Top Ten Morrissey Moments 2021

Here are our Top Ten Morrissey Moments for 2021!

Morrissey in Las Vegas

As 2021 wraps up, I can’t tell if this year dragged on or passed by in a blur, but there were at least some good things that happened in a world where little feels certain: namely, the return of live music. We can only hope, moving into 2022, that we will see more of a return to our previous lives, or some sense of normalcy resume, but undoubtedly, life still feel precarious.
Thankfully, we have Morrissey’s words to guide us, and I can’t think of many lines that could be more fitting than “stop watching the news.” The mental health toll of this pandemic is something that many don’t seem to consider, or pay attention to, but with lockdowns, losses, restrictions, and news sites peddling today’s latest terror, it must be monumental. At some point, at least for sensitive souls, it becomes too much to take in.

But, my purpose here today is not to discuss covid, or politics, as difficult as such topics are to escape lately, but to take a look at the Top Ten Morrissey moments of 2021:

Let’s get started!

10. Give Us A Drink, And Make It Quick

Why not start out our New Years party with a few drinks?

Back in September, Alison Martino posted photos on Instagram from an evening out with Morrissey, where he looked ultra-handsome-devil and possibly a bit buzzed on champagne. The pics caused a sensation amongst fans, as we tasted a delicious moment of living vicariously – oh to share a few bevvies with our idol! Later in the year, also on Instagram, Alison replied to a photo Linda Ramone posted with Morrissey, noting “I partied with him recently. He’s fun to cocktail with,” no doubt leading to peals of squeals from us fans, all aflutter in vicarious excitement.

via Alison Martino, Instagram

9. Morrissey Appears To Rank His Own Albums

On September 29^th, a post appeared on Morrissey Central, titled “Say It Loud, I’m Me And I’m Proud,” with a numbered list of 30 Morrissey and Smiths albums. While the meaning of the list was never directly explained, stirring some debate, many fans believed it was Morrissey ranking his own releases. As an aside, I was rather excited to see his top 3, are also my top 3, although in a slightly different order. For the full rankings, click the link below: 

https://www.morrisseycentral.com/messagesfrommorrissey/say-it-loud-i-m-me-and-i-m-proud

8. Good Looking Man About Manchester

Morrissey was spotted out and about in Manchester a few times this year. Back in the summer, some photos emerged of him at the pub, looking sleek casual in a navy blue jacket and jeans. Post-tour, in October, Mozzer was back putting the M in his hometown, photographed donning elegant all black at an Echobelly concert, and then in pinstripes and a printed scarf at a Joan Collins book signing. Divine!

Images via Twitter

7. Morrissey works with A$AP Rocky

In May, rapper A$AP Rocky announced that Morrissey will be involved in his upcoming album, All Smiles, contributing vocals, writing, and production. “Anything you need him to do, he show up and do,” Rocky said of Moz, in an interview with GQ.   Brilliant news, as the hip hop community boasts a number of Morrissey fans, with artists such as Rihanna, Lil’ Wayne, and 2 Chainz all seen sporting Morrissey tees over the last few years. We are definitely looking forward to hearing more about this collab!

Via Rolling Stone

6. Fashion Galore!

It’s always exciting to see what looks Morrissey will step out in, especially when he appears on stage. For dazzling fashion moments, this year was no exception, as Morrissey donned some fabulous threads, including a number of dashing suits, to which he added unique touches of “Mozness,” highlighting his skill for working with patterns, colour, and accessorization. We loved how he paired a tawny dress shirt with this floral Prada tie in Vegas, and how he juxtaposed rock n roll DIY glam with elegance, sporting a customized New York Dolls tee and tailored dark blue-grey suit in Chicago. Our fave? It just might be this exquisitely embroidered Dries Van Noten suit he wore on night 2 of his Vegas residency. Super ultra-dreamy!

