Morrissey interview in El País

“Los toreros son alimañas: se deberían matar entre ellos” (Bullfighters are vermin. They should kill each other.) - El País
DIEGO A. MANRIQUE Madrid 4 OCT 2014

Improved Google translation (the editorializing is the author’s, not mine):

Astonishment between the interviewer and the promoters. Morrissey (Manchester, 1959) has offered to respond to a questionnaire and, hours later, the answers arrive. Journalists distrust interviews done by mail: in theory, anyone can impersonate the interviewee. But the answers are unequivocally morrisseyesque. In their acute malevolence, their recognizable narcissism, their stubbornness in turning things to his advantage. The former leader of the Smiths will perform in Madrid on Thursday and in Barcelona on Friday.

There are inevitable subjects, obviously. Like his controversial Autobiography, published in the Penguin Classics collection. It’s nothing to do with the current wave of books written by rock stars, he insists: "It surprises me that there are so many who actually think they have something to say! When you read their books, it turns out that they don’t. My Autobiography exists, it is self-explanatory. So I am not going to talk about the book on television, radio or in written media."

He also wants to clear up his bolt from the Harvest label, three weeks after releasing his new album, World Peace is None of Your Business. He mainly denies it: “I didn’t leave, they threw me out! They tried to keep my record but they discovered that they did not have the rights. A very stupid mess, caused by an executive named Steve Barnett, who has less brains than an artificial flower. The fact that someone like that is in charge of a label is a sign of how bad things are in the musical world. "

He makes no distinction between the three multinationals and the abundant independents: "Rough Trade has gone down in history for having the Smiths, yet never inviting us to a meal to celebrate the success." According to Morrissey, it is not profitable either to go on tour, although tickets for his Spanish concerts cost 50 euros: "I do not get rich by touring. All the money that is generated is invested in doing things. Many people ask me what is the point of bothering with tours and I say, this is my life. "

A key part of his existence is to fight animal abuse. He assures that his opposition to bullfighting is nothing new. In the legendary Smiths concert in Madrid, during the festival of San Isidro 1985, broadcast by TVE, "I remember telling the public 'I've seen your national sport and it is not very nice'. Obviously killing bulls is no sport: it is torture."

Now, he is more hurtful. His latest album contains The Bullfighter Dies, a song – you will excuse me – musically and literarily tasteless, where he celebrates the death of any bullfighter. His argument is this: "My understanding is that those who attend want to see death: what is the difference between the death of the bull or the matador? Both are beings who want to live and which feel pain. The matador has the picador and other helpers that help him to torment the bull, who is alone and should have our sympathy. It is the matador who has decided that this occurs and the bull is the victim; human instinct should always be to protect the victim. Bullfighters are vermin: they should kill one another. "

Morrissey always comes to interviews with guns loaded. A question about social networks leads him to fire at monarchies: "The networks have good and bad points. Suddenly, everyone is an expert ... and no matter that he has never left his bedroom. But dictators and so-called royalty cannot do what they want anymore: the entire world is watching and can depose those who betray their trust. King Juan Carlos was shamed when they caught him killing endangered species. Elephants are wonderful, calm, wise ... it’s such a repulsive thing he did! How is it that he is not in jail?"

He explains his decision to leave the UK and live in California for similar reasons: "I cannot endure the British royal family and it pains me that part of my taxes end up in the hands of those embarrassing parasites. They offer nothing to the world and are always on vacation in exotic places, killing animals, all with public money. They do not represent England and are are as much dictators as the Assad family in Syria, so we cannot dismantle their platform (?) with good manners: they will throw you to the police. You only have to look what will happen in Hong Kong. "

In case there was any doubt, Morrissey insists that the world is heading for ecological destruction, if a nuclear apocalypse doesn’t happen first: "Industrial agriculture and animal breeders are destroying the planet. Every time I see the yellow M of McDonald's I think of death. Governments tolerate whatever brings money; they benefit from the inclination of the human race to suicide. It amuses me that there are countries where attempted suicide is punished while the governments spend millions on nuclear weapons, which facilitate collective suicide. They just have to use them once for us all to disappear from here. "

