Morrissey / Bowie connections

ALLIE WALLS

Junior Member
Obviously Morrissey was a massive Bowie fan prior to The Smiths and has bragged in his letters to seeing him umpteen times. They shared a stage in 1991 duetting together on Cosmic dancer. There are plenty of other connections and heres my 2 penneth.
1. Filmed concert at the Hammesmith odeon. 2. Bowies cover of i know its going to happen and Mozs cover of drive in saturday. I can think of lots more but .....................................
 
Don't forget about Mick Ronson brother. He rocked and rolled with the best of them.
 
Kooks:

And if the homework brings you down
Then we'll throw it on the fire
And take the car downtown


Sheila Take a Bow:

Throw your homework onto the fire
Come out and find the one that you love
Come out and find the one you love
 
The ones on PJLM for consideration:
Bowie, David

  • In private letters to penpal Robert Mackie in the early 80s (since leaked to fans and on the internet), Morrissey mentioned that he had seen Bowie in concert 14 times, and that he particularly liked the song "Fantastic Voyage".
  • The line "Throw your homework onto the fire" from the Smiths' 1987 single "Sheila Take A Bow" is very reminiscent of one of the lines from Bowie's "Kooks": "and if the homework brings you down then we'll throw it on the fire".
  • His song "The Laughing Gnome" was played during intermission on the 1991 Kill Uncle tour.
  • Bowie duetted with Morrissey on "Cosmic Dancer" on 2 June 1991 in Los Angeles.
  • The line "We will descend on anyone unable to defend themselves" in "We'll Let You Know" may be a twist on "Love descends on those defenceless" from Bowie's "Soul Love".
  • In an interview given to Jools Holland in 1995 Morrissey said of Bowie: "He changed British pop and I think that's an incredible thing. (...) He changed British pop in a very dangerous way because of the way he looked and the things he said."
  • In an interview printed in the May 1994 issue of Select magazine Morrissey said: "Put it this way, Mozzer, you have a card from Dirk Bogarde here. You have Alan Bennett sitting in your kitchen having tea. You have David Bowie having sung one of your songs quite beautifully. What else are you looking for? What right do I have to be sour-faced and complaining, queuing up at Waitrose in Holloway being annoyed because somebody in front of me has got a leg of lamb? What more could there be?"
  • The line "You're watching yourself but you're too unfair" in his "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" might have inspired the similar one in "Do Your Best And Don't Worry".
  • Morrissey accepted to support Bowie on his 1995 Outside Tour. He stayed on board for two weeks then pulled out.
  • In an interview published in the Times Magazine in 1999, Morrissey addressed the latter events when he said "I have never spoken about this up until now because, in spite of everything, I do respect David. I simply have to play Star Man or Drive-in Saturday and I will forgive him for anything. But I left that tour because he put me under a lot of pressure, and I found it too exhausting. But then, Bowie is principally a business, and I can't imagine he would have telephoned his own mother without considering the career implications. David surrounded himself with very strong people, and that's the secret of his power: that everything he does will be seen in a certain light. But it certainly wasn't the greatest career move that I ever made, even though they gave 6,000 refunds in Manchester when I didn't appear - but I don't think you'd have read about that in the Manchester Evening News..."
