| The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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This song is about the codependent relationship between the royal family and its subjects. There was a time - war time as M points out - when the Family and the population were united. Now the Family is hopelessly out of touch, stuck in the past, and in denial of human emotions ("Charles don't you ever crave") and circumstances ("nine year old who peddles drugs"). The Family is vaguely aware of this disconnect and so they periodically appear in garden walk TV interviews where they launch into talks about precious things, but still they come across as insincere, stuck up, and outdated. But the population is not without blame. It would rather medicate in pubs and cling to the church being incapable of renewing or creating a "healthy national spirit" and so the codenpendency continues. When I first heard the phrase "sponge and a rusty spanner" it made me think of sponge as a methaphor for female and spanner as male, but I've abandoned that idea. |
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| The Smiths – There Is a Light That Never Goes Out Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| This song expresses the type of Utopian love M has always been in search of. A love that is so pure it can only be likened to a mother's love for her child. Many, many of his lyrics and his rather unique and strongly held views on human urges such as sex and eating meat (to name a couple) are expressions of a search for this idealistic devotion. | |
| The Smiths – This Charming Man Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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As is the case with SO many of M's lyrics, the first sentence is absolutely key. I opine that he constructs his songs by starting with the visual or the phrase that inspired him in the first place -- in this case a desolate young man stranded on a hillside with a punctured bicycle. What a GREAT image; you got my attention; anything can happen! Another common way of constructing a lyric by being inspired by a word or phrase which usually becomes the song's title, i.e. "What Difference Does It Make"; "Big Mouth Strikes Again"; "I Know It's Over, Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others", etc., etc. Then M usually introduces a second character -- often a male, rarely a female, sometimes an authority figure -- with whom he proceeds to have a conversation. This imaginary conversation consists of words, metaphors, etc. intertwined to move the plot along while creating whatever mood it is M wishes to convey. "This Charming Man" is another one of those conversations. In this case, he is being seduced. P.S. I think the "return the rings" may refer to the bicycle itself, but also means "forget your prior commitments/romantic involvements and run away with me". |
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| The Smiths – Pretty Girls Make Graves Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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| The Smiths – You've Got Everything Now Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Morrissey never struck me as particularly merry, nor as someone who'd win behind the old grey school, so someone is speaking to HIM in the first verse. It's obviously an imaginary conversation M. is having with one, probably several, of his old "friends". He is now (1983) on the cusp of success and he takes pleasure in hearing his "friend" expressing the doubts that used to haunt him ("what a mess I've made of my life...... but I was my mother's only son, so I acted the way I was supposed to and repressed any dreams and desires I might have had"). Because M. is no more happy-go-lucky than his friend(s), the following passage is meant as an indictment of society's expectations as well as a bit of a slap in his friend's face now that he (M) is about to be vindicated in his convictions: "No, I've never had a job because I've never wanted one I've seen you smile but I've never really heard you laugh so who is rich and who is poor? I cannot say..." M. doesn't need his old friend/lover anymore. He is moving on, but before he goes he will bask in glory as he is driven past all the old places and faces in the back of the car. "I don't want a lover I just want to be seen in the back of your car" Something is stil nagging M. He is sad and angry that he was never close with this person/these people. It was, afterall, his childhood and youth that was affected. He blames his exclusion on their narrow-mindedness and, to a much lesser degree, his own shyness and sensitivity. "A friendship sadly lost? well, this is true and yet, it's false but did I ever tell you, by the way I never did like your face" So, in a way, THEY won because he had to endure years of self-doubt and alienation - of being tied to the back of the car. He is now throwing it back at them: How does it feel, my poor misguided childhood acquaintances?! "But you've got everything now you've got everything now and what a terrible mess I've made of my life oh what a mess I've made of my life.... I just want to be tied to the back of your car" |
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