Is Morrissey too political?

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Are modern Morrissey lyrics too political?


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It depends on what the word politics means to you.
And of course in which country you live.
It's not without reason many people distrust politics due to the professional politicians deceiving their voters and not representing their interests but only their own.

Promising everything just to get their votes so they have a well paid job, paid by those same voters through taxes and the voters can go f*** themselves.
Promising a lot and not keeping their promises makes the fools happy until they get dissapointed again but than the whole circus starts again.

I once had some informal, off the record conversations with some politicians, from different parties, socialists, liberals, conservatives, right-wing, left-wing, and one thing stroke me and was insightful to me.
They were ALL very cynical and downright defeating about the voters.
The attitude was like, "can't they just get off their fat asses once in four years" and give me or my party the votes"? Why do I have to go to all this trouble to represent people I just loathe?
They won't tell you that openly, and publicly, that's for sure.

Of course talking about politics is very risky in some places and it's considered bad taste in others. It's the idea those governments instille on people to be able to operate without being controlled by a srong and political public opinion. Power hates boundaries, that's why i's so impotant the idea of limits to the power.
 
Of course talking about politics is very risky in some places and it's considered bad taste in others. It's the idea those governments instille on people to be able to operate without being controlled by a srong and political public opinion. Power hates boundaries, that's why i's so impotant the idea of limits to the power.

I am sorry countthree, for sounding cynical myself, I don't want to.
But for me the fact is, power corrupts, the awareness of having power, authority, does.
Power corrupts and total power corrupts totally.
 
I am sorry countthree, for sounding cynical myself, I don't want to.
But for me the fact is, power corrupts, the awareness of having power, authority, does.
Power corrupts and total power corrupts totally.

Sure. Talking and caring about politics doesn't mean you want to be a politician, it just mean you just don't want to wait to be a genocide's victim before taking care of some important matters, such as who and how yor future will be decided by other people. Not that you can do a lot in most cases, but sometimes caring about something makes all the difference.
 
Yes, sure, I agree about that.
By the way, off-topic but just listened again at the first part of the album La Camorra by Astor Piazzolla.
The one you posted in the album thread.
I believe it is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I ever listened to.
Thanks again for sharing! :thumb:
 
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We could also ask.. Are Morrissey's lyrics too poetic are no longer poetic enough? and is it possible to define what is poetry and what is not poetry ?

I think most miss the ambiguity in his lyric, we all long for escape, and we like our truth sugar coated in clever and 'beautiful' words so we don't feel the full brunt of the subject-matter in the song. Though, this 'sugar coating'/poetry could also make one feel the subject-matter even more if one is sensitive enough.

Maybe M has come to a state of 'it's now or never' being and feels he needs to be more forthright and lay it plain so that there are no misunderstandings. For example take his changing of the original 'Meat Is ' compared with his new version of it.




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Like World Peace Is None of Your Business, much of the album is directly political, talking about blood for oil and police brutality. Why do you think your writing has gotten more explicitly political than the songs you were writing in the '80s? (save for a song like "Meat Is Murder," of course). Or do you not see it that way?

The people have become sick of the establishment, and I'm a part of the world.

No small kid wants to grow up to be President any more, and there's a sense that the world is close to its expiration date. There's no point hanging back with whatever feelings and views you might have. This is tomorrow.
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I mean it's not as if he wasn't political before. I just think he was at times more subtle with it or at least more poetic with it. If he did Theresa May on the guillotine now I think you'd all be bitching about it. I just think the whole rebellious anti authority starts to look at lot less cool when you get middle aged.
 
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We could also ask.. Are Morrissey's lyrics too poetic are no longer poetic enough? and is it possible to define what is poetry and what is not poetry ?

I think most miss the ambiguity in his lyric, we all long for escape, and we like our truth sugar coated in clever and 'beautiful' words so we don't feel the full brunt of the subject-matter in the song. Though, this 'sugar coating'/poetry could also make one feel the subject-matter even more if one is sensitive enough.

Maybe M has come to a state of 'it's now or never' being and feels he needs to be more forthright and lay it plain so that there are no misunderstandings. For example take his changing of the original 'Meat Is ' compared with his new version of it.




