'I feel like I've been had': Morrissey's collaborators respond to his politics - The Guardian

Link retweeted by @ericacalil:

'I feel like I've been had': Morrissey's collaborators respond to his politics - The Guardian
The former Smiths singer’s new album features guest spots from Billie Joe Armstrong and Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste. Are they not put off by his increasingly unpleasant right-wing stance?

Excerpt:

As US music magazine the Fader asked: “What possible reason could any of these people have for lining up behind Morrissey now?”

Droste declined to comment. The only artist willing to speak with the Guardian was Canadian vocalist Ariel Engle, who performs with cult indie outfit Broken Social Scene. She received a call from the American producer Joe Chiccarelli asking her to contribute backing vocals for a cover of Joni Mitchell’s Don’t Interrupt the Sorrow. “I thought, ‘Oh the Smiths, sure’,” she says. “It was $500 for two hours’ work.”

Engle says she didn’t become aware of Morrissey’s political views until the album was announced and a friend emailed to question her involvement. “It’s a very weak argument to claim ignorance,” she says, “but it is my argument. It’s not an excuse but it happens to be the truth.”

Morrissey’s manager, Peter Katsis, says he is unaware of statements made by any guest vocalists, but that the intention of the covers album was supposed to be fun. “This is where his head is at,” he says. “Maybe enough has been said with the last few albums being political.” Of Morrissey’s political views, Katsis says: “I manage his artistic career and sometimes I have to deal with things he says, but it’s not for me to comment.”

Chiccarelli echoes Katsis’s sentiment. “I can’t speak to Moz’s politics,” he says. “I’m a record-maker. I’ve known him 10 years and he’s been a gentleman and a pleasure. I consider him a friend.” When asked about the far-right figures for whom Morrissey has expressed support, Chiccarelli says: “I’d really have to research it and see if it crossed a particular line for me.”

Engle says that learning of Morrissey’s political opinions has left a “bad taste”, and that she stands in opposition to his views. “The inflammatory things he says are not my politics. I think he’s completely out of line. I grew up around multiculturalism and I am the product of multiculturalism and immigration. I feel like I’ve been had, but it’s my fault.”

The American singer LP offered a statement through a PR representative: “As I’m a huge fan of his music and poetry, I was honoured to be asked to collaborate on the album.” Representatives for Lydia Night of California band the Regrettes offered no comment, but the 18-year-old told punk magazine Kerrang!: “I’ve grown up loving the Smiths – my cat’s name is Morrissey!” Representatives for Armstrong said he was in the studio and therefore unreachable.

The guest stars on California Son are all North American, suggesting a difference between perceptions of the former Smiths frontman in the US and UK. Katsis, who is American, sees the critical focus on Morrissey’s politics as a British preoccupation.

“I don’t think they know enough about it to care about it,” he says of Morrissey’s US fans. “I don’t feel knowledgable enough to comment on British politics, therefore it’s probably not as important to me or the international fans as it is to UK fans. This whole thing has had me perplexed. The subjects are very complicated and dividing.”

The figures bear out Morrissey’s enduring support across the Atlantic. He ended 2018 with arena shows in North and South America, and has announced his first Canadian tour in 20 years for this April. In November 2017, Los Angeles City Council declared 10 November “Morrissey Day”.

“In America, he tends to be seen as the rock star who sang about queer life and spoke openly about feminism when nobody else did,” says Rolling Stone critic Rob Sheffield. “These two images define him, and he’s still seen in terms of his pioneering place in history. His grumpy old age is not really held against him. Americans tend not to follow UK politics very closely, so when he makes mind-blowingly offensive statements there might be outrage or humiliation for a few days, or hours, but then it’s back to listening to The Queen Is Dead”.




Media coverage:
 
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Although it seems that only one of the "collaborators" in question actually chose to respond...

And that collaborator was...

You guessed it...

Stephen McHattie
2465A2E0-1BE9-42C2-9ED1-772D4B79267F.jpeg
 
This post is full of myths and inaccuracies. It's late so I'm just going to make a few very quick points.

1. No Morrissey isn't spot on. He's historically illiterate and I already gave the reasons why. The Royal Family's "methods of gaining power and wealth" have nothing to do with Cromwell. Those methods were in use long before Cromwell was born. They have no reason to salute him, and they don't do so. Morrissey wrote the lyric to be provocative but apparently without doing any research first. It ruins the song.

