| The Smiths – I Started Something I Couldn't Finish Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I would agree that the imprisonment of Wilde is a part of understanding this song, but 2 years imprisonment with hard labor was the on-the-books sentence for any man convicted of homosexual acts in Britain until 1967 (see Labouchere Amendment, also Buggery Act ). This is also clearly alluded to in Shoplifters of the World Unite ("My only weakness is a listed crime/My only weakness is ... well, never mind, never mind). I think that Jason Little nicely relates this off-the-books-law (by the time of these songs) to Thatcher's Clause 28 (1988-2003) regarding the 'promotion of homosexuality'. Jason Little's more articulate discussion of this can be found at www.compsoc.man.ac.uk/~moz/lyrics/theworld/shoplift.htm As far as I can figure Shoplifters was released in early '87 and Started Something was also released in '87 (these dates are taken from the excellent site linked above). This means that both predate the actual enactment of Clause 28, but it was first added as an amendment in '86. I don't think that it is unreasonable to imagine that songs released in '87 could have been written in '86? So yes, I agree that this could be about Wilde, but it could just as easily also be about the political oppression generally faced by homosexuals in Britain until very recent times. |
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| The Smiths – I Started Something I Couldn't Finish Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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the golden rays of greatness and/or light that emanate the sun OR kings. sorry, left that bit out |
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| The Smiths – I Started Something I Couldn't Finish Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I respectfully disagree with tamnin about "guilded beams". I think that it is important that Moz used the archaic spelling of what would now be spelled "gilded". The archaic spelling, to me at lest, implies a reference to an archaic source. The phrase (or a variation of the phrase) "guilded beams" seems fairly common in 16th and 17th century English Poetry. Guilded beams (as in beams of light, not architectural) are the golden rays of greatness and/or light that emanate from the sun. In this song I think it is a reference specifically to 'A Hymn of the Nativity, sung by the Shepherds' by Richard Crashaw. It goes: Welcome—tho' not to those gay flies, Guilded i' th' beams of earthly kings, Slippery souls in smiling eyes— To me Morrissey's perversion of the original meaning of these few lines fits perfectly with the ironic treatment of language, religion, and sexuality present in 'I Started Something I Couldn't Finish' and in Moz's lyrics generally. More context, such as Crashaw's anti-Catholic feelings can be found on wikipedia and the full poem is available all over the web. and moz can grab me by my gay flies any day |
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