Morrissey vs. Prince POLL

Morrissey without even the slightest momentary hesitation.

Haha. Let's remember that Alex also prefers Bowie to Prince.

Honor the paisley!

xpost to Alex: Hahahha woohoo! But I think we don't stand a chance, man.

Damnit where are the UK-ers when I need them? It's 10pm there, they're probably out at pubs. Jesus christ.

Haha. Let's remember that Alex also prefers Bowie to Prince.

...as any sane, awake, cognizant being with a brain and even an iota of sense & taste would. I mean, Prince plays his guitar well and sure can pick out fetching pairs of assless pants, but Bowie's so far above that overrated, oversexed, Bible-poisoned newt that his ears must be popping.

lololololololol

okay but what's this about "assless pants"? Inquiring minds want to know!

oh man alex, you and i have a ton of tastes in common (C$C love trumps all) but this is going to be one of those strenuously disagree moments

xpost youve gotta be kidding me dude, that is kind of definitional prince wtfness right there

Somehow I knew you'd be on the wrong side of this debate, John. I liked your haircut on the WDYLL thread, though.

are you sure you're not actually from england?

http://www.stanleylieber.com/images/prince_ass.jpg

i don't even really need to say it, but i am a huge prince stan and have never been into morrissey at all.

xpost

That is fucking photoshopped and I will not be duped. You Tube it or die, punk.

dude, everyone is familiar with prince's assless pants at the vma's. it used to be on youtube, but it got taken down like everything else prince-related on youtube.

alright, alright. Jesus. Can't a guy get to look at some assless pants around here? SHEESH.

citation: http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20223762_1,00.html

Morrissey. Never really got into Prince, whose greatest albums sound dated now.

That is fucking photoshopped and I will not be duped. You Tube it or die, punk.

― Lucking Faptop (Bimble)

wat, those pants are legend

Haha. Let's remember that Alex also prefers Bowie to Prince.

I don't think this is that radical or unjustifiable opinion.

Good thing Morrissey doesn't sound dated at all now xxp

this is harder than it should be because morrissey put out a pretty good album this year and prince put out two mediocre albums htis year

but duh come on it's prince

good poll. and tough! I'm going to have to think on this.

sorry Bimble but it's Prince all the way for me...

lol are you guys even fucking joking?

this is like prince w/o even a second of hesitation

lol morrissey yea right

i dunno for me it's like 'dirty mind' >>>>>>>>>>>> morissey's entire ouvre

There was a time, many many years ago, when Prince made good records. Morrissey still can. Voting Moz.

as any sane, awake, cognizant being with a brain and even an iota of sense & taste would. I mean, Prince plays his guitar well and sure can pick out fetching pairs of assless pants, but Bowie's so far above that overrated, oversexed, Bible-poisoned newt that his ears must be popping.

I adore Bowie, but I heard Scary Monsters tonight: an album I like a lot, but one burdened by terrible singing and lyrics to boot.

I mean, whatever else, when Prince is at his worst, he can still cough up throwaways for The Time, Sheila E, and Vanity. He knows what motivates human beings. Bowie, at his best, can only write to his strengths. He has no special gift, as Christgau said, for tunes or for genuine emotions.

Plus, again, Bowie, when he tries hard, is one of the worst singers in rock history, god help him.

Sign 'O' The Times >>>>> any Bowie album ever (and I adore Bowie)

I like the Smiths a lot but Morrissey better than Prince? I just can't do that.

I adore Prince, but I'll take The Smiths-era Morrissey over him. And, FWIW, Morrissey's had a monster comeback this decade, with three top-notch albums long after his eighties "prime."

Morrissey had no monster comebacks.

If anyone can find performances and songwriting as "If I Was Your Girlfriend," "Strange Relationship," and "When You Were Mine" in Moz's catalogue, despite his considerable strengths, I'll relisten to Maladjusted.

De gustibus non est disputandum. To me, You Are The Quarry and Ringleader of the Tormentors constitute a "monster comeback."

And there are plenty of songs in The Smiths catalogue as strong as those three Prince songs, I think.

"He has no special gift, as Christgau said, for tunes or for genuine emotions.

Plus, again, Bowie, when he tries hard, is one of the worst singers in rock history, god help him"

dude.

De gustibus non est disputandum

take it to de subjectivisten

yes.

Prince vs Bowie.

take it to de subjectivisten

That board frightens me.

