There speaks a true friend

So, you feel the urge

Of a cultural purge

And you gently warn me

About the terrible danger

(Don't look back in anger)

Of a "problematic" singer

You send me a biased,

Misinformed news article

With a silly, clickbait title

(I had already read the news

From the original source)

And in your benevolence

You even invite me to "reflect"

On my next artistic choices

Thank You, I know very well

Your intentions are good

Because they lead to Hell

Of nowadays platitude

But let me ask you just

A little, simple question:

What do You really know

About Morrissey?

Have you ever listened to

His songs and interviews?

Have you ever read his lyrics

And some primary sources?

Have you ever been to

His concerts, at least once

In your life? Or did you have

Just some posters in your room

Painted with glamourous gloom

To inspire your wet dreams

When you were in your teens?

How can you warn me about

Someone you don't even know

Providing me the lazy bollocks

You have read on Les Inrocks?

And tell me, what should be

My "next artistic choices"

In order to please and bow

To some Ignorant Joe?

Thank you for your kind advice

But I won't think about it twice:

I will always think by myself

And never put Moz on a shelf

Vera da Pozzo, Paris, 20th June 2025

Poem above and pictures, fumetti, artwork below by me.

Note: about "some Ignorant Joe", I wanted an almost rhyme to "bow" and this is what came immediately to my mind, as a sort of reminiscence of some old song - and it is possible, because my ears and brain are a sponge of sounds, music and voices that stay stuck in my memory.

I checked on YouTube when I finished my poem and I found this 1987 song by the New York metal band Rest in Pieces: I did some research on the Web and here you can find the source of the lyrics of Joe Ignorant, which are very serendipitously apt to the subject of my poem and article.

The title of both my poem and article is, of course, an explicit tribute to Morrissey's song There speaks a True Friend, released in September 1992 as a B-Side of the 12-inch version of the single Tomorrow., from the album Your Arsenal of the same year.

1992, the year of the stupid scandal at Madstock...

(To be continued...)

(C) Vera da Pozzo

(C) Italy is Mine

(C) Italy is Mine and It owes Me a Living

#therespeaksatruefriend #music #Morrissey #NickCave #cancelculture #censoring #LesInrocks #JoeIgnorant #cabaret #OscarWilde #artisticchoices #freedom #VeradaPozzo #ItalyisMine #italyismineanditowesmealiving

Update (21st June): this morning, I was thinking about the quote on the white t-shirt that Morrissey wore last Sunday at the Zénith:

I am your worst fear, I am your best fantasy

Because it fits well to the absurd situation I did not ask for: being patronized by someone about my "artistic choices".

Few hours later, I was pleased to see that Morrissey had just posted on Central many beautiful pictures of the parisian gig, taken by the american photographer Ryan Lowry, and that the title of his post was this quote.

Morrissey has still many loyal fans in Paris and in France, and he is gaining also many new fans, but French media are utterly lazy and ignorant (not just about Morrissey and his music, by the way) and too many people let the media think for them.