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Reverse Morrisseys

Started by cosmic-hearse, May 15, 2021, 11:45:20 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

cosmic-hearse

I was thinking about musicians where their political views have matured or improved, rather than ossifying like so many ageing rockers bemoaning things they don't really understand.

Steve Albini is an obvious example. Coming of age in a post punk ouvre where transgression was encouraged, amongst other things he formed a band called Rapeman (and that's only his second most problematic band name).

He could easily have become a bitter reactionary complaining about woke culture et al, but in fact he's very thoughtful and reflective about some of his previous approaches to art, and has solid political views (Sanders supporter, feminist, supports trans rights).

Any others? Henry Rollins seems like a good egg most of the time these days.

easytarget

This is an excellent idea for a thread.

AFAIK Ginger Wildheart is a solid fucking guy (now, he may have always been a 100% solid decent fella, even back in the Oasis, lad-mag, weeeehaaaaay 90s - but he is, or remains one now)

NoSleep

It was after Robert Wyatt heard one of his songs being played on the US's worldwide propaganda radio station "The Voice Of America" (their answer to Radio Moscow) that he decided to assure that they would never made the mistake of playing one of his songs again; making his music from then on unequivocally political and to the left.

Absorb the anus burn

Paul Weller / The Jam. 'Ol Toblerone Bonce travelled from being a Thatcher voter to red wedge headliner.

Dusty Substance

Quote from: Absorb the anus burn on May 16, 2021, 12:44:57 PM
Paul Weller / The Jam. 'Ol Toblerone Bonce travelled from being a Thatcher voter to red wedge headliner.

Wasn't Weller's declaration that The Jam would "all be voting Conservative at the next election" just the Modfather trolling?

DJ Bob Hoskins

Great thread.

Beastie Boys famously expressed contrition about their early 'dancing cage girls' days and by the time of Ill Communication they were writing lyrics rallying against misogyny and the occupation of Tibet. Adam Yauch went on to set up the Tibetan Freedom Concert  festivals in the mid-90s.

SpiderChrist

Quote from: Dusty Substance on May 16, 2021, 01:26:34 PM
Wasn't Weller's declaration that The Jam would "all be voting Conservative at the next election" just the Modfather trolling?

I thought so - similar to when he burnt a copy of Sniffin' Glue onstage at The Roxy. "This is your fucking bible".

Captain Poodle Basher

Quote from: Dusty Substance on May 16, 2021, 01:26:34 PM
Wasn't Weller's declaration that The Jam would "all be voting Conservative at the next election" just the Modfather trolling?

Pretty much. AFAIK, it was a reaction to Punk's "Why vote? They're all equally shit." studied apathy.

phantom_power

Quote from: DJ Bob Hoskins on May 16, 2021, 01:36:07 PM
Great thread.

Beastie Boys famously expressed contrition about their early 'dancing cage girls' days and by the time of Ill Communication they were writing lyrics rallying against misogyny and the occupation of Tibet. Adam Yauch went on to set up the Tibetan Freedom Concert  festivals in the mid-90s.

Yeah I think even in their bad boy heyday they started out by mocking that sort of jock behaviour before becoming what they hated by the end of the tour for the first album

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: Captain Poodle Basher on May 16, 2021, 05:26:56 PM
Pretty much. AFAIK, it was a reaction to Punk's "Why vote? They're all equally shit." studied apathy.
I think he's said since that he did it to piss off Joe Strummer in particular, not sure if this was before or after that "they've got Burton suits"  jibe in 'White Man in Hammersmith Palais'.

Of course, Weller had written the frankly beyond shit Callaghan/Labour baiting 'Time for Truth' on the first Jam album, with the timeless couplet:

"Whatever happened to the great empire?
You bastards have turned it into manure"

Same song is also a bit anti-police, so I think the best we can say is that Woking Paul was a very confused young lad.

JaDanketies

A lot of rappers who've been going for more than 20 years have apologised for being homophobic and no longer use homophobic language in their later releases. Eminem used the word 'f*ggot' in 2018 and then apologised for it and took it out. I believe he also has stopped using as much misogynistic language, but fuck it, I don't even listen to him anyway, his new stuff is boring imo

But Vinnie Paz from Jedi Mind Tricks has done the best mea culpa imo. To be honest, a lot of his lyrics were virulently homophobic, he went far too far and it's amazing that I didn't care when I was an old teenager / young adult. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJnZUxuh7RA

QuoteThis goes further than your block... I'm not defending it, you have to start taking responsibility for shit. There's a couple of things I would've said in the past that I would've changed..... Does a kid in Scandanavia get that? "Stop being a f*ggot," when I hear myself saying it right now, I'm like, I didn't want anyone to think of it like that. If a kid wasn't super masculine at school and my lyric made some kid shove them or something, I don't know if I could live with that.

anyway it sounded pretty convincing to me and he's definitely stopped doing it

jobotic

Albini's lyrics have never been a problem for me - he's narrating form the point of view of some horrible characters isn't he? That's why I brought him up in the other thread.

Never really thought of him as anything other than a good egg really. Although I do wish he hadn't called his band that.

NoSleep

When was he in Good Egg?

sevendaughters

I've read some of Albini's 80s columns and while I think they're part-shtick they reveal an anti-liberal provocation that results in easy targets like feminists or even worse men who sympathise with feminism. Very anti-PC culture and the kind that chiefly appears in cosmopolitan areas and universities, a bit like modern anti cancel culture types. Also his tour diary of the last Big Black tour is a bit of an eye-opener. Definitely a reverse Morrissey.

jobotic

Okay fair enough. Never read anything by him, just interviews and record reviews he did.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Weller's on record as saying they all thought London was a dangerous fucking shithole in the late 70s and that response was intended as a defence of the Tory voting, so while I can see it might have been a reaction to anti apathy it does seem to have been partly founded in a lean towards the cheap glitz future the Tories were offering as opposed to Labour at the time.

Also tbh Morrissey is an iconoclast who has reversed over himself rather than anything else.

Morrissey expressed dislike of Pakistanis in a letter he wrote before becoming famous so I'm not sure his true views were ever positive towards that community.





rue the polywhirl

Can't think of many reverse Morrisseys except for Seasick Steve who's put out all of his best music in his fifties and sixties and didn't get dropped by his record label. Maybe he was also a Ku Klux Klanner in his youth.

DJ Bob Hoskins

#18
I suppose you could say Johnny Marr is something of a Reverse Morrissey in that he started his career swindling his bandmates out of royalties, but later generously offered to pay a fairer share following some soul-searching that a court ruled him to do.

buntyman

Found out today that Morrissey's first solo album was originally called Education in Reverse. At least he's been honest about his career trajectory.

greenman

Quote from: easytarget on May 16, 2021, 06:39:44 AM
This is an excellent idea for a thread.

AFAIK Ginger Wildheart is a solid fucking guy (now, he may have always been a 100% solid decent fella, even back in the Oasis, lad-mag, weeeehaaaaay 90s - but he is, or remains one now)

I'm inclined to think solid guy all along, maybe not as obviously political as the maniacs but I think clearly far more intelligent than Oasis with a more anti establishment edge.

Glebe

Morrissey has reversed back to a primate.


BeardFaceMan

Quote from: greenman on May 20, 2021, 11:19:05 AM
I'm inclined to think solid guy all along, maybe not as obviously political as the maniacs but I think clearly far more intelligent than Oasis with a more anti establishment edge.

Yeah his social politics have always been pretty sound, but he was very nihilistic and volatile when he was younger and has calmed down a lot now.