Is the Pretenders cover a message to Johnny?

[Maradona]

I'm not one of the "everything's about Johnny Marr" people, but I do think Alsatian Cousin is about him; reading Moz's autobiography and Mozipedia a few years back has me convinced it's a thinly veiled dig at Marr's illicit musical flirtations with Bryan Ferry that Moz says he stumbled upon in the studio one day.

S Goddard points out that Johnny Marr owned two Alsatians at the time, while Moz is disparaging of Bryan Ferry's style in the autobiography; see "Is that the best you can do?" as addressed to Marr, perhaps.

 

[Anonymous]

Who said something about a reunion? Singing this song with this lyrics could simply be a case of remembering an old friend and an old time fondly. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

[Amy]

All true, Amy. Thanks for the reminder. But isn't it funny that Morrissey's "paranoia" ended up being right? Johnny did leave and do all that stuff. Maybe it was less paranoia and more of a self fulfilling prophecy. There's a lot of that in Morrissey's life and career. It's also interesting to note that all these years later Moz is more of a drinker than Johnny. Not too mention more sexually active partnerwise (at least as far as we know). Johnny became downright boring as Moz became "born". Stars on opposing trajectories in more ways than one, yet still in parallel by making music. Just not with each other.

I think Morrissey's misgivings were well-founded (I think there were whisperings in Johnny's ear, for sure), but he seemed to jump to conclusions and perhaps give Ferry & co more importance than they really had. His way of blaming "outside influences" also seems a bit too convenient, rather than reflecting on how his own behaviour contributed to the split, for example. I've never got a sense that Johnny was ambitious in terms of wanting his name in lights, I think he just needed a break. Years later, he was telling journos things like, "I had all these ideas and nowhere to play them", sort of giving credence to the idea - but in reality, he spent years as a session player afterwards and didn't do anything other than hook up to other people's projects. Then he started hanging around with Bernard Sumner and slinging arrows at Moz here and there, and of course the prophecy fulfilled itself. And yes, the white-tea drinking, vegan, teetotal, preachy running fanatic stuff is dull as hell. Common with many who overdid it with the booze in their early years, I find!

 

[Anonymous]

I think Morrissey's misgivings were well-founded (I think there were whisperings in Johnny's ear, for sure), but he seemed to jump to conclusions and perhaps give Ferry & co more importance than they really had. His way of blaming "outside influences" also seems a bit too convenient, rather than reflecting on how his own behaviour contributed to the split, for example. I've never got a sense that Johnny was ambitious in terms of wanting his name in lights, I think he just needed a break. Years later, he was telling journos things like, "I had all these ideas and nowhere to play them", sort of giving credence to the idea - but in reality, he spent years as a session player afterwards and didn't do anything other than hook up to other people's projects. Then he started hanging around with Bernard Sumner and slinging arrows at Moz here and there, and of course the prophecy fulfilled itself. And yes, the white-tea drinking, vegan, teetotal, preachy running fanatic stuff is dull as hell. Common with many who overdid it with the booze in their early years, I find!

I still suspect drug use mostly coke for some of marrs all over the place ambitions and over reactions helping the split. He didn’t wait years though to record with sumner. They started in 88 worked in 89 with Neil from pet shop boys and did the bulk of recording in 90

 

[Old Mathew]

I think he just needed a break.

This. Marr has been very clear about this. Hot off the success (and excess) of the Queen is Dead US tour, having Strangeways in the can, Marr wanted a break before another tour, but it seems Morrissey was eager to seize on their momentum and keep pushing forward as hard as they had for 5 years. I always try to remember how young they all were -- 28 and 23 year old men, an age at which one is not known for one's ability to be patient and take the long view.

The Smiths break-up is like the old joke about a young bull and an old bull standing on a hillside (desolate?) looking down on a herd of cows. "I've got an idea," says the young bull. "Let's run down the hill and f*** one of them cows." The old bull is silent for a moment and then says, "I've got a better idea. Let's walk down the hill and f*** 'em all."

Ce la vie.

 

[Mr. Jackpots]

It is more than possible. James Maker was the one who said that it's never the "direct approach" with Moz. He must know because there is this story when Moz sent him a copy of Murder Is Easy by Agatha Christie just to let him know that running on stage during a Smiths gig to perform with the singer wasn't welcomed by the guitarist. Apparently James then sent Moz the song Message Understood by Sandy Shaw.

Yeah, see, that's exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about.

TG;DR

Aw, how cute. You remembered.

I think this falls apart when you consider that he also covered "Talk of the Town" a few tours ago.

He did?

 

[Old Mathew]

He did?

Sorry, I misremembered. He sang it a cappella at the beginning of several shows (IIRC) on the 2015 tour:

 

[Anonymous]

I’d believe the he needed a break story more so if he actually took one. At s he needed a break from morrissey perhaps

 

[Dingoatemybabby]

I’d believe the he needed a break story more so if he actually took one. At s he needed a break from morrissey perhaps

I read an interview with Johnny where he was asked how he coped with Morrissey firing everyone who got close to him, including manager/mentor Joe Moss, producer John Porter and manager Ken Friedman. Johnny said when he realized what was happening, he left the band.

I think Morrissey completely overestimated what the band meant to Johnny. For Morrissey, it was everything, for Johnny it was not - his freedom was more important. Not for nothing, his book is called "Set the Boy Free."

 

[URBANUS]

 

[Dingoatemybabby]

I enjoyed that, thank you!

 

[Anonymous]

Much, much more likely that it is Morrissey playing one of his old friend's songs.

In exactly the same way he did with Floorboards and Candle to You.

True.

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

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Morrissey reveals why at 1:44





Was Cilla really the straw that broke Johnny's back ?