2. Aboriginal people not counting as human until 1967 is not true, it's a myth just like African-Americans counting only as "three-fifths of a person". It's a wild oversimplification of the truth. Here's an article about it:
https://www.google.com/amp/amp.abc.net.au/article/9550650

3. "Her dear old mum did coin the term "wogs" after all." --- I very much doubt that. Sounds like another myth. I looked it up and can find no evidence for your claim. Maybe she was reported to have used the term at one stage but it's unlikely that she "coined" it.

4. "he sent entire areas in Ireland to Barbados as slave labour" -- the Irish were never slaves. Some were indentured servants yes, as were many other groups of people, including some English people. Google the difference between slavery and indentured servitude.

5. "Oliver Cromwell killed 41% of the Irish population" -- I don't know where you pulled this statistic from but it sounds like nonsense. Again, I can find nothing online backing up that statement.

6. "she is a direct descendent of Vlad the Impaler" --- I had never heard this, and considering the rest of what you wrote, I doubted that it was true either. But I googled it and apparently they're descended from Vlad's illegitimate half-brother, not from Vlad himself. It's hardly relevant either way.
I could spend more time debunking what you wrote, but like I said, it's late. Anyway, it's something that anyone with an internet connection can do, including you. Spend some time researching the claims you made and you can debunk yourself, instead of going through life believing in historical myths and half-truths.
Apologies, its been a hectic few weeks but I will briefly reply as I don't like anyone to think I rely on Google for my information.
In fact I rarely use Google preferring Ecosia as they don't store individuals information and provide a broader search result less tainted by commercial interests.
I will give you a short reading list if you are interested in researching the old fashioned way as I am.
1 The royal family used the same methods as Cromwell in their treatment of the Irish from the first plantations of Ireland by the Crown, to cromwells reign of terror, up to Irish independence in the 20th century. To the Irish who were starved, robbed, Enslaved and treated as subhuman in their own country there was NO difference. Any book by Irish historian Tim Pat Coogan is well regarded and a good starting point
British historian AJP Taylor said "all Ireland was a Belsen" when describing the man made famine inflicted on the Irish in the 1840s, not the first or last famine but noteworthy for the million +people who died while the crown exported their food. As with all facts the numbers vary but a million is the agreed minimum by all and the word genocide is used by many.
2 .2007 was the 40th anniversary of the constitional amendment in Australia when aborigines were no longer classified as "flora and fauna". Until then they were not "officially" human beings. I know this not through my Internet connection but because locally we had a delegation of Australians in Ireland who celebrated this fact in 2007 also marking 160 years since "Black 47". There are revisionists who like to pretend events didn't happen or weren't quite so bad back there in the distant past. It comes down to who's writing the history(the victors ) and which version you want to believe.
Our Aboriginal visitors believed it and that's good enough for me. We won't even talk about the stolen children who were forced to be "white", a practice in place until 1975. There's also a relatively recent podcast from John Kelly's interview with Uachtarán na hÉireann Mícheál D Higgins ón Irish Radio Lyric FM where he talks about this very policy. He's a former University lecturer in political science and sociology and presumably did more research than googling.
3. The queen's mother, did she coin the term "wogs" or just use it so incessantly that she got the credit. I'd put money on both. This I did get through my Internet connection: she supported white supremecist rule in Rhodesia, opposed independence in India, hated the Irish (the feeling is mutual) and used terms like huns, waps and dagos according to BBC 4 radio host Edward Staunton who called her "a ghastly old bigot". Sir Roy Strong diarist and former director of V&A Museum said she used terms like "nig nogs" amongst others I can't be bothered repeating.
In short she represented the royal family accurately.
4. & 5.
I'm familiar with the terms indentured servant vs slave.
People were sent locally here to Van Diemens land for "stealing" an apple from English settlers. This was as indentured servants for a number of years until they worked or paid off their sentence. These people never returned home or saw their families again, so it was a life sentence.
If they survived the journey they were treated whatever way their owners saw fit, "slavery by another name. "as Michael D called it.
Cromwell sent SLAVES from Ireland to Barbados Look it up, don't take my word for it.
The Civil War 1642-1651 by Michael St John Parker. ISBN 0853726477.
This also deals with what to you sounds like nonsense, a policy of genocide in Ireland, 618,000 of a 1.5m pre civil war population were slaughtered, entire localities. Tim Pat Coogan also covers this as does Michael O'Siochru in "God's Executioner Oliver cromwell.
6. The Romanian government used the british" royal families descent from Vlad the Impaler s stock as part of their tourism campaign in 2012. I'll do out a family tree another night or maybe you can just Google it.

