Morrissey has alleged that Johnny Marr has torpedoed the release of new Smiths Best Of and a re-release of their debut single Hand In Glove. Indeed he has even posted a picture of its proposed sleeve on his own Morrissey Central website.
The singer wrote: “The proposed greatest hits album by the Smiths entitled Smiths Rule OK! has been blocked by J Marr.
"The album, and also the single Hand In Glove (below) were planned for 2024 worldwide release by Warner Records along with a deluxe box release of the Smiths first album in order to commemorate its 40-year anniversary, and also a new 7-inch of This Charming Man.
"Warner approached Morrissey and Darren Evans to assemble artwork for all four releases, all of which were rejected and halted out of hand by J Marr.”
This comes just weeks after Morrissey revealed - again on his own website - that the Smiths had received a ‘lucrative’ offer to tour from the promoters AEG and that whilst he had agreed, Marr had turned them down. He then threw a barb in his ex-partner’s direction: "Morrissey undertakes a largely sold out tour of the USA in November. Marr continues to tour as a special guest to New Order.”
One wonders if he’d been doing this if his own solo career was going swimmingly? Instead his troubled Bonfire Of Teenagers album remains unreleased four years after it was recorded. Miley Cyrus last year asked for her vocal contributions to be wiped, which many suspect was due to her not wanting her reputation to tarnished by association with Morrissey’s political views, though this has never been confirmed. Capitol have now released him from his contract and he remains unsigned.
Johnny Marr has so far yet to respond about the Smiths Rule OK!
It must be said that there is currently no shortage of Smiths comps should you wish to purchase one. Aside from the World Won’t Listen and Louder Than Bombs collections that were released during the group’s lifetime, there are the Best I...and Best II twin comps from 1992, Singles (1995), The Very Best of The Smiths (2001), The Sound Of The Smiths (2008), The Smiths Singles box set (2008) and the Complete Smiths box set (2011). Does the world really need another?
Morrissey may also reflect that he, of course, predicted all this on the track Paint A Vulgar Picture from their final album Strangeways Here We Come: ‘Best of! Most of!/ Satiate the need!/ Slip them into different sleeves/ Buy both, and feel deceived...’
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