Photo by alesolcasas Instagram

5. A Trio of Demos

In late October, three never-before-heard demos were posted on Morrissey Central and Sam Esty Rayner’s YouTube page. The first of the trio, If Saturday Ever Comes, a Morrissey/Mando Lopez track, beckons late 50’s/early 60’s rock instrumentals, with lyrics taking the listener through the existential journey of mourning a brother and subsequent stirrings of one’s own looming mortality. Morrissey’s vocals are exquisite emotion-filled croonership at its best, transporting the listener to the narrator’s struggle, in another time and place. 

The following day, another track was uploaded to Central, this time a Morrissey/Tobias composition – Once Upon A Woman’s Body. Far from a generic poppy lovestruck tune about first love, Once Upon A Woman’s Body tackles disappointment in early romantic and sexual endeavours, as well as the resulting psychological confusion and torment. Haunting melodies and rippling guitar riffs accent the hard-hitting lyrics. Finally, for the third day in a row, fans were gifted yet another demo, also a Morrissey/Tobias number, You Don’t Need Their Approval, a song about living on one’s own terms without requiring the approval of others. While still a fairly rough recording, the lost demo harkens a sense of nostalgia, or touch of vintage Hollywood, with jaunty keyboard flourishes contrasting dreamy vocals.

To listen to the tracks, click the links below:

If Saturday Ever Comes

Once Upon A Woman's Body

You Don't Need Their Approval

4. Setlist Rarities

Morrissey returning to the stage made 2021 feel magical – and in those moments, life seemed to make sense again. Over his successful 5-show Las Vegas residency, and at Chicago’s Riot Fest, Morrissey treated fans to special live debuts of songs, including those from his latest release, I Am Not A Dog On A Chain, as well as a number of solo and Smiths songs that haven’t been played live in decades. He certainly packed as much excitement as he could into those 6 nights, including opening the tour with Never Had No One Ever, which hadn’t been played live since the Smiths days of 1986! Let’s take a look at some highlights:

Never Had No One Ever (first time live since 1986)

What Kind of People Live in These Houses (live debut)
The Lazy Sunbathers (live debut)
Knockabout World (live debut)
This Night Has Opened My Eyes (first time live since 1986)
Tomorrow (first time live since 2008)
The Loop (first time live since 2009)

3. Bonfire Of Teenagers

On May 30^th, Morrissey announced he had finished recording a new album, Bonfire Of Teenagers, in Los Angeles, and posted the track listing on Morrissey Central. Fans were aglow with anticipation on hearing the news, and we are hoping a great record deal is on the horizon so our hungry ears can feast on all 11 tracks sometime in 2022! The track list, as posted on Central, is:

1. I Am Veronica
2. Rebels Without Applause
3. Kerouac’s Crack
4. Ha Ha Harlem
5. I Live In Oblivion
6. Bonfire Of Teenagers
7. My Funeral
8. Diana Dors
9. I Ex-Love You
10. Sure Enough, The Telephone Rings
11. Saint In A Stained-Glass Window

2. Morrissey headlines Riot Fest

On September 16^th, Morrissey kicked off Chicago’s Riot Fest, curating his very own lineup, including artists Kristeen Young, WDRL, Joyce Manor, Patti Smith, and Alkaline Trio. Moz himself then took the stage as headliner, singing for an audience of 40,000. From all accounts, it was a magical evening, with fans in attendance noting the night's "energy was crazy good - exceptional for a festival," describing Patti Smith as "a goddess of positive energy," and Morrissey's set as a "complete and total happiness fog" and "heart dissolving."

Photo by Armando L. Sanchez

1. Morrissey’s 5 Night Las Vegas Residency

On August 28^th, Morrissey was reunited with fans once again, as he opened a dazzling 5-Night residency at the Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas. During those late summer nights, Vegas was exquisitely ablaze, with Mozzer showcasing a diverse career-spanning setlist, complete with a new band lineup, including the return of past band members Alain Whyte and Solomon Walker, drummer Brendan Buckley, and long-time band members Jesse Tobias and Gustavo Manzur. On opening night, the residency shattered all records for merch sales in the history of Caesar’s Palace. I was lucky enough (beyond lucky, truly) to attend the first three nights of the residency.  For many of us, it meant the world to be reunited with Morrissey and to once again be part of live music, and the nights were surreal, beautiful, invigorating. We hope that 2022 blesses us with more moments to remember for life, such as these, with fans on Twitter commenting how cool it would be for Morrissey to possibly do a yearly Vegas residency.