There is a wealth of accurate information contained in books. "Debunking" history isn't done through a lousy search engine, unless you are willing to put in the time going through a large portion the 120000000 tentative references it gives you.
I'm quite happy to give you a more extensive reading list when you're ready.
Morrissey did of course write his lyric to be provocative but in the light of Irish history he is also correct. Anyone who is Irish or has Irish family knows their history.
 
Apologies, its been a hectic few weeks but I will briefly reply as I don't like anyone to think I rely on Google for my information.
In fact I rarely use Google preferring Ecosia as they don't store individuals information and provide a broader search result less tainted by commercial interests.
I will give you a short reading list if you are interested in researching the old fashioned way as I am.
1 The royal family used the same methods as Cromwell in their treatment of the Irish from the first plantations of Ireland by the Crown, to cromwells reign of terror, up to Irish independence in the 20th century. To the Irish who were starved, robbed, Enslaved and treated as subhuman in their own country there was NO difference. Any book by Irish historian Tim Pat Coogan is well regarded and a good starting point
British historian AJP Taylor said "all Ireland was a Belsen" when describing the man made famine inflicted on the Irish in the 1840s, not the first or last famine but noteworthy for the million +people who died while the crown exported their food. As with all facts the numbers vary but a million is the agreed minimum by all and the word genocide is used by many.
2 .2007 was the 40th anniversary of the constitional amendment in Australia when aborigines were no longer classified as "flora and fauna". Until then they were not "officially" human beings. I know this not through my Internet connection but because locally we had a delegation of Australians in Ireland who celebrated this fact in 2007 also marking 160 years since "Black 47". There are revisionists who like to pretend events didn't happen or weren't quite so bad back there in the distant past. It comes down to who's writing the history(the victors ) and which version you want to believe.
Our Aboriginal visitors believed it and that's good enough for me. We won't even talk about the stolen children who were forced to be "white", a practice in place until 1975. There's also a relatively recent podcast from John Kelly's interview with Uachtarán na hÉireann Mícheál D Higgins ón Irish Radio Lyric FM where he talks about this very policy. He's a former University lecturer in political science and sociology and presumably did more research than googling.
3. The queen's mother, did she coin the term "wogs" or just use it so incessantly that she got the credit. I'd put money on both. This I did get through my Internet connection: she supported white supremecist rule in Rhodesia, opposed independence in India, hated the Irish (the feeling is mutual) and used terms like huns, waps and dagos according to BBC 4 radio host Edward Staunton who called her "a ghastly old bigot". Sir Roy Strong diarist and former director of V&A Museum said she used terms like "nig nogs" amongst others I can't be bothered repeating.
In short she represented the royal family accurately.
4. & 5.
I'm familiar with the terms indentured servant vs slave.
People were sent locally here to Van Diemens land for "stealing" an apple from English settlers. This was as indentured servants for a number of years until they worked or paid off their sentence. These people never returned home or saw their families again, so it was a life sentence.
If they survived the journey they were treated whatever way their owners saw fit, "slavery by another name. "as Michael D called it.
Cromwell sent SLAVES from Ireland to Barbados Look it up, don't take my word for it.
The Civil War 1642-1651 by Michael St John Parker. ISBN 0853726477.
This also deals with what to you sounds like nonsense, a policy of genocide in Ireland, 618,000 of a 1.5m pre civil war population were slaughtered, entire localities. Tim Pat Coogan also covers this as does Michael O'Siochru in "God's Executioner Oliver cromwell.
6. The Romanian government used the british" royal families descent from Vlad the Impaler s stock as part of their tourism campaign in 2012. I'll do out a family tree another night or maybe you can just Google it.

There is a wealth of accurate information contained in books. "Debunking" history isn't done through a lousy search engine, unless you are willing to put in the time going through a large portion the 120000000 tentative references it gives you.
I'm quite happy to give you a more extensive reading list when you're ready.
Morrissey did of course write his lyric to be provocative but in the light of Irish history he is also correct. Anyone who is Irish or has Irish family knows their history.
No one cares or will read this.
 
Guardian is trash and clear propaganda. England s in trouble and phony personalities like Jim Jefferies are now being exposed. Morrissey is a proud Englishman who loves his country, it's culture and rich history. Morrissey is spot on with whats happening and Tommy Robinson is a hero that maybe England doesn't deserve
 
Guardian is trash and clear propaganda. England s in trouble and phony personalities like Jim Jefferies are now being exposed. Morrissey is a proud Englishman who loves his country, it's culture and rich history. Morrissey is spot on with whats happening and Tommy Robinson is a hero that maybe England doesn't deserve
f*** off you racist turd
 
As I said, f*** off you racist turd. You uneducated, thick, racist turd, as all racists are.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-considine/muslims-are-not-a-race_b_8591660.html

Racists like you won't say what you really want to say because we have laws against such things. Instead you latch on to what you think is the overriding characteristic of the brown people you hate, their religion. It's always the same with you racists - utter cowards afraid to say what they want because of the law.

