MORRISSEY! guest-DJed on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic this afternoon. I took notes on his bons mots.
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(Accents: People tend to sing in an American voice anyway, but) when your accent is strong and regional, I think it’s a problem here because people think you sound a bit loony.
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(Saw the Buzzcocks’ very first gig supporting the Sex Pistols in Manchester; saw the Sex Pistols’ first two gigs, in fact.) People now call them “the Buzzcocks,” but I don’t know why. It was always Buzzcocks… Quite intellectual in their way, but delivering very fast pop music, and that was quite new to me. I thought they had a very cranky intellectual edge which I really welcomed because I was tired of pop music being seen as rather vain and… rather foppish.
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(Sparks, “Moon over Kentucky”) Russell [Mael] would sing in an almost Parisian accent.
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I bought every pop single. I was mad for pop music… All the best moments of my life were buying those singles.
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(In the olden days, it was hard to listen to music, and if it was even possible, it was on “inferior equipment.” Is music too available now?) Once there’s no struggle and it’s thrown at you all the time, you feel less inclined to want it, really…. People are trying to will groups to be fantastic…. I’d rather talk in the negative about modern music.
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(“Didn’t care for” the New Romantics. Ultravox was) just too flashy for me….
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(New York Dolls stick with him most.) You don’t realize it will stay with you forever; you think you’ll outgrow everything. But with music and artists, you absolutely fall in love – you fall in love with that moment, with that period… It isn’t that easy to shuck off. You may put things aside for 10 years, 15 years… but when you go back and listen to them, you’re back in that frame of mind.
(It’s a punk thing not to care), but the New York Dolls actually didn’t (and blew themselves up later).… (The shoes and costumes) had never been seen before, and it was confrontational. You… have to have an opinion; you see their album sleeves, something goes through your mind; you can’t just toss it aside. (They) changed so much. Changed so much.
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(With singers facing the audience) you see every emotion; this appeals to me… “This is the song, this is the voice, and this is the communication.” This appealed to me more than anything else.
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(Jobriath) died in the early ’80s of the unmentionable.
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(End-of show giveaway.) You can give away me. (HOST: You can sign yourself and we’ll split you between five listeners.) It’s happened before.