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Bigmouth Strikes Again
It’s not uncommon for political leaders to use their musical preferences to try and engage with the public; in fact it’s practically become a tradition. Tony Blair told us he was an Oasis fan, Gordon Brown (despite later not being able to recall a song of theirs) thought the Arctic Monkeys ‘really wake you up in the morning’ (yes, as will an alarm, but I guess they’ve not had a number one album in a few years), but the most cringe worthy attempt at assuaging the electorate has to be David Cameron’s frequent name-dropping of The Smiths.
In a February 2009 edition of The One Show, main guest Morrissey (the lead singer of The Smiths) was shown a montage, filled with adoring comments from various fans and celebrities. David Cameron, one of the speakers, had this to say: “I’m sure when Morrissey finds that he’s getting an endorsement from the leader of the Conservative Party, he will think ‘Heaven knows I’m miserable now’ (that joke isn’t funny any more – Sophie). But I’m a big fan, I’m afraid. Sorry about that.”
Morrissey tried to brush off the comment, saying “It’s very difficult to pull the right face, but it’s… it’s… it’s very interesting. That’s all I can say. It’s fascinating.”
More recently, fellow Smiths band member Johnny Marr publicly made his frustrations at Cameron’s name-dropping known, posting on Twitter:
Tweeted on the 2nd of December
Johnny Marr has hit the nail on the head. Of course there is the argument that music is ubiquitous, which I agree with to a certain extent. If David Cameron wants to vibe out to ‘Frankly Mr. Shankly’ in number 10’s living room, I don’t have a problem with that. If he buys tickets to see Morrissey in concert, who am I to stop him? The problem arises in the way he uses The Smiths to show himself in a better, more approachable light, when, throughout the ‘80s, The Smiths championed the working class with their music, the people David Cameron has now completely alienated himself from, the people he shows no compassion for in 2010.
Morrissey, always one to make his own opinion known, has come out in support of Marr, posting on one of his fan sites the following tirade against Cameron:
“I would like to, if I may, offer support to Johnny Marr who has spoken out to the media this week against David Cameron. To those who have expressed concern over Johnny’s words in view of the fact that David Cameron has pledged immense allegiance to the music of the Smiths, I would like to try to explain why I think Johnny is right not to be flattered.
It is true that music is a universal language – the ONLY universal language, and belongs to all, one way or another. However, with fitting grimness I must report that David Cameron hunts and shoots and kills stags – apparently for pleasure. It was not for such people that either “Meat is Murder” or “The Queen is Dead” were recorded; in fact, they were made as a reaction against such violence.”
His rant continues (somewhat ramblingly so) here, where he goes on to explain why Cameron should be the last person to enjoy The Smiths’ music, and encourages his fans to write to their MPs to oppose the coalition’s plans to reconsider the Hunting Act (as if his glorious ‘Margaret On The Guillotine’ (1988) wasn’t enough to dissuade the Tories from pledging allegiance to his music!)
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsq3H_6XuFA
This isn’t the first time David Cameron has sorely overlooked the message behind the songs he likes. In May 2008 he listed The Jam’s ‘The Eton Rifles’ as one of his favourite songs, saying: “I was one, in the corps. It meant a lot, some of those early Jam albums we used to listen to. I don’t see why the left should be the only ones allowed to listen to protest songs.”
Paul Weller, lead singer of The Jam, was quick to lay into Cameron’s absurd interpretation of the song, saying: “Which part of it didn’t he get? It wasn’t intended as a fucking jolly drinking song for the cadet corps.”
It seems he’s never going to learn. What next? Is he going to ask Billy Bragg to compose the next Conservative anthem? Is Nick Griffin going to join the Love Music Hate Racism campaign? Is Nick Clegg going to host a dubstep night at the House of Commons to try and win over all the young people who once put faith in him?
For credibility’s sake, I hope not. Leave music out of your ridiculous propaganda, Cameron, you’re only making a hypocritical dick of youself.
Great first post, Sophie!
Such a better response than this pile of absolute garbage from the NME – “reverse classism”??? Oh boo hoo, being rich and posh and privileged must be SO hard for you.
Also, I love the image that Political Scrapbook used to illustrate their coverage of this.
A great post and amazed to learn it’s your first one!^^^
Tempted to submit one myself now!
@TheWorstWitch That photo is brilliant! I think he’s probably looking for Salford Lords Club.
@Aidan Kerr You should! I feel an enormous weight off my shoulders.
