If you think all of the negative press towards the oft-controversial Morrissey is new for the woke 2000s, Handsome Devil proves that the anti-Morrissey press has been dogging him his entire career. Some might make the argument that Morrissey goads the press is deliberately contrary, too pushy, too passionate, but even if any of those things are true, he is also been under a microscope from the British tabloid press since day one. As reported in The Sun by Nick Ferrari, The Conservative MP Geoffrey Dickens (1931-95), partially responsible for the Satanic scare of the 1980s, claimed the lyrics to Handsome Devil was about child molestation. Of course they aren’t. Morrissey quipped back in the September 3 1983 issue of New Musical Express, "This piece makes me out to be a proud child-molester and I don't even like children. Handsome Devil is entirely directed towards adults." Some controversy can be good but child molestation is not a stigma anyone wants to be burdened with. Later that month Morrissey told NME: “it's quite laughable coming from a newspaper like The Sun - which is so obviously obsessed with every aspect of sex. So it's all really a total travesty of human nature that it's thrown at us.” Yet even in the 2020s, Morrissey’s feud with the tabloids continues to this day. If you think Morrissey Is racist, the lyrics to Irish Blood English Heart would like a word with you. Here’s just a few headlines from the late 2010s:
Mozza Backs Tommy: Morrissey Attacks ‘Shocking Treatment’ Of Tommy Robinson And Loss Of Free Speech In UK In Latest Bizarre Interview The Sun June 6 2018
'I Always Thought You Were A D*** Morrissey Blasted For Manchester Bombing Rant The Sun May 25 2017
Morrissey's Hit Show Morrissey Punched In The Face As Concertgoers Stormed The Stage During His Us Gig The Sun November 11 2018
The Light Has Gone Out – It’s Time We Stopped Giving Morrissey Attention The Independent October 31, 2019
The Smiths’ “Meat Is Murder” Is Nauseating To Vegetarians And Carnivores Alike The AV Club January 28 2015
Morrissey Says Something Predictably Dumb About the Manchester Bombing SPIN May 23 2017
Morrissey Has Some Stupid Shit To Say About Sexual Assault And More. The AV Club November 17 2018
Morrissey Issues Bizarre Rambling Statement:
“Because This is Who I Am” Consequences of Sound May 24 2019
Morrissey Is Anti-Immigrant...Why Don’t Fans Care?
The Los Angeles Times October 24th 2019
Why Morrissey’s Downfall Echoes The Messy Demise Of The Smiths The Independent March 16th 2020
The most obviously biased stories are released when there is nothing else of consequence to report on. There was a recent article posted by myriad news sites calling Morrissey a ‘cunt.’ The source of the story was a drunk yelling on an iPhone video during a Morrissey concert. One drunk guy. They all made a story out of it too, including manufacturing what the guy was yelling about. It’s blind hate from the site editors that would allow a story like that to be posted. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Articles calling Morrissey a ‘twat’ were so last year. It is the blatant return and embrace of yellow journalism.
Probably the most offensive bits are the way these authors write. They speak with such authority and in such moral superiority, yet write things like he “has some stupid shit to say.” It’s the opposite of Groupthink, it’s called wrongthink. It’s when you go against the officially decided cultural more of whichever particular day this is. So that’s ten recent articles from 2015-2020. I purposefully didn’t include some of the very hateful accusations and just pure frothing by journalists whose only job it seems is to make everybody hate everybody. By not labeling himself, he has been issued just about every label you can think of by the self-hating or self-righteous press.
Well, to paraphrase Bobby Dylan, not everyone has a lot of food but they have a lot of knives and a lot of forks and they gotta cut something. But if you need to ask Google (or Jeeves or whoever) if it is okay for you to like a band or musician, you need to reassess your values. If you can’t make up your mind without getting a community consensus then you don’t have any opinions worth having. If you need an excuse to like what you like, then do you really like it and who are you really? We don’t need to have a national consensus on what has value. Sometimes going against group values has value itself. Or as filmmaker John Waters told GQ in 2020 “it’s rich kids’ schools who are the most stringent police of it. I never understood what a trigger warning was I thought you went to college to have your values challenged. I thought that was the point of education.” There are some values that certainly we should all be able to agree on that should be societal values. Liking a band is not one of them. Art should always have l’air d’adversaire. Like Johnny Lydon (PiL, Sex Pistols) said to Spin in 2012 “I think as a species we’re a wonderful creation and I will be no man or woman’s cannon fodder plain and simple. I attack institutions for the benefit of all of us and to hell with the consequences, ’cause I mean no harm.” He told the Guardian in 2018 “I didn’t want to be a comfortable Mick Jagger-type naughty pop star”—a sentiment Morrissey shared with Rotten in his Viva Hate era b-side Get Off The Stage.
