Mike Joyce clarifies Morrissey remarks

Theo

Active Member
Not sure if this was already posted, but ClashMusic has this today:

Mike Joyce Clarifies Morrissey Remarks: "Personal opinion I suppose!" by Robin Murray Fri, 01/07/2011

Chatting to ClashMusic about his upcoming projects, Mike Joyce decided to clarify his opinions on the Glastonbury set - without a character limit, of course.

"Well I thought Morrissey sounded amazing" he stated. "I was surprised – I know that sounds a bit like a disparaging remark – but I thought he really sounded incredible."

"His voice sounded great right the way through and I enjoyed it but for The Smiths songs. I wasn’t too sure about the renditions. Personal opinion I suppose! Some people are going to go down there and think ‘that’s the best I’ve ever heard!’ But for me, it just didn’t work and I got a bit narked, really because I just don’t think they should be like that."

"Again it’s their interpretation and it’s personal opinion. It obviously upset some people that’s for shit sure! It wasn’t the idea. I could do a lot worse than that, trust me if I wanted to upset people. I didn’t think it would wind people up but it did."

Continuing, Mike Joyce insisted that he only wanted to open up the debate. "The pride from some Morrissey fans and the protective quality of him that they have is very endearing to a degree, but it’s incredible how vociferous some people can be about someone they don’t even know. I just find it hard to look at the analogy with another artist. I just don’t think those people are around for other artists, for Sting or Bono or whoever. I don’t see those people standing up and saying: to get to him you’ll have to go through me. I don’t see that elsewhere. There’s something to commend in that I suppose."

"It’s an interesting debate, just to [throw] it out and see what comes back. It wasn’t a slight on him as I thought his voice sounded brilliant and his singing was brilliant. I wasn’t thinking anything other than that about his singing: it was really, really good. His control was fantastic for the songs, but those versions – not for me, really."

ClashMusic will be posting a full Mike Joyce interview soon.

This is all regarding: Mike Joyce tweets on Glastonbury performance and "cover versions"
 
Hey, why was my thread about the new article with new quotes from Mike Joyce merged into this old thread? People might think everything in this thread is old news and they will miss that breaking news item entirely.

You can't post new threads containing fresh new interview quotes from Mike Joyce? It has to be hidden away in old threads?? By the logic of the mods here, why not just consolidate every single thread in the entire General Discussion into one long one?

Jesus, I thought I did that thread entirely by the book, but within seconds it gets sabotaged by mods who obviously don't want this forum to survive. "Tidy" to the control-freaks apparently means a DEAD forum. :crazy:

UPDATE: Wow, someone actually intervened and restored the thread. Thanks.
 
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I've only seen a few clips of the Smiths covers Morrissey is doing on the current tour. I think they sound pretty good, and I agree with Joyce that Morrissey's singing is terrific. I can understand, though, that Joyce will have stronger feelings about how the songs are being played by Morrissey's band since he helped create the songs.

I'm less critical of how the band performs the Smiths classics because it's just nice we can still see Morrissey singing them live. My disappointment is from the the brand new songs. They don't give much hope for the future. If he and the band have written a new single that's better than the new songs we've heard, wouldn't they be playing it?
 
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I think that some of the latest 'covers' of Smiths tracks are amazing - I Know It's Over and Meat is Murder are just beautiful - but This Charming Man has been ruined, the band sound like a bad Green Day tribute act. Jessie Tobias needs to watch this a few times and learn how to play it properly:


Dave
 
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I was actually that passionate about Sting at age 12. As passionate as only a pre-teen girl can be! It did die down of course.
When I finally saw him live at age 14 I was so excited. He was my first concert and the first artist whose tapes/cds I bought with my own money from raking yards. He prevented those cardboard box things on cds [to save the rainforest] but his are the only cds I had with those on them.

He does meddlies though... you think he's playing your favourite song but he only plays a teeny bit before segue into another song. That irked me. I moved onto The Cure.

Who else recalls Sting on the simpsons "a fan needs me!" and Marge says "Actually I don't recall him owning any of your albums..."
I always saw Sting as someone to rescue his fans. ;)

Other bands do have fans as dedicated. Take the cure for example.
Robert Smith even quarreled with one of his fansites. :)
The cure were my first online fandom experience and they weren't all pleasant...

But I get his point... u2 fans are far and wide and therefore harder to pin down. I only saw them live once. If you tell people you like u2 they'll nod and go "good band" but if you say Morrissey... you may not always get a good reaction. I think the tax avoidance scandal is u2's only negative time in the spotlight.
But I've met people in rural Florida areas who don't know who u2 are even.

Typical reactions for Mozzer:

"I like the smiths but not his voice"
"Who?"
"I want you to poll everyone at the jail and find out who likes this Morrissey fella and who likes Leonard Skynnard".

Covers? I'm not sure I agree with Joyce there.
I've heard ebm concert reviews use the term "karaokee depeche mode band" because so many bands in that scene are depeche mode influence.
But Moz did write the lyrics...
I was so happy he played some smiths songs both times I managed to see him. Now if Sting were to take a leaf out Moz book and "cover" police songs in their entirety... he might have some more diehard fans.
 
I think that some of the latest 'covers' of Smiths tracks are amazing - I Know It's Over and Meat is Murder are just beautiful - but This Charming Man has been ruined, the band sound like a bad Green Day tribute act. Jessie Tobias needs to watch this a few times and learn how to play it properly:


Dave


You are aware that Marr himself screws up the line in this vid, yes?
 
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:39 he flubs the slide.
Then at :41, the correct notes in sequence are 'D F# B A' and Marr flatly picks 'D D B A.' It's a very minor change, and he still pulls it off - but if you want to be technical about it, he's not playing the correct notes.
 
:39 he flubs the slide.
Then at :41, the correct notes in sequence are 'D F# B A' and Marr flatly picks 'D D B A.' It's a very minor change, and he still pulls it off - but if you want to be technical about it, he's not playing the correct notes.

He could have played another 50 duff notes and it'd still wank all over the monstrosity that is the current version of This Charming Man that gets played which is absolutely without any redeeming musical qualities.

Like others, I think a few other Smiths songs that Morrissey does are amazing, not this one though.
 
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Whilst I commend Joyce for clarifying his original, rather dubious remark, I feel he is contradicting himself. Morrissey's voice sounds fantastic on those Smiths songs. If he didn't sing them, we would never hear how he delivers them, vocally.
 
He could have played another 50 duff notes and it'd still wank all over the monstrosity that is the current version of This Charming Man that gets played which is absolutely without any redeeming musical qualities.

Like others, I think a few other Smiths songs that Morrissey does are amazing, not this one though.

In your opinion.
 
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