Non-english Moz/Smiths interviews/articles (some are translated, some not)
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sistasheila
tjekket
Re: post your non-english mozarticles here(italian,french...-english translation need
Jose
something in dutch for you..;-)its an actual interview with the dutch press in the year 1984 short but sweet maybe you got time to translate it? that would be great,...thnks in advance
its an interview with an ] dutch journalist held 1984...quite rare since during the smiths time there arent too many interviews held with foreign journalists
then i wanted to post a englishtranlation of a japanese interview from dec 95,which a a japanese fan did and sent it to julia,who printed the tranlation in her fanzine :
but scanner doesnt work..so here only a few excerpts out of the tranlation :full tranlation scan follows soon. A VERY INTERESTING INTERVIEW!
Note:the japanese interview from my first post in this thread is from Feb 95
so the following translation is from another japanese interview which happened in dec 95 and was printed in 96.
Interviewer questioned if he did remember her.
morrissey not only remembered, but recalled a number of details more accurately as his interviewer.
she then wants to know about the reason behind the bowie cancellation. When he replied cause of fatigue and tiredness ,she wondered about the cause. he replied that the year 95 has been business, business, busines and sudddendly he didnt feel well. Interviewer asked about what his business is and Moz joked that he manages a pet shop. After assuring her he was kidding he told her that he is involved in businesses which are very important to him and he calls them life.Life is his business.
they then talk about southpaw(..)and certain songs from it
about the song nobody loves us:
Interviewer commented that moz used to portray himself as a solitary rebel but now he sings "nobody loves us", morrissey confirms that.
She asked what kind of group "us" indicates. he answered that it indicates a simple personal group and added that this includes him as he is the leader of the group.
inteviewer asked again what kind of group it which he quipped that its an outsiders group."we try very hard to get in.we`re knocking on the doors and the windows. but hey dont let us in"
then about the method of recording or better moz unconventional approach
then about his past and thta he wants to move on
then about england,intersting drug, working class.his calmness,atom bombs,c charity
and about japan
..that he loves japan and esp tokyo..the reason is that people are nice and gentle and thoughful.in tokyo, he said, althouh there are so many people, he feels soemthing silent throughout the whole city and he loves this silence.he expresses that he wants to live in tokyo, of which the interviewer encourage him to do so
then another interview from 2006 for a german mag:(musikexpress)which full scan follows the next weeks as well but here are 2 Q i did translate:
Interviewer::Whats your fave places in rome?
Moz: :The Villa Borgese.And Trastevere.But i love every stone and part in Rome.
I: Did you read the book "the wrong boy"?
(Note: has lots of smiths references and moz adressing)
This has to a film made out of it imperatively.I liked the book ,you/man can identify with it in parts.Life gives me so much.which has something to do that im not recognized globally that much or selling 60 millions and never run on mtv. But people give/show me respect(kudos/deference) which is priceless.
i also must try the spex from 87 again..but by now i only did make a note of the statement moz made that all songs are only and exclusely about him, and no one else : things that happen to him or almost happen to him..
Jose
something in dutch for you..;-)its an actual interview with the dutch press in the year 1984 short but sweet maybe you got time to translate it? that would be great,...thnks in advance
its an interview with an ] dutch journalist held 1984...quite rare since during the smiths time there arent too many interviews held with foreign journalists
then i wanted to post a englishtranlation of a japanese interview from dec 95,which a a japanese fan did and sent it to julia,who printed the tranlation in her fanzine :
but scanner doesnt work..so here only a few excerpts out of the tranlation :full tranlation scan follows soon. A VERY INTERESTING INTERVIEW!
Note:the japanese interview from my first post in this thread is from Feb 95
so the following translation is from another japanese interview which happened in dec 95 and was printed in 96.
Interviewer questioned if he did remember her.
morrissey not only remembered, but recalled a number of details more accurately as his interviewer.
she then wants to know about the reason behind the bowie cancellation. When he replied cause of fatigue and tiredness ,she wondered about the cause. he replied that the year 95 has been business, business, busines and sudddendly he didnt feel well. Interviewer asked about what his business is and Moz joked that he manages a pet shop. After assuring her he was kidding he told her that he is involved in businesses which are very important to him and he calls them life.Life is his business.
they then talk about southpaw(..)and certain songs from it
about the song nobody loves us:
Interviewer commented that moz used to portray himself as a solitary rebel but now he sings "nobody loves us", morrissey confirms that.
She asked what kind of group "us" indicates. he answered that it indicates a simple personal group and added that this includes him as he is the leader of the group.
inteviewer asked again what kind of group it which he quipped that its an outsiders group."we try very hard to get in.we`re knocking on the doors and the windows. but hey dont let us in"
then about the method of recording or better moz unconventional approach
then about his past and thta he wants to move on
then about england,intersting drug, working class.his calmness,atom bombs,c charity
and about japan
..that he loves japan and esp tokyo..the reason is that people are nice and gentle and thoughful.in tokyo, he said, althouh there are so many people, he feels soemthing silent throughout the whole city and he loves this silence.he expresses that he wants to live in tokyo, of which the interviewer encourage him to do so
then another interview from 2006 for a german mag:(musikexpress)which full scan follows the next weeks as well but here are 2 Q i did translate:
Interviewer::Whats your fave places in rome?
Moz: :The Villa Borgese.And Trastevere.But i love every stone and part in Rome.
I: Did you read the book "the wrong boy"?
(Note: has lots of smiths references and moz adressing)
This has to a film made out of it imperatively.I liked the book ,you/man can identify with it in parts.Life gives me so much.which has something to do that im not recognized globally that much or selling 60 millions and never run on mtv. But people give/show me respect(kudos/deference) which is priceless.
i also must try the spex from 87 again..but by now i only did make a note of the statement moz made that all songs are only and exclusely about him, and no one else : things that happen to him or almost happen to him..
Last edited:
Jose
No way...
Re: post your non-english mozarticles here(italian,french...-english translation need
So here is the translation of the Dutch interview, as posted by Sistasheila.
I don't have en English dictionary, so I hope everything is clear for everybody.
The Smiths, a new band with a new sound? Well, not entirely. The Smiths, pop music for softies? Well, what is pop music and what are softies? The Smiths, one in the long line of hyped sensations from the town of workmans trousers, red brick and Joy Division? Morrissey, formerly depressed, now singer of the band, tells us what the Smiths are all about.
The whole week it's been raining and pouring from the grey London skies. But this afternoon the sun is shining. Too bad. A nice dreary atmosphere would've been perfect. Just like your typical English cup of tea with more milk than tea. But we can forget about tea, as we will soon learn. The charming man is in a hurry. O, what difference does it make?
Flowers
The doorbell, a voice, a buzzer and the door of the beautiful appartment building opens. Four flights of stairs. Another door. In the door opening stands a young man, dressed with style, long quiff. A quick handshake, a somewhat shy smile. "Hello, I'm Morrissey". We are taken into the first room to the left and are told to sit down. The room is decorated in a sober and classic style, with not much light, that comes from a dimmed lamp. It reminds me of a room in an old man's home. Morrissey takes the flowers from the packaging, puts them neatly in a vase, doesn't ask us if we want any tea and sits down. Later on he will insist on the flowers being photographed as well. This charming man. This busy popstar...
I want a cigarette. "Do you object to me smoking, Morrissey?" "Yes", he says calmly but also insistingly. He giggles. "Is it strange that... I don't drink and smoke, I hardly understand that people go out into the street and inhale all those exhaust fumes, but I really don't understand that people inhale dirty fumes on their own free will. It may sound neurotic, but that's how I feel about it."
He talks fast, articulating very well. Once in a while for no apparent reason, a vague smile appears on his face. As if he were to say that he can't help it. He has, like the music from the Smiths, something innocent and melancholic about him. "I... erm... well I can't deny that I am very melancholic. So many things have been wrong with me in the past. You know... that really hit me hard. Thanks to the Smiths I'm doing a lot better now, but erm..." The phone rings. It doesn't stop ringing but Morrissey refuses to pick it up. It makes us forget what we talked about, if we knew what we were talking about at all.
"I hardly have a personal life", says Morrissey, "to be honest, I hardly have any friends. So I don't have to worry about saying bad things." All men have secrets, And here is mine, So let it be known (What Difference Does It Make? - Morrissey)
"For a long, very long time I was really depressed. A real depression that I was sucked into. It stopped me from doing things. I couldn't do what I wanted to do. I was unemployed, for years and years. That was voluntarily, I must say, because I simply did not want to work. A normal job, working for someone else... I would never want that, I just couldn't. It was already a lot of work just being "me". But well, one day I had sunken so low that I decided that this depression just could no longer ruin me. I started to fight it. Almost immediately I was approached and asked to sing in a band, The Smiths. No, it wasn't an escape from reality. I don't ever try to escape anything. That's no use. If you do, you will fall back twice as hard when you're left to your own devices. The Smiths were more like a "survival skull". The only way to make reality bearable. That's how hopeless my situation was."
I would rather not go back to the old house. There's too many bad memories. (Back to the Old House - Morrissey 1984)
"I'm from a very poor family. We hardly had any money and were living on the edge of society, if I may say so. In a very perverse way of thinking it was a very pleasant way of life. It sounds odd, but undere those circumstances it did me very good. There was a spirit of harmony, we were connected by fate. It was a sort of trip. You could compare it with living in a time of war. That feeling also shines through in the Smiths' music. I think that's why a lot of people are drawn to it. It stems from depression, but it is not. It's not depressing music, the lyrics aren't depressing, on the contrary. It has to be positive. I think that my songs are about destructing and surviving someone's fears." Morrissey, within six months he was bombarded to being Englands hope in bad times. Twentyfour years young (old, he says himself) and hailed as the next big thing since Joy Division and the Buzzcocks. A bit of an overreaction? Of course. Nevertheless, the Smiths already in their young existence have a couple of almost classic popsongs to their name. If it really is the honest music it appears to be, only time will tell. Morrissey obviously thinks it is and I have to admit I have more faith in his honesty than let's say the Duran Durans, the Spandaus, the Whams and so on. The Smiths makes the kind of music that I have missed for years. Not that I play their records day in day out, but more than I play other "soft" music. Because it is quite obvious that we can't call their music style "heavy". If the Smiths are raging, it is sophisticated, well mannered and acceptable for all generations. Sparkling guitars, melancholic harmonicas (thank you Johnny Marr), styleful, tight basslines (thank you Andy Rourke) and spicy drums (thank you Mike Joyce) make the Smiths to something more than average. Not just to the joy of hit-minded people (the singles This Charming Man and What Difference Does It Make? were sold 200,000 times in England) but also to the joy of Rough Trade, that is in heavy financial wheather. And the boys enjoy it too of course, right Morrissey? And please tell us why that is...
Capitalist
Morrissey: "All went very fast and smoothly for the Smiths. That's pretty much how I expected it to go. I think a lot of people were just bored with what was going on with pop music. The Smiths all of a sudden just unleashed a whole different kind of emotion in people, I think. I'm not just saying that to be cocky, I really mean it. Before I started I knew that there was an open space to be conquered by the Smiths; I looked around in the music scene and just couldn't discover anything that could be of special worth to someone. I now know that I am sure about that. So now I want to make a lot of money out of it. That's the main goal for the near future. Not because I am a capitalist who wants to grab as much money as he can, but because I believe, that what I do, is worth money. I see it in so many brainless people around me, who deliver unmeaningful and worthless products and make heaps of money out of it. There is a lot of money to be made in this industry and I'd rather take it myself than let someone else take it. But an artist isn't supposed to say things like that, right? You're only supposed to talk about your creativity, not money."
This charming man...
"The cover of the single really means a lot to me. That person who is just lying there as the ultimate innocence... A man full of self-adoration, full of... To a certain extent I am in love with myself. Yes. But I know when it starts to get absurd, when I have to stop. When? That erm... I think... we all know that. When it just goes too far..."
With another vague smile he asks me if that frightens me. I say I don't know. Almost immediately after that, the doorbell rings. The gentlemen of NME, it's their turn for an interview. An important interview, a cover story, because the Smiths have been chosen "best new act of 1983" by the readers. Things are going well for the latest sensation from Manchester. So well, that Morrissey will be able to keep his second house in posh Kensington in London for a while longer. So well, that you really should listen to the Smiths' first LP. You be the judge whether Morrissey is worth your money or not. If the Smiths are the smiths of your dreams.
So here is the translation of the Dutch interview, as posted by Sistasheila.
I don't have en English dictionary, so I hope everything is clear for everybody.
The Smiths, a new band with a new sound? Well, not entirely. The Smiths, pop music for softies? Well, what is pop music and what are softies? The Smiths, one in the long line of hyped sensations from the town of workmans trousers, red brick and Joy Division? Morrissey, formerly depressed, now singer of the band, tells us what the Smiths are all about.
The whole week it's been raining and pouring from the grey London skies. But this afternoon the sun is shining. Too bad. A nice dreary atmosphere would've been perfect. Just like your typical English cup of tea with more milk than tea. But we can forget about tea, as we will soon learn. The charming man is in a hurry. O, what difference does it make?
Flowers
The doorbell, a voice, a buzzer and the door of the beautiful appartment building opens. Four flights of stairs. Another door. In the door opening stands a young man, dressed with style, long quiff. A quick handshake, a somewhat shy smile. "Hello, I'm Morrissey". We are taken into the first room to the left and are told to sit down. The room is decorated in a sober and classic style, with not much light, that comes from a dimmed lamp. It reminds me of a room in an old man's home. Morrissey takes the flowers from the packaging, puts them neatly in a vase, doesn't ask us if we want any tea and sits down. Later on he will insist on the flowers being photographed as well. This charming man. This busy popstar...
I want a cigarette. "Do you object to me smoking, Morrissey?" "Yes", he says calmly but also insistingly. He giggles. "Is it strange that... I don't drink and smoke, I hardly understand that people go out into the street and inhale all those exhaust fumes, but I really don't understand that people inhale dirty fumes on their own free will. It may sound neurotic, but that's how I feel about it."
He talks fast, articulating very well. Once in a while for no apparent reason, a vague smile appears on his face. As if he were to say that he can't help it. He has, like the music from the Smiths, something innocent and melancholic about him. "I... erm... well I can't deny that I am very melancholic. So many things have been wrong with me in the past. You know... that really hit me hard. Thanks to the Smiths I'm doing a lot better now, but erm..." The phone rings. It doesn't stop ringing but Morrissey refuses to pick it up. It makes us forget what we talked about, if we knew what we were talking about at all.
"I hardly have a personal life", says Morrissey, "to be honest, I hardly have any friends. So I don't have to worry about saying bad things." All men have secrets, And here is mine, So let it be known (What Difference Does It Make? - Morrissey)
"For a long, very long time I was really depressed. A real depression that I was sucked into. It stopped me from doing things. I couldn't do what I wanted to do. I was unemployed, for years and years. That was voluntarily, I must say, because I simply did not want to work. A normal job, working for someone else... I would never want that, I just couldn't. It was already a lot of work just being "me". But well, one day I had sunken so low that I decided that this depression just could no longer ruin me. I started to fight it. Almost immediately I was approached and asked to sing in a band, The Smiths. No, it wasn't an escape from reality. I don't ever try to escape anything. That's no use. If you do, you will fall back twice as hard when you're left to your own devices. The Smiths were more like a "survival skull". The only way to make reality bearable. That's how hopeless my situation was."
I would rather not go back to the old house. There's too many bad memories. (Back to the Old House - Morrissey 1984)
"I'm from a very poor family. We hardly had any money and were living on the edge of society, if I may say so. In a very perverse way of thinking it was a very pleasant way of life. It sounds odd, but undere those circumstances it did me very good. There was a spirit of harmony, we were connected by fate. It was a sort of trip. You could compare it with living in a time of war. That feeling also shines through in the Smiths' music. I think that's why a lot of people are drawn to it. It stems from depression, but it is not. It's not depressing music, the lyrics aren't depressing, on the contrary. It has to be positive. I think that my songs are about destructing and surviving someone's fears." Morrissey, within six months he was bombarded to being Englands hope in bad times. Twentyfour years young (old, he says himself) and hailed as the next big thing since Joy Division and the Buzzcocks. A bit of an overreaction? Of course. Nevertheless, the Smiths already in their young existence have a couple of almost classic popsongs to their name. If it really is the honest music it appears to be, only time will tell. Morrissey obviously thinks it is and I have to admit I have more faith in his honesty than let's say the Duran Durans, the Spandaus, the Whams and so on. The Smiths makes the kind of music that I have missed for years. Not that I play their records day in day out, but more than I play other "soft" music. Because it is quite obvious that we can't call their music style "heavy". If the Smiths are raging, it is sophisticated, well mannered and acceptable for all generations. Sparkling guitars, melancholic harmonicas (thank you Johnny Marr), styleful, tight basslines (thank you Andy Rourke) and spicy drums (thank you Mike Joyce) make the Smiths to something more than average. Not just to the joy of hit-minded people (the singles This Charming Man and What Difference Does It Make? were sold 200,000 times in England) but also to the joy of Rough Trade, that is in heavy financial wheather. And the boys enjoy it too of course, right Morrissey? And please tell us why that is...
Capitalist
Morrissey: "All went very fast and smoothly for the Smiths. That's pretty much how I expected it to go. I think a lot of people were just bored with what was going on with pop music. The Smiths all of a sudden just unleashed a whole different kind of emotion in people, I think. I'm not just saying that to be cocky, I really mean it. Before I started I knew that there was an open space to be conquered by the Smiths; I looked around in the music scene and just couldn't discover anything that could be of special worth to someone. I now know that I am sure about that. So now I want to make a lot of money out of it. That's the main goal for the near future. Not because I am a capitalist who wants to grab as much money as he can, but because I believe, that what I do, is worth money. I see it in so many brainless people around me, who deliver unmeaningful and worthless products and make heaps of money out of it. There is a lot of money to be made in this industry and I'd rather take it myself than let someone else take it. But an artist isn't supposed to say things like that, right? You're only supposed to talk about your creativity, not money."
This charming man...
"The cover of the single really means a lot to me. That person who is just lying there as the ultimate innocence... A man full of self-adoration, full of... To a certain extent I am in love with myself. Yes. But I know when it starts to get absurd, when I have to stop. When? That erm... I think... we all know that. When it just goes too far..."
