TLDW; We won't know until Morrissey says whether it is or isn't.
Is "Panic" secretly about Jimmy Saville? - James Hargreaves Guitar / YouTube
- Thread starter DaveC
- Start date
ninetimesfined
Well-Known Member
Next thing you know, someone is going to try to sell it to the internet that Moz predicted the death of Diana or some equally weird shit
ninetimesfined
Well-Known Member
What Kind of People Dig Up these Houses!
A Man Escaped
"A nation turns it's back and gags."
You're The One For Me Fatty.
Is that about Boz?.
Is that about Boz?.
ZOOM FROM GLOOM
LASCIATE OGNI SPERANZA!
A Man Escaped
"A nation turns it's back and gags."
I know.
My previous comment was simply to illustrate how silly this thread is.
Tea with the taste
Member
As with many Morrissey compositions the strength of the song seems enhanced by its ambiguity. Multi-layered, complex, enigmatic. There often seem to be possible references in many of Moz's lyrics to dark events etc. But such notions may be largely in the eye, or ear rather, of the listener as much as in the songs themselves. I sometimes think 'Come back to Camden' might get some inspiration from the Muswell Hill killer Denis Nilsen. And 'I'm throwing my arms around Paris' has some resonance for me with the tragedy of Princess Diana. But like with many great artists' work there is much more than one straight forward meaning.
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Malarkey
no pasarán 🌹
Part of the David Icke forum thread has been captured by the wayback machine - & someone has posted that they found the lyrics of Jack the Ripper & International Playboys to be relevant to the Savile scandal.
They don't say exactly how or why.
Above it they're talking about Andrew Morton (!) being involved in a car crash because something Diana.
They don't say exactly how or why.
Above it they're talking about Andrew Morton (!) being involved in a car crash because something Diana.
Last edited:
A
Anonymous
Guest
If you think that's spooky, check out 'Never Again Will I Be a Twin', which accurately predicted the Twin Towers attack 16 years previously.
Lucifer Sam
الموت لأمريكا
It looks like AI art (which is not to say it's bad).
Young And Alive
Senior Member
My word.
That's enough internet for today.
That's enough internet for today.
JerryCan
Well-Known Member
I remember when Spent the Day in Bed was released. Was delighted to actually hear it on the radio - played by Steve Wright. After he said something like Moz was almost doing a self-parody. He stopped at that though and didn't run it down.
DagenhamDan
head in the clouds, and a mouthful of pie
Funny isn't it, back in the grimy old 80's old Stevie and his ilk were the enemy but as time moves on, and these people get replaced by younger non entities you realise they weren't that bad after all.
Born to Harangue
7th generation potato famine survivor 💪
It’s odd to me that some people in this thread are so firmly against the idea that Panic could be about Savile and his crimes. Marr is on record as saying that the song was inspired by a Steve Wright BBC Radio 1 broadcast; do you know who else was hosting a show on BBC Radio 1 in 1986? Jimmy Savile! So those people are fine with the song being inspired by one BBC Radio 1 DJ, but balk at the notion that it could be about another (even comparing it to the ‘flat earth’ conspiracy). Make it make sense! 
Dusty Miller's Hornpipe
Well-Known Member
Had it been about Savile, Moz would not have been able to stay quiet on the matter once it all came out in the open
Redacted
Perfectly Satisfied & Living Rent Free
I would hope Morrissey would have spoken up back then, if Johnny Rotten had the balls to do it, Morrissey should have too. That being said, M is known to lift lines here and there and they usually only mean something to him so it's kind of pointless sometimes to try to figure out what he's saying. I take him and Johnny at their word on this. I do think this is him having another meltdown about radio play, chart positions, and conspiracies against him - his usual obsession, not much has changed.
Relevant topical bits for considering:
Goddard:
"The DJ responsible for the crass Chernobyl/Wham! juxtaposition was Steve Wright. Despite having his portrait vilified on a fan-made ‘Hang the DJ!’ T-shirt which Morrissey wore onstage (routinely swirling a hangman’s noose above his head at the same time), Wright allegedly asked to join The Smiths for a performance of the song at the London Palladium in October 1986. He was refused, but for all his subsequent on-air lampooning of Morrissey at the time, in due course Wright revealed himself to be a genuine fan, inviting the singer on to his Radio 2 programme in 2004* where they even joked about the sentiment of ‘Panic’. (* see below, FWD).