In August 2020, Australian music-maker Nick Cave said that “cancel culture” is a “bad religion run amuck.” He said that it is having an “asphyxiating effect on the creative soul of a society.” Monty Python co-founder John Cleese agreed with John Waters and Nick Cave in September 2020. He told BBC4 that pandering to the “most easily offended” will lead to a self-doubting and “neurotic” society. He said, “From the point of creativity, if you have to keep thinking which words you can use and which you can’t, then that will stifle creativity..” It is like when you take a lyric someone writes and then assume that lyric represents their world view. He said, “The main thing is to realise that words depend on their context. Very literal-minded people think a word is a word but it isn’t.” Furthermore, he said, “PC people simply don’t understand this business about context because they tend to be very literal-minded. The most bizarre thing is when people take lyrics and assume that these are ideals that Morrissey espouses. Nobody thought Billie Holiday was pro-lynching when she sang about the gallant south m and strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees. She was describing a scenario that existed, not embracing it. When Cobain sang Rape Me or Polly, he wasn’t endorsing rape. To continue to handpick and quote from a few lyrics as proof that Morrissey is racist is intellectually dishonest. As is decrying him because he supports causes that are in-line with his views on the treatment of animals or condemns those whose don’t. It is virtue-signaling by an uninformed or non-critically thinking populace.
In a thoughtful piece on The Post Millennial from July 15 2020, writer Fiona Dodwell said that people who say Morrissey lacks humanity do not consider how much humanity it takes to fight for animal rights. She brought up his activism, his stance against violent police persecution and the racist business. She was reminded of a 2019 art exhibition at the Elham Art Gallery called “To Morrissey With Love.” Hakim Ali Elhaj one of the even organizers said “We have been following with concern and shock the unjustified hate campaigns from media towards Morrissey for being honest and outspoken accusing him of racism fascism and hate and other non-sense...As a response from us at the gallery we decided to stand by Morrissey as his Muslim friends to acknowledge we are aware of him as a true and passionate friend and to tell the world we know he's not our enemy or hater and dedicate a group exhibition to him as a thanks for being brave in this cruel world.“ Dowdell pulled no punches with her indictment of the press and culture: “One wonders whether the vocal Morrissey detractors have delved much beyond the surface of NME's clickbait headlines and the lefty identity politics of formerly reputable publications like The Guardian.”
Morrissey has not really been contradictory in his views. He’s always believed in animal rights, LBGTQ rights, human rights, women’s rights and compassion. If anything, it’s his absolute commitment to these beliefs that a lot of people hated him in the first place and a new generation hasn’t grown much. Look inside and consider whether you would hold up to the same kind of scrutiny that you put others under and, if you still disagree with someone try to, do it with love rather then rhetoric and blurbs.
Even his political speech is usually couched in speaking about humanity. Let’s not forget when asked in 2017 by Der Spiegel: “If there was a button here and if you pressed on it Trump would die dead would you push it or not?” Morrissey responded “I would for the safety of humanity. It has nothing to do with my personal opinion of his face or his family but in the interest of humanity I would push.” Furthermore he said “he grabs after everything like a little child. He is not a leader. He is a vermin." In a statement on Fakeblock, Morrissey further clarified his position to Der Spiegel. He wrote, "A few weeks ago, I foolishly allowed Germany's Der Spiegel into my life. Since they eagerly flew from Berlin to beloved Los Angeles in order to talk and laugh, I assumed a common understanding. Would I kill Donald Trump? No, never. Would I support Kevin Spacey's private proclivities? No, never. Would I ever support abuse of children? No, never. Would I support sexual harrasssment? No, never. Would I support rape? No, never. Would Der Speigel convey my views fairly? No, never. Would I ever again speak to print media? No, never.”
