Alan Bennett also refused the "Sir" ( from what I've read)...
I know that you lost your faith in record companies. But your fans desperately want to hear your new songs. Would you consider releasing an album as a digital download self-released?
I only want it to be released by a label who cares about it, and who will promote it. If not, there's no point. It can be heard in the live arena and on You Tube. I won't beg a label to sign me. Fate has always come to the rescue somehow.
That was an embarrassingly dumb, out-of-touch, selfish, and revealing answer.
He may as well have been blunt and said: "If my fans want to hear my new songs, they can continue to line my pockets by paying $100 a ticket to hear three of them that I've been playing for 2 years or listen to poor quality audience recordings from Youtube. If I can't get a chart position or earn critical praise and money from a wide release by a prominent label, I don't give a damn."
It's hard to disagree. I know he has taken the role of the obstinate-but-charming anachronism so emblematically to heart, but this time, the times just may pass him by. In the dying days of radio dramas and comedies, voice actors had to figure out how to do their work on TV or film or else. He has to face facts with the digital age and changing music industry. It may not be right in his mind and it may lack the grandeur of old, but it is what it is - modify your approach or become redundant.
That was an embarrassingly dumb, out-of-touch, selfish, and revealing answer.
He may as well have been blunt and said: "If my fans want to hear my new songs, they can continue to line my pockets by paying $100 a ticket to hear three of them that I've been playing for 2 years or listen to poor quality audience recordings from Youtube. If I can't get a chart position or earn critical praise and money from a wide release by a prominent label, I don't give a damn."
And time will prove you wrong. Though I get the impression that you aren't the kind of person who would be at all embarrassed about it!
It's hard to disagree. I know he has taken the role of the obstinate-but-charming anachronism so emblematically to heart, but this time, the times just may pass him by. In the dying days of radio dramas and comedies, voice actors had to figure out how to do their work on TV or film or else. He has to face facts with the digital age and changing music industry. It may not be right in his mind and it may lack the grandeur of old, but it is what it is - modify your approach or become redundant.
there are 5 years old more informed than Morrissey on Northern Ireland
I think when it comes down to it, it has less to do with an aversion to change and more to do with he thinks he stands a better chance at getting a #1 single and album if he has the full support of a record label (with money to spare), the press, and the radio...regardless of the quality of the single. I do believe he would die happy if he finally got a #1 single. He's gone on about not having one for so long, I can't remember a time when he wasn't complaining about it! Realistically, though, unless he gets a savvy manager and has a better song stashed away, that ship has sailed.
In spite of what most around here would claim, since 2004 the ONLY song he has released as a single that could have been a #1 was "First Of The Gang To Die". He had the momentum of a new album, tour, and single after a 7 year absence from recording and he totally wasted it on a song that, while good, wasn't going to have mass appeal...as most political songs never do. Considering the demographic most single purchasers fall in, you aren't going to find the majority of them driving around singing out loud "...and spit upon the name Oliver Cromwell!"
I've said it before and I'll say it again - want a guaranteed number #1 single, Morrissey? Release "Art-hounds" (best new song I've heard that he's currently got but not ideally a good single choice) as the usual CD and two 7-inch vinyl single, release a combo package of your autobiography with the single, and release a digital download with some exciting live b-sides all on the same day. Basically, making people get the same single multiple times during the same sales week.
Morrissey said:People seem to make music simply because they can, and all of the techo hip-hop kids do exactly the same thing with no variation, and they think it's great. The mystery and intrigue in hip-hop is zero, and the people who make that kind of sound usually can't even speak, know what ah mean, know what ah mean, know what ah mean? Do THEY know what they mean?!
I enjoyed this interview, as I always enjoy listening to Morrissey, and although I want nothing more than to hear new Morrissey material properly recorded, I would feel cheated if it wasn't on a record or CD that I could hold in my hands and own. I am not a fan of having music only in MP3 format.