The Smiths: the riches of the poor

I used to love the Smiths; probably listened to Strangeways and the Queen is Dead more than a hundred times each when I was a teenager, but knowing Morrissey is such a hateful person just ruined their songs for me. Same with Jesse Lacey in Brand New.

I know lots of people separate the art from the artist and can happily listen to Michael Jackson or Gary Glitter without thinking about who they were, but I never have and to be honest I'm not sure I'd want to.

I used to love the Smiths; probably listened to Strangeways and the Queen is Dead more than a hundred times each when I was a teenager, but knowing Morrissey is such a hateful person just ruined their songs for me. Same with Jesse Lacey in Brand New.

I know lots of people separate the art from the artist and can happily listen to Michael Jackson or Gary Glitter without thinking about who they were, but I never have and to be honest I'm not sure I'd want to.

I view it - the 'Morrissey Problem' - as one long in the making: even at the beginning, he came across as being absolutely convinced that he was right about so many things; and sadly this arrogance has never altered. Arguably, this is a feature of essentially lonely lives, and we see it in the self-righteous & strongly-held views of talents like Morrissey and Hilary Mantel (for example) and even obscure people like me - we've been alone in our heads for so long, with no-one to debate our opinions, that we assume our views are either inarguable or are 'only common sense'.

Perhaps The Smiths split at exactly the right time - some of the songs he wrote at that time and obliged the band to rehearse were at best controversial, and continuing in that vein would have spoiled our fond memories of The Smiths.