Dear music fans, shall we all just buy The Smiths?
Dear music lovers, we have a chance to enjoy The Smiths once again, as Morrissey has confirmed he’ll be selling his stake in the band. If we all put our money together, we might have a real shot at beating any other investors. Music fans, I ask you: shall we all just buy The Smiths?
Morrissey won’t be the first person to sell his catalogue. Artists like Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie and Bob Dylan have all sold their music previously; however, these deals usually occur because they come with lucrative offers attached. Morrissey doesn’t seem to be after the money. Instead, he has stated that he will be selling his stake in The Smiths because he is fed up with being in a business relationship with people who don’t care for him.
“I am burnt out by any and all connections to Marr, Rourke, Joyce. I have had enough of malicious association,” he said. “With my entire life, I have paid my rightful dues to these songs and these images. I would now like to live disassociated from those who wish me nothing but ill-will and destruction, and this is the only resolution.”
So, what would we get if we all put our money together and bought The Smiths? Well, according to Morrissey, we would get the bands merchandising rights, the rights to Smiths songs both lyrically and musically, all synchronisation rights, recordings, and the contractual rights to The Smiths publishing. A slight caveat, we would have to split all this with Johnny Marr, but he seems nice enough, I reckon it would be fine.
Let’s face it, Morrissey hasn’t done much for The Smiths’ image in recent years, has he? While he remains one of the most unique singers and exceptional lyricists on the planet, the mopey and artistic brilliance of The Smiths has dwindled as time has revealed the cracks in who was once a charismatic frontman. Morrissey has gone from a well-read realist to a self-entitled and dangerously opinionated black hole that seems to swallow up the beauty of the music he has created and leave behind only darkness.
While his opinions were once endearing, as he slagged off artists between the pages of NME and held modernity hostage in his music, his unrelenting sharp tongue has since become a problem. While Morrissey had previously made comments on immigration, they became a prominent part of him in the noughties. He spoke in a way that would make Nigel Farage sing and dance, as he babbled on about a dwindling sense of Britishness in the face of increased immigration.
“Britain’s a terribly negative place,” he said. “And it hammers people down, and it pulls you back, and it prevents you. Also, with the issue of immigration, it’s very difficult because, although I don’t have anything against people from other countries, the higher the influx into England, the more the British identity disappears. So the price is enormous. If you travel to Germany, it’s still absolutely Germany. If you travel to Sweden, it still has a Swedish identity. But travel to England, and you have no idea where you are.”
Point noted, but that British identity didn’t seem lost when people responded to his comments and called him a wanker. Of course, this wasn’t Morrissey’s only point of contention, as he has also called Chinese people a “sub-species” due to their animal rights policies, has said he can’t understand the way the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, speaks, and seemed to infer that Anthony Rapp, the 14 year old who accused Kevin Spacey of sexual advance, should have known what was going to happen.
Thanks to his persisting controversies over the years, Morrissey has made it difficult to enjoy the music of The Smiths. There seems to be a sense of guilt involved in indulging someone who seems like a pretty awful person, and that means playing their music, which consists of arguably some of the best songs ever written, comes with conflicting emotions. Johnny Marr has never made an effort to reconcile with Morrissey, admitting he has turned down multiple offers to reunite.
“In June 2024, AEG Entertainment Group made a lucrative offer to both Morrissey and Marr to tour worldwide as ‘The Smiths’ throughout 2025,” wrote Morrissey on his website. “Morrissey said yes to the offer; Marr ignored the offer.” Johnny Marr quickly responded to the comment, clarifying that he didn’t ignore anything. “As for the offer to tour, I didn’t ignore the offer – I said no,” he confirmed.
In a time of political unrest and the world looking more questionable and daunting than ever, the music of The Smiths, which embraces nihilism, pessimism and hopelessness in a way which is also very fun to listen to, provides the perfect soundtrack for the end of days. We should at least be able to enjoy that during a time when we struggle to enjoy anything anymore. The solution is simple: I’ll put together a GoFundMe, and we’ll all pool our money together and buy Morrissey’s share.
It’s time for us to enjoy The Smiths again, revelling in their music without the bitter taste of bigotry setting up camp in the back of our mouths. Music lovers, I ask once again, shall we all just buy The Smiths?
