one and a half hour smiths interview

[smiler]

never seen this before - and it only has 32 views - am i the only one?

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xlr9m5_the-smiths-still-ill-inverviews_shortfilms

 

[Amy]

The beginning of this clip is the full, unedited Earsay interview - I'd only ever seen the shorter version previously. I love how embarrassed he gets throughout the interview - his Wilde obsession, the Sandie Shaw fan letters etc. It's endearing how he picks his words very carefully and almost stumbles over them in speech. James Dean, "poetic union", "blending of souls", yeaaah right, blending of bodies more like

Some interesting stuff about celibacy/relationships -

"(Celibacy) was something I initially had no say in, but something I got increasingly used to...it's something I became aware of as the years ticked past - I realised that I was quite solitary in this area, and it was something that I would perversely cling to".

"I've had very few experiences but they have been bad and they were a very long time ago. I did become enormously depressed to the point where I believed that any kind of relationship was almost impossible". I was surprised at him saying he didn't fear sex, but he abstained because it was "too much thought, too much anticipation...I don't really care enough (...) I don't segregate the sexes".

It also seems shocking, now, to hear him say he wants children.

Ireland as "the most repressed country in the world".

 

[Amy]

"I was voted 'Wally of the Year' the other day, in some disreputable magazine"

"Nature is connected to total wimpery, and to some extent I do fall into that bracket".

I love the fact that he used to sit avidly, obsessively, reading and memorising Smiths reviews in the music Press.

 

[Stephen]

I think I have this on DVD. It's this right?

 

[Kewpie]

I think I have this on DVD. It's this right?

According to passionsjustlikemine.com the interview is featured in some bootleg DVDs.

 

[WhalleyRange]

Thanks for this, great stuff.

 

[goinghome]

Thanks, looking forward to seeing this, quite a find.

On a related note I was looking for some information earlier and found an article by Phil Sutcliffe for Mojo in 2008 that I hadn't recalled reading. It's very good, and also goes right back. For those others of you like me it passed by - http://www.tiptopwebsite.com/websites/index2.php?username=luckylisp&page=45

 

[goinghome]

This is overflowing with interesting reflections from Morrissey. Who would have been behind its release now?

 

[Stephen]

This is overflowing with interesting reflections from Morrissey. Who would have been behind its release now?

Well I have had it on DVD for 2 years from Amazon, so it was not recently released...

 

[Wobble]

Having watched the first interview, the Smiths' debut album sounds as fresh and beautiful to me asi it did some years ago, making its first spins in the record player!

Terrific.

 

[eugenius]

I could be wrong, but that's not the full version of that Morrissey interview. The beginning has more: a production assistant is shown clipping a small lapel microphone on his shirt with some more small talk, and later at the end,there's more questioning and at the very end, when the interview is done, you can see a visibly upset Morrissey say something like, "This was like an Inquisition."

 

[I Like You]

I adore the bit in which he says that his only friends are in The Smiths.

 

[Thesmithsmorrissey]

so to reiterate that one guy's question, is this from the Still Ill interview DVD?

 

[Thesmithsmorrissey]

appreciated.

 

[Amy]

I could be wrong, but that's not the full version of that Morrissey interview. The beginning has more: a production assistant is shown clipping a small lapel microphone on his shirt with some more small talk, and later at the end,there's more questioning and at the very end, when the interview is done, you can see a visibly upset Morrissey say something like, "This was like an Inquisition."

Ah yes, you're right. I wouldn't say he was "visibly upset" though... he said, "That was a bit...sweaty!" and then something like, "It was like being interrogated by the Nazis". I think the reason for that came mainly toward the end though, because the interviewer was flat-out accusing him of being wet, pretentious, flippant, lying about some aspects of his past, etc. Difficult interviews are often the most insightful. Moz must be sick of all that "are you really miserable?" crap by now!

 

[Amy]

I adore the bit in which he says that his only friends are in The Smiths.

I wonder how Linder and James Maker felt about that one? I know there was some sort of rift between he and Linder during the Smiths years, but...ouch!

 

[eugenius]

I think you might be right--I'll have to look through my DVD collection for the raw interview session, but yes, at the tail end of the clip, the interviewer went from friendly to interrogator in about two questions. You see an uncomfortable Morrissey literally squirming in his seat and the interviewer getting upset at him for not getting a direct answer. I think it runs about an hour--one of the best interviews he ever did as a Smith due to the fact that he wasn't let off the hook like most interviewers usually do.

 

[Ms Valerie Gina]

I wonder how Linder and James Maker felt about that one? I know there was some sort of rift between he and Linder during the Smiths years, but...ouch!

Care to elaborate?

 

[Amy]

Care to elaborate?

Sorry, perhaps my wording was misleading. I don't have much to elaborate on. As far as I know, Linder went abroad for a while after the split of Ludus in 1983 (obviously the same year that the Smiths were signed), and in her absence Morrissey moved to London to be closer to Rough Trade. They didn't fall out but lost contact for a while, and certainly by the later Smiths years ('86, '87) she was back in his life and helping him pick up the pieces. After the Smiths split he listed Linder, James Maker, and Pete Burns as his only friends, and again in 1990 - Linder and Debbie Dannell. I think when The Smiths were formed, Morrissey put everything else in his life on the back burner, and focused completely on the music. He lost contact with Maker for a much longer time, and didn't reconcile until the 'comeback', when he used his label Attack Records to release some of James' material.

 

[CrystalGeezer]

Sorry, perhaps my wording was misleading. I don't have much to elaborate on. As far as I know, Linder went abroad for a while after the split of Ludus in 1983 (obviously the same year that the Smiths were signed), and in her absence Morrissey moved to London to be closer to Rough Trade. They didn't fall out but lost contact for a while, and certainly by the later Smiths years ('86, '87) she was back in his life and helping him pick up the pieces. After the Smiths split he listed Linder, James Maker, and Pete Burns as his only friends, and again in 1990 - Linder and Debbie Dannell. I think when The Smiths were formed, Morrissey put everything else in his life on the back burner, and focused completely on the music. He lost contact with Maker for a much longer time, and didn't reconcile until the 'comeback', when he used his label Attack Records to release some of James' material.

How do you know all this stuff?

I guess I should preface that by saying I read exactly one biography, Saint Morrissey. And while it was an enjoyable read, I decided not to read anymore. I mean there's a lot of room to read between the lines and I didn't think it was fair. If someone read my biography they wouldn't exactly have me figured out. I wanted to extend Morrissey the same chance to see him through his work and words, not other peoples.