Of cause all mps and that lot can like The Smiths...but they're not considered a fan as they are everything The Smiths are against! It's like if churchill had joined the nazi's...it would never happen!
I hope Johnny continues to stick up for The Smiths, I'm glad he's actually doing it and talking about The Smiths more in recent years.
Sorry, but that's just wrong. Who decides who gets to be a fan? This proprietary atitude to fandom is ridiculous, and also very unlikeable. Quite frankly, it is also as opposed to "what the Smiths stand for" as anything I can imagine. "In order to classify yourself as this, you have to think, speak, act and dress in this specific way"? Oh yeah, that's very Morrissey-like.....
As far as I'm concerned, if Pol Pot had called himself a Smiths fan, he would have been one.
It's like if churchill had joined the nazi's...it would never happen!
No, it is not remotely like Churchill had joined the nazis. That's exactly what it is NOT like, because the Smiths is not a movement, you don't join them and it is not a predefined thing that inescapably commits you to certain positions. And in any case it is beyond ridiculous to suggest that the difference between churchill and the nazis is in any way analogous to Cameron and the Smiths, come on - join the real world. Here's the analogy: As if Churchill had liked Wagner. Which, exactly like Cameron liking Morrissey, is no big deal.
Johnny Marr, and before him Paul Weller, seems to be under the extraordinary impression that they own their art, and can decide what it means, to who. Which is of course not the case. It is perfectly possible and legitimate to not care one iota what the Smiths "stand for" (whatever that is) - or to not agree with it - and still be a fan. It's not a club. For my part, I don't much care for Morrissey's vegetarianism (though I respect it), and frankly think that most of the things he has to say about politics and current affairs are ignorant to the point of being embarassingly silly, none of which bothers me or has ever made me even consider whether that is an obstacle to fervently admiring his music and lyrics. And let's face it, we are in any case most of us into it primarily for the music and the lyrics, not for what the Smiths "stand for". Jesus Christ, it's not Amnesty International we're talking about here.....
cheers