They don't all say one thing and then do the opposite.
As I said above, until I know that Morrissey was 100% behind the re-release of his albums, controlled every decision, and did so strictly to exploit past material for financial gain, I don't believe you can say he "said one thing and did the opposite".
Yes, those things count for something. That's why we're here and that's why we still listen to the music, still buy the records and still go to the gigs. (In fact, I don't still buy the records or attend concerts, but that's for separate reasons.)
Okay, and mainly what I'm arguing here is that we should give a lot of weight to those things. He's either a crap capitalist or he's a man with principles which he has upheld imperfectly. He's inconsistent; old news, tired news, let's move on. We all know this already.
So it's a quest for stardom and money? Okay, that's not really endearing him to me.
Heh. Come on, I didn't say that. I said he wanted his music to be heard. Every album is an assault on the charts, every single a valiant attempt to invade the public consciousness. That's how he seems to view things and always has done.
Is it pedantic to point out that Morrissey approved of selling "extra tracks" from day one in The Smiths? They put out a third, "extra track" on every one of their 12" singles. Morrissey, in charge of The Smiths' record sleeves, actually specified that the words "extra track" be printed on the promotional posters. Is it possible he has a different definition of cheap, money-grubbing exploitation than we do? Maybe it's worth looking at things from his point of view, which is easy to patch together from songs and interviews, before calling him a hypocrite.
P.S. I don't like the re-issues, and to date I've bought none of them (aside from The Smiths' remastered LPs, which are worth the expenditure). The fact that they're all first-class f***-ups really helps prove that Morrissey is not "playing the game" and has no idea how to even if he wanted to play it. Someone in another thread compared Blur's new package with Morrissey's feeble output, in an attempt (I assume) to shame Morrissey by pointing out how a band does right by its fans. It's unbelievable to me that some of his critics will spit at Morrissey for tampering with "Viva Hate" and affixing a dreadful font to the cover, and call him a vile sell-out, without realizing that if Morrissey were greedy he'd have done a Blur-style box-set and fleeced every one of us for hundreds of dollars/pounds/euros each. Again: you can assume a Morrissey re-release is a botched affair from the get-go, practically designed to drop like Kryptonite in the market. It's like calling North Korea a major military threat-- a bastion of Pure Evil-- moments after watching another one of their cruise missiles disintegrate ten seconds after launch and shower spare parts into the sea. The "Viva Hate", "Bona Drag", "Maladjusted" reissues...Jesus,
that's what unfettered greed looks like?