  • Morrissey, in the 2002 documentary "The Importance Of Being Morrissey": "He was a fascinating artist in 1970, 1971, 1972... but not now."
  • Morrissey asked David Bowie (through their common producer Tony Visconti) to cover the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling", but Bowie declined.
  • Morrissey, in an interview to XL magazine in 2006: "He is a mystery to me. He has the mentality of a vampire, he is always searching for fresh blood to suck. I don't know if he did the same thing with me. I don't think he is now the same person he was 30 years ago. That David Bowie doesn't exist anymore."
  • In an interview published in June 2008 in Irish magazine Hot Press Morrissey said "He was so important to me because his vocal melodies were so strong and his appearance was so confrontational. Manchester, then, was full of boot boys and skinheads and macho-macho thugs, but I saw Bowie's appearance as the ultimate bravery. To me, it took guts to be David Bowie, not to be a shit-kicking skinhead in a pack. At the time Wayne County had a song called 'Are You Man Enough To Be A Woman?' and I thought it applied to the Manchester thugs of 1972, which is why I actually saw Bowie's bravery as very strong, and not floppy or dippy. He just did not care. And all people care to a ridiculous degree - we're all so frightened and boxed-in. (...) It also seemed to me that his impact was bigger than punk, because he was a one-man revolution, yet it is punk that's remembered as the big turnaround of the '70s. The Outside tour didn't work, though, because after a time knowing David I realised that he actually thought I was the singer from Suede - a fate worse than life. Can you imagine the indignity? I hope not..."
  • In an interview to Radionica (Columbia) in early 2012, Morrissey mentioned David Bowie in a list of artists he was indebted to, and that he would like to sing "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" with him. He also said "David Bowie took me one night to his studio in New York and played a version of one of my songs. I cried for a week. Of anything for what I have prayed in my life, I never imagined that I would be given so much."
  • The sleeve of the 2013 redesigned "The Last Of The Famous International Playboys" single was originally going to feature a previously unseen private photograph of David Bowie and Morrissey taken by Linder Sterling in New York in 1992. Although Bowie has no legal rights to the photograph, most of his back catalogue was at the time licensed to EMI so he successfully managed to order EMI UK not to run the proposed artwork.
  • In his autobiography, Morrissey talks about buying Bowie's "Starman" single, seeing him live, and the effect the artist had on him when he was a teenager. He also discusses other meetings with his idol, singing a duet with him and having him cover one of his songs, etc.
Regards,
FWD.
 
