Morrissey is no stranger to recruiting the heroes of the 1970s to produce his records. His 1992 album Your Arsenal was produced by Mick Ronson, the guitarist in David Bowie’s band the Spiders from Mars, while in 2006 he turned to Bowie’s producer on many of his classic 70s albums, Tony Visconti, to oversee Ringleader of the Tormentors.
But neither of them might have made it to the studio had Morrissey secured his rock legend of choice to work as his producer early in his career. In a new interview with Q magazine, the Who’s Pete Townshend revealed that he had been approached to take control of the studio for Morrissey.
“Morrissey asked me to produce albums for him after the Smiths, twice. I’ve got his notes, his cards. ‘Will you produce an album for me? Morrissey,’” Townshend says. He didn’t take up the offer, perhaps because it wasn’t from the former Smith the guitarist was most interested in.
“I did say to [the Who’s manager] Bill Curbishley, I really love the Smiths – if I could replace Johnny Marr in the picture there, we might get a really great album.”
It’s possible a combination of Morrissey and Townshend might have led to fireworks, given the presence of songs in the Who’s catalogue that the staunchly vegetarian Morrissey might have interpreted as endorsing animal cruelty: Dogs (greyhound racing), Happy Jack (donkey rides), Happy Jack (squashing spiders with heavy books).
