When should Morrissey retire?

Ugly Devil

Well-Known Member
I appreciate I'm in a minority here, but I happened to hold the opinion that Low in high school was a strong album, and everything I've heard so far from his latest release indicates he'll surpass it.
His voice, for some inexplicable reason appears to be blossoming. But alas, his recent lyrics, while not terrible, have taken a nosedive in terms of wit and humour.
The latter doesn't bother me too much, as we already have a decade of prime lyrical Morrissey. It's the voice and unique melodies that still draw me in.
After this new album is released Morrissey will be without a record label, and well, it's not gonna be easy for Morrissey to find a new label that'll gamble on him. Especially since he's burnt so many bridges, 90% press coverage of him is, to put it mildly, "negative."
Unless, as people on here mentioned many years ago, he goes down the self release independent route, I think this will be his final album. So as a recording artist he'll essentially be retired. But as a live performer, how many more years will he go on?
 
I appreciate I'm in a minority here, but I happened to hold the opinion that Low in high school was a strong album, and everything I've heard so far from his latest release indicates he'll surpass it.
His voice, for some inexplicable reason appears to be blossoming. But alas, his recent lyrics, while not terrible, have taken a nosedive in terms of wit and humour.
The latter doesn't bother me too much, as we already have a decade of prime lyrical Morrissey. It's the voice and unique melodies that still draw me in.
After this new album is released Morrissey will be without a record label, and well, it's not gonna be easy for Morrissey to find a new label that'll gamble on him. Especially since he's burnt so many bridges, 90% press coverage of him is, to put it mildly, "negative."
Unless, as people on here mentioned many years ago, he goes down the self release independent route, I think this will be his final album. So as a recording artist he'll essentially be retired. But as a live performer, how many more years will he go on?

I wouldn't put it past him to get another record deal. The UK is just one territory & even the worst publicity imaginable hasn't killed him off in it.

I'm actually less optimistic about the touring because he doesn't seem particularly healthy. It depends what's causing the agitation.
 
He should carry on touring for as long as he is getting something from it.

Many people much older than him are still on the road and, based on articles that I've recently, it is these vintage acts who are holding the music industry together. While I wouldn't suggest that his star is at its highest, he can still draw a crowd in many countries of the world.

As for it being his final album, that is plausible but it is impossible to definitively call it that. By that I mean, that even if he doesn't release something in the next 5 years he could still carry on touring and not consider himself to be finished in the studio. When he hasn't had a deal in the past, he has still added new songs to the set. He could do the same again.
 
Nothing about his performance on Monday signalled "retirement" to me. He seemed to be having a blast.
And he seemed more dynamic than on other recent tours.
 
Tony Bennett still going at 90+ so a long way to go
 
He should carry on touring for as long as he is getting something from it.

Many people much older than him are still on the road and, based on articles that I've recently, it is these vintage acts who are holding the music industry together. While I wouldn't suggest that his star is at its highest, he can still draw a crowd in many countries of the world.

As for it being his final album, that is plausible but it is impossible to definitively call it that. By that I mean, that even if he doesn't release something in the next 5 years he could still carry on touring and not consider himself to be finished in the studio. When he hasn't had a deal in the past, he has still added new songs to the set. He could do the same again.

I really don't think it is his last album. The reviews of his actual music are good & an image problem that's based on pull-quotes & THE PIN isn't going to phase a company.

Besides, the UK left is imploding, & it's going to get worse. Left-wing racism is going to be a huge story in the coming months. And The Guardian is at war with itself.

There is going to come a point where punishing Moz for being his usual uncontrollable self is going to be obviously hypocritical & a waste.
 
I'm confident he will find another deal. I'm sure this album will be a success and none of us really know the numbers/profits from sales. There's a big world out there and he still generates new fans. My eldest son and step daughter are 15 and love his work. There are always a small army of new young fans at his gigs. His music has a timeless quality and if a label thinks he will be profitable they will sign him. I also believe that some labels are passionate about more than just the bottom line and will take a risk. There has to be some kudos associated with signing him. He is such a provocative artist.
 
