Moz checked in at True To You with one of his semi-regular statements. Here's a bit of it...
...I thought it was very lazy of Warners not to
commemorate the 20th year of The Queen Is Dead without a
special edition CD - or boxed CD, or tea towel - or something! We can
only assume that those highly paid and magnetically talented people at
Warners are far too busy rolling their own tampons to allow art and
creativity to take them away from their work. As always for the Smiths,
another poignant moment wasted.
I have heard that the CDs Viva Hate, Kill Uncle, Your Arsenal and Vauxhall and I
are to be re-presented/re-mastered/re-whatevered. I have no involvement
with this project, and whatever I learn about it is via the delightful
gossip chain. I am sorry to hear that Bona Drag is not included because it is such a complete body of work and one of which I am most proud. However, if The Very Best of the Smiths
is anything to go by I think we are all justified in expecting the
worst. Having said that, I am not even sure whether it's EMI or
Warners-Reprise who are doing the re-issues, but neither company are
particularly bright when it comes to such things - as they consistently
prove. For example, when Warners in London sent me the final proof of the Very Best of the Smiths
I wearily pointed out to them that there were 18 typo errors on their
artwork and that, in any case, they shouldn't release the CD in such an
awful sleeve. They completely ignored me, of course, but they corrected
the 18 errors. Typical!
I am writing this in the city of Barcelona where, many years ago, I
discovered the American writer James Baldwin sitting alone and somewhat
lost in the darkened lobby of one of the city's oldest hotels.
Surprised at being inches away from such a great man, I froze in
sheepish clumsiness, circled him eleven times, before I realized that
he could not possibly have any interest in being approached by someone
who had spent all 25 years of their life locked in an attic because too
awful to look at. So, I did nothing, walked on, and shortly thereafter
he was dead. Yet another lesson.
On August 20th Sanctuary will release "In The Future When All's Well", with
"Christian Dior" on the b-side (co-written with Boz), and CD2 with two
live tracks from the final night at the London Palladium - I'll Never
Be Anybody's Hero Now, and To Me You Are A Work Of Art.