Clearly aimed at the inanity of mainstream pop of the time, ‘Panic’ was still misread by a minority of detractors in the music press as an attack on black music culture, principally because of the word ‘disco’. While Morrissey’s comments in a September 1986 Melody Maker interview about a ‘black pop conspiracy’ certainly didn’t help matters, Marr immediately rushed to his defence, refuting all such allegations as idiotic. ‘You can’t just interchange the words “black” and “disco”, or the phrases “black music” and “disco music”,’ he argued. ‘It makes no earthly sense.’
For Morrissey, the song was simply ‘extremely funny … a tiny revolution in its own sweet way’, though he’d also confess to being secretly ‘intensely envious’ of DJs such as Wright who inspired its malice. ‘To simply sit on this cushion at the BBC day after day and flip on anything they thought was moving – well, I thought that was the most sacred and powerful position in the universe. To me, it was more important than politics. At a tender age, I craved that power – to impose one’s record collection on people in launderettes and on scaffolding.’"
Songs That...
"‘I thought the song was extremely funny, I really did,’ said Morrissey. ‘To hear it on national daytime radio on the few occasions it was actually played in the mish-mash of monstrous morbidity. I think it was quite amusing, a tiny revolution in its own sweet way.’
"A first take on 5th May was copied and re-spliced by the producer, repeating the first verse at the song’s finish to stretch to a more acceptable three minutes. Unimpressed with this arrangement, the group were content to leave ‘Panic’ as it was: a short, sweet two minutes, 19 seconds. Porter was also instrumental in the novel addition of the children’s chorus during the song’s ‘Hang the DJ!’ coda, assembling pupils from a local school. ‘I think that was probably Mozzer’s idea,’ says Porter. ‘We were in Wood Green, so I suppose I must have gone round to the nearest school with a bag of lollipops.’"
Transcript of Morrissey on Steve Wright show, 2004:
www.morrissey-solo.com
Len Brown:
"How do you feel about Radio One’s Steve Wright now? Have you heard him mimicking you? (Morrissey had written the lyrics to ‘Panic’ in response to Wright’s decision to play Wham’s ‘I’m Your Man’ immediately after a newsflash about the Chernobyl Disaster in April 1986. In retaliation, Wright later released the single ‘One More Week In The Charts’ to the tune of ‘Oscillate Wildly’ *.)
“I heard it once, I was in shock. I was buying scented candles in a shop and it came on the radio. I don’t take it as a jibe or hurtful. I do see the twisted compliment somewhere. Believe it or not, he hasn’t been too bad. He was the only daytime DJ to play ‘That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore’ so he isn’t obviously as bad or ugly as he looks.”
* from Tingle, 2004 - the lyrics from the Steve Wright song:
"Oh Kylie it's funny but it's true / I wonder why it's never happened to you / whenever I appear on Top of the Pops / my records go down instead of up up up / and oh I'm miserable now / I'm very very miserable now / I was unhappy with the Smiths / but now I'm down right miffed / oh Ronny Kray, do you know that I am down right miffed? / Give me one more week in the charts / I'm not just a man with a tree up his arse... ask me ask me ask me / the reason why I've never had #1 / it's because I've never really had one."
(NB: Kray reference dates this more to '89 than pre '87 & probably sung by a 'posse' member not Wright).
Rogan (who disputes the Wham story):
"For the second number, ‘Panic’, he produced a noose which he swung menacingly above his head. A T-shirt emblazoned with the words ‘Hang The DJ’ featured a photograph of his latest adversary, the disc jockey Steve Wright. In the background, Marr and company let rip with a more aggressive and arresting sound than ever... "
On 21 July, just over a week before they were due to leave for North America, The Smiths released their new single, ‘Panic’. The song’s genesis could be traced back to 26 April, when Morrissey and Marr supposedly tuned into Radio 1, only to be greeted by a news flash about the Chernobyl disaster. According to Marr, this bulletin on Newsbeat was allegedly followed by the upbeat vacuity of Wham!’s ‘I’m Your Man’. Morrissey felt so indignant about this insensitive lapse in broadcasting that he decided to condemn the programmers by composing a single with the spiteful refrain: “Hang the DJ”. The chorus simultaneously served as a vengeful riposte against the station’s premier disc jockey Steve Wright, who had lampooned The Smiths consistently, and openly stated that they had no place on daytime radio.