A couple of weeks ago, a good friend and I played Never Let Me Down. As a devoted non-fan of Bowie, he was horrified by how badly Bowie sounded on that damn thing. Bowie, at his worst, has affectations as a base, while Prince has that incredible voice and instrumental dexterity to create above average R&B. Nothing Prince has done at his worst reeks as much as Tonight or Never Let Me Down.

wait how did bowie even get dragged into this

PRINCE is a way better dancer. Morrissey only know the 'weeping willow'

Prince is my all time fave, but I'm currently going thorough as Moz/The Smiths renaissance. Very tough choice. In the end, I went for his Royal Badness.

http://gothdance.ytmnd.com/

Prince ftw.

even though i like bowie way more than morrissey, the idea that bowie is better than prince makes me way more irritated for some reason

I like bowie more than morrissey, morrissey more than prince, and prince more than bowie

Prince >>>>> Bowie >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Morrissey

"Nothing Prince has done at his worst reeks as much as Tonight or Never Let Me Down"

lol. theres plenty of prince songs that are complete and utter shit.

To be fair, I danced to "Unskinny Bop" several times.

The Coldcut remix?

Frankie Knuckles.

One Japanese import had Bernard Sumner rapping.

was that vini reilly/jellybean benetiz record any good?

Wow -- did we just get a "Sha Sha" allusion here? Holy crap.

Oh, what a tangled thread we weave.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Finally!

oh look, ilx is right

um also the fact that this wasnt a landslide = CRAZY TALK

If Moz had won this, I wouldn't have been able to relate to ilm on a very fundamental level.

Prince 98
Morrissey 62

this fucking place sometimes ... i mean, Morrissey is good (even great). but he's not even close to being in the same league w/ Prince -- Prince should be compared to the likes of the Beatles, PFunk, Bowie, and not some British guy who's been basically releasing the same record over and over for the past 20 years.

Morrissey without even the slightest momentary hesitation.

― Alex in NYC, Saturday, April 11, 2009 5:05 PM

this is like meeting libs who voted for Reagan in '84.

yeah, for some reason i thought that Alex liked Prince more than he apparently does. perhaps if he's still around and feels so inclined, he can explain his logic?!?

He's hilarious on the Bowie vs Prince thread, in which he also chooses....someone not Prince.

I do like Prince. I just happen to like Morrissey more (although not lately). It's just my own preference.

Prince's recent stoner-metal makeover of "Let's Go Crazy" is better than anything Morrissey's done in a dang long time, I'll say that.

Meanwhile...

...as any sane, awake, cognizant being with a brain and even an iota of sense & taste would. I mean, Prince plays his guitar well and sure can pick out fetching pairs of assless pants, but Bowie's so far above that overrated, oversexed, Bible-poisoned newt that his ears must be popping.

No wonder people think I'm an asshole. Well, I do still genuinely prefer Bowie to Prince, but I can see how opinions expressed in this manner would piss people off.

I forget that I should stay away from ILX. Bye again.

no don't go!

this thread is admittedly hilarious but it's a bit misconceived -- prince vs. the smiths would be more of a fair fight, morrissey without the smiths is just a very odd old guy who keeps getting interviewed for some reason.

Blimey, I was going to Add AlexNY to the 'sadly missed' milk carton thread, and boom!

62 ilxors are/were insane.

I have a strong suspicion that Prince passing away prior to COVID and the current political moment saved us from some not-great opinions he would have had.

Wow...what would a redo of this poll yield? Suspect it'd be a lot more lopsided now.

62 ILMers wanted to see Morrissey in assless pants.

Prince could sing "Piccadilly Palare" and "Glamorous Glue," but let's hear Morrissey sing "Gett Off" or "Delirious."

62 ILMers wanted to see Morrissey in assless pants.

― hungover beet poo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

well he certainly does spend a lot of time showing his ass

let's hear Morrissey sing "Gett Off" or "Delirious."

― hungover beet poo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, September 4, 2025 1:46 PM (thirty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol i would love to hear this

have you heard Bowie's cover of "Sexy MF"?

I have a strong suspicion that Prince passing away prior to COVID and the current political moment saved us from some not-great opinions he would have had.

That's for sure - just look what happened with the Netflix doc and some of the stuff his estate objected to showing. (Not that much of it was a secret, but some of it clearly wasn't that well-known given the reaction even Questlove had.)

It's kind of well known Prince was as much - if not worse - as an insufferable asshole as Morrissey is.

I like The Smiths music fine, but going for musical achievements and influence alone these two aren't really comparable to me.

My only response to how monstrous Prince could be: Sinéad O'Connor.

Yeah I wont defend him as a person - I think most famous artists are terrible people.

coughing baby v. hydrogen bomb

Pains me to say this, but I think Prince might've been worse to be around. Morrissey's said much more vile things, but Prince would actually intimidate and lash out at people, even physically. There's just way too many anecdotes from those who worked with him, many of which came out right after he died.