Meanwhile, Morrissey must confront vexing moral and aesthetic dilemmas. He opens his heart: "I have a problem with synthetic leather shoes. I stopped using fake leather jackets because people became confused and accused me of using real leather. It's easy to stop eating meat and forget about eggs and milk: immediately you feel better ethically and physically. But the synthetic leather shoes are more uncomfortable than genuine leather. It is the last barrier for those who do not want to exploit animals in any way. "

(Sidebar)

Secrets and lies of the industry
Morrissey agrees to list the main secrets of the record business.
Take note:
1. The number one position on the charts is normally bought.
2. A label can sign an artist to bury him.
3. A company issues a press release saying their new discovery has sold 30 million records, when the actual figure is 30,000, but the media make it official truth.
4. The label strives to pay nothing and move all expenses to the artist, so that its income is clean profit.
5. Before listening to a record, the executives have already decided if it will triumph or not in the market.
6. The bosses are all men; the women who work in the industry are eternally girls, even if they are 52 years old.
7. Grammy Awards are previously divided between the labels, so that its executives can boast that they are au courant.
 
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"I do not get rich by touring. All the money that is generated is invested in doing things: Five star hotels, first class air travel, expensive cars, expensive clothes, personal security, large house in LA, large house in Switzerland, five to ten years years off between albums, an entourage at my beck and call twenty-four hours a day, private health care, a diamond the size of a hen's egg, an unicorn with a crown... Many people ask me what is the point of bothering with tours and I say, this is my life."
 
"I do not get rich by touring. All the money that is generated is invested in doing things: Five star hotels, first class air travel, expensive cars, expensive clothes, personal security, large house in LA, large house in Switzerland, five to ten years years off between albums, an entourage at my beck and call twenty-four hours a day, private health care, a diamond the size of a hen's egg, an unicorn with a crown... Many people ask me what is the point of bothering with tours and I say, this is my life."

He doesn't own a home in LA. However, I'll never understand the need for his constant entourage. When was the last time he didn't have one, 1985?
 
"I do not get rich by touring. All the money that is generated is invested in doing things: Five star hotels, first class air travel, expensive cars, expensive clothes, personal security, large house in LA, large house in Switzerland, five to ten years years off between albums, an entourage at my beck and call twenty-four hours a day, private health care, a diamond the size of a hen's egg, an unicorn with a crown... Many people ask me what is the point of bothering with tours and I say, this is my life."
Not really his quote..is it?

He should give all his money to you. Then he could stand on the street with a sign saying, "Ban the Bums." How dare a successful artist with money express any opinions about the state of the world or politics. Who does he think he is.

He should just enjoy the caviar and watch the world turn into Death Valley.:paranoid:
 
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Man people really need to re-read this. He isn't saying it's ok to wear leather because fake leather is less comfortable. He's giving up fake leather for the fact it isn't comfortable and that people think it's real leather. He's not going back to real leather. How can people not read this?

As for his list..that's just pure paranoia/lack of responsibility. Even if he 100% believed all that, why would he advertise it?? He wants a new deal yet he's happy to openly say stuff like this over and over. What record company is going to read that and go "hey! I want THAT guy!" ?

Just go down the independent route, for f***'s sake Morrissey.. He also must be doing something wrong to not be making money out of his touring (like, you know, cancelling half his shows), because so many artists have said that true money lies in touring these days. But yeah you're not going to make any money from it if you don't turn up at half the shows, Moz.
 
This is the best time to be alive in the history of the planet. There is less disease, famine and violence than ever. We are an ingenious species that will continue to survive--and thrive. I am an optimist. Pessimism is so emotionally taxing and toxic. There is so much good and beauty to be found. Open your eyes--just a little wider. You can focus on the good or the bad. It is your choice. Focusing on the good makes my life happy and positive. Are you happy and positive? Is Morrissey? The power to be these things is in your hands. Just change your perspective.

What other times in the history of the planet have you lived in? The world today is no less violent than it has been in the past. What the hell are you talking about?

