Monday 6 September 2010

Rooney and Morrissey; ‘We hate it when our friends become successful’

Morrissey released the single ‘We hate it when our friends become successful’ in October 1991, Morrissey by this point in his career well aware of the cancerous burn the celebrity spotlight can imprint on your life; Rooney, however, playing football for the love of it, blissfully oblivious of the attention which his talent would unduly endure. Both men set out to become performers in the profession they adored. Both men succeeded. Both men are now seen as role models, icons and idols. Both have been built up on accolades and the word genius often hangs close to their names. Both this week, to quote Morrissey, ‘have been dragged through shit.’

Today Morrissey could be found writing the sequel to his 91 single and could call it ‘But we love it when they fall on their face.’ We build these people and oh how we love to knock them down. Morrissey’s quip about the Chinese being a subspecies has had the tabloids looking through their files for the lyrics to Asian Rut, Bengali in Platforms and that ‘infamous’ picture from the Finsbury Park gig in which he is donning the Union Jack. This is not new. We’ve been here before. Morrissey remarks to Simon Armitage how acts of cruelty ‘make him feel’ and it has been translated into yet another jibe of racism. Did anybody else see the documentary in which he is talking about? To skin an animal whilst it is alive cannot be considered as a humane act, it is barbaric and wrong. Morrissey is far too articulate, intelligent and long in the tooth to not know that his comment would receive a huge amount of attention. Journalists have being trying to pin down Morrissey for well over two decades for being gay and/or racist and much to their disdain they have been unable to do either and his latest faux pas will be no different. The lyrics to Morrissey’s songs involve characters that he creates and the world in which they live, his voice a mere vehicle to tell the story. The protagonists songs such as The National Front Disco are fictive and aren’t Morrissey’s own expressions. He is an artist painting a picture, much like a Shane Meadows film yet interpretations of This is England are seen as a depiction of life rather than a racist statement. Morrissey’s songs (solo and with The Smiths) are intentionally multi-interpretational and fans and critics have been tripping over themselves to throw their own opinions on what Reel around the Fountain is about, or who the bowing Sheila is. Therefore why is it when he makes a statement about immigrants, the lack of Britishness in Britain or the Chinese as being a subspecies do we only paint his portrait with a thick brush and not with the analysis that the songs get and the man deserves? The Guardian’s Tom Clark implies that it there is a ‘telling’ link between Morrissey’s comments and the soon to be released remastered album. Are we to believe that a man whose last British tour sold out in less than an hour needs some cheap publicity stunt to sell an album? What next a three way VMA kiss with him, Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears?

When it comes to foreign artists opinions on China, Morrissey is not alerting the public to any new target. In the last 5 years Oasis, Bjork and Bob Dylan have been banned for expressing views of Tibet, Steven Spielberg resigned from the Olympics over China’s involvement in Darfur and it is odds on that Morrissey won’t be playing Beijing anytime soon. Like the lyrics to his songs, is it completely inconceivable that his ‘racist’ remark was less a generalisation of a race and more a highlighting of the cruelty that China continue to consent? If Bigmouth Strikes Again then should we not see what he is striking against rather than portraying him in the same light as Nick Clegg; it is Stephen Patrick Morrissey not Manning. Tom Clarke’s assumption of a publicity stunt may prove to be correct but it is not an album Morrissey is bringing to public attention but the way that China treats animals. For someone who believes that ‘Meat is Murder’, it is not really that shocking that he views the way that China create such meat as an act of a subspecies people. Morrissey is aware of how his quoted words will be represented in the press but it is an act of bravery that he falls on his sword for his character to be assassinated in the hope that it will shed light on what he deems (quite rightly) to be a horrific act.
Media reports do not wish to offer this opinion, it is far better to persecute than promote, to pursue those heroes of ours than prevent. We are told that it is such news that sells, and we are the people who buy it.

Wayne Rooney, this week, has seen revelations of his appetite for call girls sprayed all over the red tops. Late night acquaintances at The Lowry Hotel with a reported £1,000 a night hooker has had the press critics looking in their files for pictures and quotes of the 48year old cowgirl he paid and slept with as an 18year old. This is not new. We’ve been here before. Wayne Rooney has been a journalist’s darling since he nearly broke the net scoring a sensational goal against Arsenal as a 17 year old lad. A year later he’s scoring with aged prostitutes on the back streets of Liverpool behind the back of his fiancée. This year alone we have seen the likes of John Terry and Ashley Cole being unfaithful to their respective partners, one lost his captaincy, the other lost his wife. This playboy lifestyle goes hand in hand with footballers; it is expected of them is it not. There is a telling difference between Terry and Cole in comparison to Rooney other than the team they play for. Cole and Terry are not as a natural a talent as Rooney is and therefore had the late teenage years and early twenties to develop emotionally, physically and mentally. Wayne did not. How many other professional footballers have had the transition from the CCTV of Croxteth to the Celebrity Cameras of Old Trafford in the space of a few years? There aren’t any. At the age of 19 he had the expectations of the country on his young shoulders, again when he was 21 and then this year at the World Cup. To say that he is defendable for cheating on his pregnant wife would be a reach too far I’m sure he feels that more than anybody else now. But does no-one think that we have a responsibility to Rooney as you think that he had to his wife? The title of role model was put upon Wayne Rooney like it is to all footballers but none of them want it yet we persist to say it, because our kids watch them. My niece watches Spongebob Squarepants but only for the 30 minutes he is on television after that Spongebob can get up to what he wants, Role models should be someone that you want your children to have similar principles and morals of. I can’t say that there are too many of the overpriced, overpaid and over ego’d footballers that I want my own children to follow.

Facebook statuses, football websites, music websites are calling for the head of Morrissey and the Balls of Rooney and nobody is looking at the irresponsibility of the press journalists to what they choose to publish and how it is portrayed. We as the public have a responsibility to the people that we put on such a pedestal. Morrissey wanted to have his opinion aired about China, obviously Wayne Rooney wanted to keep his affairs to himself. The media will dress the reason that they have spread the news about Rooney’s affair is because we want to know. We want to pry into these people’s lives on a daily basis because they are on a television show, they sing in a band, they play for a football team. Rooney’s mistake aside but do you think it is a responsible act to put the private life of him, his child and his wife across the newspapers regardless of the embarrassment that it causes. It is cheap, tasteless and boring, we surely need to wake up to more pressing matters in the world rather than the private life of a young man who made a mistake.

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