Oh and thanks, both of you
I think you can listen to music without having to agree with the political points the band make without being a hypocrite. The problem with politicians saying what music they like is because it has nothing to do with their job as a politician.
I admit when I was writing this, I was struggling to end it well; ‘hypocritical’ wasn’t the word I wanted to use, I was just excited about getting it finished I guess. I’ll be more pedantic in future!
I agree with your other point too. When politicians discuss trivial things like this it’s almost a distraction from what should actually matter. There are people at my school who were much more interested in Gordon Brown’s Arctic Monkeys outburst than they ever have been about any of Labour’s policies, which is alarming.
This is good blogging. Not too long, current event, combines politics and culture, bashes David Cameron. Maybe not enough swearing for my liking, but that’s a minot quibble. Oh and a couple of hotlinks and some pics – bravo! Encore…
Yeah anyone can listen to music, but to use it publicly to attempt to legitimise your credibility and coolness while simultatenously advocating everything that is the opposite of what that music was intended to represent.. A band, and its genuinely loyal followers, have the right to criticise the hypocrisy of a Tory liking the songs that are about how they are bastards while trying to claim that they have the right to enjoy protest music directed squarely at them
“I think you can listen to music without having to agree with the political points the band make without being a hypocrite”
It’s like an NF (National Front) member coming out during the 80′s and exclaiming there love for ‘Bollywood’ films and music while ‘paki bashing’ by night. Cameron stating his love for The Smiths whos music was the championing the working man while bashing him at the same time is laughable. Of course you can listen to the music but when your belting out a political based song you may aswell agree or be on the same politcal spectrum as the nature of the song.
Love it, Sophie. Funny and sharp! MOAR PLX!
This kind of begging for coolness reminds me of Bill Gates, in his youth, trying to break dance and saying “SEE! I’M COOL!”
(Which apparently, did happen)
your comments, you state there are people who are more concerned with gordon browns AM statement that their policies, by focusing on a 2 second clip in a television show that has nothng to do with their policies arn’t you actually elucidating upon such trivial matters and taking the spotlight away from what matters ? good blog btw i enjoyed reading it but i think you read too much into it like sadly most people do…
Alex why are you pretending to be David Cameron at 4 in the morning (good job leaving your e-mail address lol)? Going to take this seriously for the sake of diplomacy even though I needn’t bother as you’re clearly just drunk.
With the Gordon Brown issue, people picked up on his Arctic Monkeys admission and were more interested than that than his policies. His musical preferences and his policies in this case had nothing to do with one another and the fact people were more interested in the former was alarming in that the atrocities his party were committing went unnoticed in favour of some petty musical trivia.
On the other hand, Cameron’s admission is directly linked to his policies. His persistent name-dropping of The Smiths is a clear political tool to try and appeal to the public, despite the fact The Smiths and everything they stood for went against the policies Cameron and his party promote. By constantly pushing his fondness for The Smiths onto the electorate is contradicting his right-wing politics. So in this case, talking about his musical preferences IS relevant as it directly leads to questions regarding his policies and his hypocritical nature.
This is not my most coherent reply but given it’s 4am and you’re bamming me up it will do. Ps this was my first ever post I was hardly writing some huge serious expose.I wouldn’t go to such lengths to defend it when it was really just a bit-piece, except you’ve clearly made an issue where there isn’t one.
I think it’s interesting that he claims to like the Smiths, particularly since I see his ‘Big Society’ crap as an attempt to distort left-wing rhetoric (importance of community, people-power, bottom-up-influence) for right-wing ends (privitisation) – the fact that he’s trying to associate himself with popular culture that’s aligned with left-wing interests seems like part of his wierd smoke-and-mirrors agenda… the same kind of shite he was onto when he called himself a ‘progressive conservative’ – it doesn’t get any more regressive than his cuts really, but he’s packaging it in a very left-wiing progressive way, and his claims that he likes the smiths seem totally concurrent with that. So yeah, it’s worth commenting on. And pisstaking on, which Sophie admirably did.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFLRvg542tY
Relevant! (?)
i think people are reading too much into it , anyone who has any small knowledge of the smiths should know how ridiculous it is he’s affiliating himself with them, or maybe people are just stupid and i’m naive possibly with the reaction to gordon brown’s comment about AM, aye sorry didn’t realise at the time when it was written haha i was looking out for cameron bullying that mp about wild animals performing in a circus,which makes the thought of our primeminister deluding himself by thinking he could possibly relate to the smiths,i just think people read too much into it, good read though !