The ones on PJLM for consideration:
Bowie, David

  • In private letters to penpal Robert Mackie in the early 80s (since leaked to fans and on the internet), Morrissey mentioned that he had seen Bowie in concert 14 times, and that he particularly liked the song "Fantastic Voyage".
  • The line "Throw your homework onto the fire" from the Smiths' 1987 single "Sheila Take A Bow" is very reminiscent of one of the lines from Bowie's "Kooks": "and if the homework brings you down then we'll throw it on the fire".
  • His song "The Laughing Gnome" was played during intermission on the 1991 Kill Uncle tour.
  • Bowie duetted with Morrissey on "Cosmic Dancer" on 2 June 1991 in Los Angeles.
  • The line "We will descend on anyone unable to defend themselves" in "We'll Let You Know" may be a twist on "Love descends on those defenceless" from Bowie's "Soul Love".
  • In an interview given to Jools Holland in 1995 Morrissey said of Bowie: "He changed British pop and I think that's an incredible thing. (...) He changed British pop in a very dangerous way because of the way he looked and the things he said."
  • In an interview printed in the May 1994 issue of Select magazine Morrissey said: "Put it this way, Mozzer, you have a card from Dirk Bogarde here. You have Alan Bennett sitting in your kitchen having tea. You have David Bowie having sung one of your songs quite beautifully. What else are you looking for? What right do I have to be sour-faced and complaining, queuing up at Waitrose in Holloway being annoyed because somebody in front of me has got a leg of lamb? What more could there be?"
  • The line "You're watching yourself but you're too unfair" in his "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" might have inspired the similar one in "Do Your Best And Don't Worry".
  • Morrissey accepted to support Bowie on his 1995 Outside Tour. He stayed on board for two weeks then pulled out.
  • In an interview published in the Times Magazine in 1999, Morrissey addressed the latter events when he said "I have never spoken about this up until now because, in spite of everything, I do respect David. I simply have to play Star Man or Drive-in Saturday and I will forgive him for anything. But I left that tour because he put me under a lot of pressure, and I found it too exhausting. But then, Bowie is principally a business, and I can't imagine he would have telephoned his own mother without considering the career implications. David surrounded himself with very strong people, and that's the secret of his power: that everything he does will be seen in a certain light. But it certainly wasn't the greatest career move that I ever made, even though they gave 6,000 refunds in Manchester when I didn't appear - but I don't think you'd have read about that in the Manchester Evening News..."
  • Morrissey, in the 2002 documentary "The Importance Of Being Morrissey": "He was a fascinating artist in 1970, 1971, 1972... but not now."
  • Morrissey asked David Bowie (through their common producer Tony Visconti) to cover the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling", but Bowie declined.
  • Morrissey, in an interview to XL magazine in 2006: "He is a mystery to me. He has the mentality of a vampire, he is always searching for fresh blood to suck. I don't know if he did the same thing with me. I don't think he is now the same person he was 30 years ago. That David Bowie doesn't exist anymore."
  • In an interview published in June 2008 in Irish magazine Hot Press Morrissey said "He was so important to me because his vocal melodies were so strong and his appearance was so confrontational. Manchester, then, was full of boot boys and skinheads and macho-macho thugs, but I saw Bowie's appearance as the ultimate bravery. To me, it took guts to be David Bowie, not to be a shit-kicking skinhead in a pack. At the time Wayne County had a song called 'Are You Man Enough To Be A Woman?' and I thought it applied to the Manchester thugs of 1972, which is why I actually saw Bowie's bravery as very strong, and not floppy or dippy. He just did not care. And all people care to a ridiculous degree - we're all so frightened and boxed-in. (...) It also seemed to me that his impact was bigger than punk, because he was a one-man revolution, yet it is punk that's remembered as the big turnaround of the '70s. The Outside tour didn't work, though, because after a time knowing David I realised that he actually thought I was the singer from Suede - a fate worse than life. Can you imagine the indignity? I hope not..."
  • In an interview to Radionica (Columbia) in early 2012, Morrissey mentioned David Bowie in a list of artists he was indebted to, and that he would like to sing "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" with him. He also said "David Bowie took me one night to his studio in New York and played a version of one of my songs. I cried for a week. Of anything for what I have prayed in my life, I never imagined that I would be given so much."
  • The sleeve of the 2013 redesigned "The Last Of The Famous International Playboys" single was originally going to feature a previously unseen private photograph of David Bowie and Morrissey taken by Linder Sterling in New York in 1992. Although Bowie has no legal rights to the photograph, most of his back catalogue was at the time licensed to EMI so he successfully managed to order EMI UK not to run the proposed artwork.
  • In his autobiography, Morrissey talks about buying Bowie's "Starman" single, seeing him live, and the effect the artist had on him when he was a teenager. He also discusses other meetings with his idol, singing a duet with him and having him cover one of his songs, etc.
Regards,
FWD.
Thanks for this great summary. As a fan of both, it was interesting to read. I knew some of them but not others and always interested in the relationship (small ‘r’) between them. I’d be interested if anyone has any quotes from Bowie on his views on Morrissey. Anyway, thanks again - stay well.
 
