This Night Has Opened My Eyes

It's not about a gay friend. It's not about a doctor. It's not about rape. Rapists don't make promises("Oh he said he'd cure your ills") The song is not about abortion, but giving up the child ("Dump her on the doorstep, Girl") What this is is a story of a young girl and a slightly older man. They promise each other the world as their relationship turns intimate. Always promising each other a pure painless future. But in all actuality, their acts of love turn their lives upside down. This love they felt would end all pain and suffering has only made life more miserable. Adult acts, a child as a result.
A childish act (giving the baby up), nothing but guilt and memories. This song is truly about how dumb love makes us. We think only good imaginative things can come of it. When in reality, living in this fantasy makes life hell. Now, they both will live out their lonesome lives bathing in guilt of what could have been had they kept the child. Everyone has been there. Fallen in love, thought the world was your oyster. You THINK you can control the outcome of your life so as long as you have this person beside you. Always looking to the future, never looking to the past. The result, a love child neither parent wants to claim. THIS NIGHT HAS OPENED MY EYES AND I WILL NEVER SLEEP AGAIN. Love blinds consequences until that night...

"You can't just wrap it up in a bundle of newspaper." "...and dump it on a doorstep." "That river, it's the colour of lead." "I'm not sorry and I'm not glad." "Oh well, the dream's gone, but the baby's real enough." -A Taste Of Honey, by Shelagh Delaney

And all of the aforementioned covers are terrible

I think the song is about a young girtl who recognises she got pregnant. She's kicked out of home and her lover doesn't wants to help her. So, the only way to save her life is to get rid of the baby. Is it good or bad - it doesn't matter, cuz it was the only way to survive, but this situation got her out of the dreamy world of childhood to the cruel adult world.

An absolutly fantastic Simths song - yet so under-rated. Explicitly it is about a girl giving up her child, but there are hidden meanings throughout. 'News of the World' may be a tacky tabliod but it may also mean wrapping the 'baby' in the statistics of left children and the media as a whole. 'He said he'd cure your ills' is ambigious. This could mean the doctor for an abortion whcih never took place or the man that she slept with. Maybe I'm completely wrong - but it's my interpretation :)

Well Morrissey said this song was based on the play 'A taste of honey' so if that is correct, the guy could be the person who got her pregant, or the gay friend who has chosen to look after her when the baby comes along. I'll need to read the play to make sure though!

I have read the play and could instantly see the lines which Morrissey has taken from it to put into his songs! 'I dreamt about you last night, and fell out of bed twice' from 'Reel around the fountain' was also from this play. Kez, the man in the book was a sailor, who wasn't very much older than the girl. He got her pregnant but never returned to her after he went away. He didn't know about the baby.

Also, maybe its just me, but it seems like the stories in Morrissey's words transpire from song to song. This reminds me of the line in This Charming Man "He said, return the ring". And to me it seems like Handsome Devil is a song through the perspective of the "Charming Man" and the truth about his intentions with everybody's favorite passenger. If I'm right then I'd assume this same character is our narrator from "This Night". Probably just a way for Morrissey to channel the different sides of his persona.

I believe that this song is somehow related to Christianity. It appears that Morrissey is criticizing the blind faith that some people have, believing that by the act of following Jesus, everything would work out.

"In a river the colour of lead immerse a baby's head"

Reference to the practice of baptism, the initiation of the Faith

"wrap her up in the News Of The World dump her on a doorstep, girl"

After being 'saved', the baby is neglected

"a grown man of twenty-five he said he'd cure your ills but he didn't and he never will

This man, Jesus, made promises that Morrissey believes were not true.

"so, save your life because you've only got one"

He reminds her of the condition of life - its ephemerality, and the need to not waste it with fake beliefs.

"The dream is gone but the baby is real"

Not believing anymore, she is free, recognizing life and its reality.

"oh you did a good thing she could have been a poet or, she could have been a fool"

He approves her decision and shows the duality between a 'poet', someone superior that overcome faith. And a 'fool', the believer.

[...]

Well, all of it could be just nonsense, but I want to share my interpretation with you guys. :)

i think the guy who 'said he's cure your ills but he didn't and he never will' is the guy who got her pregnant...an older man who took advantage of a vulnerable young girl