yere generally.....the veggie, vote Labour, stereotypical lefties not really understanding the world these days.
I thought Corbyn was a breath of fresh air at first. But now I feel he runs the labour party with an iron fist while standing for absolutely nothing himself, other than trying to secure a victory for himself. Its gone to his head.
 
Is Moz running for president or releasing some songs?
Good point! if he was running for a political role, I probably wouldn't vote for him as I don't share all his views. But he is singing, and I want to listen to his songs, buy records and go to gigs.
 
.
:sleeping::sleeping::sleeping::sleeping:


Another Guardian FAIL, stirring the pot when there never was one.




ITS ALL ABOUT THE MONEY


ITS ALL ... JUST ....




CLICKBAIT,



ITS NOT ABOUT REASON LOGIC

OR


TRUTH.







Articles like these must ALSO go into it from Morrissey’s perspective, at least attempt to touch upon where he’s coming from. Also they NEED to take into consideration his love of multicultural music and his love of artists from all walks of life. They NEED to take into consideration his strong beliefs about animal rights.They NEED to take into consideration Morrissey’s support of Perot and Sanders and his anti-Trump stance. They NEED to take into consideration that Morrissey is an artist first and speaks from the heart, which is not a language that most of the so-called ‘modern’ world understands.
It’s about context, and the whole man, which it seems clear to all, they WILL NEVER KNOW NEVER
UNDERSTAND.

At the end of the day, all that matters is.. the ONE TRUTH, that is ETERNAL and that is ... THAT VOICE, for it will be touching new hearts long after we’re all gone.



CASE CLOSED !!!!


:hammer:



:cool:



Inspector - don't you know?

Don't you care?

Don't you know - about love?’



.
 
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Well done to Ariel Engle for saying she felt like she's been had. Once again, the usual apologists attempt to play the "freeze peach" card as justification for the stance they hold. Never any surprise there, really. There must be plenty of "loony lefties" about for him to have cancelled his European tour in 2018, after all. They must have been the “logistical circumstances" beyond his control No wonder he's doing a covers album instead. To cover the pungent stench of his recent remarks.
And let's not forget how he's sucking up to Canada, having sworn blind never to tour there again due to their annual seal cull. Long-term principles denied? More like bloodily bludgeoned, it seems. (Lack of) money changes everything, it seems. More than enough of us certainly haven't forgotten - and will still be around to remind those doing the Ostrich Position whenever necessary. :straightface:

Ok, NDSP.....check the charts by the time i wrote this post it climed to 6!!!!:crazy:
 
I'm racist on a Friday night when people of another culture are keeping me awake. But I wake up in the morning and calm down. Its what I do. I look for the first thing that I can blame them for. Oh, it's their culture, its something different about them. They are naturally more expressive and louder than us British. That's what I start thinking to myself. But then I come back to the fact that their exuberance is keeping me up at night and making me cranky and ill disposed to work the next day.
 
I wonder if it was a Stazi type interrogation by the Guardian, of his collaborators on this album.
 
Steve has a choice.
If he wants to remain a cool/indie/alternative type, he has to renounce his support for right wing people and parties. This 'alternative' persona has allowed him to attract these people to his album, seemingly unaware of his recent idiotic and ugly comments.
If he wants to continue his support for the right wing, he will still have some friends in the music world but these will be the likes of Gary Barlow, Phil Collins and Tony Hadley. Maybe they could collaborate on his next album.
 
Journalists who lie
 
I will reserve judgement until I hear from the lead singer of Plastic Letters.
 
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NME, The Guardian, The Telegraph, will of course take their shots at anything Moz does. Is this all they got? Again, for being the so-called stewards of tolerance and acceptance...they once again show their hypocrisy of intolerance and hate. The Brit media is doing the same thing to Morrissey as the American mainstream media is inadvertently doing to Trump, that is getting him relected.
 
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The past week or so has shocked me really, with regard as to how devious our media is here in the UK, The Tommy Robinson documentary, irrespective of peoples views of him showed what low life lying scum the BBC are prepared to be if they decide they want to have a go at you, and this is no different, The Guardian have decided to ask everyone they could find who worked on this record to see if they could find a dissenting voice, they couldn't.
The piece is titled
'I feel like I've been had': Morrissey's collaborators respond to his politics

yet they don't say who said this, it's pretty obvious because no one did. Yet the sentence that follows contains both names Billie Joe Armstrong, and Ed Droste, neither even speaking to the paper. In fact, the only negative anything is from the admitted "The only artist willing to speak with the Guardian" was a session backing vocalist who said nothing detrimental at all but claiming. "ignorance is no excuse but that's what I'm doing". It's amazing they went out to find an I've been had voice, didn't find one, and wrote it anyway. Just Like the BBC where prepared to stitch up Tommy Robinson by any means Necessary.

Read between the lines people they lie to us.
 
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