I don’t agree with Nick Cave’s perception that Morrissey has fallen prey to “regressive and dangerous belief systems”, I admire him greatly for his intelligent diplomacy and his respect for Morrissey’s profound contribution to music.

Nevertheless, in his letter to a fan on his famed “The Red Hand Files”, Cave, as fan Paul Blake of Viva Morrissey fame put it, clearly wants his cake and to eat it too. A clear distinction emerges between the two artists, who have both made significant contributions to music in modern times.

Below is a copy of my response, from Letters to Morrissey’s Facebook page:

I feel Cave is protecting his own career while trying to appear to push a boundary of open-mindedness about the current state of the world – in the same way someone who doesn’t want to get out of their comfortable bed and will instead futilely stretch across the bed, rather than just get up and walk, to reach for something they want on the other side of the room. He won’t reach it.

(I also agree that he may not actually have read anything Morrissey has said in context and is just repeating, verbatim, the current stereotype being applied to him)

Morrissey, while claiming he spends the day in bed, actually jumps out of his comfort zone to point out what he observes.

Morrissey is the only artist of our time who is really putting himself out there to question the status quo, and he doesn’t brush under the carpet any questionable observations he has about the modern world. Because in this modern world, observations about it are conflated with personal opinions about it. And this is being policed as “wrongthink”.

Morrissey is the ultimate observer, the Gemini mercury winged messenger. So he is a skilful storyteller, he describes everything he perceives in vivid detail.

How he differs from modern artists is that he never dances around anything uncomfortable. He just straight out says “this is uncomfortable”.

In his Autobiography, he describes how Johnny Marr was afraid to name The Queen is Dead, The Queen is Dead. He (inadvertently?) reveals how Marr doesn’t have any backbone, in comparison to himself – I don’t know if it is on purpose or was just his flow of consciousness when writing his book. I think Cave has slightly more backbone than Marr, but he still doesn’t exit the comfort zone as Morrissey does.

“But the album title worries Johnny. His parents are upset to think that anyone would call an album The Queen is Dead, and Johnny asks me if I would consider switching the title to Bigmouth Strikes Again. I stand my ground and, knowing nothing of the kind, I assure him that all will be well” – Autobiography, pg 193

That, to me, is the nutshell. What differentiates Morrissey from, probably, all other artists in our modern time.

And I think most artists are not even conscious of the fact that their primary motivation for supporting the current politically correct bandwagons is that they don’t want to smear their lovely careers, destroy friendships, relationships, social standing etc. Humans are tribal and will subconsciously deny their own truth in order to survive.

Morrissey is just not like that. And that is why I love him

– Rebecca