Slow Moving Millie: 'Morrissey said it was delightful' - The Telegraph
Neil McCormick meets Amelia Warner, the singer behind the John Lewis commercial.
Excerpt:
“I was born in the Eighties and grew up with this music, but the decade was so unforgiving to songwriting. It was all huge synths and electric drums and weird sounds. It was interesting to turn that on its head and get at the song underneath.”
The Smiths’ song, however, is performed straight. “It is so perfect I wouldn’t have the audacity to change it. I connected a piece of myself to it; it just resonated, something came through.”
To her joy, the composers have approved her version. “Morrissey said it was delightful, and Johnny Marr thinks it’s great.” This may be the thing that has most upset Smiths fans: that their heroes would allow their classic to be used in such a commercial fashion.
“Did all the Smiths fans get their albums for free?” retorts Warner. “Did Morrissey send them out personally? No, they went into a shop and bought them, and he made money from that, and now he lives in nice house in LA. I don’t see how this is any different. ”
Neil McCormick meets Amelia Warner, the singer behind the John Lewis commercial.
Excerpt:
“I was born in the Eighties and grew up with this music, but the decade was so unforgiving to songwriting. It was all huge synths and electric drums and weird sounds. It was interesting to turn that on its head and get at the song underneath.”
The Smiths’ song, however, is performed straight. “It is so perfect I wouldn’t have the audacity to change it. I connected a piece of myself to it; it just resonated, something came through.”
To her joy, the composers have approved her version. “Morrissey said it was delightful, and Johnny Marr thinks it’s great.” This may be the thing that has most upset Smiths fans: that their heroes would allow their classic to be used in such a commercial fashion.
“Did all the Smiths fans get their albums for free?” retorts Warner. “Did Morrissey send them out personally? No, they went into a shop and bought them, and he made money from that, and now he lives in nice house in LA. I don’t see how this is any different. ”
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