With another vague smile he asks me if that frightens me. I say I don't know. Almost immediately after that, the doorbell rings. The gentlemen of NME, it's their turn for an interview. An important interview, a cover story, because the Smiths have been chosen "best new act of 1983" by the readers. Things are going well for the latest sensation from Manchester. So well, that Morrissey will be able to keep his second house in posh Kensington in London for a while longer. So well, that you really should listen to the Smiths' first LP. You be the judge whether Morrissey is worth your money or not. If the Smiths are the smiths of your dreams.
sistasheila
tjekket
Re: post your non-english mozarticles here(italian,french...-english translation need
first thanks a million jose for the translation of the dutch 1984 interview.above..
^
anenglish orginal of an german interview follows which thomas venker did with moz in 2006 for an german "indie" mag. (culled from the the audio recording thomas recorded and posted online.die englische version hat mehr text (fragen und antworten als die unten gepostete deutsche version
the english orginal of the interview has more Q+A(the german one which was printed in the into mag was cut short)
(Its posted in parts since its long.its the original text posted by thomas on the mag site and NOT a translation by me.!
Intro traf ihn am 17. Februar 2006 im Londoner Lancaster Hotel. Das ganze Interview im englischen Original.
Morrisseyin plain English:
The beauty of melancholy
Interviewer:Rome - the record was produced there and you actually relocated there. What was the reason?
Moz:Certainly the medieval aspects of the city, the wine, the architecture, style and beauty of the people, regardless of whether you are fond of men, women or anything else - everybody appears to be beautiful, even homeless people are actually quite beautiful and wear quite stylish clothes which is a bit mesmerizing to me ...In comparison with Los Angeles where I lived for many years and which is a place where style wasn't ever high on the agenda, Rome swept over me like a beautiful tidal wave. I was engulfed by it and I reckon it happens to many people. I used to be there [Rome] many times though I remained unaffected by the city - I simply had no interest - but that was in the days when I wasn't really interested in anything at all. Regardless of where I was being in Paris, Cologne - it meant nothing to me, I thought there was no country like England and I thought English people were superior to everybody else and other cultures were downright laughable. But thankfully that sensation passed over the years and I certainly don't feel that way these days.
In:You have left L.A. now. I read that you didn't like the omnipresence of the police there? Did you have problems with the police?
M:I did have a few encounters and the police there are always especially unpleasant - they don't have to be, but they are. Because they are above the law, they are beyond the law and people who are above and beyond the law are usually lawless so they do as they please.
I:So it was a combination of that omnipresence and of course the GOP under George W. Bush - which was a topic on your last album as well as in the interviews around the release - that made you mesmerizing?
M:Yes, it was. The problem you face with governments is that when you have someone on top who is particularly unintelligent and who is very thuggish, then it actually seeps down through to every other aspect of so called authority. The consequence is that everybody acts without intelligence and on the contrary with unnecessary aggression. That is unfortunately the present state of American society or at least how it is seen by the rest of the world. Bush isn't actually known for anything other than aggression.
I:In the opening album track "I Will See You In Far Off Places" you say: "Some people decide to save lives and some people decide to end lives" - is this meant as an objective statement based on facts or is there more to it?
M:It is specifically, certainly with regards to Iraq. Time brought us people like Bush and Blair who made decisions whereby they knew innocent Iraqis would definitely be killed and that's because both of them and not Saddam Hussein decided to.
I:The album title "Ringleader Of The Tormentors" - a disturber of peace - do you see yourself in that role?
M:I am totally in this position because I find that people respond to me in two ways, they're either very interested and very dedicated or they think I'm despicable. There is nothing in between and many people see me as some kind of tormentor. Simply by being I am a disruptor - and I accept that. It's not because I'm not trying to be self-applauding. But in every art form, I think if you push it forward other people will be disturbed. People who tend to say things that are awkward and what the masses don't really want to hear are not the most popular ones - but mass opinion is always wrong and is always bad. All artists in the music business who sell sixty million albums are always the dreadful ones. They should not to be mistaken with creative geniuses. You could call them the worst aspects of modern music who appeal to the mass although the masses are ridiculous.
I: Do you think there is a lack of people questioning authority?
M:I think there are many people who do question authority and there are many people who try to change things but it isn't popular and certainly this country is quite fascist, America is completely fascist. So anybody who is intolerable to the government is obviously silenced - and certainly pop music is very pro-establishment which is very frightening.
I:You have a long tradition of opposing politicians, like Thatcher and now Blair and Bush. So do you think - to strip it down - that art can change anything?
M:It's very difficult, I think it can make life bearable for many people and that is all you can ask for but I don't know about actually changing things because most people aren't interested in arts and therefore not interested in artists. Most people are not artistic and if you confess that you actually are, you have to explain yourself. It's a struggle sometimes.
I:Is Bono's way a possibility for you? Would you like to be "involved" more - or do you think the level you are at right now is enough?
M:It's enough and I'm surprised that I'm still here. You see, it's been twenty years since "The Queen Is Dead" and I'm still here and people want to speak to me and anticipate this album - it's a very unique position. But regarding pop-artists who are seen to be political - we only think they are political because they are photographed with politicians - I can't really think of anything political that has been said in music for many years.
I:The people are still interested because you still make these great records ...
M:I hope so!
I:In the lyrics of the album, you seem to have two main topics: one is you as a person and the other one is you in relation to life, death and god at the end of the spectrum. In "To Me You Are A Work Of Art" - these three aspects come together: you put life and hurt in relationship to politics and love is the result. In "I Just Want To See The Boy Happy" love, death and life have this triangle thing going on but what if love is not the thing saving everything ...?
M:Well, in the first place I think this is the position we all exist in. Regardless of what we do in life we are all aware of death, love, life and so forth, so it's not unique. It's simply my perspective on things it captures - people hear about it ...
I:It seems like love is always there and there's this idea that if you reach that point everything will be fine - but what happens if not?
M:Well, this is the promise that we are all given in life. It's an eventuality that you will pair off, be packed in content and all the angst that you previously felt will just diminish now that you got settled. I think this is what keeps people going all the time - the hope that they will have a very affectionate relationship which will mean more than anything else to them. If not, people would give up and they wouldn't bother. People don't remain on earth simply with the hope of eternally chopping or eternally swimming, people remain on earth in the hope that they will love and be loved.
I:On "You Are The Quarry" you have the song "I Have Forgiven Jesus". At that time you lived in America, a hyper-religious place. Did you get any feedback on that track?
M:Oh, no. I never had any objections to it, or whatso'ever, even if people assume that it's against Christ, which it is not.
I: I am surprised, because they are so tense about religion in the States.
MOZ:But such people are simply nervous because they haven't examined it properly, they haven't listened. Being in Rome is very strange, because as you probably know it, the Vatican's presence is extensive and furthermore political. They try to shove their way into everybody's lives and control it in every way. The presence is there and it's very strong but I don't think people live by it now, they rather please themselves, it just hovers at the back of their minds. The people in Rome are free and happy, I know ...
I:Is that why your new album sounds happier?
M:It could be. I think so, but that landscape is very effective.
I: Do you think that your relationship to society changes as you grow older?
M:It doesn't change. If you feel sized up as a child, then you always remain that way. It doesn't matter which difficulties you face later in life because growing up feeling carefree and being ridiculously pampered or living a life in poverty will result in the same perspective on life. I think the spirit within is put together in very formative years and there's nothing you can do about it. That's what you are, there you go, off you go and off you suffer ... I think we all need society and we all live within society but we have to rely upon society. If you are trying to say: "I don't need society" and then you happen to be in a car crash and actually need to be whisked to a hospital, otherwise your life will fall off, there is nobody who would say: I don't need society. We are society.
I:In an interview given in 1997 you said every song is very personal and is related to your own experience. Is that something you still subscribe to today?
M:Yes I would.
I:Back to politics and songwriting ... Now that Thatcher is going down finally, she doesn't look that well lately. Is that something you feel happy about?
first thanks a million jose for the translation of the dutch 1984 interview.above..
^ anenglish orginal of an german interview follows which thomas venker did with moz in 2006 for an german "indie" mag. (culled from the the audio recording thomas recorded and posted online.die englische version hat mehr text (fragen und antworten als die unten gepostete deutsche version
the english orginal of the interview has more Q+A(the german one which was printed in the into mag was cut short)
(Its posted in parts since its long.its the original text posted by thomas on the mag site and NOT a translation by me.!
Intro traf ihn am 17. Februar 2006 im Londoner Lancaster Hotel. Das ganze Interview im englischen Original.
Morrisseyin plain English:
The beauty of melancholy
Interviewer:Rome - the record was produced there and you actually relocated there. What was the reason?
Moz:Certainly the medieval aspects of the city, the wine, the architecture, style and beauty of the people, regardless of whether you are fond of men, women or anything else - everybody appears to be beautiful, even homeless people are actually quite beautiful and wear quite stylish clothes which is a bit mesmerizing to me ...In comparison with Los Angeles where I lived for many years and which is a place where style wasn't ever high on the agenda, Rome swept over me like a beautiful tidal wave. I was engulfed by it and I reckon it happens to many people. I used to be there [Rome] many times though I remained unaffected by the city - I simply had no interest - but that was in the days when I wasn't really interested in anything at all. Regardless of where I was being in Paris, Cologne - it meant nothing to me, I thought there was no country like England and I thought English people were superior to everybody else and other cultures were downright laughable. But thankfully that sensation passed over the years and I certainly don't feel that way these days.
In:You have left L.A. now. I read that you didn't like the omnipresence of the police there? Did you have problems with the police?
M:I did have a few encounters and the police there are always especially unpleasant - they don't have to be, but they are. Because they are above the law, they are beyond the law and people who are above and beyond the law are usually lawless so they do as they please.
I:So it was a combination of that omnipresence and of course the GOP under George W. Bush - which was a topic on your last album as well as in the interviews around the release - that made you mesmerizing?
M:Yes, it was. The problem you face with governments is that when you have someone on top who is particularly unintelligent and who is very thuggish, then it actually seeps down through to every other aspect of so called authority. The consequence is that everybody acts without intelligence and on the contrary with unnecessary aggression. That is unfortunately the present state of American society or at least how it is seen by the rest of the world. Bush isn't actually known for anything other than aggression.
I:In the opening album track "I Will See You In Far Off Places" you say: "Some people decide to save lives and some people decide to end lives" - is this meant as an objective statement based on facts or is there more to it?
M:It is specifically, certainly with regards to Iraq. Time brought us people like Bush and Blair who made decisions whereby they knew innocent Iraqis would definitely be killed and that's because both of them and not Saddam Hussein decided to.
I:The album title "Ringleader Of The Tormentors" - a disturber of peace - do you see yourself in that role?
M:I am totally in this position because I find that people respond to me in two ways, they're either very interested and very dedicated or they think I'm despicable. There is nothing in between and many people see me as some kind of tormentor. Simply by being I am a disruptor - and I accept that. It's not because I'm not trying to be self-applauding. But in every art form, I think if you push it forward other people will be disturbed. People who tend to say things that are awkward and what the masses don't really want to hear are not the most popular ones - but mass opinion is always wrong and is always bad. All artists in the music business who sell sixty million albums are always the dreadful ones. They should not to be mistaken with creative geniuses. You could call them the worst aspects of modern music who appeal to the mass although the masses are ridiculous.
I: Do you think there is a lack of people questioning authority?
M:I think there are many people who do question authority and there are many people who try to change things but it isn't popular and certainly this country is quite fascist, America is completely fascist. So anybody who is intolerable to the government is obviously silenced - and certainly pop music is very pro-establishment which is very frightening.
I:You have a long tradition of opposing politicians, like Thatcher and now Blair and Bush. So do you think - to strip it down - that art can change anything?
M:It's very difficult, I think it can make life bearable for many people and that is all you can ask for but I don't know about actually changing things because most people aren't interested in arts and therefore not interested in artists. Most people are not artistic and if you confess that you actually are, you have to explain yourself. It's a struggle sometimes.
I:Is Bono's way a possibility for you? Would you like to be "involved" more - or do you think the level you are at right now is enough?
M:It's enough and I'm surprised that I'm still here. You see, it's been twenty years since "The Queen Is Dead" and I'm still here and people want to speak to me and anticipate this album - it's a very unique position. But regarding pop-artists who are seen to be political - we only think they are political because they are photographed with politicians - I can't really think of anything political that has been said in music for many years.
I:The people are still interested because you still make these great records ...
M:I hope so!
I:In the lyrics of the album, you seem to have two main topics: one is you as a person and the other one is you in relation to life, death and god at the end of the spectrum. In "To Me You Are A Work Of Art" - these three aspects come together: you put life and hurt in relationship to politics and love is the result. In "I Just Want To See The Boy Happy" love, death and life have this triangle thing going on but what if love is not the thing saving everything ...?
M:Well, in the first place I think this is the position we all exist in. Regardless of what we do in life we are all aware of death, love, life and so forth, so it's not unique. It's simply my perspective on things it captures - people hear about it ...
I:It seems like love is always there and there's this idea that if you reach that point everything will be fine - but what happens if not?
M:Well, this is the promise that we are all given in life. It's an eventuality that you will pair off, be packed in content and all the angst that you previously felt will just diminish now that you got settled. I think this is what keeps people going all the time - the hope that they will have a very affectionate relationship which will mean more than anything else to them. If not, people would give up and they wouldn't bother. People don't remain on earth simply with the hope of eternally chopping or eternally swimming, people remain on earth in the hope that they will love and be loved.
I:On "You Are The Quarry" you have the song "I Have Forgiven Jesus". At that time you lived in America, a hyper-religious place. Did you get any feedback on that track?
M:Oh, no. I never had any objections to it, or whatso'ever, even if people assume that it's against Christ, which it is not.
I: I am surprised, because they are so tense about religion in the States.
MOZ:But such people are simply nervous because they haven't examined it properly, they haven't listened. Being in Rome is very strange, because as you probably know it, the Vatican's presence is extensive and furthermore political. They try to shove their way into everybody's lives and control it in every way. The presence is there and it's very strong but I don't think people live by it now, they rather please themselves, it just hovers at the back of their minds. The people in Rome are free and happy, I know ...
I:Is that why your new album sounds happier?
M:It could be. I think so, but that landscape is very effective.
I: Do you think that your relationship to society changes as you grow older?
M:It doesn't change. If you feel sized up as a child, then you always remain that way. It doesn't matter which difficulties you face later in life because growing up feeling carefree and being ridiculously pampered or living a life in poverty will result in the same perspective on life. I think the spirit within is put together in very formative years and there's nothing you can do about it. That's what you are, there you go, off you go and off you suffer ... I think we all need society and we all live within society but we have to rely upon society. If you are trying to say: "I don't need society" and then you happen to be in a car crash and actually need to be whisked to a hospital, otherwise your life will fall off, there is nobody who would say: I don't need society. We are society.
I:In an interview given in 1997 you said every song is very personal and is related to your own experience. Is that something you still subscribe to today?
M:Yes I would.
I:Back to politics and songwriting ... Now that Thatcher is going down finally, she doesn't look that well lately. Is that something you feel happy about?
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sistasheila
tjekket
Re: post your non-english mozarticles here(italian,french...-english translation need
M:No, I've never felt happy about a person in decay. I won't be throwing a party when she finally slips away because I think she must live with her demons and remember all the lives that she helped to destroy. I doubt she is considered a lovely figure. It was only during her term and during her time when she was relevant. Once she left Downing Street she was largely forgotten, which is quite frightening because this is the case with most politicians. Once they're in power they seem to have the world in the palm of their hands and as soon as they're out of power people can't even remember these so called leaders. Thatcher is a part of that. She was very destructive, people didn't like her but furthermore, she was very forceful and very commanding and that was fascinating [about her] ...
I
erhaps people would be better remembering the demons from the past, then they wouldn't choose the demons of their time.
M:I think people do. There were certainly many things within Thatcher's time worth remembering: all the boys who were killed in the so called Falkland's War and all the very young Argentineans.
I: A very stupid war.
M:... pathetic - but Thatcher was going home, she was all: "Yes, we got them, we've blown them up." And it was very depressing cause they were just seventeen year old boys and here was a grown up woman, the matchstick at her hand and killing so many young people which was really quite sickening ...
I:Some people have the desire to save lives, other have the desire to take lives.
M:That's it. And certainly Iraqis have died because Bush said: "Yes, let's kill them, let's end their lives, let's end the lives of those Iraqi babies." Blair as well. So many Iraqis would be alive if not for the decision of Blair and Bush. And to achieve exactly what?
I:You described Dan Matthews, the P.E.T.A. activist, as the ideal of an American hero.
M:Yes, because I happen to have an interest in animals, not humans which is simply because I think humans can look after themselves for the most part. But Dan has been extraordinary, he never stops. And he's all over the world, he spreads himself all over the world, he is arrested eight times a day, he is thrown into every conceivable prison cell and all he wants to do is save lives, absolutely extraordinary.
I: Do you have to fight to be a vegetarian, do you need strength for it?
M:It's basically a moral issue and a matter of basic intelligence. The case with a lot of people is that their brains are not fully formed and therefore don't work properly. They aren't able to make the right connections to understand the process of suffering - so I think it's a matter of intelligence and enlightenment.
I: Do you think it's okay to be militant to get people into vegetarianism or other animal protecting activities or life styles?
M:You must be militant because the opposing force is very very militant, the meat industry is very militant and very strong. If one dares to say anything against Mc Donald's or any of these enormous chains, their lawyers will get on top, they'll flatten you. I think the mean meat industry couldn't possibly be more aggressive so in response to that you have to be aggressive too.
I:You mentioned that the Bush administration is not pushing enough against the meat industry and the food industry in America is very bad.
M:It's very very bad. And so much infected meat is served to the schools throughout the country and many meat packing industries in America have been found to be quite literally poisoning people and even children, there is no law to cope with them. Recently, there has been so much said about animal cruelty that people should know by now and you can't really at the same time be intelligent and still continue to eat meat. You just can't, that's impossible and there is no intelligent sufficient argument in defence of killing animals, there isn't one. People don't need it, if anything, it's hurting you, it's making people very very ill, or making them fat, or suffer so it must come to an end. And with the extreme costs of epidemics - whether it's bird flu or so called mad cow disease what more does the public need to know about it? Most people are very simple and they want life to be simple. They want to rely upon their old habits so they tell you about all the great accomplishments they have done for the past seven hundred years and therefore it's very difficult to ask somebody to stop doing something they like and are used to. Even if it's for very good and for the good of another being, or for the sake of their health ... people don't like being told that they should stop doing something.