The ones on PJLM for consideration:
Bowie, David

  • In private letters to penpal Robert Mackie in the early 80s (since leaked to fans and on the internet), Morrissey mentioned that he had seen Bowie in concert 14 times, and that he particularly liked the song "Fantastic Voyage".
  • The line "Throw your homework onto the fire" from the Smiths' 1987 single "Sheila Take A Bow" is very reminiscent of one of the lines from Bowie's "Kooks": "and if the homework brings you down then we'll throw it on the fire".
  • His song "The Laughing Gnome" was played during intermission on the 1991 Kill Uncle tour.
  • Bowie duetted with Morrissey on "Cosmic Dancer" on 2 June 1991 in Los Angeles.
  • The line "We will descend on anyone unable to defend themselves" in "We'll Let You Know" may be a twist on "Love descends on those defenceless" from Bowie's "Soul Love".
  • In an interview given to Jools Holland in 1995 Morrissey said of Bowie: "He changed British pop and I think that's an incredible thing. (...) He changed British pop in a very dangerous way because of the way he looked and the things he said."
  • In an interview printed in the May 1994 issue of Select magazine Morrissey said: "Put it this way, Mozzer, you have a card from Dirk Bogarde here. You have Alan Bennett sitting in your kitchen having tea. You have David Bowie having sung one of your songs quite beautifully. What else are you looking for? What right do I have to be sour-faced and complaining, queuing up at Waitrose in Holloway being annoyed because somebody in front of me has got a leg of lamb? What more could there be?"
  • The line "You're watching yourself but you're too unfair" in his "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" might have inspired the similar one in "Do Your Best And Don't Worry".
  • Morrissey accepted to support Bowie on his 1995 Outside Tour. He stayed on board for two weeks then pulled out.
  • In an interview published in the Times Magazine in 1999, Morrissey addressed the latter events when he said "I have never spoken about this up until now because, in spite of everything, I do respect David. I simply have to play Star Man or Drive-in Saturday and I will forgive him for anything. But I left that tour because he put me under a lot of pressure, and I found it too exhausting. But then, Bowie is principally a business, and I can't imagine he would have telephoned his own mother without considering the career implications. David surrounded himself with very strong people, and that's the secret of his power: that everything he does will be seen in a certain light. But it certainly wasn't the greatest career move that I ever made, even though they gave 6,000 refunds in Manchester when I didn't appear - but I don't think you'd have read about that in the Manchester Evening News..."
  • Morrissey, in the 2002 documentary "The Importance Of Being Morrissey": "He was a fascinating artist in 1970, 1971, 1972... but not now."
  • Morrissey asked David Bowie (through their common producer Tony Visconti) to cover the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling", but Bowie declined.
  • Morrissey, in an interview to XL magazine in 2006: "He is a mystery to me. He has the mentality of a vampire, he is always searching for fresh blood to suck. I don't know if he did the same thing with me. I don't think he is now the same person he was 30 years ago. That David Bowie doesn't exist anymore."
  • In an interview published in June 2008 in Irish magazine Hot Press Morrissey said "He was so important to me because his vocal melodies were so strong and his appearance was so confrontational. Manchester, then, was full of boot boys and skinheads and macho-macho thugs, but I saw Bowie's appearance as the ultimate bravery. To me, it took guts to be David Bowie, not to be a shit-kicking skinhead in a pack. At the time Wayne County had a song called 'Are You Man Enough To Be A Woman?' and I thought it applied to the Manchester thugs of 1972, which is why I actually saw Bowie's bravery as very strong, and not floppy or dippy. He just did not care. And all people care to a ridiculous degree - we're all so frightened and boxed-in. (...) It also seemed to me that his impact was bigger than punk, because he was a one-man revolution, yet it is punk that's remembered as the big turnaround of the '70s. The Outside tour didn't work, though, because after a time knowing David I realised that he actually thought I was the singer from Suede - a fate worse than life. Can you imagine the indignity? I hope not..."
  • In an interview to Radionica (Columbia) in early 2012, Morrissey mentioned David Bowie in a list of artists he was indebted to, and that he would like to sing "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" with him. He also said "David Bowie took me one night to his studio in New York and played a version of one of my songs. I cried for a week. Of anything for what I have prayed in my life, I never imagined that I would be given so much."
  • The sleeve of the 2013 redesigned "The Last Of The Famous International Playboys" single was originally going to feature a previously unseen private photograph of David Bowie and Morrissey taken by Linder Sterling in New York in 1992. Although Bowie has no legal rights to the photograph, most of his back catalogue was at the time licensed to EMI so he successfully managed to order EMI UK not to run the proposed artwork.
  • In his autobiography, Morrissey talks about buying Bowie's "Starman" single, seeing him live, and the effect the artist had on him when he was a teenager. He also discusses other meetings with his idol, singing a duet with him and having him cover one of his songs, etc.
Regards,
FWD.

That's fabulous.

Also I feel less bad for assuming that Morrissey left the Outside Tour because he can't hack the superstar pace. (I've always thought it looked horrendous myself, like being trapped in a touring production of Les Mis for eternity.)
 
That's fabulous.

Also I feel less bad for assuming that Morrissey left the Outside Tour because he can't hack the superstar pace. (I've always thought it looked horrendous myself, like being trapped in a touring production of Les Mis for eternity.)

Back then, Morrissey was under severe depression.
 
Morrissey was briefly on RCA like Bowie, of course.