I fully expect your next gambit to be -"Yeah, but the grooming gangs". So, if you can read, read this. Which I fully expect you won't...

https://medium.com/@Reg_Left_Media/grooming-gangs-quilliam-the-myth-of-the-84-percent-cc834b57fcf3

People like you and your hero Yaxley Lennon are going to try and find every possible justification for your hatred. Stop for a moment (which you won't) and think about how many bus drivers, taxi drivers, shop owners, nurses, doctors, restaurant owners and workers you interact with. Then reflect on how much we all need each other, look at your hatred, and feel utter shame.
 
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As I said, f*** off you racist turd. You uneducated, thick, racist turd, as all racists are.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-considine/muslims-are-not-a-race_b_8591660.html

Racists like you won't say what you really want to say because we have laws against such things. Instead you latch on to what you think is the overriding characteristic of the brown people you hate, their religion. It's always the same with you racists - utter cowards afraid to say what they want because of the law.

I fully expect your next gambit to be -"Yeah, but the grooming gangs". So, if you can read, read this. Which I fully expect you won't...

https://medium.com/@Reg_Left_Media/grooming-gangs-quilliam-the-myth-of-the-84-percent-cc834b57fcf3

People like you are and your hero Yaxley Lennon are going to try and find every possible justification for your hatred. Stop for a moment (which you won't) and think about how many bus drivers, taxi drivers, shop owners, nurses, doctors, restaurant owners and workers you interact with. Then reflect on how much we all need each other, look at your hatred, and feel utter shame.



:crazy:

(hes having a condition:straightface:)

your 'next gambit'?? WTF? are you having flashbacks from that stupid Mindcraft TV show:lbf:

:pignose::turban::pignose:

the Halal Butcher
 
Huffington Post is Fake:turban: news FFS:thumbsdown:
Ayatollahs and wild Imams populate there.

o_O
 
As I said, f*** off you racist turd. You uneducated, thick, racist turd, as all racists are.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-considine/muslims-are-not-a-race_b_8591660.html

Racists like you won't say what you really want to say because we have laws against such things. Instead you latch on to what you think is the overriding characteristic of the brown people you hate, their religion. It's always the same with you racists - utter cowards afraid to say what they want because of the law.

I fully expect your next gambit to be -"Yeah, but the grooming gangs". So, if you can read, read this. Which I fully expect you won't...

https://medium.com/@Reg_Left_Media/grooming-gangs-quilliam-the-myth-of-the-84-percent-cc834b57fcf3

People like you are and your hero Yaxley Lennon are going to try and find every possible justification for your hatred. Stop for a moment (which you won't) and think about how many bus drivers, taxi drivers, shop owners, nurses, doctors, restaurant owners and workers you interact with. Then reflect on how much we all need each other, look at your hatred, and feel utter shame.
Does this guy ever take a rest?
 
As I said, f*** off you racist turd. You uneducated, thick, racist turd, as all racists are.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-considine/muslims-are-not-a-race_b_8591660.html

Racists like you won't say what you really want to say because we have laws against such things. Instead you latch on to what you think is the overriding characteristic of the brown people you hate, their religion. It's always the same with you racists - utter cowards afraid to say what they want because of the law.

I fully expect your next gambit to be -"Yeah, but the grooming gangs". So, if you can read, read this. Which I fully expect you won't...

https://medium.com/@Reg_Left_Media/grooming-gangs-quilliam-the-myth-of-the-84-percent-cc834b57fcf3

People like you are and your hero Yaxley Lennon are going to try and find every possible justification for your hatred. Stop for a moment (which you won't) and think about how many bus drivers, taxi drivers, shop owners, nurses, doctors, restaurant owners and workers you interact with. Then reflect on how much we all need each other, look at your hatred, and feel utter shame.

What does any of that have to do with Morrissey and/or The Smiths?

Is there a 'wind-up' emoticon? :)
 
I wanna wind Skinny up
Skinny up
I wanna wind Skinny up
Help me to wind Skinny up

It helps if you sing that ^ to the melody of that 80s song, Physical, by Olivia Newton-John.

*waits for skinny to find something racist about olivia newton-john*
 
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