I:Your perspective on human nature is not the best one.
Moz:Yes.
I:So it's not like you hate all humans?
M:No, not at all. But I think the human race is very overrated.
I:We think that we are a masterpiece.
M:But I don't know why. I don't know why people feel this way. We think we are so terribly important even if we are all simply just waste matter. We can't go on, and we don't have any effect upon anything, yet we think our life is so important and our existence and the moment of our decay is so relevant to everything.
I:Is it something you think about, age and getting older?
M:You must think about it, because you can see the decay in yourself and you must think about this decay because it's fascinating and it's fascinating to feel your body change and slowing down and becoming slightly impossible. Suddenly you can see forty and suddenly you can see fifty and if you see fifty you're about to see sixty and if you don't think about that then you are slightly silly. So, decay is just there and waiting for all of us and off we go.
I: On the record you mentioned: "living longer than I had intended something must have gone right." I guess you did not expect to be around for as long as you have.
M:Honestly, I really didn't think I'd still be here at this time and at this age. I didn't think I'd be talking to people such as yourself about things like "Ringleader Of The Tormentors" - it's a mystery to me.
I:Because you would have chosen to kill yourself?
M:Yes. Because as a teenager I examined life and every option and I didn't want to have anything to do with it.
I:And what made you step back from doing it?
M:I couldn't. I found society as you call it, I found it to be boring and I found people to be largely disgusting. There was no place for me, not at all. And I couldn't possibly join the work force and I couldn't possibly feel great sympathy for the people in London and anybody else. Impossible.
I:Your opinion has changed now? On the new album you say: "No, not me - this cannot be dear god, take him, take them, take anyone, the still-born, the new-born, the infirm - take anyone from. Take people from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - just spare me."
M:Well, at the final moment, when it's time for you to go, it's just simply a question of kicking. No, it can't possibly be my turn - how can this creation be ended, what's the point of anything of this creation, all this knowledge, all this experience - how can I be wiped out, simply because it's my turn?
M:No, I've never felt happy about a person in decay. I won't be throwing a party when she finally slips away because I think she must live with her demons and remember all the lives that she helped to destroy. I doubt she is considered a lovely figure. It was only during her term and during her time when she was relevant. Once she left Downing Street she was largely forgotten, which is quite frightening because this is the case with most politicians. Once they're in power they seem to have the world in the palm of their hands and as soon as they're out of power people can't even remember these so called leaders. Thatcher is a part of that. She was very destructive, people didn't like her but furthermore, she was very forceful and very commanding and that was fascinating [about her] ...
I
erhaps people would be better remembering the demons from the past, then they wouldn't choose the demons of their time.M:I think people do. There were certainly many things within Thatcher's time worth remembering: all the boys who were killed in the so called Falkland's War and all the very young Argentineans.
I: A very stupid war.
M:... pathetic - but Thatcher was going home, she was all: "Yes, we got them, we've blown them up." And it was very depressing cause they were just seventeen year old boys and here was a grown up woman, the matchstick at her hand and killing so many young people which was really quite sickening ...
I:Some people have the desire to save lives, other have the desire to take lives.
M:That's it. And certainly Iraqis have died because Bush said: "Yes, let's kill them, let's end their lives, let's end the lives of those Iraqi babies." Blair as well. So many Iraqis would be alive if not for the decision of Blair and Bush. And to achieve exactly what?
I:You described Dan Matthews, the P.E.T.A. activist, as the ideal of an American hero.
M:Yes, because I happen to have an interest in animals, not humans which is simply because I think humans can look after themselves for the most part. But Dan has been extraordinary, he never stops. And he's all over the world, he spreads himself all over the world, he is arrested eight times a day, he is thrown into every conceivable prison cell and all he wants to do is save lives, absolutely extraordinary.
I: Do you have to fight to be a vegetarian, do you need strength for it?
M:It's basically a moral issue and a matter of basic intelligence. The case with a lot of people is that their brains are not fully formed and therefore don't work properly. They aren't able to make the right connections to understand the process of suffering - so I think it's a matter of intelligence and enlightenment.
I: Do you think it's okay to be militant to get people into vegetarianism or other animal protecting activities or life styles?
M:You must be militant because the opposing force is very very militant, the meat industry is very militant and very strong. If one dares to say anything against Mc Donald's or any of these enormous chains, their lawyers will get on top, they'll flatten you. I think the mean meat industry couldn't possibly be more aggressive so in response to that you have to be aggressive too.
I:You mentioned that the Bush administration is not pushing enough against the meat industry and the food industry in America is very bad.
M:It's very very bad. And so much infected meat is served to the schools throughout the country and many meat packing industries in America have been found to be quite literally poisoning people and even children, there is no law to cope with them. Recently, there has been so much said about animal cruelty that people should know by now and you can't really at the same time be intelligent and still continue to eat meat. You just can't, that's impossible and there is no intelligent sufficient argument in defence of killing animals, there isn't one. People don't need it, if anything, it's hurting you, it's making people very very ill, or making them fat, or suffer so it must come to an end. And with the extreme costs of epidemics - whether it's bird flu or so called mad cow disease what more does the public need to know about it? Most people are very simple and they want life to be simple. They want to rely upon their old habits so they tell you about all the great accomplishments they have done for the past seven hundred years and therefore it's very difficult to ask somebody to stop doing something they like and are used to. Even if it's for very good and for the good of another being, or for the sake of their health ... people don't like being told that they should stop doing something.
I:Your perspective on human nature is not the best one.
Moz:Yes.
I:So it's not like you hate all humans?
M:No, not at all. But I think the human race is very overrated.
I:We think that we are a masterpiece.
M:But I don't know why. I don't know why people feel this way. We think we are so terribly important even if we are all simply just waste matter. We can't go on, and we don't have any effect upon anything, yet we think our life is so important and our existence and the moment of our decay is so relevant to everything.
I:Is it something you think about, age and getting older?
M:You must think about it, because you can see the decay in yourself and you must think about this decay because it's fascinating and it's fascinating to feel your body change and slowing down and becoming slightly impossible. Suddenly you can see forty and suddenly you can see fifty and if you see fifty you're about to see sixty and if you don't think about that then you are slightly silly. So, decay is just there and waiting for all of us and off we go.
I: On the record you mentioned: "living longer than I had intended something must have gone right." I guess you did not expect to be around for as long as you have.
M:Honestly, I really didn't think I'd still be here at this time and at this age. I didn't think I'd be talking to people such as yourself about things like "Ringleader Of The Tormentors" - it's a mystery to me.
I:Because you would have chosen to kill yourself?
M:Yes. Because as a teenager I examined life and every option and I didn't want to have anything to do with it.
I:And what made you step back from doing it?
M:I couldn't. I found society as you call it, I found it to be boring and I found people to be largely disgusting. There was no place for me, not at all. And I couldn't possibly join the work force and I couldn't possibly feel great sympathy for the people in London and anybody else. Impossible.
I:Your opinion has changed now? On the new album you say: "No, not me - this cannot be dear god, take him, take them, take anyone, the still-born, the new-born, the infirm - take anyone from. Take people from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - just spare me."
M:Well, at the final moment, when it's time for you to go, it's just simply a question of kicking. No, it can't possibly be my turn - how can this creation be ended, what's the point of anything of this creation, all this knowledge, all this experience - how can I be wiped out, simply because it's my turn?
Last edited:
sistasheila
tjekket
Re: post your non-english mozarticles here(italian,french...-english translation need
I: Is thinking about food and stuff like that also something that has to do with age?
M:Yes, because now people read ingredients. And they didn't read ingredients in the past. People weren't interested; they just expected that everything was safe. And now we know it isn't, and now we know that virtually everything is poisoned. So you have to be very careful, because something will get you. Now the option is thinkable that it can finish you off. But it's very encouraging that people suddenly care about food, and people suddenly seem to have standards. Because everything is toxic and it's fascinating how little you can actually care about just throwing something into your body.
I: In the first track on the album, "I Will See You In Far Off Places", you give the impression that you believe in afterlife?
M:That's another phenomenon regardless of what we believe in, we all seem to feel that we all will be together someday in the future and we all have that feeling, why do we have that?
I: It's more like: "I don't know why but it's there ..."
M:Yes.
I: You worked with Tony Visconti, I hear he was asked at short notice. How did you come up with the idea to get him so spontaneously and how was it?
M:It was quite unbelievable the way it felt working together and how it turned out so well. He was instantly on the plane from the Bronx to North Central Rome, without any hesitation.
I:... Dedication!
M:Yeah, we were already there and rehearsing/piecing the songs together but we were actually beginning to struggle slightly so we felt the need for a producer. We were so lucky that he was ready to spring to action and as soon as he arrived he had the wealth of experience and knowledge. He is really the kind of person that makes you fully aware of the function of a real working producer. Many people tell me: "Producers, what do they do?" Because it's a grey area, it's a mysterious area. But you present your song and the producer hopefully takes it slightly further and creates certain textures and layers, and overall just enhances your song. The result and what you have actually achieved can surprise you.
I: Do you think the complexities and ambition of songs like "Life Is A Pigsty" and "Dear God, Please Help Me" are the result of two people working together?
M:Yes. And he was very very attentive for 24 hours of each day. That's also a crucial factor, when you make music, you are constantly there. Some people think that three hours a day might be sufficient but when you are there for fifteen hours solid, working, suddenly your body goes in a slight overdrive and it's like you've been awake for too long. You get light headed and you almost hallucinate but that's what happens if you are locked into a studio for that long and when you happen to be pushing a song and it's moving in a beautiful way. Tony was like that and it was very enlightening. It's just those small little inflections and small little things that made a big impact.
I: Who came up with the idea for the female chorus?
M:They were actually small Italian children, all aged about seven or eight. We brought them into the studio and they couldn't speak English. I gave them the lines to sing ...
I: It's a good effect.
M:Yes, very effective.
I: There's a lot of sceptical quotes from you regarding the press, it seems like it's mostly the UK press.
M:Well in England it is very difficult for me, because if you have bad reviews - and I have many bad reviews, not to say very personal and very attacking - there is generally a reason for it and the reason is usually tied to certain magazines. That means if you don't grant them interviews they will take revenge and if you don't comply with them they will take revenge too. I have a long history of this in England because I don't fraternize with music journalists and I don't give them my phone number and I don't feel the need to meet them at the pub. They become very affronted by that because they feel that they have worked their way into the industry of journalism and once they are established then they should command your attention and you need them so therefore when I refuse ...
I:Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips recently mentioned that a lot of music journalists are more arrogant than pop-stars.
M:Yes, I understand that. I meet many journalists who are quite meek and quite shy but when they go to their homes and offices and write their bits they become very spiteful. The result turns out tainted with a very aggressive and very dictatorial tone which doesn't remotely reflect the meeting you just had with them when they were sort of slumped in their chair with a huge hump and simply petrified. Unfortunately it's just the power of the written word and it goes into many people's heads and many journalists or writers are indeed insignificant people in society. It's only through their writings they are able to become Hercules.
I: But in general that's a bad thing about mankind that people are not straightforward. If you have something to say, say it. But if you twist and turn it afterwards that's a quite weak way to handle things.
M:Yes.
I: You covered a New York Dolls track on your single, I guess it was your idea as I happen to know you're a big fan. Do you also have a picture in your head when you sing "who is the one killing you" [the track is called "You Killed Me"]?
M:Yes, I do.
I: But you don't want to talk about it.
M:The more that is revealed the less helpful it is ...
I:Okay, but what do you think about the New York Dolls reunion after over thirty years and two albums - are you fan enough or are you sceptical?
M:Well it's not farfetched to be sceptical and thirty years is a long time. People do age but when they played in London two years ago, it was extraordinary. Furthermore, they played two nights at the royal festival hall and a few other festivals. They were fantastic, very powerful and David Johansen's skills are very much in control so it's one of the few reformations that has worked.
I:Are they a band you want to invite for some of the concerts on your tour perhaps?
M:Yes.
I:And you were also part of the fan club, head of the fan club in a way ...
M:I never was, this was always printed that I was the president of the fan club - absolutely rubbish! There never was a fan club!
I:But you were a big fan?
M:Ridiculous, yes.
I: Do you feel that you understand your fans better due to your passion, compared to a musician who never felt such a deep love for a certain artist?
M:Yes, because I know how important it is. And I know how controlling and engulfing it can be. That was my entire life without exception, it wasn't a happy experience, music was everything, absolutely stirring.
I:That's a good thing about you and in a way that's an ambition we all have - to keep that feeling for music and keep it going even as we age ...
M:It doesn't matter how interested you are in music, because it is a certain sensation that you can't control and it engulfs you and it takes you when you don't expect it so you can say to yourself: Well I intend to remain with this youthful spirit and to love all music and always be "affected" but you can't just make up your mind on this. It happens when don't realize it ...
I:How close do you allow fans to be with you?
M:I don't think it is right to be too close, I'm not very nice.
Interviewer: I disagree, you don't seem to be an aggressive guy ...
Moz: Well, just give me time ...
I:About Morricone you said: "It was nice in the studio but we definitely would not go out for darts together."
M:That's correct. He is immersed and he is a legend and he has every right to be and he is not looking for friends.
I:You talked honestly about record label policy before this album came out. You mentioned that nothing with Sanctuary was yet fixed, but you also blamed your old label for not making "Vauxhall And I" as successful as it could have been. Was that why you didn't release any new records for seven years?
M:Yes it was. I was trying to tread very careful and I didn't want to be with a label that didn't really want me because I've experienced that with EMI in England and Sire in America. And it's very heartbreaking to be with a label where you make an album and it's a play back of your album and nobody turns up. But when I made "You Are The Quarry" with Sanctuary a hundred people came to listen and I never experienced that before. I never experienced people coming in and wanting to know what you've been building. I found that to be extraordinary.
I:You changed a lot of lives with your music. But you don't like so many contemporary tunes. Is this a way of being coquettish or is it that you genuinely don't see one single artist you are interested in publishing something worthwhile during the last two decades? Even the ones who are obviously inspired by your work?
M:Mostly no. I'm very critical. And all I see is what's constantly on the floors and this is why I don't want to be a part of the pop community. I simply don't want to know all those people. I don't want to know all those people who make dreadful music and end up smiling with them in photographs and some are really silly. But for the most part I think the music is just dreadful but has the capacity to be unspeakably beautiful - but it's an industry and it's churned out ...
I: Is thinking about food and stuff like that also something that has to do with age?
M:Yes, because now people read ingredients. And they didn't read ingredients in the past. People weren't interested; they just expected that everything was safe. And now we know it isn't, and now we know that virtually everything is poisoned. So you have to be very careful, because something will get you. Now the option is thinkable that it can finish you off. But it's very encouraging that people suddenly care about food, and people suddenly seem to have standards. Because everything is toxic and it's fascinating how little you can actually care about just throwing something into your body.
I: In the first track on the album, "I Will See You In Far Off Places", you give the impression that you believe in afterlife?
M:That's another phenomenon regardless of what we believe in, we all seem to feel that we all will be together someday in the future and we all have that feeling, why do we have that?
I: It's more like: "I don't know why but it's there ..."
M:Yes.
I: You worked with Tony Visconti, I hear he was asked at short notice. How did you come up with the idea to get him so spontaneously and how was it?
M:It was quite unbelievable the way it felt working together and how it turned out so well. He was instantly on the plane from the Bronx to North Central Rome, without any hesitation.
I:... Dedication!
M:Yeah, we were already there and rehearsing/piecing the songs together but we were actually beginning to struggle slightly so we felt the need for a producer. We were so lucky that he was ready to spring to action and as soon as he arrived he had the wealth of experience and knowledge. He is really the kind of person that makes you fully aware of the function of a real working producer. Many people tell me: "Producers, what do they do?" Because it's a grey area, it's a mysterious area. But you present your song and the producer hopefully takes it slightly further and creates certain textures and layers, and overall just enhances your song. The result and what you have actually achieved can surprise you.
I: Do you think the complexities and ambition of songs like "Life Is A Pigsty" and "Dear God, Please Help Me" are the result of two people working together?
M:Yes. And he was very very attentive for 24 hours of each day. That's also a crucial factor, when you make music, you are constantly there. Some people think that three hours a day might be sufficient but when you are there for fifteen hours solid, working, suddenly your body goes in a slight overdrive and it's like you've been awake for too long. You get light headed and you almost hallucinate but that's what happens if you are locked into a studio for that long and when you happen to be pushing a song and it's moving in a beautiful way. Tony was like that and it was very enlightening. It's just those small little inflections and small little things that made a big impact.
I: Who came up with the idea for the female chorus?
M:They were actually small Italian children, all aged about seven or eight. We brought them into the studio and they couldn't speak English. I gave them the lines to sing ...
I: It's a good effect.
M:Yes, very effective.
I: There's a lot of sceptical quotes from you regarding the press, it seems like it's mostly the UK press.
M:Well in England it is very difficult for me, because if you have bad reviews - and I have many bad reviews, not to say very personal and very attacking - there is generally a reason for it and the reason is usually tied to certain magazines. That means if you don't grant them interviews they will take revenge and if you don't comply with them they will take revenge too. I have a long history of this in England because I don't fraternize with music journalists and I don't give them my phone number and I don't feel the need to meet them at the pub. They become very affronted by that because they feel that they have worked their way into the industry of journalism and once they are established then they should command your attention and you need them so therefore when I refuse ...
I:Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips recently mentioned that a lot of music journalists are more arrogant than pop-stars.
M:Yes, I understand that. I meet many journalists who are quite meek and quite shy but when they go to their homes and offices and write their bits they become very spiteful. The result turns out tainted with a very aggressive and very dictatorial tone which doesn't remotely reflect the meeting you just had with them when they were sort of slumped in their chair with a huge hump and simply petrified. Unfortunately it's just the power of the written word and it goes into many people's heads and many journalists or writers are indeed insignificant people in society. It's only through their writings they are able to become Hercules.