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Man people really need to re-read this. He isn't saying it's ok to wear leather because fake leather is less comfortable. He's giving up fake leather for the fact it isn't comfortable and that people think it's real leather. He's not going back to real leather. How can people not read this?

As for his list..that's just pure paranoia/lack of responsibility. Even if he 100% believed all that, why would he advertise it?? He wants a new deal yet he's happy to openly say stuff like this over and over. What record company is going to read that and go "hey! I want THAT guy!" ?

Just go down the independent route, for f***'s sake Morrissey.. He also must be doing something wrong to not be making money out of his touring (like, you know, cancelling half his shows), because so many artists have said that true money lies in touring these days. But yeah you're not going to make any money from it if you don't turn up at half the shows, Moz.

When has Morrissey ever been concerned with how he comes off in an interview. Can you imagine Morrissey saying to himself "Oh I better not say this or I'll upset people and it may hamper me from getting a new record deal"?
 
I have to disagree with M on this one. There are more choices than ever if you are looking for synthetic leather, and the styles are far better than they use to be. Even if that wasn't the case, whose suffering is more significant: a man in uncomfortable shoes or a cow having its hide ripped from its flesh? It's difficult to say that you are 100% vegan because there can always be a hidden ingredient or manufacturing process that defeats your goal; however, giving up leather is not difficult if you are truly committed. Morrissey is one of the most vocal vegetarians in the world, but his message would have a much greater impact if he showed more consistency. I love Morrissey, but wearing another animal's skin is as bad as eating another animal's flesh. There is absolutely no difference between wearing fur and wearing leather.

lynnda
 
"I do not get rich by touring. All the money that is generated is invested in doing things: Five star hotels, first class air travel, expensive cars, expensive clothes, personal security, large house in LA, large house in Switzerland, five to ten years years off between albums, an entourage at my beck and call twenty-four hours a day, private health care, a diamond the size of a hen's egg, an unicorn with a crown... Many people ask me what is the point of bothering with tours and I say, this is my life."

give it a rest, bittercorn. you've deluded yourself into thinking a singer is more important in the grand scheme of things than he (in fact) is.
 
I was in Seething Lane yesterday. It's not far from the Tower of London, and famously (or perhaps not) the home of the 17th Century diarist Samuel Pepys.

Pepys lived through wars, plagues, the Great Fire, the restoration and assorted social upheavals. He survived all those things and died peacefully at a ripe age.

It seems to me many people in the West today, Morrissey included, have a tendency to look at the news and extrapolate from that instead of looking out of their windows. The modern media operate on a simple cynical principle: If you aren't scared, they aren't doing their job properly.

Of course things could be better, but there is slow a inexorable progress. Technology is improving, medical science is advancing apace, violence is in decline, and the world is getting wealthier.

Ebola will go the way of the Spanish Flu and the Black Death, ISIS will go the way of the Mongol hordes and the Nazis.

You don't measure the scope of humanity by yesterday, today and tomorrow. It is measured in decades and centuries. It wasn't that long ago when you couldn't open a newspaper without them going on and on about the Second World War. Now they hardly mention it at all. Those who are still interested have to buy a book.

To those who feel the intense pang of hurt at the news from Syria or Iraq, or Chechnya, or Ukraine, or Liberia, or Sierra Leone, or wherever, I would simply say this: What are you doing about it? If, as I suspect, the answer is "f*** all" then take your fake moral outrage and shove it.

Short of an immense asteroid strike we'll be just fine. None of us reading this today will make it to the finish line, but humankind as a species will, and that's the only thing that matters.
 
