Morrissey - Viva Hate
- FaceOff - עימות חזיתי
- 10 hours ago
- 5 min read
Written By: Moti Kupfer
Release date - 14.03.1983
“I haven't met anyone who thinks a major rock group should be managed by the 23-year-old guitarist.”
In May 1987, after the recording sessions for “Strangeways, Here We Come”, the fourth studio album by “The Smiths”, had concluded, the band’s guitarist and main songwriter Johnny Marr announced that he wanted to take a break from the band. Marr felt suffocated, partly because the other members expected him to take the reins and shape the band’s direction not only musically but also from a managerial standpoint.
Marr indeed took that break, and from there events unfolded in a way no one expected.
Two months after the hiatus began, the headlines of NME magazine screamed: “Smiths To Split..” Marr could not believe the headline he was seeing. He felt betrayed and suspected Morrissey as the person responsible for it. Toward the end of the recording sessions their relationship had already become strained.
“Morrissey and I were very different characters,” Johnny Marr once said in an interview. “We didn’t really talk about it at the time. We just went our separate ways.”
Still, there was someone who hoped that “The Smiths” might collaborate again. That person was Stephen Street, the producer of their final album, who would later produce albums for “The Cranberries” and “Blur.” Believing that “The Smiths” had not yet said their last word, Street sent Morrissey several demos featuring his own playing, hoping to inspire him to write new songs that could eventually become the band’s glorious comeback.
“Johnny used to send Morrissey a tape with the music on it and Morrissey would write the lyrics over the top. I tried to do something similar,” Stephen Street later recalled. “I sent Morrissey a cassette with a few musical ideas on it.”.
Morrissey liked what he heard and told Street that “The Smiths are finished.”, suggesting they make a solo record together.
And so Morrissey’s debut solo album “Viva Hate” was born, released on March 14, 1988.
Just how hungry Morrissey was for recognition and success as an artist, and not merely for artistic appreciation, could already be seen in his enthusiastic response to Street.
Steven Patrick Morrissey was born in May 1959 in Davyhulme, Lancashire. His parents were Irish Catholics who had emigrated from Dublin to Manchester.
During his childhood he was deeply affected by the murders of several children in the area where he grew up, carried out by a pair later known as the "Moors Murderers". The young Morrissey also became aware of the anti-Irish sentiment that existed in British society toward Irish immigrants.
Morrissey had strong criticism of the British education system, which he claimed gave him nothing except a lack of self-esteem.
After losing interest in school, Morrissey focused his energy on reading. He admired the writings of Oscar Wilde and was also drawn to feminist literature. Musically he was fascinated by artists such as Marianne Faithfull, “T. Rex”, David Bowie, and “Roxy Music”, and later also by bands like “Sparks” and “New York Dolls.”
His first steps in music came in November 1977 when he met guitarist Billy Duffy and agreed to become the singer of his band “The Nosebleeds.” There he also wrote his first songs.
At the same time Morrissey began writing short books for the publishing company Babylon Books. Later he wrote additional booklets about “New York Dolls” and James Dean. He first met Johnny Marr by chance in 1978 during a Patti Smith concert.
Four years later Marr contacted him after being impressed by Morrissey’s booklet about “New York Dolls.” That connection led to the birth of “The Smiths”, a band whose entire existence lasted only five years and produced four albums, yet remains one of the most influential bands in Britain during the 1980s. Their impact stemmed from the unique fusion between rock music and sharp lyrical writing, in other words the combination of Johnny Marr’s guitars and Morrissey’s written ideas.
In October 1987, Morrissey entered the studio to record “Viva Hate”, his first solo album, only a few days after the final album by “The Smiths” had reached record stores. While Morrissey was working on the new material in the studio together with Stephen Street, new singles by “The Smiths” continued to be released until the end of 1987. The irony was hard to ignore.
Beyond Street, who produced the album and also played guitar, Morrissey received impressive additional support in the form of Vini Reilly, the founder of the post-punk band “The Durutti Column”, who played guitar and keyboards, and Andrew Paresi, who handled the drums.
If on the albums of “The Smiths” Morrissey was somewhat less focused on writing directly about his own life, then “Viva Hate” became the moment where he filled that space with the issues and thoughts that occupied him personally. Morrissey, after all, has an opinion about almost everything, and his views have not always been well received by the establishment. That was the case with “Bengali in Platforms”, in which Morrissey tells the story of a Bangladeshi immigrant and seemingly warns him that “you will never have a future in Britain.” Years later Morrissey was accused of racism toward immigrants, an accusation that carries a certain irony when one remembers that his own parents had immigrated to England.
In the album’s closing track “Margaret on the Guillotine”, Morrissey directs his anger at Thatcherite policies and even appears to wish for Margaret Thatcher’s death. Conservative Member of Parliament Geoffrey Dickens accused Morrissey of being connected to a terrorist network, prompting the police to investigate him and even search his home.
The opening single “Suedehead”, released about a month before the album itself, took its inspiration from the “Suedehead” subculture. Morrissey recalled a man he had met as a teenager who belonged to that movement. The song reached the Top 5 in the UK and became Morrissey’s biggest hit, charting higher than any single released by “The Smiths.”
The second single “Everyday Is Like Sunday” was written jointly by Morrissey and Stephen Street. The lyrics capture the gloomy atmosphere of the Welsh seaside town of Borth outside the summer tourist season.
Other notable songs on the album include the brief “Little Man, What Now?”, which confronts the listener with the fleeting and painful reality of fifteen minutes of fame.
In “Break Up the Family”, Morrissey seems to reveal a sense of longing for his former bandmates from “The Smiths.” Another interpretation suggests that he is actually referring to his childhood friends from the early seventies. “Late Night, Maudlin Street” is also filled with memories from Morrissey’s teenage years during that decade.
The album’s title “Viva Hate” feels almost inevitable, as if Morrissey is openly embracing the feelings of resentment that accompanied the crisis and the breakup of the band. Perhaps the album’s strong commercial success, which sent it to the top of the UK Albums Chart, helped soften some of that hatred.
For Listening: Spotify, Apple Music
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