Accept Yourself

Marr's guitar is so in tune with Morrissey's sorrow here... His guitar playing is always beyond excellent but I feel that he prompted a well of beautiful, unhinged emotion from Moz here.

The meaning? Simple enough. He is asking himself when he will get over what hinders him from getting what he wants from life. Allow me to try to go into depth here...

'Kick with the fray' meaning hanging out with the crowd. He wishes he were popular and able to fit in but he sees his flaws before he even tries. He sees in his dreams, 'How dearly I'd love to get carried away' this poignant URGE to find love that he even enthusiastically draws plans up only to sit and also realize all the reasons why his dreams won't come true....

Jesus and the lines, 'time is against me now...' is a splendid yet heart wrenching smack from reality that he is running out of time with the pressure of aging but he cannot help but make himself his own worst enemy.

I cannot help but think the huge thing that stopped him the whole time is that he couldn't accept that he's gay... even if he doesn't mention it. I just think shyness can be overcome eventually but the lines 'Oh how do I feel about the past? Others conquered love but I ran' just come off to me as WHAT could be holding him back in the form of retrospective?

I honestly don't think Moz hates his clothes; I just don't see him hating his choice of clothing. He's had the same style for awhile now. I think he hates who's IN those clothes for lacking enough confidence to get what he wants which is essentially love, so he degrades his clothing and himself.

Last bit: "Oh anything is hard to find, when you will not open your eyes." I interpret as give things a chance to come to you... do not fear what you want.

This is a strong but sorrowful message, as the Smiths know how to do best.

i love this song. again i can relate absolutely:

Others conquered love - but I ran I sat in my room and I drew up a plan but plans can fall through as so often they do and time is against me now

just reminds me of dreaming of a girls you wanted to see yourself with, but you were to shy to talk to them. you always made plans about it, but never took the opportunities because you were too shy. now you realize that you are getting older and more and more pressure gets applied on you...

I think he wrote this song to himself... like the way you may have an inner dialogue where you tell yourself to accept yourself. The shoe part is amusing

This is a great song. It is about accepting yourself no matter how strange or dull you think you are. And sometimes time can be against you. Accept yourself for who you are.

This song means a lot to me... it gives me a range of different emotions. On one hand, it is a song about accepting yourself, just as the title suggests. But the story of the man that won't accept himself is more important.

When he says "Who and what do blame?", it shows how people react to failure. Maybe not everyone asks themselves this question directly, but in a way they do.

The next important statement is "Anything is hard to find when you will not open your eyes". Morrissey is telling us and him that the answer to his problems is right in front of him. He needs to simply accept himself and move on.

The most impressive thing about this song is how Morrissey puts such grand issues so simply.

"kilby, don't you find it strange how this song is telling people that they should accept themselves when at the same time this was written , morrissey was doing the exact opposite!?!?! " But that's exactly why he is saying it! Don't you feel that there are several songs where he is, in a way, talking to himself, telling himself what he should do? "Accept Yourself" is one, "Sheila Take A Bow" is another (though he is talking to a female version of himself there), and you can say the same about "Handsome Devil" ("there's more to life than books, you know") or "Ask". People who think that he is so negative should really listen to his songs and hear all the positive meeages.

But, it is a sad fact that being aware of your own problems and knowing what you should do, is often not enough for you to actually do that!

Yes, but M. doesn't seem to have much hope that people will ever accept themselves.

er...kilby, don't you find it strange how this song is telling people that they should accept themselves when at the same time this was written , morrissey was doing the exact opposite!?!?!

Morrissey's self-deprecation comes through again, here. But he is advising someone to accept themselves for some greater benefit.

hmm, just the tension between wanting to be somone else when you want someone to love you, or to keep on loving you and they don't (you think), and being yourself. Blaming yourself for what went wrong. I guess its realising that in fact the things you hope to achieve through being someone else will only come to you if you are yourself, and even if they dont you'll never get any happiness from trying to be someone else, your just living a lie. yet it happens every time and you cant seem to change yourself.

"Others conquered love - but I ran I sat in my room and I drew up a plan"

Tried to work out how he would get somone to love him, and stopped being himself.

"And there's no one but yourself to blame anything is hard to find when you will not open your eyes anything is hard to find for heaven's sake anything is hard to find when you will not open your eyes when will you accept yourself?"

Perhaps the message is not so much move on as simply that people like you for who you are, and when you start changing that they lose interest.

Psossibly, dunno, I guess thats the things about his songs, you always put the issues back onto yourself, there kind of song about the thought processes involved, rather than particular experiences.