I: But in general that's a bad thing about mankind that people are not straightforward. If you have something to say, say it. But if you twist and turn it afterwards that's a quite weak way to handle things.
M:Yes.
I: You covered a New York Dolls track on your single, I guess it was your idea as I happen to know you're a big fan. Do you also have a picture in your head when you sing "who is the one killing you" [the track is called "You Killed Me"]?
M:Yes, I do.
I: But you don't want to talk about it.
M:The more that is revealed the less helpful it is ...
I:Okay, but what do you think about the New York Dolls reunion after over thirty years and two albums - are you fan enough or are you sceptical?
M:Well it's not farfetched to be sceptical and thirty years is a long time. People do age but when they played in London two years ago, it was extraordinary. Furthermore, they played two nights at the royal festival hall and a few other festivals. They were fantastic, very powerful and David Johansen's skills are very much in control so it's one of the few reformations that has worked.
I:Are they a band you want to invite for some of the concerts on your tour perhaps?
M:Yes.
I:And you were also part of the fan club, head of the fan club in a way ...
M:I never was, this was always printed that I was the president of the fan club - absolutely rubbish! There never was a fan club!
I:But you were a big fan?
M:Ridiculous, yes.
I: Do you feel that you understand your fans better due to your passion, compared to a musician who never felt such a deep love for a certain artist?
M:Yes, because I know how important it is. And I know how controlling and engulfing it can be. That was my entire life without exception, it wasn't a happy experience, music was everything, absolutely stirring.
I:That's a good thing about you and in a way that's an ambition we all have - to keep that feeling for music and keep it going even as we age ...
M:It doesn't matter how interested you are in music, because it is a certain sensation that you can't control and it engulfs you and it takes you when you don't expect it so you can say to yourself: Well I intend to remain with this youthful spirit and to love all music and always be "affected" but you can't just make up your mind on this. It happens when don't realize it ...
I:How close do you allow fans to be with you?
M:I don't think it is right to be too close, I'm not very nice.
Interviewer: I disagree, you don't seem to be an aggressive guy ...
Moz: Well, just give me time ...
I:About Morricone you said: "It was nice in the studio but we definitely would not go out for darts together."
M:That's correct. He is immersed and he is a legend and he has every right to be and he is not looking for friends.
I:You talked honestly about record label policy before this album came out. You mentioned that nothing with Sanctuary was yet fixed, but you also blamed your old label for not making "Vauxhall And I" as successful as it could have been. Was that why you didn't release any new records for seven years?
M:Yes it was. I was trying to tread very careful and I didn't want to be with a label that didn't really want me because I've experienced that with EMI in England and Sire in America. And it's very heartbreaking to be with a label where you make an album and it's a play back of your album and nobody turns up. But when I made "You Are The Quarry" with Sanctuary a hundred people came to listen and I never experienced that before. I never experienced people coming in and wanting to know what you've been building. I found that to be extraordinary.
I:You changed a lot of lives with your music. But you don't like so many contemporary tunes. Is this a way of being coquettish or is it that you genuinely don't see one single artist you are interested in publishing something worthwhile during the last two decades? Even the ones who are obviously inspired by your work?
M:Mostly no. I'm very critical. And all I see is what's constantly on the floors and this is why I don't want to be a part of the pop community. I simply don't want to know all those people. I don't want to know all those people who make dreadful music and end up smiling with them in photographs and some are really silly. But for the most part I think the music is just dreadful but has the capacity to be unspeakably beautiful - but it's an industry and it's churned out ...
Last edited:
sistasheila
tjekket
Re: post your non-english mozarticles here(italian,french...-english translation need
I: Do you listen to a lot?
M:I hear everything. But I don't like it. And it's always the really dreadful, horrible groups who become enormous. It's never the really good groups, always the dreadful groups.
I. But your last album ["You Are The Quarry"] for example is a good one that made it through - it's not that everything is shit out there ...
Moz:That's true.
I: And the people around you in the band, your musicians, they must come up sometimes with bands they like, or are they all on your side?
M:They all are really more or less the same. The circle of friends I have are bored by music they all say: everything is just ... And it's true. As a matter of fact, it's true.
I: During the seven years in which you didn't record, did you think about perhaps writing a book or doing something else artistic wise?
M:Yes I did. Books. But I think there will be a time. I don't want to do too many things at the same time. I think that's quite confusing ...
I: In the big picture you are very productive; it's only this span of seven years, besides that it's a career of many records and productivity.
M:Yes it is.
I: "At Last I Am Born", the last song on the album, is that something you could have imagined making ten years ago as a finale of an album.
Moz:I couldn't have imagined it a year ago. Really. But there's one thing about birth it's just engulfing, really.
I: The recordings resulted in so many good tracks that even your producer said: "It's a shame, we should have done a double album." Will we have a lot of b-sides where we get these songs or is the next album already in your mind?
M:No, it's the next b-sides. Because, as you know it, these days you have to supply three b-sides for every a-side. By the end of the year we will release four singles - so by that we will have almost given another album consisting of b-sides.
I: Is it always so easy to pick the right a-side and the b-side, because to me you have always been an album artist so it's a difficult thing to say ...
M:You just have to follow your nerves.
I: When you were singing: "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out", lately you said: "time will change everything." Is it something you believe in?
M: I said that live? I didn't say that, I said something else, but whatever I said, I can't remember ...
end.
hier ist das deutshce orignal in text ..aber wie gesagt der englische text form enthält mehr text.i.e. fragen und antworten die im magazin fehlen , vermutlich aus platzmangel
intro randbemerkungen: spex mag , tobias thomas der das 50 ways to find your lover artikel in der spex 06 geschrieben hat und visconti
I: Do you listen to a lot?
M:I hear everything. But I don't like it. And it's always the really dreadful, horrible groups who become enormous. It's never the really good groups, always the dreadful groups.
I. But your last album ["You Are The Quarry"] for example is a good one that made it through - it's not that everything is shit out there ...
Moz:That's true.
I: And the people around you in the band, your musicians, they must come up sometimes with bands they like, or are they all on your side?
M:They all are really more or less the same. The circle of friends I have are bored by music they all say: everything is just ... And it's true. As a matter of fact, it's true.
I: During the seven years in which you didn't record, did you think about perhaps writing a book or doing something else artistic wise?
M:Yes I did. Books. But I think there will be a time. I don't want to do too many things at the same time. I think that's quite confusing ...
I: In the big picture you are very productive; it's only this span of seven years, besides that it's a career of many records and productivity.
M:Yes it is.
I: "At Last I Am Born", the last song on the album, is that something you could have imagined making ten years ago as a finale of an album.
Moz:I couldn't have imagined it a year ago. Really. But there's one thing about birth it's just engulfing, really.
I: The recordings resulted in so many good tracks that even your producer said: "It's a shame, we should have done a double album." Will we have a lot of b-sides where we get these songs or is the next album already in your mind?
M:No, it's the next b-sides. Because, as you know it, these days you have to supply three b-sides for every a-side. By the end of the year we will release four singles - so by that we will have almost given another album consisting of b-sides.
I: Is it always so easy to pick the right a-side and the b-side, because to me you have always been an album artist so it's a difficult thing to say ...
M:You just have to follow your nerves.
I: When you were singing: "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out", lately you said: "time will change everything." Is it something you believe in?
M: I said that live? I didn't say that, I said something else, but whatever I said, I can't remember ...
end.
hier ist das deutshce orignal in text ..aber wie gesagt der englische text form enthält mehr text.i.e. fragen und antworten die im magazin fehlen , vermutlich aus platzmangel
intro randbemerkungen: spex mag , tobias thomas der das 50 ways to find your lover artikel in der spex 06 geschrieben hat und visconti
Last edited:
Jose
No way...
Re: post your non-english mozarticles here(italian,french...-english translation need
Sistasheila asked me to translate an interview from Dutch music magazine "Oor", published in May 1985.
Here it is (thank goodness it was slow day at work today, spent all day translating). Enjoy!
First of all here are the scans of the interview and cover etc.
Summary on page 3:
The average English band has become weak tea. The format overrules content while outsiders are hiding in air-raid shelters, far from the Music Boxes and Sky Channels. Waiting for better times. Only that remarkable quartet of lanky Morrissey hasn’t given up the fight just yet. Not stained by glamour, not radiating sex, not seen the sun, doesn’t know any girls but gets 400 fanletters a day, and shirts are being ripped off his body during concerts. Guess how that’s possible. Marc Mijlemans takes a look at the curious world of the Smiths. Cover photo is by Anton Corbijn.
And the interview:
The Scruff of the Neck of The Smiths
Sky Channel and Music Box English poor popmusic into our living rooms. Does that make us happy? No, it doesn’t! Alright, certain troop movements under command by Australian Jim “Foetus” Thirlwell are staying underground and therefore invisible, but the quantity of “accessible” bands is ever weaker getting tea and can only be photographed with soft focus. The only exception is this quartet, led by lanky Morrissey who, balancing on the thin line between insanity and independent status, is leading his quartet on a triumphal procession from concert venue to concert venue. Marc Mijlemans came along with them.
Slowly the train leaves Sheffield, where Leeds-supporters and mounted police had taken over the city. I feel like someone who has just escaped a Turkish prison. Every yard from this industrial town, where the rain never seems to stop, where at night young people wander about with clubs (sticks) and knives and despair, is a yard closer to happiness. Sheffield is terminus, surrounded by mine-mountains, like dead dinosaurs, condemned to a ghetto of hopelessness. It is a city where all the windows have been smashed and where every brick is rotting away, a grave above the ground, a town without pity.
Fate had decided that there, and nowhere else, I was to meet Morrissey of the Smiths. The Smiths had woken up the City Hall from its lethargy with a hysterically received gig, where the extraordinary LP Meat Is Murder got all the honours it deserves. Beautiful, sweltering versions also of Still Ill, Reel Around The Fountain, Handsome Devil and William – after six encores the crowd was still begging for more. For more Morrissey, who was moving like a creature somewhere between Stan Laurel and Jim Morrison. Two shirts were ripped off his body. He gets about 400 fanletters a day. He deserves every single one of them. Because the Smiths have already made history: their debut The Smiths was surprising and captivating, the compilation Hatful of Hollow amazing, the more recent Meat Is Murder overwhelming and their long string of singles brilliant. That’s why I wanted to talk to Morrissey, the most hated, the most loved and most mocked resident of Manchester. But his sessions have become rare. “My confidence has been betrayed too often”, he says. “I no longer wish to be crucified by people from the press.” Not a lot is known about Morrissey. His past: he tried managing a band for a while, for a short time he wrote record reviews, was at home most of the time – no job and got his view of the world from immensely depressing films like Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. He worships Oscar Wilde and James Dean. It is Saturday morning, 10 o’clock and I’m in Morrissey’s hotel room. He’s on the bed, the tv is on with the sound turned off. He is not crazy, just very polite and a little shy. And much wittier that I had expected. It is hot in the room, the window is jammed. Very exclusive: a peek into the curious world of The Smiths.
Sistasheila asked me to translate an interview from Dutch music magazine "Oor", published in May 1985.
Here it is (thank goodness it was slow day at work today, spent all day translating). Enjoy!
First of all here are the scans of the interview and cover etc.
Summary on page 3:
The average English band has become weak tea. The format overrules content while outsiders are hiding in air-raid shelters, far from the Music Boxes and Sky Channels. Waiting for better times. Only that remarkable quartet of lanky Morrissey hasn’t given up the fight just yet. Not stained by glamour, not radiating sex, not seen the sun, doesn’t know any girls but gets 400 fanletters a day, and shirts are being ripped off his body during concerts. Guess how that’s possible. Marc Mijlemans takes a look at the curious world of the Smiths. Cover photo is by Anton Corbijn.
And the interview:
The Scruff of the Neck of The Smiths
Sky Channel and Music Box English poor popmusic into our living rooms. Does that make us happy? No, it doesn’t! Alright, certain troop movements under command by Australian Jim “Foetus” Thirlwell are staying underground and therefore invisible, but the quantity of “accessible” bands is ever weaker getting tea and can only be photographed with soft focus. The only exception is this quartet, led by lanky Morrissey who, balancing on the thin line between insanity and independent status, is leading his quartet on a triumphal procession from concert venue to concert venue. Marc Mijlemans came along with them.
Slowly the train leaves Sheffield, where Leeds-supporters and mounted police had taken over the city. I feel like someone who has just escaped a Turkish prison. Every yard from this industrial town, where the rain never seems to stop, where at night young people wander about with clubs (sticks) and knives and despair, is a yard closer to happiness. Sheffield is terminus, surrounded by mine-mountains, like dead dinosaurs, condemned to a ghetto of hopelessness. It is a city where all the windows have been smashed and where every brick is rotting away, a grave above the ground, a town without pity.
Fate had decided that there, and nowhere else, I was to meet Morrissey of the Smiths. The Smiths had woken up the City Hall from its lethargy with a hysterically received gig, where the extraordinary LP Meat Is Murder got all the honours it deserves. Beautiful, sweltering versions also of Still Ill, Reel Around The Fountain, Handsome Devil and William – after six encores the crowd was still begging for more. For more Morrissey, who was moving like a creature somewhere between Stan Laurel and Jim Morrison. Two shirts were ripped off his body. He gets about 400 fanletters a day. He deserves every single one of them. Because the Smiths have already made history: their debut The Smiths was surprising and captivating, the compilation Hatful of Hollow amazing, the more recent Meat Is Murder overwhelming and their long string of singles brilliant. That’s why I wanted to talk to Morrissey, the most hated, the most loved and most mocked resident of Manchester. But his sessions have become rare. “My confidence has been betrayed too often”, he says. “I no longer wish to be crucified by people from the press.” Not a lot is known about Morrissey. His past: he tried managing a band for a while, for a short time he wrote record reviews, was at home most of the time – no job and got his view of the world from immensely depressing films like Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. He worships Oscar Wilde and James Dean. It is Saturday morning, 10 o’clock and I’m in Morrissey’s hotel room. He’s on the bed, the tv is on with the sound turned off. He is not crazy, just very polite and a little shy. And much wittier that I had expected. It is hot in the room, the window is jammed. Very exclusive: a peek into the curious world of The Smiths.
Last edited:
Jose
No way...
Re: post your non-english mozarticles here(italian,french...-english translation need
(part 2)
“I saw you yesterday on that stage and I had the impression that you had fear in your eyes. Hadn’t you rather stayed in your room?”
“Yes and no. By nature I am a loner and introverted. I don’t want people around. But on the other hand I want to force people to listen, I want to take them by the scruff of the neck and say: this is The Smiths, surrender. Well, there is a price I have to pay for that, and that price is performing. I feel a mixture of fear and ecstasy when I’m on stage. It’s a unique sensation that only performers know. It’s like being on fire, a cleansing but painful fire inside. And the flames have to spread to the audience. If that doesn’t happen, I die a little, I fail. But the most important thing about performing is convincing people that the Smiths are not a pop group.”
“What is the difference then? And why is it so important?”
“Well, I am a man of words. Not a star, not a hero, not a stallion. I’m not stained with glamour, that’s a sin that I don’t know. I don’t radiate sex, don't see the sun, don’t know any girls. I’m just a little man who passes on words. My lifestyle doesn’t matter. I don’t have anything against pop groups – there are good ones too – but I don’t feel a connection with them. So I cringe and hide away in a corner when I’m treated like a pop star. Sometimes it feels like I’m on the run. And then they think that I’m arrogant. That’s what I hear about myself: the great poet Morrissey wishes not to hang out with people. People should understand that all I have to offer are my words.”
“But you do notice that people worship you, that the fans are begging to touch you. That means, there is glamour, something appeals to them.” Morrissey smiles. “Yes, it is very unfortunate. I didn’t mean it to happen this way. The imagination of the people is running wild so quickly. What is so exciting about a writer who sings songs? I lead a torn life at the moment. I don’t know how much longer I can take it. I’ve always enjoyed the silence and peace of my room. And now I spend my nights in a maddening noise, amidst stirred up young people who for some bizarre reason are longing for me, and pull my trouser legs. An hour later I’m back in my silent, deserted hotel room. Very curious and a bit worrying. Who are all these people who welcome me as a hero? I never get a chance to meet them. That’s why it all seems so surrealistic. But it is quite an honour to be appreciated. That people find an outlet for their feelings at a Smiths-gig, that’s what makes this band so unique. And that urges me to submit to these strange situations from time to time. I try to come to terms with this circus but I’m just not very good at it.”
“Does the pressure that you are under influence your writing?”
“Oh, definitely.”
“I haven’t noticed that yet though.”
“Well, let me tell you this: hotel rooms and groupies don’t inspire me. I’m not that superficial and transparent. But this new, remarkable life does leave its marks on my work. I don’t occupy myself with sex, don’t use drugs and don’t feel at all connected with rock & roll. But maybe my loneliness has intensified, my depression might be even deeper now. And that’s reflected in the songs. Before the Smiths I had no job, I was lonely and desperate. Now I’m successful, lonely and desperate (laughs). So there goes another illusion. The hope is gone, if it was ever there to begin with. Money means nothing to me. It can’t solve my problems.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m not supposed to start crying now, am I?”
“I’m the last person to deny someone their depression, but what are you complaining about?”
“God, this doesn’t at all fit into the way of thinking of this industry! Success is the golden calf that needs to be worshipped. I’m being accused of not being happy because in this industry it is a blasphemy if you’re not running around cheering when you sell more than a thousand records. I’m the unthankful one and therefore unworthy. I’m a fool. But I’ll say it again: the only thing that money can solve, is poverty. And that has never been a problem for me.”
“So it wasn’t hard being unemployed?”
“At the time I thought being unemployed would make things worse. But now I’m not so sure anymore. I still suffer. A hotel room is as gloomy as a boys room. Nothing has changed, I’m afraid. I’m all tangled up and I can’t untangle myself. But let’s not play psychiatrist, shall we?”
“Fine by me. So let’s change from human being to writer. Do you often write brilliant lyrics on stationary, on beer coasters, in beautiful gold lined handwriting?”