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His changing of the original MIM has neutered and dumbed down the message and impact, though.
I rue the f***ing day that whoever did it, told Morrissey about video screen backdrops. Not because the film bothers me in a "he shouldn't be showing that"
sort of way (Ganglord as well as MIM) but in a "Gee, this is really too obvious, and I miss the lyrical power against either a powerful black and white photo backdrop (see Harvey Keitel) or no backdrop at all" sort of way. He was the message, now he performs in front of it, and personally, I think he's better than that.
 
His changing of the original MIM has neutered and dumbed down the message and impact, though.
I rue the f***ing day that whoever did it, told Morrissey about video screen backdrops. Not because the film bothers me in a "he shouldn't be showing that"
sort of way (Ganglord as well as MIM) but in a "Gee, this is really too obvious, and I miss the lyrical power against either a powerful black and white photo backdrop (see Harvey Keitel) or no backdrop at all" sort of way. He was the message, now he performs in front of it, and personally, I think he's better than that.

Yes, he is better than that but he doesn't want to show.
He is a very modest man as you must know by now.
He doesn't want to offence his fans more than necessary. :rolleyes:
 
Yes, he is better than that but he doesn't want to show.
He is a very modest man as you must know by now.
He doesn't want to offence his fans more than necessary. :rolleyes:
Oh yes. Modest and humble to a fault, our Morrissey. ;)

No, I just find the multimedia concert tedious and overdone by everybody nowadays. Not just him. If Devo got back together, great. That's their thing and it works well, but don't we all get enough screen time without it being mandatory at an experience for the ears? I saw Morrissey play TQID against a backdrop of James Dean, and loved it. I saw it against a backdrop of Liz giving the finger, and it detracted from the song. The backdrop should be just that- unobtrusive background to what is happening on the stage.
 
Oh yes. Modest and humble to a fault, our Morrissey. ;)

No, I just find the multimedia concert tedious and overdone by everybody nowadays. Not just him. If Devo got back together, great. That's their thing and it works well, but don't we all get enough screen time without it being mandatory at an experience for the ears? I saw Morrissey play TQID against a backdrop of James Dean, and loved it. I saw it against a backdrop of Liz giving the finger, and it detracted from the song. The backdrop should be just that- unobtrusive background to what is happening on the stage.

Yes, I do agree on that. :thumb:
 
Yes, I do agree on that. :thumb:
It's epidemic at this point. I can't remember the last time I went to a large show without some form of digital backdrop. Even Nick Cave is resorting to it
on his latest tour, and it only worked for Distant sky, with the prerecorded Else Torp vocals since she couldn't be expected to tour around with him and sing one song a night. Even then, I would have preferred to pass on a live version of Distant Sky and not had the screen.
 
It's epidemic at this point. I can't remember the last time I went to a large show without some form of digital backdrop. Even Nick Cave is resorting to it
on his latest tour, and it only worked for Distant sky, with the prerecorded Else Torp vocals since she couldn't be expected to tour around with him and sing one song a night. Even then, I would have preferred to pass on a live version of Distant Sky and not had the screen.

Moz should dig up the great Morrissey sign he used at the Quarry tour as can be seen in the Who Put The M In Manchester? DVD.
It was a funny use of the Elvis sign by the artist of the same name. :D
 
Moz should dig up the great Morrissey sign he used at the Quarry tour as can be seen in the Who Put The M In Manchester? DVD.
It was a funny use of the Elvis sign by the artist of the same name. :D
I enjoyed that. I wonder if it's in a warehouse somewhere. I also wonder if they'd sell it to me to jazz up summer cocktail parties in the back yard. It would make great mood lighting. I always liked his black and white backdrops. I suppose maybe they were too Smiths for his tastes, but I always found them to say a lot about the music despite being completely unrelated to it.
 
Morrissey has forgotten politic between viva hate and World peace. Surely not a good Idea.
I like when he mixes personnal and societal topics.
It's strange how people change their mind with the Time, tolerance and fighting are not the same...
 
"but last night the plans for a future war was all i saw and ch. 4."
 