Born one and three months later than Morrissey, Mr Shandy and myself have absolutely NO intention of retiring nor, I suspect, does he. Howevers . . . not sure how long his current stage 'presence' can be maintained: wandering on looking as if he's called on the off-chance of advising you on equity release, hitching his pants up like Jack Duckworth and SUCKING IT ALL IN for that last mighty shirt fling . . . We imagine him as some variation of late period Cohen: a tifter, a nice suit, a poised reflection on death and all its absurdities combined with a realisation that there's really nothing left to do. He will endure, in some way, and it's our duty - OUR DUTY, SIR - to follow him to the bitter end of us all. For what do any of us truly have left? As we sat in the bar waiting to access our upgraded seats at Leeds, Mr Shandy and I cast a cold eye around us: we are all old and growing older. Death may, or may not, be the end.
 
When Should Morrissey Retire?

Morrissey
Will not retire
Artists
Do not retire

Matisse
Almost dead
Made cutouts
In bed
Matisse
Did not retire

Morrissey
Will not retire
Lyricists
Do not retire

Lennon
Shot dead
Returning
From The Plant
Lennon
Did not retire

Morrissey
Will not retire

Writers
Actors
And poets
Do not retire

Morrissey
Will not retire

He'll probably die
On stage

And

You will miss him when he's gone
 
When Should Morrissey Retire?

Morrissey
Will not retire
Artists
Do not retire

Matisse
Almost dead
Made cutouts
In bed
Matisse
Did not retire

Morrissey
Will not retire
Lyricists
Do not retire

Lennon
Shot dead
Returning
From The Plant
Lennon
Did not retire

Morrissey
Will not retire

Writers
Actors
And poets
Do not retire

Morrissey
Will not retire

He'll probably die
On stage

And

You will miss him when he's gone

This is true.
 
Mine will be a minority position also, as I dislike his electro-inclined musical direction on Low in High School and onward (I guess it really began with "Earth Is the Loneliest Planet"), yet I thought his writing in Autobiography and List of the Lost was excellent. So I say, retire from music and become a writer in your dotage. A blog, another novel, a multi-volume history of the British Isles or Latin America, short stories, erotica—whatever pleases him; it will no doubt be superb. The only shame with this is that his voice is stronger than ever. But if he's intent on pairing it with Manzurian synth-disco and Tobias' atonal sludge, then better to retire it than that.

There was one concert date where he was touring behind either Low in High School or California Son, it's on YouTube somewhere, and he was wearing a sequined green glitter outfit which did nothing to conceal the paunch. It was undignified for a man of any years, let alone advancing years. Sometimes I think he's giving his "Melvis" detractors too much ammunition.
 
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I really don't think it is his last album. The reviews of his actual music are good & an image problem that's based on pull-quotes & THE PIN isn't going to phase a company.

Besides, the UK left is imploding, & it's going to get worse. Left-wing racism is going to be a huge story in the coming months. And The Guardian is at war with itself.

There is going to come a point where punishing Moz for being his usual uncontrollable self is going to be obviously hypocritical & a waste.
Don't want to distract from the point of this thread, but can you tell me more about this left-wing racism in the UK? A link to an article maybe
 
Morrissey should retire once all the animals are saved, all the Muslims have gone back to where they came from, and the BBC bring back Dixon of Dock Green.
 
Don't want to distract from the point of this thread, but can you tell me more about this left-wing racism in the UK? A link to an article maybe

It's going to directly impact Morrissey's reputation (weirdly), so it's on topic.

The most obvious thing is going to be the Equalities & Human Rights Commission's report into structural anti-Jewish racism in The Labour Party (our left-wing party).