“I write in messy little notebooks. Or rather, I don’t exactly write, I write down ideas. Everything, useful or worthless, that comes to mind. That’s a habit I had long before the Smiths. I’m a scribbler. Then, when the time has come to complete Johnny’s music with lyrics, I’ll sit behind my typewriter and combine some of my ideas from my notebook until a certain logic appears. The typewriter creates a kind of clarity, it is the perfect tool to create order from the chaos. Every word just falls into place. I can hardly call it work, it just happens. I can no longer write with a ball pen. That’s become physically impossible for me. And before I had this beautiful, clear handwriting. It is a neurosis that has developed ever since the Smiths began. Do you think that means something?“
(part 2)
“I saw you yesterday on that stage and I had the impression that you had fear in your eyes. Hadn’t you rather stayed in your room?”
“Yes and no. By nature I am a loner and introverted. I don’t want people around. But on the other hand I want to force people to listen, I want to take them by the scruff of the neck and say: this is The Smiths, surrender. Well, there is a price I have to pay for that, and that price is performing. I feel a mixture of fear and ecstasy when I’m on stage. It’s a unique sensation that only performers know. It’s like being on fire, a cleansing but painful fire inside. And the flames have to spread to the audience. If that doesn’t happen, I die a little, I fail. But the most important thing about performing is convincing people that the Smiths are not a pop group.”
“What is the difference then? And why is it so important?”
“Well, I am a man of words. Not a star, not a hero, not a stallion. I’m not stained with glamour, that’s a sin that I don’t know. I don’t radiate sex, don't see the sun, don’t know any girls. I’m just a little man who passes on words. My lifestyle doesn’t matter. I don’t have anything against pop groups – there are good ones too – but I don’t feel a connection with them. So I cringe and hide away in a corner when I’m treated like a pop star. Sometimes it feels like I’m on the run. And then they think that I’m arrogant. That’s what I hear about myself: the great poet Morrissey wishes not to hang out with people. People should understand that all I have to offer are my words.”
“But you do notice that people worship you, that the fans are begging to touch you. That means, there is glamour, something appeals to them.” Morrissey smiles. “Yes, it is very unfortunate. I didn’t mean it to happen this way. The imagination of the people is running wild so quickly. What is so exciting about a writer who sings songs? I lead a torn life at the moment. I don’t know how much longer I can take it. I’ve always enjoyed the silence and peace of my room. And now I spend my nights in a maddening noise, amidst stirred up young people who for some bizarre reason are longing for me, and pull my trouser legs. An hour later I’m back in my silent, deserted hotel room. Very curious and a bit worrying. Who are all these people who welcome me as a hero? I never get a chance to meet them. That’s why it all seems so surrealistic. But it is quite an honour to be appreciated. That people find an outlet for their feelings at a Smiths-gig, that’s what makes this band so unique. And that urges me to submit to these strange situations from time to time. I try to come to terms with this circus but I’m just not very good at it.”
“Does the pressure that you are under influence your writing?”
“Oh, definitely.”
“I haven’t noticed that yet though.”
“Well, let me tell you this: hotel rooms and groupies don’t inspire me. I’m not that superficial and transparent. But this new, remarkable life does leave its marks on my work. I don’t occupy myself with sex, don’t use drugs and don’t feel at all connected with rock & roll. But maybe my loneliness has intensified, my depression might be even deeper now. And that’s reflected in the songs. Before the Smiths I had no job, I was lonely and desperate. Now I’m successful, lonely and desperate (laughs). So there goes another illusion. The hope is gone, if it was ever there to begin with. Money means nothing to me. It can’t solve my problems.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m not supposed to start crying now, am I?”
“I’m the last person to deny someone their depression, but what are you complaining about?”
“God, this doesn’t at all fit into the way of thinking of this industry! Success is the golden calf that needs to be worshipped. I’m being accused of not being happy because in this industry it is a blasphemy if you’re not running around cheering when you sell more than a thousand records. I’m the unthankful one and therefore unworthy. I’m a fool. But I’ll say it again: the only thing that money can solve, is poverty. And that has never been a problem for me.”
“So it wasn’t hard being unemployed?”
“At the time I thought being unemployed would make things worse. But now I’m not so sure anymore. I still suffer. A hotel room is as gloomy as a boys room. Nothing has changed, I’m afraid. I’m all tangled up and I can’t untangle myself. But let’s not play psychiatrist, shall we?”
“Fine by me. So let’s change from human being to writer. Do you often write brilliant lyrics on stationary, on beer coasters, in beautiful gold lined handwriting?”
“I write in messy little notebooks. Or rather, I don’t exactly write, I write down ideas. Everything, useful or worthless, that comes to mind. That’s a habit I had long before the Smiths. I’m a scribbler. Then, when the time has come to complete Johnny’s music with lyrics, I’ll sit behind my typewriter and combine some of my ideas from my notebook until a certain logic appears. The typewriter creates a kind of clarity, it is the perfect tool to create order from the chaos. Every word just falls into place. I can hardly call it work, it just happens. I can no longer write with a ball pen. That’s become physically impossible for me. And before I had this beautiful, clear handwriting. It is a neurosis that has developed ever since the Smiths began. Do you think that means something?“
Jose
No way...
Re: post your non-english mozarticles here(italian,french...-english translation need
(part 3)
“I wouldn’t be surprised. But let’s not play psychiatrist, shall we? Did you make these ideas that you wrote down into poems before you met Johnny Marr?”
“No. Don’t look upon me as a poet. I’m much more than that (smiles). I was just preparing. Because I already knew what was going to happen. I already had a clear vision of the Smiths.”
“Really?”
“That premonition was controlling my life. It was just a matter of waiting until it finally happened. I think everybody knows what their future will be like, or at least feels it instinctively. But most people don’t want to know what will happen with them. It is fear that silences them. Johnny always knew that he would never give up his guitar. And I always knew that something beautiful would blossom from my notebooks. Never doubted it for a second. Although all the ideas in my notebook are starting to become a fog, in which I have to find my way over and over again. I have felt so much. Did little, but felt a lot.”
“When did you realize that you were artistically gifted and a little different?”
“I was 8 the day that happened. I said to my mother: when I grow up I want to do nothing but write. Writing is a passion that had a hold of me then already. At an age where others were dreaming of fire engines and Indians, I already knew my destination. And that’s why people thought I was odd. I didn’t want what they wanted. I didn’t feel what they felt. At school they asked me: what do you want to be when you grow up? Because they want to lead boys to a profession, you see. And I said: I want to become absolutely nothing. That was not tolerated. You had to go with the flow. But I was rowing upstream, together with a couple of intelligent and brave friends. Until one very dark day, these friends couldn’t handle the pressure anymore, bowed their heads and also started focusing on a career. And then I was alone. All alone. My mates died, that’s how I see it. I’m the only survivor.”
“The Headmaster Ritual and Barbarism Begins At Home, songs on Meat Is Murder, speak of the bitterness that you bear against the people who raised you. It is very pointless to do that after so many years, but I guess it gives a lot of satisfaction.”
“Pure revenge, that’s what it is (joyless smile). I’m not ashamed about that. I’ve been beaten and humiliated by my teachers, they were like the devil to me and I was powerless. Taking revenge by these songs is a bit childish. I don’t know, it’s not more than throwing a brick through a window. A postponed anger attack about them messing up my education and destroying my youth. They couldn’t care less about what would become of me. But I did (little smile). They had the duty to teach me about culture and civilization, but they failed miserably. That’s why they are barbarians. Their indifference was much worse than their smacks.”
“You grew up in grey Manchester as a working class child.”
“Yes. And the message was: we are poor, we are the lowest class, we aren’t supposed to expect anything from life. I found that so awful. Life was considered as something for rich people. A worker was supposed to work, shut up and die slowly. I refused to accept that fate. I said: I will not work, I will live. And then they would slap me. But common people have to dare to say “no” to their fate. There should be resistance against that outrageous system, or else everything will stay the same. With the Smiths I have conquered my pride and dignity. They’ll be no longer able to say that I’m a nobody because thousands of young people are proving otherwise. They can’t break my records, they have no power over that. I could compare it with a little boy from the slums who works in the sewer, works hard to get away from that, gets rich and builds a beautiful villa to show to the world: you were wrong, I am somebody. So yes, Meat Is Murder is my beautiful villa. I sincerely hope that the attackers from my youth are sitting grinding their teeth now somewhere.”
“So basically you were left to raise yourself, find your own way.”
“Yes. I knew that there had to be more than what they told me. I started searching myself. I discovered wondrous books and the most beautiful films. They couldn’t withhold art, the barbarians.”
“It is remarkable that a loner like yourself is now half of the writers-twins Morrissey-Marr. Without Marr’s music you are nowhere.”
“Oh, I’m definitely aware of that. As artists we completely depend on each other: I can’t be without him and he can’t be without me. Alone we are nowhere. So I find it very troubling that the press are trying to drive us apart. They are trying so hard to sow discord within the Smits. To him they say: Why do you allow Morrissey to draw all the attention to him? You are the top man of the Smiths. But we have a bond that no one will be able to break. I can’t play a single instrument. I’m not a musician. I know what music should sound like, but I don’t want to lose myself in technical details. The Smiths should continue to make raw, emotional music. From the heart, not from a book about synthesizers. I don’t even want to learn how to read music. I refuse to be absorbed by the theory. That takes away the passion.”
“But the other ones are real musicians.”
“Yes. But not just any musicians. Particularly not Johnny. He plays guitar like a poet. The sounds that his instrument produces are actually words. That’s how I feel about it. He doesn’t play with difficulty or methodically like most others. He doesn’t have that lifelessness that identifies all the virtuoso. I must admit: I don’t care one bit about real musicians. They are like creatures from another planet to me.”
“What kind of relationship do you have with Marr? And how does that cooperation work, how does it lead to completed songs?”Morrissey, solemnly: “My relationship with Johnny is too precious to even talk about it. I’ve already revealed too much about myself in interviews. And whenever I say something serious, then the journalists will twist it so that I look like some mystical fool.”
“Those are the other ones! I truly want to know how the Smiths-songs are created.”
“We are working in a very natural way. Without forcing things. A song is a puzzle and with us the pieces just fall into place. We never have to discuss it, we have no problems, no differences of opinion. My words and his music just flow together. They were made for each other. We never even talk about it, Johnny and I, that’s not necessary. Funny, huh?”
“Your lyrics couldn’t lead a separate life?”
“Sure. I could just recite them. Poetry is ok, I don’t have anything against that. But it doesn’t fire up people, doesn’t give them an outlet, doesn’t release them. Music like the Smiths’ does. We are there to release emotions. In fact it is the biggest compliment – and this may contradict with what I’ve said before - that people are fighting to get to the stage. That there is a wave of excitement that flows over everything and everybody. A poet has to settle for a lukewarm applause and he doesn’t overwhelm anybody. So…”
“Do you like controlling the masses, manipulating and leading them? Do you secretly feel a bit like the Führer?”
“Well, I don’t have to be afraid of the power that I have. It is very wholesome that a normal person like myself can be a bit of a counterweight. The people are being provoked and manipulated by the government, by the police, by employers… By the barbarians. That is a negative power. Everybody hates them but they just keep going. My power is positive. I only have power over those who love me. These people at least have a choice. They can hate me too. And most people do! (laughs)”
“Often the Smiths’ lyrics are so tragic and so full of misery that they get something funny and ironic. Is it ok for you that people respond to them like that?”
“OF COURSE! Songs like Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now are filled with humour. Not because it was meant like that, but it just turns out that way. I have more common sense than people think, I can put things into perspective quite well. I have moments where I desperately throw myself on the bed and scream: “I can’t take it anymore. I wish I were dead.”And although I intensely mean it, I still can’t stop laughing. Humour is tragic and tragedy is funny. And as long as records have one of each, everything is fine. But name one current hit single that is funny or tragic. I can’t think of one. They’re all silly lovesongs. Songs that are written in a state of unconsciousness. I laugh about myself a lot and about my despair, that’s why my lyrics sound so real and involved.”
“Doesn’t it bother you that you are seen as the hopeless weeping willow, like a nasty, serious little man?”
“No. Don’t misunderstand me. I want to be taken seriously, very seriously, extremely seriously (laughs). Because I mean it. Every single word. The Smits are not superficial, not made of plastic: we are not a pop product, no auditive washing detergent, like most other groups. That’s why we are being hated in this industry (happy). We aren’t being invited to any party. They’re trying to ignore us. But the funny thing is that they can’t keep up the disapproval. Why not? Because we sell a whole lot of records. Because we sell out every single venue. The record company managers are checkmate, haha. If they could they would just flush us down the toilet. Brilliant, isn’t it? I could almost enjoy life.”
“If you look back on the still young career of the Smiths, from Hand in Glove to Shakespeare’s Sister, are you completely satisfied about it? Was it planned to go like this?”
“Oh yes. Every note, every word, every sleeve. Nothing has gone wrong. It is wonderful to see how a plan can work out so perfectly. I know that this kind of pride sounds misplaced and arrogant but that’s how I feel about it.”
(part 3)
“I wouldn’t be surprised. But let’s not play psychiatrist, shall we? Did you make these ideas that you wrote down into poems before you met Johnny Marr?”
“No. Don’t look upon me as a poet. I’m much more than that (smiles). I was just preparing. Because I already knew what was going to happen. I already had a clear vision of the Smiths.”
“Really?”
“That premonition was controlling my life. It was just a matter of waiting until it finally happened. I think everybody knows what their future will be like, or at least feels it instinctively. But most people don’t want to know what will happen with them. It is fear that silences them. Johnny always knew that he would never give up his guitar. And I always knew that something beautiful would blossom from my notebooks. Never doubted it for a second. Although all the ideas in my notebook are starting to become a fog, in which I have to find my way over and over again. I have felt so much. Did little, but felt a lot.”
“When did you realize that you were artistically gifted and a little different?”
“I was 8 the day that happened. I said to my mother: when I grow up I want to do nothing but write. Writing is a passion that had a hold of me then already. At an age where others were dreaming of fire engines and Indians, I already knew my destination. And that’s why people thought I was odd. I didn’t want what they wanted. I didn’t feel what they felt. At school they asked me: what do you want to be when you grow up? Because they want to lead boys to a profession, you see. And I said: I want to become absolutely nothing. That was not tolerated. You had to go with the flow. But I was rowing upstream, together with a couple of intelligent and brave friends. Until one very dark day, these friends couldn’t handle the pressure anymore, bowed their heads and also started focusing on a career. And then I was alone. All alone. My mates died, that’s how I see it. I’m the only survivor.”
“The Headmaster Ritual and Barbarism Begins At Home, songs on Meat Is Murder, speak of the bitterness that you bear against the people who raised you. It is very pointless to do that after so many years, but I guess it gives a lot of satisfaction.”
“Pure revenge, that’s what it is (joyless smile). I’m not ashamed about that. I’ve been beaten and humiliated by my teachers, they were like the devil to me and I was powerless. Taking revenge by these songs is a bit childish. I don’t know, it’s not more than throwing a brick through a window. A postponed anger attack about them messing up my education and destroying my youth. They couldn’t care less about what would become of me. But I did (little smile). They had the duty to teach me about culture and civilization, but they failed miserably. That’s why they are barbarians. Their indifference was much worse than their smacks.”
“You grew up in grey Manchester as a working class child.”
“Yes. And the message was: we are poor, we are the lowest class, we aren’t supposed to expect anything from life. I found that so awful. Life was considered as something for rich people. A worker was supposed to work, shut up and die slowly. I refused to accept that fate. I said: I will not work, I will live. And then they would slap me. But common people have to dare to say “no” to their fate. There should be resistance against that outrageous system, or else everything will stay the same. With the Smiths I have conquered my pride and dignity. They’ll be no longer able to say that I’m a nobody because thousands of young people are proving otherwise. They can’t break my records, they have no power over that. I could compare it with a little boy from the slums who works in the sewer, works hard to get away from that, gets rich and builds a beautiful villa to show to the world: you were wrong, I am somebody. So yes, Meat Is Murder is my beautiful villa. I sincerely hope that the attackers from my youth are sitting grinding their teeth now somewhere.”
“So basically you were left to raise yourself, find your own way.”
“Yes. I knew that there had to be more than what they told me. I started searching myself. I discovered wondrous books and the most beautiful films. They couldn’t withhold art, the barbarians.”
“It is remarkable that a loner like yourself is now half of the writers-twins Morrissey-Marr. Without Marr’s music you are nowhere.”
“Oh, I’m definitely aware of that. As artists we completely depend on each other: I can’t be without him and he can’t be without me. Alone we are nowhere. So I find it very troubling that the press are trying to drive us apart. They are trying so hard to sow discord within the Smits. To him they say: Why do you allow Morrissey to draw all the attention to him? You are the top man of the Smiths. But we have a bond that no one will be able to break. I can’t play a single instrument. I’m not a musician. I know what music should sound like, but I don’t want to lose myself in technical details. The Smiths should continue to make raw, emotional music. From the heart, not from a book about synthesizers. I don’t even want to learn how to read music. I refuse to be absorbed by the theory. That takes away the passion.”
“But the other ones are real musicians.”
“Yes. But not just any musicians. Particularly not Johnny. He plays guitar like a poet. The sounds that his instrument produces are actually words. That’s how I feel about it. He doesn’t play with difficulty or methodically like most others. He doesn’t have that lifelessness that identifies all the virtuoso. I must admit: I don’t care one bit about real musicians. They are like creatures from another planet to me.”
“What kind of relationship do you have with Marr? And how does that cooperation work, how does it lead to completed songs?”Morrissey, solemnly: “My relationship with Johnny is too precious to even talk about it. I’ve already revealed too much about myself in interviews. And whenever I say something serious, then the journalists will twist it so that I look like some mystical fool.”
“Those are the other ones! I truly want to know how the Smiths-songs are created.”
“We are working in a very natural way. Without forcing things. A song is a puzzle and with us the pieces just fall into place. We never have to discuss it, we have no problems, no differences of opinion. My words and his music just flow together. They were made for each other. We never even talk about it, Johnny and I, that’s not necessary. Funny, huh?”
“Your lyrics couldn’t lead a separate life?”
“Sure. I could just recite them. Poetry is ok, I don’t have anything against that. But it doesn’t fire up people, doesn’t give them an outlet, doesn’t release them. Music like the Smiths’ does. We are there to release emotions. In fact it is the biggest compliment – and this may contradict with what I’ve said before - that people are fighting to get to the stage. That there is a wave of excitement that flows over everything and everybody. A poet has to settle for a lukewarm applause and he doesn’t overwhelm anybody. So…”
“Do you like controlling the masses, manipulating and leading them? Do you secretly feel a bit like the Führer?”
