Donald Trump and The Smiths make, you would think, very unlikely bedfellows. Recently a mini-kerfuffle broke out over a Smiths song – ‘Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want’ – playing over the tannoy at a Trump rally as part of the warm-up.
Saying the unsayable, saying what we wish we could say, is a very attractive quality
Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr was certainly taken aback. ‘I never in a million years would’ve thought this could come to pass,’ he tweeted after seeing video footage of the song being piped from a South Dakota MAGA stage. ‘Consider this shit shut right down right now.’ (It’s unclear what he’s done to shut it down, or what power an artist has to stop this kind of use of their music.) Singer Morrissey hasn’t commented, but he has been very vocal on Trump, replying to a question by Der Spiegel in 2017 that ‘for the sake of humanity,’ yes, he would press a button to kill Trump.
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