Best film/documentary about Moz?

[wastelandofyourhead]

There's an excellent documentary called Jewel in the Crown, which follows Morrissey's evolution as a solo artist from Viva Hate to the Maladjusted era or thereabouts. It features interviews with Stephen Street, Vini Reilly, Clive Langer, Mark Nevin, and other Moz collaborators as well as various journalists and other talking heads, and delves deeply into the writing and recording process of each album. The focus isn't so much Morrissey the man, but rather his wonderful body of work, with fascinating input from those who were essential to its creation. If you're interested in the more technical aspects of creating music, it's worth watching. Last I checked, the entire documentary was on YouTube.

Thanks for the reference on that! I really enjoyed it, especially on the details concerning the production of Kill Uncle.

 

[marred]

i dont know. ive always found the opposite hard to believe. stephen never replicated the song writing thing again despite large success but still went on to work in music and its honestly hard to see him playing the guitar like that except for maybe the guitar on suedehead which isnt the most impressive. i dont think chord progressions are songs either so that routes not gonna convince me if he only wrote the chord progressions which is what i seem to remember him claiming in his defense. i dont know, doesnt seem trust worthy either from the morrissey thing. i never knew why they ended there relationship

That's fine. You can still find what's true hard to believe. It wouldn't be the first time that's happened.

 

[marred]

i also just wanna say that instrumentation is for me extremely integral to songwriting and therefore the credit. its integral to what makes a song listenable. many people say they wrote the chord progressionsandf therefore the song and that the notation the guitarist comes up with isnt important and i just cant get behind that.

You know Beethoven, Mozart and Bach never played an instrument right?

 

[Johnny Barleycorn]

It's this, innit?

 

[marred]

It's this, innit?

That's definitely the best smiths documentary. Not that there are many to choose from.

 

[Johnny Barleycorn]

You know Beethoven, Mozart and Bach never played an instrument right?

 

[Johnny Barleycorn]

It's this, innit?

It's the best film/documentary about Moz.

 

[Chickpea]

Street and Reilly actually made amends very recently, after Reilly's mea culpa in this interview with Julie Hamill. See the note at the bottom. It's a great interview, though a bit bleak. I'm glad you're enjoying the documentary.

Oh wow, thank you so much for linking to this interview. Vini really has my sympathies. It can't be easy to own up to something like that, and he's a big man for doing so. What a difficult life he's had. I admit I was a bit teary-eyed by the end of this—glad to hear he and SS have reconnected. Thank you again.

I never took a side in the Street/Reilly debate, though I will say that a few songs sound more Reilly-influenced than others, particularly Late Night, Maudlin Street, which could have easily fit on a Durutti Column album.

Yes, I agree.

 

[Chickpea]

First time seeing DM was back-to-back nights at Dodger Stadium in 1990

So, so jealous.

 

[Nikita]

You know Beethoven, Mozart and Bach never played an instrument right?

Mozart played piano forte for sure.

 

[marred]

Mozart played piano forte for sure.

Yes but I mean for their symphonies and performances with the orchestras. I just meant they were more writers and not players re an anonymous post declaring that most of the instrumentation you hear in a song can take credit for writing the song which is clearly a moronic statement. Yes the playing has a lot to do with it but the playing wouldn't happen at all without the composing.

Maybe classical music was abad example.

 

[marred]

It's the best film/documentary about Moz.

Yeah The South Bank Show is a documentary about Moz..... and three other guys he hung out with.

 

[Anonymous]

yeah because one person does the composing. i dont consider writing a a chord progression writing a song and if someone else came up with the notation rifff or whatever then they deserve a writing credit imo cause without that stuff the song would be different.

 

[marred]

yeah because one person does the composing. i dont consider writing a a chord progression writing a song and if someone else came up with the notation rifff or whatever then they deserve a writing credit imo cause without that stuff the song would be different.

Yes but if you go that road then the producer has to get a writing credit. Where does it end? A producer has an immense amount of input into the shape of a song/album. Without producers we'd all be listening to clumsy demos and studio outtakes.

In a film if an actor comes up with a few lines and arguably an actor is like an instrument they don't get a writing credit. Writing is about creating something from nothing and that's the person who deserves the writing credit. Some of the best songs in the world are just simple chord progressions and not much else. Do those songs not qualify?