“Well, I don’t have to be afraid of the power that I have. It is very wholesome that a normal person like myself can be a bit of a counterweight. The people are being provoked and manipulated by the government, by the police, by employers… By the barbarians. That is a negative power. Everybody hates them but they just keep going. My power is positive. I only have power over those who love me. These people at least have a choice. They can hate me too. And most people do! (laughs)”
“Often the Smiths’ lyrics are so tragic and so full of misery that they get something funny and ironic. Is it ok for you that people respond to them like that?”
“OF COURSE! Songs like Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now are filled with humour. Not because it was meant like that, but it just turns out that way. I have more common sense than people think, I can put things into perspective quite well. I have moments where I desperately throw myself on the bed and scream: “I can’t take it anymore. I wish I were dead.”And although I intensely mean it, I still can’t stop laughing. Humour is tragic and tragedy is funny. And as long as records have one of each, everything is fine. But name one current hit single that is funny or tragic. I can’t think of one. They’re all silly lovesongs. Songs that are written in a state of unconsciousness. I laugh about myself a lot and about my despair, that’s why my lyrics sound so real and involved.”
“Doesn’t it bother you that you are seen as the hopeless weeping willow, like a nasty, serious little man?”
“No. Don’t misunderstand me. I want to be taken seriously, very seriously, extremely seriously (laughs). Because I mean it. Every single word. The Smits are not superficial, not made of plastic: we are not a pop product, no auditive washing detergent, like most other groups. That’s why we are being hated in this industry (happy). We aren’t being invited to any party. They’re trying to ignore us. But the funny thing is that they can’t keep up the disapproval. Why not? Because we sell a whole lot of records. Because we sell out every single venue. The record company managers are checkmate, haha. If they could they would just flush us down the toilet. Brilliant, isn’t it? I could almost enjoy life.”
“If you look back on the still young career of the Smiths, from Hand in Glove to Shakespeare’s Sister, are you completely satisfied about it? Was it planned to go like this?”
“Oh yes. Every note, every word, every sleeve. Nothing has gone wrong. It is wonderful to see how a plan can work out so perfectly. I know that this kind of pride sounds misplaced and arrogant but that’s how I feel about it.”
Jose
No way...
Re: post your non-english mozarticles here(italian,french...-english translation need
(final part)
“Can you be more concrete? Say something about Meat Is Murder for example. Please explain a little more.”
“Everything I have to say about that, would sound extremely ridiculous and arrogant (laughs). I can’t listen to that record anymore. It’s just too beautiful and intense. When I hear those songs, I drift away, I’m completely in the Smiths’ sway. But the funny thing is that this record has been accepted, it is being bought, people make time to listen to it for one hour. The title song alone makes this record worthwhile and is of historical value. And with that we have disturbed the ridiculous pantomime that the music industry is. We have spoilt it. And still the album entered the British chart at #1. Which is very understandable. How much silly disco do they have to swallow? How much false happiness will have to be stuffed down their throats? How many more lies will they be told? Don’t you think they’ve had enough? It makes them sick.”
“But why do they buy that crap?”
“Because there is nothing else. They have no choice.”
“You don’t see a spark of hope for pop music?”
“There are a few talented people but they’ll remain isolated individuals. I’m thinking about my dear and good friend Lloyd Cole, about Everything But The Girl and about the not yet famous but excellent band James. And Thompson Twins are of course remarkably worthless, ha ha. Why do people like that always behave themselves like Hollywood stars? They think they are above everybody else but in fact they’re just little, mean men, that have nothing to offer to the world.”
“Do you have anything against people who just want to entertain?”
“Absolutely not! I’m not saying that everybody should walk around like a priest. I’m not saying that young people should paint their rooms grey or black. I’m not preaching dullness. I still think that young people can buy a record that is life changing for them. That is the norm. That’s entertainment and at the same time a whole lot more. Do we make boring music? No! We don’t make disposable music, that’s all.”
“With Rusholme Ruffians, one of the best songs on Meat Is Murder, you have written your first real short story: graphic, moving, mysterious. It is an image of the outside world, not of ones soul.”
“Exactly. I don’t feel like locking myself up in a ghetto. I’m not just a navel-gazer, I’m much more than that. From now on I will use the word “I” as little as possible. And it will be quite a lot compared to the competition (laughs). O well, with Rusholme Ruffians I’ve proven that I can be a good observer and that I actually somewhat care about the outside world and other people. I don’t spend all of my time lying alone in my bed staring at the ceiling, you know. Most of the time, but not all of the time (grin).“
“The only song that bothers me is Meat Is Murder.”
“Really? That is the most essential song on the whole album. What is it that’s bothering you? The lyrics or the music?”
“The lyrics. Couldn’t you’ve come up with a more dignified crusade? Couldn’t it have been a little less radical?”
“But what I’m saying isn’t that radical at all! Every steak requires a murder. And that’s an outrage. Moreover Meat Is Murder sounds so radical because pop music nowadays is so silly and childish. People don’t make statements anymore. And that’s why everybody is shaken up when I say: it is obscene to kill animals. Spandau Ballet and Alison Moyet, now they are radicals. Their records are telling us: we are boring, the world is boring, you are boring but that’s ok, don’t worry about it. Now that is outrageous! On the other hand it is quite normal that a sensitive person doesn't want living creatures being tortured. It should be normal, anyway.”
“But aren’t people more important than animals? What astounds you more: Ethiopia or an abattoir?“
“Of course I think that people are more important than animals. But everybody already knows what’s going on in Ethiopia. Bob Geldof made a single about it, you know (grin). He battled famine with 14-year old girls’ pocket money. The British government was of course very happy about that: they didn’t have to fork out the money themselves. Caring for other people doesn’t mean that you can’t care about animal rights as well. I’m a convinced vegetarian. I will no longer allow cows or sheep to be killed to satisfy my appetite. Do you eat meat?"
” Yes”.
“Oh.”
“With songs like that you are almost asking the critics to ridicule you.”
“Every insult is welcome. Yes, I’m an easy target for mockery. That’s the way it should be. I don’t ever, ever, ever want to be harmless. It’s the Smiths’ duty to make people think, to let them look into their own souls. When I, while performing this duty, look like the village idiot, then so be it. It’s worth it. I get letters every day that say “You saved my life”. Literally! Not too bad for the village idiot, eh?”
“People call you weakling, hothouse plant, goody two shoes. And the Smiths are being called folkies.”
“That just shows how shortsighted people are. We are an aggressive band. Our songs have a spine and often sound like threats. We are not polite, we’re not soft, on the contrary, there is a lot of danger coming from the Smiths, even though the lyrics are often fragile and poetic. (emphasized) I am not a pushover. I’m not a softy, not a flower boy: you can inquire about that. I think you have to be able to use violence. That’s the only way to kick in doors, to give life another direction. These peace demonstrators, let them be a little more hysterical, let them break some stuff! Politeness and submission will bring you nothing. You have to threat, scream, fill people with fear. They have to shake in their boots for you.”
“I hear that you will have a nervous breakdown when you’re away from home more than a week.”
“Oh, how people love to exaggerate (laughs). That was in Finland, last year. I had the impression that I had landed between the Nazis; they were so strict it was suffocating. And yes, I flipped. But being homesick had nothing to do with that. It’s just that I sometimes feel like I’m on another planet when I’m in this rock & roll circus. First day of a tour someone always becomes very sick. We can’t stand hotel rooms and dressing rooms. That’s why we have often had to cancel quite a lot of gigs, which is a pity really and it always makes a bad impression. I guess we’ll never be a rock & roll-band. How can you be a rocker when the radiators in this room are unbearable? (laughs) If details like that will interrupt your system. Moreover I suffer from a terrible kind of fear of flying.“
“How did you develop that very unique singing voice of yours? Or were you just born with it?”
“Well, that mainly came about because I absolutely cannot sing (chuckles). At least, that’s what they keep telling me. And it is true I suppose. I just want to let people hear what I’ve got to offer, that’s all. I sound really British and very natural. No American accents, no nasty diction, no torture of words. My only ambition as a singer is to not sing out of tune (laughs). I certainly don’t feel like a professional when it comes to that.”
“I wonder, after having read the lyrics of every single Smiths-song: is happiness a goal of yours?”
(long silence) “Well, I have aspired to be happy, yes. I have cherished longings and illusions. But that’s all in the past. All the wires of my life are now crossed. All I want to do is to make some more good, stimulating albums. And after that… After that I don’t see anything else. Then comes the end.”
“What do you mean?”
“Very literally unfortunately. I know it has to end this way. I see my own end coming nearer."
(final part)
“Can you be more concrete? Say something about Meat Is Murder for example. Please explain a little more.”
“Everything I have to say about that, would sound extremely ridiculous and arrogant (laughs). I can’t listen to that record anymore. It’s just too beautiful and intense. When I hear those songs, I drift away, I’m completely in the Smiths’ sway. But the funny thing is that this record has been accepted, it is being bought, people make time to listen to it for one hour. The title song alone makes this record worthwhile and is of historical value. And with that we have disturbed the ridiculous pantomime that the music industry is. We have spoilt it. And still the album entered the British chart at #1. Which is very understandable. How much silly disco do they have to swallow? How much false happiness will have to be stuffed down their throats? How many more lies will they be told? Don’t you think they’ve had enough? It makes them sick.”
“But why do they buy that crap?”
“Because there is nothing else. They have no choice.”
“You don’t see a spark of hope for pop music?”
“There are a few talented people but they’ll remain isolated individuals. I’m thinking about my dear and good friend Lloyd Cole, about Everything But The Girl and about the not yet famous but excellent band James. And Thompson Twins are of course remarkably worthless, ha ha. Why do people like that always behave themselves like Hollywood stars? They think they are above everybody else but in fact they’re just little, mean men, that have nothing to offer to the world.”
“Do you have anything against people who just want to entertain?”
“Absolutely not! I’m not saying that everybody should walk around like a priest. I’m not saying that young people should paint their rooms grey or black. I’m not preaching dullness. I still think that young people can buy a record that is life changing for them. That is the norm. That’s entertainment and at the same time a whole lot more. Do we make boring music? No! We don’t make disposable music, that’s all.”
“With Rusholme Ruffians, one of the best songs on Meat Is Murder, you have written your first real short story: graphic, moving, mysterious. It is an image of the outside world, not of ones soul.”
“Exactly. I don’t feel like locking myself up in a ghetto. I’m not just a navel-gazer, I’m much more than that. From now on I will use the word “I” as little as possible. And it will be quite a lot compared to the competition (laughs). O well, with Rusholme Ruffians I’ve proven that I can be a good observer and that I actually somewhat care about the outside world and other people. I don’t spend all of my time lying alone in my bed staring at the ceiling, you know. Most of the time, but not all of the time (grin).“
“The only song that bothers me is Meat Is Murder.”
“Really? That is the most essential song on the whole album. What is it that’s bothering you? The lyrics or the music?”
“The lyrics. Couldn’t you’ve come up with a more dignified crusade? Couldn’t it have been a little less radical?”
“But what I’m saying isn’t that radical at all! Every steak requires a murder. And that’s an outrage. Moreover Meat Is Murder sounds so radical because pop music nowadays is so silly and childish. People don’t make statements anymore. And that’s why everybody is shaken up when I say: it is obscene to kill animals. Spandau Ballet and Alison Moyet, now they are radicals. Their records are telling us: we are boring, the world is boring, you are boring but that’s ok, don’t worry about it. Now that is outrageous! On the other hand it is quite normal that a sensitive person doesn't want living creatures being tortured. It should be normal, anyway.”
“But aren’t people more important than animals? What astounds you more: Ethiopia or an abattoir?“
“Of course I think that people are more important than animals. But everybody already knows what’s going on in Ethiopia. Bob Geldof made a single about it, you know (grin). He battled famine with 14-year old girls’ pocket money. The British government was of course very happy about that: they didn’t have to fork out the money themselves. Caring for other people doesn’t mean that you can’t care about animal rights as well. I’m a convinced vegetarian. I will no longer allow cows or sheep to be killed to satisfy my appetite. Do you eat meat?"
” Yes”.
“Oh.”
“With songs like that you are almost asking the critics to ridicule you.”
“Every insult is welcome. Yes, I’m an easy target for mockery. That’s the way it should be. I don’t ever, ever, ever want to be harmless. It’s the Smiths’ duty to make people think, to let them look into their own souls. When I, while performing this duty, look like the village idiot, then so be it. It’s worth it. I get letters every day that say “You saved my life”. Literally! Not too bad for the village idiot, eh?”
“People call you weakling, hothouse plant, goody two shoes. And the Smiths are being called folkies.”
“That just shows how shortsighted people are. We are an aggressive band. Our songs have a spine and often sound like threats. We are not polite, we’re not soft, on the contrary, there is a lot of danger coming from the Smiths, even though the lyrics are often fragile and poetic. (emphasized) I am not a pushover. I’m not a softy, not a flower boy: you can inquire about that. I think you have to be able to use violence. That’s the only way to kick in doors, to give life another direction. These peace demonstrators, let them be a little more hysterical, let them break some stuff! Politeness and submission will bring you nothing. You have to threat, scream, fill people with fear. They have to shake in their boots for you.”
“I hear that you will have a nervous breakdown when you’re away from home more than a week.”
“Oh, how people love to exaggerate (laughs). That was in Finland, last year. I had the impression that I had landed between the Nazis; they were so strict it was suffocating. And yes, I flipped. But being homesick had nothing to do with that. It’s just that I sometimes feel like I’m on another planet when I’m in this rock & roll circus. First day of a tour someone always becomes very sick. We can’t stand hotel rooms and dressing rooms. That’s why we have often had to cancel quite a lot of gigs, which is a pity really and it always makes a bad impression. I guess we’ll never be a rock & roll-band. How can you be a rocker when the radiators in this room are unbearable? (laughs) If details like that will interrupt your system. Moreover I suffer from a terrible kind of fear of flying.“
“How did you develop that very unique singing voice of yours? Or were you just born with it?”
“Well, that mainly came about because I absolutely cannot sing (chuckles). At least, that’s what they keep telling me. And it is true I suppose. I just want to let people hear what I’ve got to offer, that’s all. I sound really British and very natural. No American accents, no nasty diction, no torture of words. My only ambition as a singer is to not sing out of tune (laughs). I certainly don’t feel like a professional when it comes to that.”
“I wonder, after having read the lyrics of every single Smiths-song: is happiness a goal of yours?”
(long silence) “Well, I have aspired to be happy, yes. I have cherished longings and illusions. But that’s all in the past. All the wires of my life are now crossed. All I want to do is to make some more good, stimulating albums. And after that… After that I don’t see anything else. Then comes the end.”
“What do you mean?”
“Very literally unfortunately. I know it has to end this way. I see my own end coming nearer."
sistasheila
tjekket
Re: post your non-english mozarticles here(italian,french...-english translation need
big big kudos for jose for the dutch 1985 interview above ..great job!
that was wonderful-and quick!^wonderful woman you are
the musikexpress interview from may 2006 plus the review of rott.
lots ofquestions of it had been printed in an austrian magazine
http://forums.morrissey-solo.com/showthread.php?t=56771&highlight=austrian+ringleader
note that the austrian interview had some Q+A missing where the musikexpress did have .
on the other hand they had printed Q+A in the austrian mag which they hadnt printed at ME .
i did take parts out of the translation from the austrian one .but it seems to be the austrian interview was edited differently.also much shorter in terms of answers.
and also the way i would translate it is more literal...so i still had something to do.
although mine is maybe a bit more faulty in terms of syntax;-)
Translation part 1:
"people show me respect"
A classy hotel room over the roofs of Rome, on the top floor of the Hotel de Russie at the end of Via Del Badduino, which has been inhabited by Marlon Brando during his last stay in Rome. Steven Patrick Morrissey, dressed in jeans and a blue t-shirt with an “M” on his heart, speaks calm and gentle, he’s relaxed and friendly while listening to the questions. first he talks about why he choose rome as new place to live and record.
Morrissey: I didn’t choose Rome, Rome chose me. I had been here several times, but I have never been touched by it, heaven knows why. . The reason of this might have been because I did live through a personal gloomy-ness/darkness for many years . But when I came to Rome last January it struck me immediately and I was overwhelmed. People, the sun, architecture, clothes and style. And this lust for life that people feel here just because they exist. They don’t even worry about their horrible government but enjoy their lives in spite of that. They don’t hide in their houses, they go out on the streets where live actually happens. Everywhere life is vibrant. I was so wswept of my feet by this that decided to stay here. So I continuous spend, now almost a year in Rome and also recorded my record here. I made the album with Tony Visconti, who is of Italian origin,,Ennio Morricone and on a few songs you can even hear an Italian children’s choir sing. Rome has taken me by storm.
In: There are many references to Rome and Italian culture in your new songs. In “You Have Killed Me” you mention directors Pier Paolo Pasolini and Lucchino Visconti, but also actress Anna Magnani. How did you get into the itlain culture ans cinema. Did you contact the stars?
moz: Inwardly.. I never contacted anyone but I have delved fully into italian films, i downright. absorbed it .
Visconti`s "Rocco and his brothers" has influenced lots of people already.
But it was only last year that everything suddenly started to make sense to me, it "clicked", and I thought to myself: What a beautiful country! And Im sorry to hear that not more british or american bands come here to play, al least not in great numbers. The italians seems to me being almost ravenous in terms of concerts.
in:The first line of “You Have Killed Me” is “Pasolini is me…”
moz: I love Pasolini, and I’ve seem all of his films. He was unique and blessed with so many talents. A great director, poet and journalist, and not to forget: He did always look very good. You can feel his legacy/presence very intensely everywhere in Rome.
I: Where did you get the siren at the beginning of “The Youngest Was The Most Loved” from?
M: It’s simply the sound of Rome – a sound which can’t possibly compared to that of any other city in the world. When we left the studio on one particular night, which is the forum at the Piazza Euclide, someone passed us by and shouted something that sounded like:"eccelente eccelente",so we recorded that too and used it for a song. It sounds incredible and for me thats the sound of the city and it simply sounds good .
