The Conan Performance..thoughts?

[Skylarker]

.....

 

[Roww Roww RowwRoww]

THIS IS NOT AN ATTEMPT TO STIR SHIT ABOUT MORRISSEY. Just a few honest observations...

It's a disappointing performance.

It's simply not that great of a song...a Green Day chord progression, if Green Day were on Demerol. God, why did he pick this as the song to play on TV?

Boz looks like an old clown, Sol and Jesse look like thugs. The drummer looks bored.

NO understatement from Morrissey anymore, it's GONE. The "gracias" made me cringe. His "I've just gotten back from a funeral" outfit and the band being dressed up in T-shirts of a singer who no-one, aside from Boz, probably even owns a record by is also a little sad.

Oh well...still a great feeling to see him on TV, for some reason.

Don't hate da playa, dawg, hate da game.

 

[the raytownian]

His "I've just gotten back from a funeral" outfit

Okay, that was so irrelevant that I can't even remember what his outfit looked like...

I wasn't really wild about any aspect of this performance, but it was nice to see him on the tube, regardless.

 

[¡Viva Morrissey!]

THIS IS NOT AN ATTEMPT TO STIR SHIT ABOUT MORRISSEY. Just a few honest observations...

It's a disappointing performance.

It's simply not that great of a song...a Green Day chord progression, if Green Day were on Demerol. God, why did he pick this as the song to play on TV?

Boz looks like an old clown, Sol and Jesse look like thugs. The drummer looks bored.

NO understatement from Morrissey anymore, it's GONE. The "gracias" made me cringe. His "I've just gotten back from a funeral" outfit and the band being dressed up in T-shirts of a singer who no-one, aside from Boz, probably even owns a record by is also a little sad.

Oh well...still a great feeling to see him on TV, for some reason.

Sadly. FINALLY. I'm sorry to say, you're right. I'm starting to agree with you more and more. I used to think you were just being a jackass, but you're not. You're being honest and as much as I hate to admit it, you're right. I really don't understand what has happened, it's hard to judge. Oh well. How long could we expect it last, anyway? Morrissey is still good, still worth going to see live, still worth buying, but, that thing that we all love and loved is just barely there now, but again, what should we have expected? Tonight's Conan performance solidified it. Time has passed and this is what happens. Bring on the autobiography and call it a day, we still have a ton of great songs and I guess that's all we can ask for. The nail is in the coffin.

On a different note, Skylarker, you need to chill the f*** out, you're having a mid-life crisis. You're right about a lot of things, but don't get so wound up, it's not worth it, although it is entertaining. You're right about the Old Geyser girl and I loved you critical investigation into the Dumb and Dumber relationship of the most annoying couple on Solow. It was great, do more of that stuff! Look after yourself.

 

[Roww Roww RowwRoww]

"People Are The Same Everywhere" is my favorite Morrissey song of all time! Great great great performance!

 

[Oh my god. it's Robby!]

first of all, was the audience divided into people who are pro this site on one side and anti it on the other?
as for the song, I think it remains OK at best, I mean does anybody real love it anyways?
lastly, what was the deal with looking at his hand like that after Conan shaked it?
I am pretty sure Conan really is a fan of his older stuff, kind of f-ed up him acting like that
but hey, thats him to a T these days I guess


ps: I watch Conan pretty often and the show ended a few minutes shorter than usual, I cannot help but suspect that Morrissey had something to do with that
such as him not wanting to talk Conan at all or play them out with a second so or something

 

[DAVIE]

He should have played Scandinavia!! I really want to hear a good version of it!
"I'll eat the soil...."

 

[The Harsh Truth]

THIS IS NOT AN ATTEMPT TO STIR SHIT ABOUT MORRISSEY. Just a few honest observations...

It's a disappointing performance.

It's simply not that great of a song...a Green Day chord progression, if Green Day were on Demerol. God, why did he pick this as the song to play on TV?

Boz looks like an old clown, Sol and Jesse look like thugs. The drummer looks bored.

NO understatement from Morrissey anymore, it's GONE. The "gracias" made me cringe. His "I've just gotten back from a funeral" outfit and the band being dressed up in T-shirts of a singer who no-one, aside from Boz, probably even owns a record by is also a little sad.

Oh well...still a great feeling to see him on TV, for some reason.

Funniest thing you've ever said, not that there's much to choose from.

 

[Girl-with-the-Thorn]

He should have played Scandinavia!! I really want to hear a good version of it!
"I'll eat the soil...."

Me too- it's probably my favourite of the five new songs. He sounds good and it's nice to see him performing on TV again, but I'm somewhat indifferent to 'People...'. It sounds more like a b-side than a potential single or album track to me.

 

[Orson Swells]

It was a solid performance and I thought he looked well. For me, Action or Art-Hounds would have been better song choices though.

 

[Pokey]

The performance was decent but you stick a flower in a turd in an attempt to pretty it up, and it's still a turd. PATSE is a catchy little B-side, at first I didn't think much of it, then the vocal melody got stuck in my head all the time, but the appeal soon wore off, its just a blah. His voice sounded great, the band were pretty good, but he just didn't go in with the strongest material available.

 

[bandrus1]

It is really sad they can't come up with better material... His voice sounds great right now and he seems very into touring but the new material is not good at all

 

[Peterb]

I don't know if I'd call it "sad"...just unfortunate. They are what they are...a solid bar band being led musically by a bored, fat, out-of-ideas rockabilly pastiche obsessive...granted, Boz wrote some phenomenal songs in his time, but those days are long gone. They came and went with youth rather than, I'm sorry to say, being borne of a genuinely artistic soul.