Thank you for running through these memories with me, and while times can be stressful, confusing, and depressing, I am so thankful for all Morrissey and his music give us, as fans, including the friendships and memories that keep us going!

Let’s hope for good things in 2022 -

Viva Moz – and Happy New Year!

*edit December 29th, 2021:

Our new year's party gets another round of drinks! 

A late addition, but there were a number of cute photos of Morrissey (circa 2000?) uploaded to Morrissey Central today, and we thought they absolutely deserve an honourable mention on our Top Moments of 2021!  Social media was buzzing with delight over these charmingly cheeky pics of Moz out on the town!  Photo credit: Tina Dehghani.  

Dapper in denim

This very charming man!

For more pics visit: https://www.morrisseycentral.com/messagesfrommorrissey/thank-you-for-the-days

An Open Letter to Journalists, From Morrissey Fans

 An open letter to Journalists, from Morrissey fans

I’m writing this to say, in a not-so-gentle-way, we are tired, and we are angry.

And it’s not at Morrissey.

It’s at the press and the escalation of their slanted articles and untruths about Morrissey and us, his fans.

Journalists who lie strike again and again. Most recently, Stephen Dalton for The Times, in an article reviewing Rick Astley and The Blossoms' recent Smiths cover concert at the O2 Forum, reported that Morrissey’s website “published some withering words on Astley.” This is completely untrue, as Morrissey expressed praise for the concerts, thanking the artists involved.

The only negativity - or controversy - surrounding Rick Astley and The Blossoms was caused by a bullying online pack that repeatedly attempts to discredit and attack Morrissey and an incredibly biased press that seems intent on only reporting views that are disparaging of Morrissey, rather than those which are positive and supportive.

Alas, it doesn’t end there.

In August, the Los Angeles Times  included Morrissey in a list of musicians who are anti-vaxxers. Morrissey, as far as I’m aware, has never expressed this view regarding the pandemic, simply stating in an interview that rigid restrictions are imposed on poorer people by elites who rarely follow their own rules, a point which is hard to argue against. The publication later corrected the text, but this is yet again indicative of a press that seems to go out of their way to make antagonistic or unsupported claims about Morrissey, often without providing any evidence to back such claims up.

Unsubstantiated allegations that “Morrissey is racist” are abundant in publications like The Guardian, which pathetically resort to re-hashing and misinterpreting 30-year-old song lyrics, or chopping quotes (often related to animal welfare) completely out of context, yet they ignore the fact Morrissey works with, and has been influenced by, a number of black artists and people of colour, regularly speaks out against racially-driven police brutality and social injustices, and has adoring fans from numerous ethnic backgrounds all over the world.

And still, it doesn’t end there...

For, not only is the press misrepresenting and lying about Morrissey himself, but also us – his devoted fanbase. Cue publications consisting of one-sided arguments, only including takes like “[fans] would rather have Astley than Morrissey,” or that we are “abandoning Morrissey,” or, as a May 2019 article by Tim Jonze claimed , that we “feel so betrayed” by him. Jonze, of course, failed to mention the legions of fans who attended Morrissey’s 7 night Broadway residency earlier that month.

Shockingly - or perhaps not - earlier this year, another article reported that Morrissey was “blasted by his own fans for over-reaction to Simpsons parody.” This is an entirely biased and outlandish statement, as the vast majority of feedback I saw was from fans who were appalled by the body-shaming, slanderous, and ageist episode, feeling they had been duped by producers into watching it, as it was initially presented as something positive. Tweets used in the article, yet again, were predominantly sourced from the personal accounts of ‘blue check’ journalists for Pitchfork or the New Yorker, or podcast hosts. What’s clear is that mainstream publications rarely, if ever, provide supportive quotes from actual fans, of which there are many, leaving us completely unheard and unrepresented.