"but last night the plans for a future war was all i saw and ch. 4."
That line is so casually thrown though. I would say it's the bluntness of his recent lyrics that is off-putting. I know that as a lover of language, that is where Morrissey first struck me. I was given Viva Hate, having never heard him before. (This was 1991.) On the first listen, the lyric "Leather elbows, on a tweed coat- oh, is that the best you can do? And so came his reply, 'but on the desk is where I want you' " made me gasp and laugh out loud. Nobody had EVER used language to such effect than Morrissey. At least to me. As a bookish little adolescent, I was so happy to have something with intelligence and intrigue set to music.

I will defend his right to sing whatever he feels, but his lyrics seem to be constructed like a powerpoint presentation much of the time now.
 
What about The Queen Is Dead?

What about it? Did you read the original post or just the thread title?

People only think he is too 'political' because he is more right leaning now and it upsets them.

On 88's Viva Hate he called for a living Prime Minister to be murdered. Nobody cared though because it was anti-Tory and the lefties loved it.

In 2017, he makes a few comments about Brexit and suddenly people can't handle it. :rolleyes:

I'm the OP and I'm not leftist in the least. Morrissey's views do not bother me. The fact that over half the songs on the new album that we are aware of all feature some reference to the royals, the military, the media, and the police is what bothers me. The fact that these themes have grown considerably in his music since 2004 is what bothers me. Getting political is not the problem...getting political on 7 of 12 known songs on a long awaited new album is.
 
Many people criticise Morrissey's political views for being "all over the place", but I actually think that he's been pretty consistent throughout his career. You have to bear in mind that Morrissey comes from that generation of the British working class who were shunned by Thatcher after the collapse of socialism (their natural ideological allegiance up to that point) and then betrayed by Blair when he pushed the political "left" to the centre. Many working-class British people from that generation were left to feel that nothing on the political spectrum represented them until years later, when "man of the people" Nigel Farage came along with his populist message and EU scapegoating. If you look at Morrissey from that perspective, his politics have been consistent, from being staunchly anti-Conservative in the '80s, to politically apathetic in the '90s, to his more recent flirtations with populists like Farage and Galloway, both of whom represent opposite ideological extremes. That's why it's so difficult to pin today's Morrissey down as either "left wing" or "right wing".

That said, to answer the question of whether or not I think he's "too political"... Although I find some of his outbursts during interviews and on stage ignorant and disappointing, I'm generally enjoying witnessing his political development in the lyrics themselves, even if I don't agree with everything he stands for. That said though, I find his lyrics to be far more sophisticated than his outbursts. I can't object to anything he said in 'Spent the Day in Bed', for example, and I'm glad he's saying it.
 
Many people criticise Morrissey's political views for being "all over the place", but I actually think that he's been pretty consistent throughout his career. You have to bear in mind that Morrissey comes from that generation of the British working class who were shunned by Thatcher after the collapse of socialism (their natural ideological allegiance up to that point) and then betrayed by Blair when he pushed the political "left" to the centre. Many working-class British people from that generation were left to feel that nothing on the political spectrum represented them until years later, when "man of the people" Nigel Farage came along with his populist message and EU scapegoating. If you look at Morrissey from that perspective, his politics have been consistent, from being staunchly anti-Conservative in the '80s, to politically apathetic in the '90s, to his more recent flirtations with populists like Farage and Galloway, both of whom represent opposite ideological extremes. That's why it's so difficult to pin today's Morrissey down as either "left wing" or "right wing".

That said, to answer the question of whether or not I think he's "too political"... Although I find some of his outbursts during interviews and on stage ignorant and disappointing, I'm generally enjoying witnessing his political development in the lyrics themselves, even if I don't agree with everything he stands for. That said though, I find his lyrics to be far more sophisticated than his outbursts. I can't object to anything he said in 'Spent the Day in Bed', for example, and I'm glad he's saying it.

You do sum it up well but I think most on here realise all of that. Moz never went into any complicated political debate or discussed the depths of it. He just put a finger up to feel where the wind was blowing and then he went against public opinion.

Maybe Moz is anarchist at heart and want to see a real revolution where they really kick politicians heads about instead of footballs (Aztec's outrage over the term football will cause an earthquake soon).
 
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