What's truly unfortunate, though, is that although Morrissey probably will reach a point where he simply can't do it anymore physically or intellectually, I actually do not think he is quite at that point now. Maybe not by a long shot...but there's no way to know, because he has holed himself with such a dearth of talent that although he is doing the best with what he's got, it simply amounts to little more than anemic pantomime.

I think he is at a point where if the context were different, if he changed things up a bit, challenged himself, found a different musical backdrop, he could still pull some astonishing art out of his ass. He is stagnated because, frankly, I think he was significantly damaged by his American exile years, culturally and inspirationally. He took a blow that did not immediately manifest itself (largely because he still had Alain, but also because many of those songs were already kicking around for awhile) but certainly by the time of the Refusal sessions, he was running on empty. He has committed some truly suicidal artistic moves.

There's a lot of bitching about Jesse on here, and most of it I agree with, but the main problem with Jesse is not that he can't play, but that he can't write. When Jesse plays Smiths songs or early Solo songs, they sound anywhere from roided up to pissed on, but they're still great songs. It's that essence, that original muse, that no degree of hamfistedness can ruin.

But the fact is, the guy just can't write a decent tune. Yet Morrissey loves him and looks to him for the furtherment of his career...as Alain rots away, as Street rots away, as Johnny rots away, as God knows who else amazing rots away.

You can take the most brilliant artist on earth, but if he sits in a room where he is looking out a window at the same sky, same field, no houses, no buildings, no people, no life, and he never lets himself leave...then eventually he will just deteriorate artistically. Granted, while he's in that little room he's safe...and for a while, maybe a long while, he can run on reserve but eventually he's going to die. The safety comes at the expense of inspiration.

Morrissey would rather make solid -albeit safe- rock music at this point rather than art. Whether this is because he's lost the plot, or because in his mind he sounds like the Dolls, or because he's proving a point... I don't know.

When you force yourself to subsist on bread and water, you can live for a long time, but you're gonna feel and look like shit. Musically, for God knows what reason, that's what he's doing to himself. He's forcing himself to subsist on the bare minimum of nourishment. The results are the last batch of songs...each bearing a distinct trace of a once truly great artistic mind. But, while Bland Morrissey is still better than a lot of stuff out there, he could still -even at this late date- be so much better.

But not for long.

Hey Skylarker, pardon me for stalking you across the threads but alot of the stuff you write resonates with my own feelings. A couple of months ago I started a thread (Is Morrissey in a musical rut). The above post would have fitted in nicely. You suggest a 'different musical backdrop'. Precisely! I feel he needs to collaborate with someone who could tell him to shut the f*** up. Like Lennon and McCartney, they were equals and so bought out the best in each other. Once they were alone and ruled the roost they became run of the mill.I would like to see Moz perform with an orchestra. His voice, I feel, would work so well with that backing.

 

[Deleted member 1074]

Hey Skylarker, pardon me for stalking you across the threads but alot of the stuff you write resonates with my own feelings. A couple of months ago I started a thread (Is Morrissey in a musical rut). The above post would have fitted in nicely. You suggest a 'different musical backdrop'. Precisely! I feel he needs to collaborate with someone who could tell him to shut the f*** up. Like Lennon and McCartney, they were equals and so bought out the best in each other. Once they were alone and ruled the roost they became run of the mill.I would like to see Moz perform with an orchestra. His voice, I feel, would work so well with that backing.

Because the conductor would tell him to "shut the f*** up"?

 

[Peterb]

Because the conductor would tell him to "shut the f*** up"?

Absolutely Viva!

 

[Peterb]

Ummm...I hardly think you are "stalking me across the threads." There are a limited number of threads/posts on here at any given time. Some will be worthy of interest, some will not, depending on who you ask. As there are is also a relatively limited amount of regular posters taking part, it's inevitable that they will bump into each other and cross paths in the course of exploring the different threads.

If you see that as stalking, OK. I see it as par for the course in a web forum. I don't imbue it with any kind of personal implication. While forum stalking does happen, 9 times out of 10 if someone perceives he is being "followed" across the forum, it is because he is a douchebag with an oversized ego who imagines things.

Regarding the rest of your post, thanks, but I am not saying anything that hasn't been said on here a million times already by many different people, especially since the Janice Long session this summer. I'm just re-iterating it because that point of view is relevant to this discussion.

Other than Crystal Geezer and mcrickson and a few other female members, I think you'd be very hard-pressed to find anyone here who, although they still like Morrissey, doesn't think he's way off his game.

The stalking comment was not entirely serious.

 

[Girl-with-the-Thorn]

Morrissey would rather make solid -albeit safe- rock music at this point rather than art. Whether this is because he's lost the plot, or because in his mind he sounds like the Dolls, or because he's proving a point... I don't know.

Not necessarily. You (I don't mean that personally, rather collectively referring to the people who dislike his recent output) may not see it as art, but perhaps he does, and believes that's what he's creating. It all comes down to personal perspective.

 

[Peterb]

Try telling that to Rebecca Shaeffer.

When I came to look at your reply I saw a post saying something like "neither is 87 percent of what I write" but then it disappeared. Was I dreaming? Did you post that?

 

[mcrickson]

I own a Nico record. Several, in fact. But I guess this makes me "wrong" or something.

 

[mcrickson]

Also, totally cool putting words in my mouth - that I don't think he's off his musical game or whatever you said. But I mean, when you're on the internet, you can say whatever you like and it's true, right? So all is forgiven. Skylarker lives to be angry and spiteful at god knows what for another day.