An anonymous person writes:

This was posted by Bernard Butler this morning on The Tears forum (www.thetears.org). It relates to the supposed comments he made about Morrissey and The Smiths' songs in an interview last week. Thanks Bernard for clearifying this issue. A rush and a push and the charts are ours...

Bernard quote:

right.......let's sort this out straight away,and feel free to copy it as im sure you will.
what the journo left out: the queen is dead still rules my life.I listen to the smiths daily still.I love lots of Morrissey's solo records.........i have cried my way through over 20 years of his incarnations and feel very qualified to know when morrissey is on form.........and yes i presumed every line of the queen is dead was addressed personally to me
i admit i was naively goaded into a rage by the lovely journalist by his suggestion that i was wasting my time with brett unless we just reformed suede and played old songs.......he admitted of course that he had yet to hear our record......in any case i only wrote one of the quoted songs and have never performed either
i dont think morrissey is sad for playing smiths songs......he should be proud of them and enjoy sharing them with so many fans.......i just dont like the versions im hearing.......and the idea that they have been creatively given a new lease of life is absurd......i saw johnny transform those beautiful records into live beasts .......they are the reason i exist.......but now they sound to me like poetry readings against an overmodest backdrop,too shy to break free ......i know alan and boz and it was me that put little barrie up for the job last year.......they are all great musicians but pop records are not about poetry,they are exhilarating moments of abandon and beauty and i am not alone in still waiting for morrissey to surprise me and put himself inthe centre of some musical danger again ,not just lyrical danger......this is a genuine creative enthusiasm of a fan
by having a musical opinion am i somehow spoiling the fun? well im sorry but since when did Morrissey worry about that....and the idea that what i do creatively correlates to the amount of people watching? well how come i happily turned down the offer to join the Moz in favour of playing to a few hundred like i did last night?

i think its a shame that i rose to the occasion.....i dont think he's sold out,and certainly not sad..... but also a shame that so many people arent willing to be turned on by a hardcore creative standoff: if the songs i play tonight are shite then shoot me down ..... i'drather see an artist playing russian roulette with their music than getting the pipe and slippers out and living through nostalgia.........it doesnt bother me that by thetime the tears get round to learning a suede song there might only be 3 people propping upthe bar .......fuck it maybe ill learn one for tonight.......or maybe ill write something new......
and dont forget morrissey and marr taught me everything i know so don't blame me.......they remain the greatest british group and the queen is dead my favourite record of all time......my apologies for any other sentiments......wet plimsoll duly administered
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• Related item: Bernard Butler and Brett Anderson shoot their mouths off again - Apr. 18, 2005

goinghome writes:

On last Sunday night, 17th April on Channel 4, the band The Smiths were shown performing, recording, and cycling about Salford getting their iconic photograph taken outside the Salford Lads Club that would grace the inner sleeve of ‘The Queen is Dead’ album, which was voted 20th greatest album ever. Johny Marr explained how he used to tape music on cassette before Morrissey added words, and he waxed lyrical, as did Stephen Street, about the incomparability of Moz’s genius to break new artistic ground.

The winner was Radiohead with ‘OK Computer’. It could be postulated that circuitously, indirectly, jointly, this means that Morrissey, as solo artist, wins too, due to the huge influence that he had on Radiohead e.g. in an interview in 2003 Thom Yorke said about “Vauxhall and I”: “You can hear that album all over The Bends ... it was all we listened to”. As both that album and OK Computer are recognizably Radiohead, that’s my theory anyway!

Here’s the complete Top Twenty albums (of 100 featured) in England this year, agree or not:

20. The Queen is Dead – The Smiths
19. Are you Experienced? – Jimi Hendrix
18. Urban Hymns – The Verve
17. IV – Led Zeppelin
16. Jagged little Pill – Alanis Morrisette
15. (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? – Oasis
14. Parachutes – Coldplay
13. A Night at the Opera – Queen
12. The White Album – The Beatles
11. Automatic for the People – R.E.M.
10. Revolver – The Beatles
9. Appetite for Destruction - Guns n’ Roses
8. Like a Prayer - Madonna
7. Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – The Beatles
6. Definitely Maybe - Oasis
5. Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd
4. Thriller – Michael Jackson
3. Nevermind - Nirvana
2. The Joshua Tree – U2
1. OK Computer - Radiohead
---
Stan also writes:

This news is late but seems to have been skipped, perhaps with good reason.

On Sunday 17th, Channel 4 broadcast a show called The 100 Best Albums Of All Time, or words to that effect.

Another of these 3 hour marathons of clips and comments that the previously experimental channel has relied upon recently.

It placed 'The Queen Is Dead' at number 20 and featured an interview with Johnny Marr talking about how he'd give Morrissey a tape of new music and the lyrics would be recorded quite quickly afterwards and in the most unpredictable way. 'I Know It's Over' was singled out as a good example.

Steven Street was also interviewed, contributing the expected, but amongst the video footage and familiar clips were some of all the Smiths in the studio listening to a playback.... a young Morrissey nodding along contentadly. Not seen it before although it may be a well known bootleg.

Anyway, The Queen Is Dead is the 20th best album ever, in case you ever were silly enough to think it were the 18th or 6th. It was a public vote.

Frances sends the link:

Frankly, my Dears - Metro Times Detroit
Excerpt:

Murray Lightburn actually wept when he got the phone call to open a few Morrissey shows last year. And why not? The 30-year-old Dears frontman has often been called the “Black Morrissey,” and growing up, the Smiths and Morrissey meant everything to him.

“I think more than anything, finding Morrissey made me feel like I wasn’t alone and helped me find a little inner strength,” Lightburn says, matter-of-factly. “Whether I would have found that without him is debatable, but who cares? The Smiths were a great band that spoke to millions and I was lucky enough to be one of them.”