It’s an odd phenomenon – there was barely a whisper from the press about Morrissey’s record-breaking 5-night Las Vegas residency, or his headlining Chicago's Riot fest for an audience of 40,000 fans last month. No mention of the fans reaching to hold his hand, passing him letters and gifts, no mention of people from all backgrounds donning Morrissey tees and attending his gigs to show him love and see him sing in person. No mention of all the supportive messages on social media.

Morrissey fans at the Hollywood Bowl, 2019
photo by @mischievousnose Twitter

Quite frankly, I am tired of the press and their lies upon lies. As a fan, I feel completely misrepresented. Thanks to freelance writers like Fiona Dodwell, and fan bloggers like Jo Whitfield and Angie Cooke, and websites like Letters To Morrissey, we do have a voice, but the mainstream media continues to try to drown us out with uninformed, biased articles that have very little, if any, grounding in reality.

The power should be with the people – not mainstream publications like The Guardian, and NME. And we will not bow or break, and continue to stand proud as Morrissey fans – and there are many of us.

If you cannot stand this fake world, take my hand.

Agree? Leave a message or share to show your support! Viva Moz!

Listener, Meet Lyricist: Morrissey's Lyrics and the Art of Storytelling

There are multitudes of qualities that make Morrissey’s lyrics so beloved by generations of fans all over the world, but lately I’ve been thinking a lot about his gift as a descriptive storyteller, so I wanted to explore that a bit...

Morrissey in Texas, 2019

I’ve always been a lyrics girl. For me to truly get into an artist, their words need to speak to me. Voice is undoubtedly crucial, and instrumentals can make or break things as well, but I love a song that can draw me in and tell me something about life, myself, or someone else. When I discovered Morrissey, it was not only his beautiful voice, but also his words that gave a jolt and awareness to my heart. It was something I felt I had been missing in life, somehow soothing a sense of loneliness and strangeness that had followed me relentlessly since almost before I can remember.

For many of us, Morrissey’s lyrics are an emotional lifeline, and it’s hard to imagine existence without the guidance of his words. His music provides a soundtrack to our lives. It’s remarkable how certain qualities of his songs continue to jump out at me, years after first delving into his catalogue. For, not only does he connect with his audience on such a deep level emotionally, but he is also a brilliant storyteller.

Ringleader era Morrissey looking
very fetching in a tux, via Pinterest

I was trying to cope with post-tour blues, and craving movement in a world of stagnation, so I put on one of my favourite Morrissey records, Ringleader of the Tormentors, and went for a drive. Through a maze of traffic lights and intersections, with trees and buildings whirring by, it struck me how, while my eyes were on the road (don’t worry!) my mind’s eye was transported to entirely different places, and into other people’s lives, through Morrissey’s lyricism. Suddenly, I was running on the streets, down damp dark pitted back alleys, with On The Streets I Ran dancing through my speakers:

Ooh a working class face glares back
At me from the glass and lurches
Oh, forgive me on the streets I ran
Turned sickness into popular song
Streets of wet black holes
On roads you can never know...

The words in this case aren’t necessarily extravagant, they don’t have to be, but the descriptive quality lends an evocative sense of time and place. I can almost feel my feet slamming into the puddles on a dark street, the eerie faces. The Father Who Must Be Killed, from the same album, sends me to another scene, this time urgent, frustrated, violent, desperate:

Stepchild, there’s a knife in a drawer in a room downstairs
And you, you know what you must do
So the stepchild ran with a knife to his sleeping frame
And slams it in his arms, his legs, his face, his neck and says
There’s a law against me now
And the father who must be killed
With his dying breath, he grabs her hand
And he looks into her eyes
He says “I’m sorry” and he dies...

Morrissey signing a book on stage

Switching to 2009 compilation album Swords, even the beauty of a single descriptive line from I Knew I Was Next jumped out at me: “the shadows of trees, they reach to me.” The imagery is enchanting, dark, and a little bit haunting.

Sister, he’s a poet.