The story is evocative, but riddled with inconsistencies. If the then unnamed Wright was the supposed target then it should be noted that Newsbeat was actually broadcast two and a half hours before his show was aired. Moreover, ‘I’m Your Man’ had charted over the previous Christmas and would certainly not have been played on a chart-conscious afternoon show. In fact, George Michael’s ‘A Different Corner’ was topping the charts at the time of the Chernobyl disaster, which might explain the anomaly. Of course, Michael’s song was anything but upbeat and the indignation documented by Marr makes little sense considering the chronology and circumstances.
‘Panic’ duly climbed to number 10 in the UK charts, equalling their previous best showing with ‘Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now’. Fortunately, Radio 1 producers were not put off by the song’s violent imagery, which they regarded as less graphic than that of the preceding ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’. The mainstream disc jockey, Steve Wright, who was then unaware of his alleged role in inspiring ‘Panic’, magnanimously played the single on several afternoons. The irony was sweet.
Although The Smiths were not available to promote ‘Panic’, the controversial Derek Jarman provided his own visual interpretation in a commissioned 15-minute movie, which also included ‘The Queen Is Dead’ and ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’. Using fast cuts to suggest disorientation and imminent disorder, Jarman captured the esprit of the single to considerable effect, particularly in the strangely disturbing image of the children innocently chanting (“Hang the DJ”). The nursery rhyme lilt was highly amusing in its taunting invective, especially amid Morrissey’s tale of urban terror. For once, it seemed, the singer had unleashed his petulant fury without causing a media backlash. After all, who cared about a humorously reckless gibe against disc jockeys?
Nobody in the music press questioned Morrissey’s lyrics at the time of the single’s release. Melody Maker’s review was benign, congratulating The Smiths on their return to form, while perversely ignoring the song’s great predecessor, ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’. “Just when you thought it was safe to write off The Smiths as the ultimate albums band, here comes ‘Panic’ to re-establish Morrissey and Marr as undisputed champions of pop’s most vital art form … The very thought of Morrissey ever getting involved in anything more dangerous than a nosebleed is funny enough, but when he brings the young lad in at the end for the ‘hang the DJ’ chant, it’s impossible not to join in and echo the sentiments of anyone who has ever once attended a youth club disco.”
Black music furore:
"That same week, NME journalist Paolo Hewitt denounced Morrissey as a ‘dickhead’ for supposedly disparaging black music in the song ‘Panic’. Predictably, the music paper was bombarded with letters supporting the singer. The big question of the day was whether the phrase “burn down the disco” was merely a comment on the mediocre dance pop supposedly propagated by daytime Radio 1. Hewitt was unconvinced. “If Morrissey wants to have a go at Radio 1 and Steve Wright, then fine. He should then write ‘Burn Down Radio 1, hang Steve Wright’. When he starts using words like disco and DJ, with all the attendant imagery that brings up for what is a predominantly white audience, he is being imprecise and offensive."
Just to add: nowhere (here or elsewhere) prior to 2012 is the Savile idea mentioned and again: neither of the Ickes posted the idea - it was a punter on his web forum at the time and recently rehashed by Reddit.
Goddard:
"The DJ responsible for the crass Chernobyl/Wham! juxtaposition was Steve Wright. Despite having his portrait vilified on a fan-made ‘Hang the DJ!’ T-shirt which Morrissey wore onstage (routinely swirling a hangman’s noose above his head at the same time), Wright allegedly asked to join The Smiths for a performance of the song at the London Palladium in October 1986. He was refused, but for all his subsequent on-air lampooning of Morrissey at the time, in due course Wright revealed himself to be a genuine fan, inviting the singer on to his Radio 2 programme in 2004* where they even joked about the sentiment of ‘Panic’. (* see below, FWD).
Clearly aimed at the inanity of mainstream pop of the time, ‘Panic’ was still misread by a minority of detractors in the music press as an attack on black music culture, principally because of the word ‘disco’. While Morrissey’s comments in a September 1986 Melody Maker interview about a ‘black pop conspiracy’ certainly didn’t help matters, Marr immediately rushed to his defence, refuting all such allegations as idiotic. ‘You can’t just interchange the words “black” and “disco”, or the phrases “black music” and “disco music”,’ he argued. ‘It makes no earthly sense.’
For Morrissey, the song was simply ‘extremely funny … a tiny revolution in its own sweet way’, though he’d also confess to being secretly ‘intensely envious’ of DJs such as Wright who inspired its malice. ‘To simply sit on this cushion at the BBC day after day and flip on anything they thought was moving – well, I thought that was the most sacred and powerful position in the universe. To me, it was more important than politics. At a tender age, I craved that power – to impose one’s record collection on people in launderettes and on scaffolding.’"