Definitely.

From descriptions on the shelved documentary I can gather it’s a study on how fame can amplify the most toxic narcissistic traits of an artist.

With Prince you had a persona he created to control the perception of him and those around him. With Morrisey you get a more authentic kind of asshole. With Prince you were never seeing the real person behind it.

Maybe someone who knows more about Morrissey can answer, but I never got the impression Morrissey was really intimidating, much less terrifying. Obnoxious, infuriating, deceitful (see what the judge wrote of him when he lost his royalties case against Mike Joyce)...all reason enough to avoid him...but I don't know of any stories where people were fearful of him the way Prince's associates were of him.

Real person? How do you mean?

It seems bizarre to me anyone who was a 'fan' or whatever would think he was anything other than completely insane, intense and a total nightmare. It's all there in his work too, I mean Purple Rain (the film) ffs.

Surprising Questlove and the like are all like 'on a pedestal' etc. Musically, sure. But the bizarre combination of where he grew up, violence at home, his issues with himself and confidence and then getting that famous, that young. If you haven't checked out the Susan Rogers interviews I think she puts it best, doesn't make excuses for him, but basically "His life was very complicated and very sad... He could be an asshole and he could also be the best."

Got 'Princed' once when I got a guest list for a show and passed by him as he came off stage, my body language must've said 'I wanna say hello!'... Got a look that said "what you looking at, honky' lol and yeah... Prince, eh.

(I pretty much listened exclusively to Prince, Hendrix and err, Eric Clapton, lol till I was early teens and found this board back in 2000, ha. My first post..)

Re: “the real person”

I’m going from reviews of the documentary: it is explored that Prince had some deep trust issues so he hated feeling vulnerable and losing so he carefully curated this “persona”. The documentary explores the situations that created these deeply rooted insecurities and how he concealed them and as a consequence made him an intense, controlling and even violent nightmare of a person when things weren’t going his way or he got challenged about anything.

The only way he knew how to be vulnerable was through his music.

https://i.imgur.com/0X4CRsP.gif

xpost

yeah that makes total sense. also corroborated by people around him re: the huge change he went through after those initial interviews where he looks like he's having a full on panic attack.

the estate is a total shitshow, i think they were posting AI garbage recently. a real shame about the doc, because it sounds like

my sis always jokes prince was our family 'religion' growing up- i was completely obsessed with him and his music and by proxy hendrix, sly, stevie, parliament, funkadelic, earth wind and fire, ohio players etc. bullied to fuck at school for it 'ur gay for liking this' 'he had his rib removed to suck his own dick' etc. so it completely sucks to hear it went a lot deeper than him just being a typical ego-maniac asshole and was abusive to women / people around him. essentially ended up like his father, which, as anyone with family trauma like that can probably relate, is a worst nightmare.

i grew up in the most racist / awful part of the UK and pretty grateful to him for the whole 'black, white puerto-rican' - 'am I black/white straight/gay' gender exploration / sun-ra-esque music 'spirituality' and devotion to the art form and stuff- completely shaped who i am- otherwise reckon i'd be typically corny indie fuxxor to use the old terminology here, haha, and i'd have voted morrissey on this thread. i only found this place back then because he mentioned cocteau twins' garlands as an influence, which led to me discovering MBV and then Ned's blog and freaky trigger. the only other place I went on the internet back then was alt.music.prince!

anyway, maybe I'm grown up enough to post here now, i did back then in 2001/2 and got the early version of the treatment a certain oxbridge educated chap got a few years later and couldn't deal with it. and i don't write much so usually come across as an idiot, lol.

the only morrissey thing I like is that cover by schneider tm of 'there is a light' and the original song too. on the list to check out at some point, but recently (after being told repeatedly i'd love em) got into felt / lawrence - who weirdly reminds me of prince in a lot of ways and that's enough to satisfy the itch in that world, also seems like maurice was a huge influence on marr and was talking to deb g recently who was saying that kevin mbv is a huge huge fan, which all makes sense. okay, this is why I shouldn't post here, what a tangent. haha.

* because it sounds like its not some attack on him, but just the whole picture...

Yeah from what I gather the documentary is actually really good at putting into context the music he was making and what he was going through at the time and it’s not an attack on him it rather reveals the person behind the mask and how alienating and destructive fame can become.

So anyways, comparing which one of these two was/is the worst person isn’t really what I’d rank in here. Prince’s output for me towers way above what Morrissey has ever done and the amount of artists I love he influenced makes it a no contest for me.

Lovely post, foghorn.

Yeah I agree you shouldn’t post less, you should post more.

Agree

Loved that, foghorn

co-sign, great post foghorn