It's A Very Long Story but it got to a point that Labour members were sharing neo-Nazi memes, from neo-Nazi websites without a hint of self-awareness as they continued to denounce The Far Right. We've also decided to smear an anti-racism campaigner, Trevor Phillips, using the same method used on Morrissey - pull-quotes, linking him with Tommy Robinson (unclean, unclean). Unlike Moz though Trevor's a good networker & wont triple down for the hell of it, so it'll quickly backfire.

There are other issues - the hard left is so factional that if it hates you it will blindly attack your ethnicity/gender/sexuality as if everyone within a group has to have the same opinions (which is exactly what the far right does).

And it will ignore or cover-up problems within a minority community or caused by something it approves of like immigration, even when the problems are causing increasing tensions that will make life for that minority community worse, because their own vision of themselves 'as a good person' is more important than actually helping people when it's difficult.
For example:

(& predictably deflecting - https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/49467/The+right+use+abuse+scandals+to+feed+racism )

& identity politics itself has captured almost all public institutions & corporations. It wanted to create diversity & banish bigotry, but to do that it needed a system of fixed group identities in an unchanging hierarchy of oppression & because they believe it's fixed/unchanging it has created bigotry & banished diversity.

The left in the UK is in serious trouble no matter how many ageing Indie kids are happily announcing they'll never listen to Morrissey again.
The cracks started to show in 2013 when Mark Fisher (a lecturer & musician on the left) published an essay on call-out culture (as he called it then) & was denounced for it. He committed suicide & some of my friends where gloating about it. They were glad he was dead because he was a 'fascist'.

There's more, but you get the general idea.
 
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It's going to directly impact Morrissey's reputation (weirdly), so it's on topic.

The most obvious thing is going to be the Equalities & Human Rights Commission's report into structural anti-Jewish racism in The Labour Party (our left-wing party).

It's A Very Long Story but it got to a point that Labour members were sharing neo-Nazi memes, from neo-Nazi websites without a hint of self-awareness as they continued to denounce The Far Right. We've also decided to smear an anti-racism campaigner, Trevor Phillips, using the same method they used on Morrissey - pull-quotes, linking him with Tommy Robinson (unclean, unclean). Unlike Moz though Trevor's a good networker & wont triple down for the hell of it, so it'll quickly backfire.

There are other issues - the hard left is so factional that if it hates you it will blindly attack your ethnicity/gender/sexuality as if everyone within a group has to have the same opinions (which is exactly what the far right does).

And it will ignore or cover-up problems within a minority community or caused by something it approves of like immigration, even when the problems are causing increasing tensions that will make life for that minority community worse, because their own vision of themselves 'as a good person' is more important than actually helping people when it's difficult.
For example:

(& predictably deflecting - https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/49467/The+right+use+abuse+scandals+to+feed+racism )

& identity politics itself has captured almost all public institutions & corporations. It wanted to create diversity & banish bigotry, but to do that it needed a system of fixed group identities in an unchanging hierarchy of oppression & because they believe it's fixed/unchanging it has created bigotry & banished diversity.

The left in the UK is serious trouble no matter how many ageing Indie kids are happily announcing they'll never listen to Morrissey again.
The cracks started to show in 2013 when Mark Fisher (a lecturer & musician on the left) published an essay on call-out culture (as he called it then) & was denounced for it. He committed suicide & some of my friends where gloating about it. They were glad he was dead because he was a 'fascist'.

There's more, but you get the general idea.
Lot's to digest here. Thank you! A very interesting situation. I was expecting a similar Mark-Fisher-esque backlash when Obama criticized "cancel culture" (in October 2019), but thankfully his very sensible words were generally well received.
 
Lot's to digest here. Thank you! A very interesting situation. I was expecting a similar Mark-Fisher-esque backlash when Obama criticized "cancel culture" (in October 2019), but thankfully his very sensible words were generally well received.

I thought he'd get worse too, but I think they realised he was clued up enough on the nuance of the ideology to win.

Poor Mark didn't know what he was up against. That there's no pity at all once they see you as polluted or 'toxic'.
 
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