In: dear god please help me has lots of italian flair, it sounds almost like a secular prayer.how did it came across?
Moz: You cant live in Rome without noticing the religion. It is impresive and omni present. Almost like an exclamation mark.
But despite this fact, I did walk through the city, ready and open to love everybody and everything with all of my heart. I was ready to let go/get rid of my self imposed confinements and boundaries.Thats what the song is about.
Los Angeles, on the other hand,, where I had been living before for the past seven years,is a very frightening, impersonal city. People there are very nervous, they’re always watching all of their own acts and are worried, because of the police and actually because of everything. You just don’t walk along the streets in Los Angeles, you just don’t move among other people. you dont get close to other people there, its a very structured city.
Here in Italy I felt , for the first time in a long time, fully being amidst the people.
Deeply felt feelings within me were and will be churned up here.
Some nights here are lively and buzzing, in other nights the streets are empty and its secure and safe.
I::Whats your favourite places in Rome?
Moz: :The Villa Borgese.And Trastevere.But i love every stone and part in Rome.
I:It is known that you re discovered the pleasure of driving a car in Los Angeles. Do you also drive in Rome?
Moz:I’m not completely stupid. I can’t possibly drive in Rome. never ever. The traffic is insane . But as passenger, I found it hilarious to dash through "Roma" . The people just do what they want.Hilarious. Kamikaze !
I:What do you think about the "bella Donnas", -the rich Italian women-and their weaknesses for fur coats?
Moz: It depresses me. They could just as well say: “I’m wearing a fur because I’m an idiot.” Maybe in the 80 ties you werent aware of the topic,but nowadays there are no excuses anymore. Everybody I know is disgusted by the sight of fur and by the thought that intelligent and cultivated women wear it. It’s thoroughly unattractive.Madonna and Victoria Beckham claim to be good mothers and yet they were real fur. It’s a massive contradiction because what they wear sth what once was a mother or child of someone. Women who wear furs can’t be good mothers,that will always be contradictory,
I:the legendary Italian film-composer Ennio Morricone did arrange the strings on the album’s song “Dear God Please Help Me”.how did it came across?
Moz: the People from the forum knew him very well because he had worked there for many years. However, they told us that he would most definitely refuse to work, as he is not interested in collerabtions and that he’s also rejected offers by David Bowie and U2. But then he heard the song and he said:"im interested; i would like to take part"
He did create an very elaborated, ingenious piece of work,with orchestra and everything. That was a big surprise as everybody thought he just will contribute a few sounds. We spent the whole day in the studio. Well, it wasn’t easy to communicate with him because he has no interest whatsoever in other human beings. But that’s okay, he’s the maestro, he lives in his own world and he can do whatever he pleases cause he has a the power to do so..
And he was full of praise when he heard the finished song with the arrangments of visconti. it was an huge honour for me hearing ennio, his orchestra and tony visconti in that fantastic studio, located in the (northern par)t heart of the city, it was, as the italians say, "perfetto", like heaven.
I: how did your meet Tony Visconti,?
Moz: The first time I met Tony was about twenty years ago when I and Johnny Marr were heaving lunch with him and asking him to produce The Queen Is Dead. But he refused. About ten years ago he was supposed to produce my album Your Arsenal, but it somehow didn’t work either.again.. But we were destined to work together.
This time we were able to get him .. He was also happy to come to Rome because he has many Italian relatives here. It’s astonishing to work with him because he’s so talented,skillful and. experienced He is not living in the past but living for today..Some people told me all the time" he produced T. Rex and David Bowie blablabla" but that is so long ago.He is very much up to date.and clever .I think we made a stunning record together.
I:Franz Ferdinand, The Libertines, The Killers, Arctic Monkeys sytem of a down, even jk rowling quote Morrissey or The Smiths as an important influence or are fans. What do you think about that?
moz: I find it quite surprising that our influence is so constant for decades.. I hear all the time of young bands who state constantly that they’ve been influenced by me or The Smiths. It’s a great honour, because you can just as well become very popular within the music scene and sell millions of records without ever inspiring anyone.There are so many artists out there like this.
I:Like Madonna?
moz: Madonna is the perfect example . She sold sixty million records but has never changed or touched the life of anyone, and she doesn’t get respect from any credible artist.
david Bowie has covered a song of myself in 93, which did please me to no end.
continues
big big kudos for jose for the dutch 1985 interview above ..great job!
that was wonderful-and quick!^wonderful woman you are
the musikexpress interview from may 2006 plus the review of rott.
lots ofquestions of it had been printed in an austrian magazine
http://forums.morrissey-solo.com/showthread.php?t=56771&highlight=austrian+ringleader
note that the austrian interview had some Q+A missing where the musikexpress did have .
on the other hand they had printed Q+A in the austrian mag which they hadnt printed at ME .
i did take parts out of the translation from the austrian one .but it seems to be the austrian interview was edited differently.also much shorter in terms of answers.
and also the way i would translate it is more literal...so i still had something to do.
although mine is maybe a bit more faulty in terms of syntax;-)
Translation part 1:
"people show me respect"
A classy hotel room over the roofs of Rome, on the top floor of the Hotel de Russie at the end of Via Del Badduino, which has been inhabited by Marlon Brando during his last stay in Rome. Steven Patrick Morrissey, dressed in jeans and a blue t-shirt with an “M” on his heart, speaks calm and gentle, he’s relaxed and friendly while listening to the questions. first he talks about why he choose rome as new place to live and record.
Morrissey: I didn’t choose Rome, Rome chose me. I had been here several times, but I have never been touched by it, heaven knows why. . The reason of this might have been because I did live through a personal gloomy-ness/darkness for many years . But when I came to Rome last January it struck me immediately and I was overwhelmed. People, the sun, architecture, clothes and style. And this lust for life that people feel here just because they exist. They don’t even worry about their horrible government but enjoy their lives in spite of that. They don’t hide in their houses, they go out on the streets where live actually happens. Everywhere life is vibrant. I was so wswept of my feet by this that decided to stay here. So I continuous spend, now almost a year in Rome and also recorded my record here. I made the album with Tony Visconti, who is of Italian origin,,Ennio Morricone and on a few songs you can even hear an Italian children’s choir sing. Rome has taken me by storm.
In: There are many references to Rome and Italian culture in your new songs. In “You Have Killed Me” you mention directors Pier Paolo Pasolini and Lucchino Visconti, but also actress Anna Magnani. How did you get into the itlain culture ans cinema. Did you contact the stars?
moz: Inwardly.. I never contacted anyone but I have delved fully into italian films, i downright. absorbed it .
Visconti`s "Rocco and his brothers" has influenced lots of people already.
But it was only last year that everything suddenly started to make sense to me, it "clicked", and I thought to myself: What a beautiful country! And Im sorry to hear that not more british or american bands come here to play, al least not in great numbers. The italians seems to me being almost ravenous in terms of concerts.
in:The first line of “You Have Killed Me” is “Pasolini is me…”
moz: I love Pasolini, and I’ve seem all of his films. He was unique and blessed with so many talents. A great director, poet and journalist, and not to forget: He did always look very good. You can feel his legacy/presence very intensely everywhere in Rome.
I: Where did you get the siren at the beginning of “The Youngest Was The Most Loved” from?
M: It’s simply the sound of Rome – a sound which can’t possibly compared to that of any other city in the world. When we left the studio on one particular night, which is the forum at the Piazza Euclide, someone passed us by and shouted something that sounded like:"eccelente eccelente",so we recorded that too and used it for a song. It sounds incredible and for me thats the sound of the city and it simply sounds good .
In: dear god please help me has lots of italian flair, it sounds almost like a secular prayer.how did it came across?
Moz: You cant live in Rome without noticing the religion. It is impresive and omni present. Almost like an exclamation mark.
But despite this fact, I did walk through the city, ready and open to love everybody and everything with all of my heart. I was ready to let go/get rid of my self imposed confinements and boundaries.Thats what the song is about.
Los Angeles, on the other hand,, where I had been living before for the past seven years,is a very frightening, impersonal city. People there are very nervous, they’re always watching all of their own acts and are worried, because of the police and actually because of everything. You just don’t walk along the streets in Los Angeles, you just don’t move among other people. you dont get close to other people there, its a very structured city.
Here in Italy I felt , for the first time in a long time, fully being amidst the people.
Deeply felt feelings within me were and will be churned up here.
Some nights here are lively and buzzing, in other nights the streets are empty and its secure and safe.
I::Whats your favourite places in Rome?
Moz: :The Villa Borgese.And Trastevere.But i love every stone and part in Rome.
I:It is known that you re discovered the pleasure of driving a car in Los Angeles. Do you also drive in Rome?
Moz:I’m not completely stupid. I can’t possibly drive in Rome. never ever. The traffic is insane . But as passenger, I found it hilarious to dash through "Roma" . The people just do what they want.Hilarious. Kamikaze !
I:What do you think about the "bella Donnas", -the rich Italian women-and their weaknesses for fur coats?
Moz: It depresses me. They could just as well say: “I’m wearing a fur because I’m an idiot.” Maybe in the 80 ties you werent aware of the topic,but nowadays there are no excuses anymore. Everybody I know is disgusted by the sight of fur and by the thought that intelligent and cultivated women wear it. It’s thoroughly unattractive.Madonna and Victoria Beckham claim to be good mothers and yet they were real fur. It’s a massive contradiction because what they wear sth what once was a mother or child of someone. Women who wear furs can’t be good mothers,that will always be contradictory,
I:the legendary Italian film-composer Ennio Morricone did arrange the strings on the album’s song “Dear God Please Help Me”.how did it came across?
Moz: the People from the forum knew him very well because he had worked there for many years. However, they told us that he would most definitely refuse to work, as he is not interested in collerabtions and that he’s also rejected offers by David Bowie and U2. But then he heard the song and he said:"im interested; i would like to take part"
He did create an very elaborated, ingenious piece of work,with orchestra and everything. That was a big surprise as everybody thought he just will contribute a few sounds. We spent the whole day in the studio. Well, it wasn’t easy to communicate with him because he has no interest whatsoever in other human beings. But that’s okay, he’s the maestro, he lives in his own world and he can do whatever he pleases cause he has a the power to do so..
And he was full of praise when he heard the finished song with the arrangments of visconti. it was an huge honour for me hearing ennio, his orchestra and tony visconti in that fantastic studio, located in the (northern par)t heart of the city, it was, as the italians say, "perfetto", like heaven.
I: how did your meet Tony Visconti,?
Moz: The first time I met Tony was about twenty years ago when I and Johnny Marr were heaving lunch with him and asking him to produce The Queen Is Dead. But he refused. About ten years ago he was supposed to produce my album Your Arsenal, but it somehow didn’t work either.again.. But we were destined to work together.
This time we were able to get him .. He was also happy to come to Rome because he has many Italian relatives here. It’s astonishing to work with him because he’s so talented,skillful and. experienced He is not living in the past but living for today..Some people told me all the time" he produced T. Rex and David Bowie blablabla" but that is so long ago.He is very much up to date.and clever .I think we made a stunning record together.
I:Franz Ferdinand, The Libertines, The Killers, Arctic Monkeys sytem of a down, even jk rowling quote Morrissey or The Smiths as an important influence or are fans. What do you think about that?
moz: I find it quite surprising that our influence is so constant for decades.. I hear all the time of young bands who state constantly that they’ve been influenced by me or The Smiths. It’s a great honour, because you can just as well become very popular within the music scene and sell millions of records without ever inspiring anyone.There are so many artists out there like this.
I:Like Madonna?
moz: Madonna is the perfect example . She sold sixty million records but has never changed or touched the life of anyone, and she doesn’t get respect from any credible artist.
david Bowie has covered a song of myself in 93, which did please me to no end.
continues
Last edited:
sistasheila
tjekket
Re: post your non-english mozarticles here(italian,french...-english translation need
part 2
I: Did you read the book "the wrong boy"?
(Note to the few who havent read it: has smiths/moz song and other references and is adressing moz i.e.dear morrissey letter style)
Moz.This has made into a film-imperatively. I liked the book ,one can identify with it in parts.Life gives me so much.
Which has something to do that Im not recognized globally that much or selling 60 millions and never run on Mtv. But people give/show me respect, which is priceless.
I:20 years ago your album The Queen Is Dead was released. What do you think about The Smiths nowadays?
moz: I think because we were unique back then. Im very proud of it that in retrospect the The Smiths werent a hype. there was no one who put money into us in order to get us into the charts. We were suddenly there and nobody knew immediately who we were.
thats what made our success so exicting for me because nobody did announce us in a big way . We were one of a a kind,exisiting in our own world, not part of a particular youth movement. Thats why we were rather subversive .and werent embraced with open arms. The songs were very strong and convincing and they still are.
I.Which songs are your favourite Smiths songs?
Moz:That’s a very hard question to answer, because I’m very fond of almost all of them. There’s only a few of them which I don’t like.
I:Which music do you listen to now?
moz: lots of different stuff, but not much contemporary music.
the range is huge :Much Eighties-Independent-Music, good mainstream pop ,some from the sixties and lots of songs from the Seventies.
The past, for me, is a very vivid musical painting, in which you can choose between so many parts.
In:do you believe that 22 years after meat is murder, people are more aware of animal rights? you got an award from peta last year..
Moz: yes. I believe that there is a bigger awareness and more support for animal rights nowadays .lots of peopel say "I dont care about animals but I do care about my health, thats why i can think of becoming a vegetarian" . Thats enough for me.
I:did you stay in Rome on July 7th 2005, when the terror attacks in London happened?
moz: I was in Rome. What has happened didnt surprised me in the least. Before the bombing happened Blair had stayed suspiciously silent for a very long time, but then he made his pompous statements that London could just go on existing like it always had. It’s very easy to say that for a person that he is. He doesn’t need to take the subway or the bus; he’s not alone on the streets. No matter where he goes, he’s always under protection. Blair doesn’t give a shit/doesnt care a damn about the people who voted him. Just like Bush, he’s a complete egoist.
I:Are you interested in Italian politics?
moz: Not really that much – everything’s so depressing. And as long as thing arent about to change drastically. politics will never be a part of a funny conversation of mine or put a smile on my face. what inspires me is how italians handle the situation. they don’t let themselves be dragged down by it. They just, fully aware of it, enjoy their lives, have fun and say: “Yes, we do have an gruesome government,but thts not all what counts.” In Britain, however, people are overwhelmed,surpresssed and unmotivated because of their terrible government.
also note the spex musikexpress rollingstone moz interview from 2009 who have been posted here in their own thread(+danish gaffa)
for recent interviews from the year 2009..he didnt do too many interviews. he did took 4 german interviews which were translated and one danish one, translated as well..then as far as i can remember only hot press and some time later filter mag
http://forums.morrissey-solo.com/showthread.php?t=96334&highlight=spex
german rolling stone:
http://forums.morrissey-solo.com/showthread.php?t=95398&highlight=rolling+stone&page=2
http://forums.morrissey-solo.com/showthread.php?t=95398&highlight=rolling+stone
-(german) musikexpress interview
http://forums.morrissey-solo.com/showthread.php?t=95895&highlight=musikexpress
-danish mag gaffa:
http://forums.morrissey-solo.com/showthread.php?t=95622&highlight=gaffa
-(german) spiegel:
http://forums.morrissey-solo.com/showthread.php?t=95004&highlight=spiegel
part 2
I: Did you read the book "the wrong boy"?
(Note to the few who havent read it: has smiths/moz song and other references and is adressing moz i.e.dear morrissey letter style)
Moz.This has made into a film-imperatively. I liked the book ,one can identify with it in parts.Life gives me so much.
Which has something to do that Im not recognized globally that much or selling 60 millions and never run on Mtv. But people give/show me respect, which is priceless.
I:20 years ago your album The Queen Is Dead was released. What do you think about The Smiths nowadays?
moz: I think because we were unique back then. Im very proud of it that in retrospect the The Smiths werent a hype. there was no one who put money into us in order to get us into the charts. We were suddenly there and nobody knew immediately who we were.
thats what made our success so exicting for me because nobody did announce us in a big way . We were one of a a kind,exisiting in our own world, not part of a particular youth movement. Thats why we were rather subversive .and werent embraced with open arms. The songs were very strong and convincing and they still are.
I.Which songs are your favourite Smiths songs?
Moz:That’s a very hard question to answer, because I’m very fond of almost all of them. There’s only a few of them which I don’t like.
I:Which music do you listen to now?
moz: lots of different stuff, but not much contemporary music.
the range is huge :Much Eighties-Independent-Music, good mainstream pop ,some from the sixties and lots of songs from the Seventies.
The past, for me, is a very vivid musical painting, in which you can choose between so many parts.
In:do you believe that 22 years after meat is murder, people are more aware of animal rights? you got an award from peta last year..
Moz: yes. I believe that there is a bigger awareness and more support for animal rights nowadays .lots of peopel say "I dont care about animals but I do care about my health, thats why i can think of becoming a vegetarian" . Thats enough for me.
I:did you stay in Rome on July 7th 2005, when the terror attacks in London happened?
moz: I was in Rome. What has happened didnt surprised me in the least. Before the bombing happened Blair had stayed suspiciously silent for a very long time, but then he made his pompous statements that London could just go on existing like it always had. It’s very easy to say that for a person that he is. He doesn’t need to take the subway or the bus; he’s not alone on the streets. No matter where he goes, he’s always under protection. Blair doesn’t give a shit/doesnt care a damn about the people who voted him. Just like Bush, he’s a complete egoist.
