Morrissey pens essay on Loudon Wainwright III’s debut album: “Sometimes it takes the rest of the world 50 years to catch up – but they do”

Morrissey has written an essay celebrating the 1970 self-titled debut album by folk singer Loudon Wainwright III.

• READ MORE: The Smiths: every song ranked in order of greatness

Writing on his website Morrissey Central, the former Smiths frontman espouses the qualities of the record, writing: “Sometimes it takes the rest of the world fifty years to catch up. But they do.”

The album captures the then-23-year-old singer-songwriter in solo acoustic form, having recently relocated to New York City from his native North Carolina and being signed by Atlantic Records.

Since 1970, Wainwright has gone on to record 25 further studio albums in a long and successful career. He also married the folk singer Kate McGarrigle in 1971 and together they had two children who became major music stars in their own right: Rufus and Martha Wainwright. Wainwright and McGarrigle divorced in 1976.

“Only the best singing voices can become the very sound and image of geographical places,” Morrissey wrote. “In Delaware when he was younger, Loudon Wainwright imagined his first ever LP, and unzipped it in 1970 to a narrowed public taste that left it chartless forever. On the sleeve he stood with no importance against a brick wall, in the way that classic art avoids fashion. He needed nothing but his solo acoustic and his impressive palette of words.”

“Whoever else was offering musical dynamics in 1970 did not concern him. The voice was almost hayseed in its yearning, fully in the “now” of 1969/70, saying everything whilst looking nothing, and how ridiculous it is to be afraid.”

“Singing always with a thread of pity, he is very much a boy new to manhood – longing to love and be loved,” he added. “He is a greyhound eager to dash, and females shall willingly consent. The libido is restless, and we are meant to laugh even when alone in the dark. The meeting of the sexual zones is the beginning of everything, and, if it isn’t, then it doesn’t matter because someone else will fall from a tree any second now.”

“His is the pep and readiness of someone who knows we will all soon be skeletons … so why wait?  Irresponsible romance is the ideal way to pass time, especially when you are young and willing to father children and art at precisely the same hour.”

In other Morrissey news, he recently decried how a war on “free speech” has prevented him from releasing any new music, seemingly alluding to ‘Bonfire Of The Teenagers’, an album he recorded in 2021 and which remains unreleased.

In a rare recent interview, he described the album as “the modern version of ‘The Queen Is Dead’, adding: “The fact that no label will release it is an indication of how childlike and frightened the music industry has become.”

Morrissey also reportedly fired his management team after Johnny Marr refuted several of Morrissey’s claims regarding The Smiths. In August, Morrissey had claimed that Marr had “ignored” a lucrative offer from AEG Entertainment Group to reunite the band. He then alleged that a Smiths ‘Greatest Hits’ album had been “blocked” by the guitarist.

Shortly after, Morrissey claimed that Marr now owns all of the “trademark rights and Intellectual Property” of The Smiths, and can tour as a band without him.

Later, a representative from the guitarist’s management team called Morrissey’s comment “incorrect” in a statement on X. “I didn’t ignore the offer – I said no,” Marr wrote in his own message.

The post Morrissey pens essay on Loudon Wainwright III’s debut album: “Sometimes it takes the rest of the world 50 years to catch up – but they do” appeared first on NME.