It’s not unique to Morrissey that a poison press seems to be gunning for the outspoken artist. It’s very reminiscent of a young Bob Dylan who learned early in his career not to tell the press the truth. Rather, he’d let the songs speak for themselves all the while maintaining a fantasy of Who is Bob Dylan? Like Morrissey, Dylan eventually swore off print media. He has had few interviews since his Gospel years. He’s weathered the barbs of the press and reemerged in his twilight years as a man that can almost do no wrong. Yet, the many controversial comments, lyrics and ideas that Dylan has professed over the course of his 60 year career are not mentioned
This Is Not Your Country is a stark and aching opus that stands over seven minutes long, just after Late Night, Maudlin Street I on the list of longest Morrissey songs. It doesn’t feel particularly long, and it owes a lot of that to the tempo of the song. It’s pacing and storytelling is produced in such a way that one detail easily flows into the next. The arrangement is mainly two acoustic guitars panned to left and right, piano, keys and strings. The music matches the tone of the lyrics—dramatic and desperate.
Morrissey wrote the song about The Troubles in Northern Ireland, with which those of us in the US probably aren’t that well versed in what is going on it that part of the world. It just doesn’t get reported here. But by the sound of This Is Not Your Country, it’s not reported with regularity in the UK either. The lyrics seem to say that news networks like the BBC would rather just ignore it. Therefore, this song, based surely only on the title, has been used again to call Morrissey a racist. It’s the same people who say that “he sang England is for the English and used to always drape himself in the Union Jack!” that have adopted this idea.
Regardless of what you think of his views, stated or unstated, the world is becoming more intolerant of free speech. Even free political speech, which is supposed to be one of the protected classes of speech will see one on the receiving end of a ban or an old-fashioned Twitter canceling. In 2019, there was one person that was upset that he saw a Morrissey poster in a subway station. So this cat, according to the Liverpool Echo, called and complained and Merseyrail removed the posters that were part of a paid advertising campaign. The dude who complained told the Echo, "[The things Morrissey has said] offend me and a lot of other people. It's just strange to think Merseyrail, being a public service for the people, is advertising someone with his views. It's just pictures of Morrissey with his new album. He's not doing anything inappropriate, but his name is a by-name for questionable views at the moment..”
The Echo wrote that hundreds of people were outraged by the posters removal. Here’s a few responses to the Echo story from their followup. "If it really was just one person offended, and the instant response then Merseyrail have really opened the floodgates now. Talk about spineless!" Another reader said, “the poster is advertising his album what’s that got to do with his views on any other subject? If people’s political views and distasteful behavior or comments were considered reason to remove them from public sight there wouldn’t be many left." Most of the published responses mention that they’re not even Morrissey fans. So, it’s not like it was all his fans coming to his defense.
And like This Is Not Your Country has been labeled as “proof the he is racist,” a lot of what he has said is purposefully manipulated and confused. Nowhere in the article did the dude state what Morrissey said that supposedly offended him. I can tell you, I’ve worked in the media for 15 years and the number of complaints that have accurately been able to recall what they’re angry about is zero. It’s always “I didn’t hear it but I heard about it” or “I wasn’t listening the whole time.” These people will call your supervisors, your advertisers and be incredulous over something that never happened. It was either a construct of their own psyche or something that was completely misheard or misrepresented. We’re going to have to face it, if you disagree with the prevailing mood, you better not say anything, because rather than working for change, people are working to silence.
In 1996, Morrissey told Alan Coor of Raidió Teilifís Éireann, “I've never been one to pay attention to what anyone else thinks. I do my own thing because it suits me well. I don't think I'm mellowing out in any way whatsoever. There are things that I write about that mean a lot to me that may not concern other people.” I guess at this point you have to ignore it. Either way, This Is Not Your Country. Vulture named it one of Morrissey’s Top-20 Unheralded Songs. In 2014, Vulture wrote, “This Is Not My Country is another entry on this list that has come under scrutiny for its perceived racially inflammatory sentiments."