It strikes me how Morrissey has the ability to convey, in a 4 or 5 minute song, a transformative experience, where the listener feels as if they are completely enveloped and engaged within a different dimension. This is the art of storytelling, and part of what makes Morrissey’s music so timeless. It is an innate aspect of his talent as an artist, and I believe it is also probably influenced by his love of literature.

Morrissey standing in front of a James Baldwin
backdrop, Hollywood Bowl, 2019

James Baldwin, one of Morrissey’s great influences, once said of writing, “Don’t describe it, show it ... Don’t describe a purple sunset, make me see that it is purple.”  I feel Morrissey’s lyrics often give us insight into another world that goes beyond typical description, akin to what Baldwin discusses here: we are shown the places Morrissey is singing about, his words paint a story and our imaginations travel to where he beckons us. Sights, sounds, sensations, make his art living and vibrant, our blood is flowing, and a certain magic takes place.

James Baldwin, NY
Public Library, Harlem

I thought I would look at some other Morrissey songs across his discography where sense of place creates these transportive experiences, starting back with his time in the Smiths and Rusholme Ruffians, from Meat is Murder:

The last night of the fair
by the big wheel generator
a boy is stabbed
and his money is grabbed
and the air hangs heavy like a dulling wine...

The atmosphere is deliciously sinister and I can absolutely feel that heavy, heady air sticking to my skin. “The grease in the hair, of a speedway operator, is all a tremulous heart requires” is another spellbinding moment, vivid in the mind's eye.

photo by Kevin Cummins

Boxers, from 1995, makes you feel as if you are at the match yourself, awash in the boxer’s loss:

Losing in front of your home town
The crowd call your name
They love you all the same
The sound, the smell, and the spray
You will take them all away
And they’ll stay
Til the grave

Maladjusted, from the 1997 studio album of the same name, in my opinion, is one of the greatest descriptive moments in music history. It has the poeticism of a classic novel. Those opening lines always give me goosebumps, and I won’t reproduce the entire song here – but it is alluring storytelling at its finest: atmospheric and building, building, building.

I want to start from
Before the beginning
Loot wine, “be mine, and
Then let’s stay out for the night”
Ride via Parkside
Semi-perilous lives
Jeer the lights in the windows
Of all safe and stable homes...

Morrissey in London, 2018

Come Back to Camden, from 2004’s You Are The Quarry, is exceptionally beautiful, mournful and filled with the ache of loneliness, as you are transported under “slate grey Victorian sky.”

The tile yard all along the railings
Up a discoloured dark brown staircase
Here you’ll find despair and I
...
Drinking tea with the taste of the Thames
Sullenly on a chair on the pavement
...
Where taxi drivers never stop talking
Under slate grey Victorian sky
Here you’ll find despair and I

Istanbul, from 2014’s World Peace Is None Of Your Business, puts the listener directly onto the streets of the Turkish city, with the father looking for his missing son.

Moonlight jumping through the trees
Sunken eyes avoiding me
From dusk til dawn the hunt is on
The father searches for the son

...

On secret streets in disbelief

Little shadow shows the lead

Prostitutes, stylish and glum

In amongst them you are one...

Once I Saw The River Clean, from Morrissey’s most recent release, 2020’s I Am Not A Dog On A Chain, takes one back in time, along on a walk with young Morrissey and his grandmother:

I walked with my grandmother
Along the groan of Talbot road
In the gardens by the graves
I can just about behave
Arrogant and paranoid,
All around, see fathead youth
Look into their brutal eyes
But only if you want the truth

Morrissey singing in front of a childhood
photo, Las Vegas, 2021

Morrissey’s extraordinary ability to invoke a sense of time and place is only one facet of many that make his lyrics so special, and he continues to captivate, inspiring his audience with his words and voice. Music that speaks to the human psyche is incredibly rare these days, and to create with such descriptive, poetic vibrance is indeed even rarer. Despite relentless social media and clickbait ‘journalist’s’ attempts to discredit him, Morrissey stands the test of time as a unique and irreplaceable artist, holding a special place in the hearts of his many fans around the world.

His words are engraved on our spirits, minds, hearts, and skin.

Morrissey headlining Riot Fest, 2021
Photo by Armando L. Sanchez