Songs That...
"‘I thought the song was extremely funny, I really did,’ said Morrissey. ‘To hear it on national daytime radio on the few occasions it was actually played in the mish-mash of monstrous morbidity. I think it was quite amusing, a tiny revolution in its own sweet way.’
"A first take on 5th May was copied and re-spliced by the producer, repeating the first verse at the song’s finish to stretch to a more acceptable three minutes. Unimpressed with this arrangement, the group were content to leave ‘Panic’ as it was: a short, sweet two minutes, 19 seconds. Porter was also instrumental in the novel addition of the children’s chorus during the song’s ‘Hang the DJ!’ coda, assembling pupils from a local school. ‘I think that was probably Mozzer’s idea,’ says Porter. ‘We were in Wood Green, so I suppose I must have gone round to the nearest school with a bag of lollipops.’"
Transcript of Morrissey on Steve Wright show, 2004:
Steve Wright Interview - PART 1
SW: Morrissey is here. Now you know this is a thing because we saw each other, didn't we, about 5 or 6 years ago at a do and we were quite nice to each other, weren't we?M: We were very nice to each other but I've seen you two times before that in Henley.SW: Yeah?M: I just passed you by. I...
www.morrissey-solo.com
Len Brown:
"How do you feel about Radio One’s Steve Wright now? Have you heard him mimicking you? (Morrissey had written the lyrics to ‘Panic’ in response to Wright’s decision to play Wham’s ‘I’m Your Man’ immediately after a newsflash about the Chernobyl Disaster in April 1986. In retaliation, Wright later released the single ‘One More Week In The Charts’ to the tune of ‘Oscillate Wildly’ *.)
“I heard it once, I was in shock. I was buying scented candles in a shop and it came on the radio. I don’t take it as a jibe or hurtful. I do see the twisted compliment somewhere. Believe it or not, he hasn’t been too bad. He was the only daytime DJ to play ‘That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore’ so he isn’t obviously as bad or ugly as he looks.”
* from Tingle, 2004 - the lyrics from the Steve Wright song:
"Oh Kylie it's funny but it's true / I wonder why it's never happened to you / whenever I appear on Top of the Pops / my records go down instead of up up up / and oh I'm miserable now / I'm very very miserable now / I was unhappy with the Smiths / but now I'm down right miffed / oh Ronny Kray, do you know that I am down right miffed? / Give me one more week in the charts / I'm not just a man with a tree up his arse... ask me ask me ask me / the reason why I've never had #1 / it's because I've never really had one."
(NB: Kray reference dates this more to '89 than pre '87 & probably sung by a 'posse' member not Wright).
Rogan (who disputes the Wham story):
"For the second number, ‘Panic’, he produced a noose which he swung menacingly above his head. A T-shirt emblazoned with the words ‘Hang The DJ’ featured a photograph of his latest adversary, the disc jockey Steve Wright. In the background, Marr and company let rip with a more aggressive and arresting sound than ever... "
On 21 July, just over a week before they were due to leave for North America, The Smiths released their new single, ‘Panic’. The song’s genesis could be traced back to 26 April, when Morrissey and Marr supposedly tuned into Radio 1, only to be greeted by a news flash about the Chernobyl disaster. According to Marr, this bulletin on Newsbeat was allegedly followed by the upbeat vacuity of Wham!’s ‘I’m Your Man’. Morrissey felt so indignant about this insensitive lapse in broadcasting that he decided to condemn the programmers by composing a single with the spiteful refrain: “Hang the DJ”. The chorus simultaneously served as a vengeful riposte against the station’s premier disc jockey Steve Wright, who had lampooned The Smiths consistently, and openly stated that they had no place on daytime radio.
The story is evocative, but riddled with inconsistencies. If the then unnamed Wright was the supposed target then it should be noted that Newsbeat was actually broadcast two and a half hours before his show was aired. Moreover, ‘I’m Your Man’ had charted over the previous Christmas and would certainly not have been played on a chart-conscious afternoon show. In fact, George Michael’s ‘A Different Corner’ was topping the charts at the time of the Chernobyl disaster, which might explain the anomaly. Of course, Michael’s song was anything but upbeat and the indignation documented by Marr makes little sense considering the chronology and circumstances.
‘Panic’ duly climbed to number 10 in the UK charts, equalling their previous best showing with ‘Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now’. Fortunately, Radio 1 producers were not put off by the song’s violent imagery, which they regarded as less graphic than that of the preceding ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’. The mainstream disc jockey, Steve Wright, who was then unaware of his alleged role in inspiring ‘Panic’, magnanimously played the single on several afternoons. The irony was sweet.