I:Are you interested in Italian politics?
moz: Not really that much – everything’s so depressing. And as long as thing arent about to change drastically. politics will never be a part of a funny conversation of mine or put a smile on my face. what inspires me is how italians handle the situation. they don’t let themselves be dragged down by it. They just, fully aware of it, enjoy their lives, have fun and say: “Yes, we do have an gruesome government,but thts not all what counts.” In Britain, however, people are overwhelmed,surpresssed and unmotivated because of their terrible government.
also note the spex musikexpress rollingstone moz interview from 2009 who have been posted here in their own thread(+danish gaffa)
for recent interviews from the year 2009..he didnt do too many interviews. he did took 4 german interviews which were translated and one danish one, translated as well..then as far as i can remember only hot press and some time later filter mag
http://forums.morrissey-solo.com/showthread.php?t=96334&highlight=spex
german rolling stone:
http://forums.morrissey-solo.com/showthread.php?t=95398&highlight=rolling+stone&page=2
http://forums.morrissey-solo.com/showthread.php?t=95398&highlight=rolling+stone
-(german) musikexpress interview
http://forums.morrissey-solo.com/showthread.php?t=95895&highlight=musikexpress
-danish mag gaffa:
http://forums.morrissey-solo.com/showthread.php?t=95622&highlight=gaffa
-(german) spiegel:
http://forums.morrissey-solo.com/showthread.php?t=95004&highlight=spiegel
Last edited:
dicartwright
Active Member
Re: post your non-english mozarticles here(italian,french...-english translation need
Sistasheila, I can't thank you enough for all your work
thanks a lot, girl
Sistasheila, I can't thank you enough for all your work
thanks a lot, girl
sistasheila
tjekket
Re: post your non-english mozarticles here(italian,french...-english translation need
March 1996 - Rockin' On (Japan)
Morrissey interview by Erika Yamashita. Topics: the cancellation of the tour with Bowie, "Southpaw Grammar", being an outsider, his recording methods, his self, England, music and its business, charity albums,
an english translation of the japanese interview being held in 1995. thenprinted 96 in japanese rockin on
translated +printed intrue to you-here it is:
like the japanese expression which was overheard in an conversation which got printed^(last site under the interview with rockin on
March 1996 - Rockin' On (Japan)
Morrissey interview by Erika Yamashita. Topics: the cancellation of the tour with Bowie, "Southpaw Grammar", being an outsider, his recording methods, his self, England, music and its business, charity albums,
an english translation of the japanese interview being held in 1995. thenprinted 96 in japanese rockin on
translated +printed intrue to you-here it is:
like the japanese expression which was overheard in an conversation which got printed^(last site under the interview with rockin on
Last edited:
dicartwright
Active Member
In this magazine called BEGLAM (Uruguayan? Argentinian?)
This is the translated note. Nothing new of course, just a note.
This is the translated note. Nothing new of course, just a note.
A Lonely Soul
New Member
musicalcat
guinea pig
Re: post your non-english mozarticles here(italian,french...-english translation need
Like this:
Like this:
celibate
Forever Ill
Re: post your non-english mozarticles here(italian,french...-english translation need
Fons Dellen is with Lotje Ijzerman en Bram van Splunteren responseble for
bringin real alternative popmusic on daytime radio, every wendsday afternoon 3 hours of joy.
It began with Bram with Fons, but than Fons got company from Lotje, cause
Bram went more into popdocs , lolapalooza, and journalist
it was in the 80é the show name changed 2 or 3 times, but I emeber it as
[ de Wilde wereld] [ the wild world] the radiostation is VPRO, and still is
[3-vo0r-12] the key for anyone who dislikes what's been on daytime commercaial radio and tv.
They should be rewarded, Bram van Splunteren for sure, and Lotje and Fons
for never changing their goal, just alternative, real alternative, even played
1srts demoos from beginning bands, so they have done a great job as
for plugging the 'other'music than MTV [as an example]
[the other names of the radioshow is on the tip of me tongue]
well anyway Jose did a real good job, and thanks for the article,never
saw it before
for the miss threadstarter and translators so far
Jose
something in dutch for you..;-)its an actual interview with the dutch press in the year 1984 short but sweet maybe you got time to translate it? that would be great,...thnks in advance
its an interview with an ] dutch journalist held 1984...quite rare since during the smiths time there arent too many interviews held with foreign journalists
Fons Dellen is with Lotje Ijzerman en Bram van Splunteren responseble for
bringin real alternative popmusic on daytime radio, every wendsday afternoon 3 hours of joy.
It began with Bram with Fons, but than Fons got company from Lotje, cause
Bram went more into popdocs , lolapalooza, and journalist
it was in the 80é the show name changed 2 or 3 times, but I emeber it as
[ de Wilde wereld] [ the wild world] the radiostation is VPRO, and still is
[3-vo0r-12] the key for anyone who dislikes what's been on daytime commercaial radio and tv.
They should be rewarded, Bram van Splunteren for sure, and Lotje and Fons
for never changing their goal, just alternative, real alternative, even played
1srts demoos from beginning bands, so they have done a great job as
for plugging the 'other'music than MTV [as an example]
[the other names of the radioshow is on the tip of me tongue]
well anyway Jose did a real good job, and thanks for the article,never
saw it before
for the miss threadstarter and translators so far
sistasheila
tjekket
Re: post your non-english mozarticles here(italian,french...-english translation need
that is an exclusive interview with an german magazine with journalist manfred evert
which took place when the smiths did record meat is murder
interview plus english translation.
New are two names he states concerning his favourite irish authors(to me anyway)
And take note of the statement in the end of the interview "there is no reason why i shouldnt be prime minister one day",given the fact that he, in in a photosession with jake walters holds up a placard ca. 25 years later that "I should be prime minister."
click on three and scroll to the right here http://www.jakewalters.com/
tried my best but the syntax may be incorrect -on the other hand I try to be as close a possible to the wording
According to conserative politician sir peter hordern, who announced in the british parliament that the difference between liverpool and london is similar to that of east and west berlin.
If this is correct,then simonswood,10 miles from liverpool is the aquivalent to siberia.
Bleak council estates and monstrous fabrics radiates the combined charme of a ghost town and prison camp.In that late-industrial* Idyll, for 3 weeks, the smiths are recording their album meat is murder.
Morrissey, without flowers but with a hearing aid, admitting ,that this enviroment, like many things in life , depresses him a lot.
But:"We wanted to work in an.northern atmosphere again,after we did produce our last
4 singles in london. Also.-once we are working in the studio, its not important how it looks outside. And we are working very very fast, we dont need more than 3 weeks for that album.
We are not one of these bands who hang around in studios for months. That would be very boring"
journalist text about the smiths early success(..)
Morrissey:"We wanted to be successfull,so it had to happen. we would have been surprised otherwise. i think we have set an example- its the first time that a band on an independent record label is as successfull and popular like we are.
And we achieved that without money, without videos, without one cent of promotion.
That is historic. No other band had such a breakthrough on national level,without a massive amount of promotion. We are the first band on an independent label who got offered to play Wembley-that is musical history.That hadnt happen before and wont happen again.
Of course we did reject that offer. That smells too much like rock n roll, but still.."
To put the fact beside that self-overestimation and megalomania is a common disease among the music biz- but on the other hand. morrissey had a lot to compensate.
His,according to him, "sad "childhood and even sadder youth he did go through in manchester`s whalley range, a rundown working class district.
Morrissey dont offer too much insight about this time " It was depressing, uninteresting,very quiet" His parents home was a "catastrophe ".
He wasnt able and didnt want to make friends. so he replaced it with books, music and films and with a fantasy world, where in there,long before it became reality ,
steven patrick morrissey became the star
" I realized at a very early age in my life that i am an artisitic,creative person.
I knew that I wanted to sing. Writing was a natural progress out of that because i wanted
to sing songs of my own of course. I nourhished and cherished this wish until it sprout..
My main influence was popular music. i began buying records at the age of six .I was
absolute hysterical when it came to records. That was seen as strange back then because
my interest in music was nnot just an innocent interest, it was passion and thats quite
dramatic for a 8 year old."
M. second passion were books. He did read everything he could lay hands on and found his favourite authors in three very different irish men: sean o casey, brendan behan and oscar wilde.
"Modern fiction --is so unbelievable boring-Everything is written by the numbers of american bestsellers.
I myself do write Verses- I dont want to call it poetry. That sounds too much like lord byron...Besides,i was never that terribly interested in poetry. No poems-I do write verse and theatre plays- lots of theatre plays. Which i would like to take to the stage but only in a distant future."
With you in the lead?
"i can`t deny having a certain interest for acting. but i would despise being thought of another career trooper,as just another prominent person who tries their hand on acting.
A lot of people out of the music biz has tried and failed .Like David Bowie:In all films of him he only plays himself ,never a role. Thats very easy, a 4 year old can do that: playing themself. Thats not acting to me. that is not a challenge-which is sad in a way."
M. wouldnt have time for avocations anyway as smiths are a 24/7 job He repeately stresses that its a childhood dream. But sucess is not without a dark side to it.
"If you are successfull your are constantly confronted with yourself,24 hours a day.
Its like you constantly watch yourself in the mirror. you listen to your own records,do interviews,appear on TV-do this do that and its like you contantly have a look into your own soul.
Thats what normal people never do-a situation like that , where you have to constanly communicate, actually practically holding speeches. and beside that also accomplish
creative work, its fascinating- but it also sets you under pressure and puts your brain into
overspin" (and can get you down)*.
But M. wouldnt be Morrissey if he wouldnt take pleasure out of this.
" But i like the situation. I accept it. I wouldnt want it in any other way. Who wants to live anonymously.?Who wants to be a Nobody??Not me."
The term "rockstar " he rejects for himself "of course" The fact that he,nolens
volens(/ like it or not ),is one and an Idol for thousands ,does give him mixed feelings.
" I feel thankful,particular for one reason. If these people, these fans wouldnt look up to us they would cherish some other pop band. And that would be terrible. I think there should be somebody in the music scene who is intelligent and uses his brain. But there is nobody ,beside us of course. And that is a lot of responsibility."
M. has been stylised by hardcore fans, by parts of the music biz and also by himself as the pop messias of the 80ies, and he believes he is on a mission.He takes his work serious and wants to be taken seriously.
He complains:
"Journalists try to expose me again and again to prove that I am a ordinary person.
Although rock music is the only medium nowadays where one can express serious messages.The only thing which can save us is popular music.
Our music broadens the horizon of people, do make them aware of things.
The reaction of people who like us is very strong, very emotional and hysterical.
I do receive loads of letters and people tell us that our records, in the true sense
of the word,saves their lifes. I dont think that lots of other Musicians got the same
resonance we do"
M. leaving his eloquence stance when he is asked to talk abou the meaning of his
own songs like meat is murder:
"That is the strongest song I have written .. and there is not much more to add to that."
But the got his eloquence back when he got questioned about the.deserted areas neighbourhood of the studio."To live like that would be hell" he says with convinction of someone who just escaped these surroundings."The people who live like that just dont
have a chance . A viciouscircle of bad education, , bad jobs,unemployment.
.Most of them never get out of that.
Yes,Im happy to have made my way out of it. .
But to see this state of things on a daily basis,to see this country go to rack and ruins,
how violence increases. that makes me sick. The whole society is sick People are dull, lethargic.Nothing ever changes"
So,hopelessness and forlessness?
"No,some day society will change. I have no idea how...But there have to be other
people take the lead."
Like who? I didnt have to ask really
"Why not me? There is no reason why i shouldnt be prime minister one day"
*1 spätindustriell-late industrial-same as post industrial?
*2
in the interview they print:drücken aufs gehirn-gehirn=brain never heard the expression but prob mean sets brain under pressure
on the other hand there is a german saying aufs gemüt drücken= sth makes you you depressed/melancholic but i dont think that was implied otherwise they would use the word gemüt=mind,soul ?
for english and american interview rarely seen online see here
http://www.morrissey-solo.com/threa...e-not-been-online-yet...?highlight=interviews
FROM THE JAPANESE INTERVIEW june 1995 ON SIDE TWO TRANSLATED IN TTY-THE 2ND PAGE Is MISSING.will add it the next days
that is an exclusive interview with an german magazine with journalist manfred evert
which took place when the smiths did record meat is murder
interview plus english translation.
New are two names he states concerning his favourite irish authors(to me anyway)
And take note of the statement in the end of the interview "there is no reason why i shouldnt be prime minister one day",given the fact that he, in in a photosession with jake walters holds up a placard ca. 25 years later that "I should be prime minister."
click on three and scroll to the right here http://www.jakewalters.com/
tried my best but the syntax may be incorrect -on the other hand I try to be as close a possible to the wording
According to conserative politician sir peter hordern, who announced in the british parliament that the difference between liverpool and london is similar to that of east and west berlin.
If this is correct,then simonswood,10 miles from liverpool is the aquivalent to siberia.
Bleak council estates and monstrous fabrics radiates the combined charme of a ghost town and prison camp.In that late-industrial* Idyll, for 3 weeks, the smiths are recording their album meat is murder.
Morrissey, without flowers but with a hearing aid, admitting ,that this enviroment, like many things in life , depresses him a lot.
But:"We wanted to work in an.northern atmosphere again,after we did produce our last
4 singles in london. Also.-once we are working in the studio, its not important how it looks outside. And we are working very very fast, we dont need more than 3 weeks for that album.
We are not one of these bands who hang around in studios for months. That would be very boring"
journalist text about the smiths early success(..)
Morrissey:"We wanted to be successfull,so it had to happen. we would have been surprised otherwise. i think we have set an example- its the first time that a band on an independent record label is as successfull and popular like we are.
And we achieved that without money, without videos, without one cent of promotion.
That is historic. No other band had such a breakthrough on national level,without a massive amount of promotion. We are the first band on an independent label who got offered to play Wembley-that is musical history.That hadnt happen before and wont happen again.
Of course we did reject that offer. That smells too much like rock n roll, but still.."
To put the fact beside that self-overestimation and megalomania is a common disease among the music biz- but on the other hand. morrissey had a lot to compensate.
His,according to him, "sad "childhood and even sadder youth he did go through in manchester`s whalley range, a rundown working class district.
Morrissey dont offer too much insight about this time " It was depressing, uninteresting,very quiet" His parents home was a "catastrophe ".
He wasnt able and didnt want to make friends. so he replaced it with books, music and films and with a fantasy world, where in there,long before it became reality ,
steven patrick morrissey became the star
" I realized at a very early age in my life that i am an artisitic,creative person.
I knew that I wanted to sing. Writing was a natural progress out of that because i wanted
to sing songs of my own of course. I nourhished and cherished this wish until it sprout..
My main influence was popular music. i began buying records at the age of six .I was
absolute hysterical when it came to records. That was seen as strange back then because
my interest in music was nnot just an innocent interest, it was passion and thats quite
dramatic for a 8 year old."
M. second passion were books. He did read everything he could lay hands on and found his favourite authors in three very different irish men: sean o casey, brendan behan and oscar wilde.
"Modern fiction --is so unbelievable boring-Everything is written by the numbers of american bestsellers.
I myself do write Verses- I dont want to call it poetry. That sounds too much like lord byron...Besides,i was never that terribly interested in poetry. No poems-I do write verse and theatre plays- lots of theatre plays. Which i would like to take to the stage but only in a distant future."
With you in the lead?
"i can`t deny having a certain interest for acting. but i would despise being thought of another career trooper,as just another prominent person who tries their hand on acting.
A lot of people out of the music biz has tried and failed .Like David Bowie:In all films of him he only plays himself ,never a role. Thats very easy, a 4 year old can do that: playing themself. Thats not acting to me. that is not a challenge-which is sad in a way."
M. wouldnt have time for avocations anyway as smiths are a 24/7 job He repeately stresses that its a childhood dream. But sucess is not without a dark side to it.
"If you are successfull your are constantly confronted with yourself,24 hours a day.
Its like you constantly watch yourself in the mirror. you listen to your own records,do interviews,appear on TV-do this do that and its like you contantly have a look into your own soul.
Thats what normal people never do-a situation like that , where you have to constanly communicate, actually practically holding speeches. and beside that also accomplish
creative work, its fascinating- but it also sets you under pressure and puts your brain into
overspin" (and can get you down)*.
But M. wouldnt be Morrissey if he wouldnt take pleasure out of this.
" But i like the situation. I accept it. I wouldnt want it in any other way. Who wants to live anonymously.?Who wants to be a Nobody??Not me."
The term "rockstar " he rejects for himself "of course" The fact that he,nolens
volens(/ like it or not ),is one and an Idol for thousands ,does give him mixed feelings.
" I feel thankful,particular for one reason. If these people, these fans wouldnt look up to us they would cherish some other pop band. And that would be terrible. I think there should be somebody in the music scene who is intelligent and uses his brain. But there is nobody ,beside us of course. And that is a lot of responsibility."
M. has been stylised by hardcore fans, by parts of the music biz and also by himself as the pop messias of the 80ies, and he believes he is on a mission.He takes his work serious and wants to be taken seriously.
He complains:
"Journalists try to expose me again and again to prove that I am a ordinary person.
Although rock music is the only medium nowadays where one can express serious messages.The only thing which can save us is popular music.
Our music broadens the horizon of people, do make them aware of things.
The reaction of people who like us is very strong, very emotional and hysterical.
I do receive loads of letters and people tell us that our records, in the true sense
of the word,saves their lifes. I dont think that lots of other Musicians got the same
resonance we do"
M. leaving his eloquence stance when he is asked to talk abou the meaning of his
own songs like meat is murder:
"That is the strongest song I have written .. and there is not much more to add to that."
But the got his eloquence back when he got questioned about the.deserted areas neighbourhood of the studio."To live like that would be hell" he says with convinction of someone who just escaped these surroundings."The people who live like that just dont
have a chance . A viciouscircle of bad education, , bad jobs,unemployment.
.Most of them never get out of that.
Yes,Im happy to have made my way out of it. .
But to see this state of things on a daily basis,to see this country go to rack and ruins,
how violence increases. that makes me sick. The whole society is sick People are dull, lethargic.Nothing ever changes"
So,hopelessness and forlessness?
"No,some day society will change. I have no idea how...But there have to be other
people take the lead."
Like who? I didnt have to ask really
"Why not me? There is no reason why i shouldnt be prime minister one day"
*1 spätindustriell-late industrial-same as post industrial?
*2
in the interview they print:drücken aufs gehirn-gehirn=brain never heard the expression but prob mean sets brain under pressure
on the other hand there is a german saying aufs gemüt drücken= sth makes you you depressed/melancholic but i dont think that was implied otherwise they would use the word gemüt=mind,soul ?
for english and american interview rarely seen online see here
http://www.morrissey-solo.com/threa...e-not-been-online-yet...?highlight=interviews
FROM THE JAPANESE INTERVIEW june 1995 ON SIDE TWO TRANSLATED IN TTY-THE 2ND PAGE Is MISSING.will add it the next days
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