A Rush and a Push and the Land Is Ours

This song is obviously about colonisiation

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."

In my opinion this song is about a time he left home, couldn't cope, and then came back. His parents are concerned that he's not happy, and he tells them 'no, I'm fine really', although inside he's particularly cut up about the fact he can't find love, although there is someone he's in love with from a far who he's too nervous to tell (phone me, phone me, phone me). If he was a bit stronger (like those people who take what they want from life), then he would be able to do it himself. The rush and a push are a nod to his Irish heritage, and represent him being stronger, and 'taking the land', which unfortunately, he's not able to do because of weakness or insecurity.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rush and a push and the land That we stand on Is ours

Love Moz's phrasing on that one. :-)

I think the meaning is that he was in a relationship but he mess up ‘’I am the ghost of Troubled Joe hung by his pretty white neck’’ and couldn’t’t hack living away from home ‘’but I missed my bed so I soon came home’’ and the mystical land is the feeling of love ,’’they said’’ refers to the partner "there's too much caffeine in your blood stream and a lack of real spice in your life" meaning your to busy & stressed and have lost the real spice in his life he’s down and depressed… 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!!!

"a rush and a charge and the land is ours" is an irish battle motto... Definitely not about vietnam. Maybe about irish/english unpleasantness...

vietnam? go to england, go to any crappy seaside town during the off-season - that's what the song's about

"everyday is like sunday" has absolutely NOTHING to do with war! it is about one of those seaside towns (very much like the one i live in) that is now pretty empty.

"a rush an a push..." also has nothing to do with Vietnam, and actually comes from something once said by Oscar Wilde's mum.

hello... hope some people keep going by this one:P

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.

i do think it's about a string of failed relationships and how they just always go wrong and he keeps trying to justify & explain to himself why (being stressed, becoming a bit of a recluse, denial, etc). always thought the "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

I always thought this song was about some kind of a revolution... silly, I know. It's my 2nd favourite song of The Smiths