And doesn't the typography on the Southpaw Grammar reissue mimic the Changesonebowie album?
 
a9fce24fae8b05e03bf9b765d32e1eca.jpg


Bowie reveled and rebelled in sex, drugs, and rock and roll because he was a libertine, narcissist, and artist. I would hesitate to call him a role model for anything except rebellion and the evidence is clear that he lived a life of excess throughout the 70s from swinging London, to NY, to LA, to Berlin.

His musical genius is unquestioned. But for someone to declare himself gay, then bi, then a ‘closet heterosexual’ speaks to the fact that he found self identification and a static identity to be a bore and just another thing to be rebelled against.

He was famous for saying some pro-Hitler comments and then later blamed cocaine-induced psychosis for those remarks.

For someone who could adapt so easily in appearance, demeanor, and musical styles, we got the sense that he was a perpetual Alice in Wonderland and that at no time did he wish to ever just be one type of artist or return back through the looking glass where one distinguished man gazed back. He even declined knighthood unlike Sirs Elton John, Paul McCartney, and Mick Jagger.

If you don’t believe my interpretation of the man as a rebel without a fixed moral compass, listen to him describe his motivations for becoming a rock star in his very own words from this year 2000 interview.


It reveals a man of high intellect, deep intuition, and perhaps suggests that he had a nuanced sense of humor and/or a truly extraterrestrial origin. His comment on the future of humanity now that it was wired to the internet alone is worth your time:

INTERVIEWER: [the internet is] just a tool though, isn’t it?

BOWIE: No, it’s not. It’s an alien life form.
 
He also wrote a song called Rebel Rebel.

Coincidence? I think not ....







a9fce24fae8b05e03bf9b765d32e1eca.jpg


Bowie reveled and rebelled in sex, drugs, and rock and roll because he was a libertine, narcissist, and artist. I would hesitate to call him a role model for anything except rebellion and the evidence is clear that he lived a life of excess throughout the 70s from swinging London, to NY, to LA, to Berlin.

His musical genius is unquestioned. But for someone to declare himself gay, then bi, then a ‘closet heterosexual’ speaks to the fact that he found self identification and a static identity to be a bore and just another thing to be rebelled against.

He was famous for saying some pro-Hitler comments and then later blamed cocaine-induced psychosis for those remarks.

For someone who could adapt so easily in appearance, demeanor, and musical styles, we got the sense that he was a perpetual Alice in Wonderland and that at no time did he wish to ever just be one type of artist or return back through the looking glass where one distinguished man gazed back. He even declined knighthood unlike Sirs Elton John, Paul McCartney, and Mick Jagger.

If you don’t believe my interpretation of the man as a rebel without a fixed moral compass, listen to him describe his motivations for becoming a rock star in his very own words from this year 2000 interview.


It reveals a man of high intellect, deep intuition, and perhaps suggests that he had a nuanced sense of humor and/or a truly extraterrestrial origin. His comment on the future of humanity now that it was wired to the internet alone is worth your time:

INTERVIEWER: [the internet is] just a tool though, isn’t it?

BOWIE: No, it’s not. It’s an alien life form.
 
That's fabulous.

Also I feel less bad for assuming that Morrissey left the Outside Tour because he can't hack the superstar pace. (I've always thought it looked horrendous myself, like being trapped in a touring production of Les Mis for eternity.)
Honestly, Bowie's tendency to demand duets out of his opening acts throughout the 90s was not for everybody. I enjoyed seeing Bowie and Nine Inch Nails perform together, but it felt very showbiz to me, even as a teenager. I can see where as an artist wanting to spread his own wings that Morrissey felt stifled or put upon, expected to sing in the great Bowie's shadow.
 
Obviously Morrissey was a massive Bowie fan prior to The Smiths and has bragged in his letters to seeing him umpteen times. They shared a stage in 1991 duetting together on Cosmic dancer. There are plenty of other connections and heres my 2 penneth.
1. Filmed concert at the Hammesmith odeon. 2. Bowies cover of i know its going to happen and Mozs cover of drive in saturday. I can think of lots more but .....................................
I was at a Morrissey show not too long ago and he played a Bowie clip of John I'm Only Dancing : )
 
bowie-12 towels,how dirty can one person be.
 
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