Then there's the idea that Morrissey has said he greatly dislikes Pakistanis. This comes from an unauthorized biography written by known Morrissey enemy Johnny Rogan. And even then it's an unsourced third-hand story from Morrissey would have been a teenager. Let us look at his support for so-called Far-Right politician Anne Marie Waters. Many of her views would be considered radically Left-wing in America. She's an animal welfare advocate who supports the ending of stunned and religious slaughter. Their Web site says, "Religious slaughter, both halal and kosher, involve cutting the throat of a conscious animal; a practice prohibited under British law (which requires animals to be stunned to unconsciousness prior to slaughter). EU laws provide a religious exemption to this. For Britain will repeal this exemption in the UK and demand that British law is obeyed.." She's been a life-long LGBTQ advocate. She's a feminist and an agnostic who is the director of the National Secular Society. She later told ITV she opposed "racism, antisemitism, misogyny and the oppression usually associated with the far right". Sometimes political support has to go to the less of evils and those views have certainly line up with Morrissey's long-held views on equality, inclusion and animal rights. In fact, many of the "controversial" things Morrissey has said in recent years have to do with ending animal cruelty. He called the boiling of cats alive barbaric and evil, but the press reports that he hates Asians. No, he hates the people that torture and abuse animals. Same message since 1984 and it seems he thinks that just because you are of a particular nationality or religion doesn't mean you get a free pass on boiling cats.
In a ridiculous piece of reporting in 2014, The Daily Express wrote, "Madness stars still angry over Morrissey gig walkout." Madness stars Graham 'Suggs' Mcpherson and Chris Foreman are still annoyed singer Morrissey walked out of their 1992 reunion shows because the incident cast a shadow over the band's comeback." They're still annoyed 22 years later? Who thought to ask them that? The very old story happened on August 8, 1992. It goes that Morrissey was asked to play at the Madness comeback concert Madstock! While Morrissey and Th'Lads were on stage, rowdy fans began to throw all manner of things on stage. Although, fan footage of the show doesn't reveal the "constant barrage" that was reported at the time. The crowd is very vocal, however. But there is a good amount of support and applause after each song. I'll tell you what, though, I wouldn't have messed with those guys. Gary Day and Boz look like they could end you. This is the infamous show where Morrissey draped himself in a Union Jack flag that someone threw on stage. He did sort of stick it in his pants though during the performance of Glamorous Glue. Imagine such a thing being controversial in the US. As an American, I have to admit, I don’t understand all the fuss. I saw a picture from the 90s where Phil Collin, the guitarist from Def Leppard, was holding his trademark Union Jack guitar. Oasis used Union Jack imagery a few years later. Why is it okay for them? Morrissey told Q in 1996, “I didn't invent the Union Jack, you do realise that, don't you? I didn't knock it up on a spinning wheel in the front room. I can't account for people's reactions. Some people adore it; others are embarrassed by it. I don't get it. I don't understand the fascist implications of it. I think it happened because it was time to get old Mozzer. Nothing more sophisticated than that.” He told The Big Picture in 1997, "I can't imagine why anybody would want to be racist." He said. "It's so beyond me I feel unqualified to talk about it. So many people have used the Union Jack since then, with the eruption of Britpop. Nobody else has been pilloried for it.”
Morrissey says that he tries not to pay this kind of reporting any mind. He told Fiona Dodwell, for her piece This Is Morrissey in 2018, “I often have no idea what people are writing about. I don't recognize myself in their criticisms. They live in a world of their own, and they won't break away from what each other says on any subject. You long for a reviewer who steps away from the pack. I don't think I've done an interview with the UK music press since 2007, which isn't snobbery, but I simply became tired of the ridiculous BIGMOUTH STRIKES AGAIN headlines ... my voice is very soft and quiet, in fact, and it doesn't strike again, or even strike at all.”
*Just as a point of fact, NME issued an apology to Morrissey In June of 2012: “We wish to make clear that we do not believe that he is a racist; we didn’t think we were saying he was and we apologise to Morrissey if he or anyone else misunderstood our piece in that way. We never set out to upset Morrissey and we hope we can both get back to doing what we do best.”