Although The Smiths were not available to promote ‘Panic’, the controversial Derek Jarman provided his own visual interpretation in a commissioned 15-minute movie, which also included ‘The Queen Is Dead’ and ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’. Using fast cuts to suggest disorientation and imminent disorder, Jarman captured the esprit of the single to considerable effect, particularly in the strangely disturbing image of the children innocently chanting (“Hang the DJ”). The nursery rhyme lilt was highly amusing in its taunting invective, especially amid Morrissey’s tale of urban terror. For once, it seemed, the singer had unleashed his petulant fury without causing a media backlash. After all, who cared about a humorously reckless gibe against disc jockeys?
Nobody in the music press questioned Morrissey’s lyrics at the time of the single’s release. Melody Maker’s review was benign, congratulating The Smiths on their return to form, while perversely ignoring the song’s great predecessor, ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’. “Just when you thought it was safe to write off The Smiths as the ultimate albums band, here comes ‘Panic’ to re-establish Morrissey and Marr as undisputed champions of pop’s most vital art form … The very thought of Morrissey ever getting involved in anything more dangerous than a nosebleed is funny enough, but when he brings the young lad in at the end for the ‘hang the DJ’ chant, it’s impossible not to join in and echo the sentiments of anyone who has ever once attended a youth club disco.”
Black music furore:
"That same week, NME journalist Paolo Hewitt denounced Morrissey as a ‘dickhead’ for supposedly disparaging black music in the song ‘Panic’. Predictably, the music paper was bombarded with letters supporting the singer. The big question of the day was whether the phrase “burn down the disco” was merely a comment on the mediocre dance pop supposedly propagated by daytime Radio 1. Hewitt was unconvinced. “If Morrissey wants to have a go at Radio 1 and Steve Wright, then fine. He should then write ‘Burn Down Radio 1, hang Steve Wright’. When he starts using words like disco and DJ, with all the attendant imagery that brings up for what is a predominantly white audience, he is being imprecise and offensive."
Just to add: nowhere (here or elsewhere) prior to 2012 is the Savile idea mentioned and again: neither of the Ickes posted the idea - it was a punter on his web forum at the time and recently rehashed by Reddit.
Redacted
Perfectly Satisfied & Living Rent Free
Is there audio of this somewhere?
* from Tingle, 2004 - the lyrics from the Steve Wright song:
"Oh Kylie it's funny but it's true / I wonder why it's never happened to you / whenever I appear on Top of the Pops / my records go down instead of up up up / and oh I'm miserable now / I'm very very miserable now / I was unhappy with the Smiths / but now I'm down right miffed / oh Ronny Kray, do you know that I am down right miffed? / Give me one more week in the charts / I'm not just a man with a tree up his arse... ask me ask me ask me / the reason why I've never had #1 / it's because I've never really had one."
(NB: Kray reference dates this more to '89 than pre '87 & probably sung by a 'posse' member not Wright).
* from Tingle, 2004 - the lyrics from the Steve Wright song:
"Oh Kylie it's funny but it's true / I wonder why it's never happened to you / whenever I appear on Top of the Pops / my records go down instead of up up up / and oh I'm miserable now / I'm very very miserable now / I was unhappy with the Smiths / but now I'm down right miffed / oh Ronny Kray, do you know that I am down right miffed? / Give me one more week in the charts / I'm not just a man with a tree up his arse... ask me ask me ask me / the reason why I've never had #1 / it's because I've never really had one."
(NB: Kray reference dates this more to '89 than pre '87 & probably sung by a 'posse' member not Wright).
DagenhamDan
head in the clouds, and a mouthful of pie
I
It does sound quite funny, bloody funny, in factIs there audio of this somewhere?
* from Tingle, 2004 - the lyrics from the Steve Wright song:
"Oh Kylie it's funny but it's true / I wonder why it's never happened to you / whenever I appear on Top of the Pops / my records go down instead of up up up / and oh I'm miserable now / I'm very very miserable now / I was unhappy with the Smiths / but now I'm down right miffed / oh Ronny Kray, do you know that I am down right miffed? / Give me one more week in the charts / I'm not just a man with a tree up his arse... ask me ask me ask me / the reason why I've never had #1 / it's because I've never really had one."
(NB: Kray reference dates this more to '89 than pre '87 & probably sung by a 'posse' member not Wright).
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