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Anonymous
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Sometimes I think about how Johnny feels when Moz gets ill or even how he would feel if Moz dies. Surely he cares. Or not?
A more interesting question, imo, is, does Morrissey care about Johnny's well being? If he died tomorrow would he receive the royal eulogy on TTY?
Yes I believe he would. Court case aside I thought he wrote about Johnny (and Angie) quite tenderly in Autobiography.
If I were Johnny and I read Autobiography (and surely he has), I wouldn't find any comfort from reading the Smiths sections that wasn't completely obliterated by the character assassination in the court case pages. Morrissey depicted Johnny as a naive, cowardly, drunken duplicitous weasel of a man - a chameleon who always blends in with the people around him but has no real loyalty to anyone.
"What would they say at Salford Lads' Club if they caught the stench within these walls - Johnny Marr crying off for being held accountable for his own actions, and all Mancunian cameraderie shafted. Now, like Joyce, he too speaks with the voice of a child begging forgiveness, and the hunchbacked Weeks now looks as if he has his catch. It takes courage to make yourself unpopular with your legal bully-boys for the sake of mere loyalty, and Johnny did not have that courage. A virtuoso of to-ing and fro-ing, you might swear that you are in the company of identical triplets as Johnny stands before you."
Very hard to repair a friendship after a write-up like that.
It depends in what context you take it. Morrissey called it how he saw it Re. the court case, but I though wrote about Johnny really nicely overall. I was at several days of that court case and without knowing the in's and out's of The Smiths Johnny did seem very all over the place with his testimony and overall demeanor. Angie muttering away in the gallery every time Joyce whined on about how hard his life was seemed made of sterner stuff
If I were Johnny and I read Autobiography (and surely he has), I wouldn't find any comfort from reading the Smiths sections that wasn't completely obliterated by the character assassination in the court case pages. Morrissey depicted Johnny as a naive, cowardly, drunken duplicitous weasel of a man - a chameleon who always blends in with the people around him but has no real loyalty to anyone.
"What would they say at Salford Lads' Club if they caught the stench within these walls - Johnny Marr crying off for being held accountable for his own actions, and all Mancunian cameraderie shafted. Now, like Joyce, he too speaks with the voice of a child begging forgiveness, and the hunchbacked Weeks now looks as if he has his catch. It takes courage to make yourself unpopular with your legal bully-boys for the sake of mere loyalty, and Johnny did not have that courage. A virtuoso of to-ing and fro-ing, you might swear that you are in the company of identical triplets as Johnny stands before you."
Very hard to repair a friendship after a write-up like that.
Johnny said the same about Craig Gannon. So he must be a c***, too. Well ...
When was this? The last interview I read with Johnny where he talked about Craig he was complimentary and apologetic about the way he was treated when he was in the Smiths. He said something like "Craig handled himself in exactly the right way".
Maybe the years have mellowed Johnny a bit, but he certainly never liked Gannon at the time. I seem to remember an anecdote about Gannon eating a bacon sandwich on the tour bus and being called "disgusting" by JM, who also thought that he didn't pull his weight in the band and caused problems by smashing up hotel rooms, etc. No love lost there.
From The Severed Alliance: "Trying to have a conversation with Craig was just impossible after about five minutes. He had nothing to say and little to contribute. [...] Musically, he fitted in, but he was a lazy bastard and that's all there is to it."