Oh hello
I am the ghost of Troubled Joe
Hung by his pretty white neck
Some eighteen months ago
I travelled to a mystical time zone
And I missed my bed
And I soon came home
They said "There's too much caffeine
In your bloodstream
And a lack of real spice in your life"
I said "Leave me alone
Because I'm alright, dad
Surprised to still be on my own"
Oh, but don't mention love
I'd hate the strain of the pain again
A rush and a push and the land that
We stand on is ours
It has been before
So it shall be again
And people who are uglier than you and I
They take what they need, and just leave
Oh, but don't mention love
I'd hate the pain of the strain all over again
A rush and a push and the land that
We stand on is ours
It has been before
So why can't it be now?
And people who are weaker than you and I
They take what they want from life
Oh, but don't mention love
No, no, don't mention love
A rush and a push and the land that
We stand on is ours
Your youth may be gone
But you're still a young man
So phone me, phone me
So phone me, phone me, phone me
Oh, I think I'm in love
Oh, I think I'm in love
Oh, I think I'm in love (think I'm in love)
Oh, I think I'm in love
I am the ghost of Troubled Joe
Hung by his pretty white neck
Some eighteen months ago
I travelled to a mystical time zone
And I missed my bed
And I soon came home
They said "There's too much caffeine
In your bloodstream
And a lack of real spice in your life"
I said "Leave me alone
Because I'm alright, dad
Surprised to still be on my own"
Oh, but don't mention love
I'd hate the strain of the pain again
A rush and a push and the land that
We stand on is ours
It has been before
So it shall be again
And people who are uglier than you and I
They take what they need, and just leave
Oh, but don't mention love
I'd hate the pain of the strain all over again
A rush and a push and the land that
We stand on is ours
It has been before
So why can't it be now?
And people who are weaker than you and I
They take what they want from life
Oh, but don't mention love
No, no, don't mention love
A rush and a push and the land that
We stand on is ours
Your youth may be gone
But you're still a young man
So phone me, phone me
So phone me, phone me, phone me
Oh, I think I'm in love
Oh, I think I'm in love
Oh, I think I'm in love (think I'm in love)
Oh, I think I'm in love
Lyrics submitted by Idan, edited by Mellow_Harsher, richardgmp
A Rush and a Push and the Land Is Ours Lyrics as written by Steven Patrick Morrissey Johnny Marr
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
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Troubled Joe is hung by his "pretty white neck." The narrator travels to a mystical timezone. The title of the song is a reference to a quote from Sperenza Wilde.
Too much caffeine in the blood stream = Tea, China
Lack of real spice in your life = Spice trade, India
People who are uglier than you and I = the colonised people, the "other"
He's using colonisation as a metaphor for the power struggle of an unequal romantic relationship. He's taking "love is a battlefield" and turning it into "love is a colonial occupation."
There's another reference to Oscar Wilde in the line 'some eighteen months ago'. Wilde was inside Reading Goal for eighteen months. It's also in 'I started something I couldn't finish' where Morrissey sings "And now eighteen months hard labour seems fair enough".
I think it is metaphorical. It's more about the imagery than the literal lines of the song. Being in love can make someone feel quite 'colonised' in a way. Taken over and without freedom or will left.
That we stand on
Is ours
Love Moz's phrasing on that one. :-)
He’s dad question him of a relationship he still likes the person he ended his relationship with but he doesn’t want the stress of it all again…
Rush and the push I think means try again and push our self in a relationship ,give it an over go and the land we stand on is ours (live together in the same grounds house ect..) ‘’it has been before, so it shall be again’’. which I think refers to the 1st bit ‘’but I missed my bed ,so I soon came home’’ he’s in two minds.
The bit where he said people who are uglier than you and I , think he does mean people who aren’t as attractive but have all the confidents in the world and succeed and take what they want from life, (He’s jealous)..
He doesn’t like it when people mention love because it reminds him of what he had before the split. And the phone me phone me bit is hoping the separated partner is feeling the same way, wants to try again and is waiting for the call!!!
And you actually try to make the best of it and do some bathing. And then some idiots
steal your clothes while you're swimming lol. Reason enough to damn the godforsaken shithole to hell...
Just imagine the hilarious image of Morrissey slowly walking back to the bench and bit by bit realizing that it's empty and that he's going to have to walk back to his room like that with everyone seeing him in his swimming shorts :-) He can be quite violent in situations like that ^^
"a rush an a push..." also has nothing to do with Vietnam, and actually comes from something once said by Oscar Wilde's mum.
well for me this song is pretty simply about something that is inside ourselves, not really meant to be about this particular thing or that particular thing. It has a general concensus of every loss we may run at in our lives and the ever going stride to try and conquer back what was taken from us. if you ask me it's not only about irish blokes going to battle for what they lost, or about homosexuality where you might need to untie some bonds to some parts of the family to have the relationship, or about some poor guy loosing his one true love. It still is just a concensus of every loss to me (hope i spell concensus right, i hate that word). But if you take a look at the part with "too much caffeine in your bloodstream, and a lack of real spice in your life..." it could be interprettet towards an addicted persons life where his wonderdrug has taken over, what then has happened is that he lives through the drug instead of the "spice" (social relationships, normal social behavior, basic peculiarities of what we find essential for a living) and is stuck in the drug routine with no possibilities of escape, but that is just if you look at it through a great stack of weed and pills ehhe. but a really great song, and i can't stop listening and to and playing it.
"and people who are uglier than you and I
they take what they need, and leave" and
"and people who are weaker than you and I
they take what they want from life"
was like... almost a line, if you see, i mean like saying - everyone else is doing it, even people who aren't as good as us, so why isn't it working for us?
i hate to link Morrissey songs to gayness as well, but i do think this is one of the more obvious ones. that said, it could be about anyone unhappy in love. i think the whole Irish independence thing is both Morrissey's way of making the story autobiographical and one of his cunning smoke-and-mirrors tricks which he revels in playing on us.
legendary song, i love the pained growl just before the chorus