I have to disagree with M on this one. There are more choices than ever if you are looking for synthetic leather, and the styles are far better than they use to be. Even if that wasn't the case, whose suffering is more significant: a man in uncomfortable shoes or a cow having its hide ripped from its flesh? It's difficult to say that you are 100% vegan because there can always be a hidden ingredient or manufacturing process that defeats your goal; however, giving up leather is not difficult if you are truly committed. Morrissey is one of the most vocal vegetarians in the world, but his message would have a much greater impact if he showed more consistency. I love Morrissey, but wearing another animal's skin is as bad as eating another animal's flesh. There is absolutely no difference between wearing fur and wearing leather.

lynnda

I think he's just saying that this is the part of veganism that is challenging for him, not that he thinks it's justifiable to wear leather. It seems very Morrissey to be more challenged by a fashion issue than a diet issue. Also, keep in mind that this is a translation from his original English into Spanish, then back into English again. So there's a good chance something was lost in translation (and re-translation).
 
give it a rest, bittercorn. you've deluded yourself into thinking a singer is more important in the grand scheme of things than he (in fact) is.

I don't think Morrissey is important. I don't know where you got that impression. He has become an utter irrelevance. He hasn't sold out though, I'll give him that. Tickets are still available for most dates.
 
I think he's just saying that this is the part of veganism that is challenging for him, not that he thinks it's justifiable to wear leather. It seems very Morrissey to be more challenged by a fashion issue than a diet issue. Also, keep in mind that this is a translation from his original English into Spanish, then back into English again. So there's a good chance something was lost in translation (and re-translation).

I thought that part of the interview was bizarre. He cannot buy comfortable synthetic footwear? Utter bullshit. He prefers leather footwear for reasons of fashion, just as some prefer animal fur.

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I suspect you are wasting your time with marred. More brains in a pork pie.
 
Morrissey is not an optimist. Pessimist--not Action--is his middle name. Beauty is not what keeps us going. Life keeps us going. Life which is full of good and bad. Life is not a steady state. It is a rollercoaster--a wild ride with ups and downs and sharp turns--exciting, thrilling, scary, and worth every second. One problem: It is much too short and over before you know it.

One can acknowledge global warming and still be an optimist. Optimism does not necessitate one be delusional. But optimists don't whine. They create, invent--come up with technologies and solutions to solve the problems. They believe in hope, change, and prosperity.

This is the best time to be alive for all nations and all peoples--perhaps not individuals but populations as a whole--indeed!

"This is the best time to be alive for all nations and all peoples"

Truly staggering ignorance.
 
I don't think Morrissey is important. I don't know where you got that impression. He has become an utter irrelevance. He hasn't sold out though, I'll give him that. Tickets are still available for most dates.
You a funny person. .... Morrissey is not important? He is irrelevant? Oh really.....?

What are you doing here? If he's so irrelevant why are you here day after day if you don't think he's important?
 
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I wonder if he eats honey? When he is poorly, does he take medication that hasn't been tested on animals (which is all medication I would guess)? Will he also be giving up wool and silk? I guess he will also be requiring all his tour vehicles as well the the planes he flies in to only have non-animal derived tyres?

Honestly, "last barrier for those who do not want to exploit animals in any way"? Animal exploitation is entrenched in our lives. To say that the buck stops at footwear is just ill informed. Then again, why change a habit of lifetime?
 
Like in the way you pretend to have watched and understood what Pinker has to say. And like how you pretended for months to have read Autobiography.

I love you.



But yeah, the leather thing may have been lost in translation. He wouldn't sit on Russell's leather chairs, so I doubt he wears leather shoes.
 
Like in the way you pretend to have watched and understood what Pinker has to say. And like how you pretended for months to have read Autobiography.

I've heard this argument before.What Pinker and others have said does not address the violence of everyday life....The environmental destruction of our air and water and the violence of habitat destruction and decimation of other species as we humans proliferate like a disease. The violent destruction of our oceans and the wildlife there...is ongoing and will not stop.

We are drilling and fracking our selves into a dung heap. The violence that he doesn't address is boiling under the surface and like a volcano could explode at any moment. And as long as nuclear weapons exist there is a chance of world wide destruction.

There is so much more that can be said about all of this but it's not going to do any good. That's why I'm a pessimist. Man is a bad animal and as a whole will lie to himself all the way to the grave.

Of course everyone doesn't lie to themselves but to those that think, life is a comedy and to those that feel it's a tragedy....and to some of us it's both.
 
yeah i dont think i got that he still wears leather at all. from what i read he just gave up wearing the fake stuff all together.
 

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