Jeane

This song may have been inspired by Morrisey's friend Linder, although there are no specific references or allusions to her in either song. A more likely source for this song is Morrissey's aunt, Jeane Sheppard. Also, knowing of Morrisseys interest in Oscar Wilde, it should be noted that the bastard child of Oscar Wilde's friend (and possible lover) Lillie Langtry was named Jeane.

Quite correct- it's Morrissey's Aunt who is called Jeane, not his Mother. It's been a while since I last read The Severed Alliance, that's my excuse.

Anybody heard the Billy Bragg version? I'm not as big on the Smiths as I was a while back (Rubber Ring??) but lyrically, it's genius. Every song has a line you can take away and call your own.

I know this maybe isn't what the song was supposed to be about, but when I hear this, it reminds me of a relationship where the flame has just about flickered out and problems are now a common part of the dynamic, but an end just hasn't been resolved because both parties are sort of in denial, trying to make it work. In this case, Morrissey is the one that finally puts his foot down. He is basically just like "okay, look, we aren't happy, this is really just over, and you don't see it but I do. There's nothing here anymore and I'm tired of it-- we tried to make it work, and we failed." I feel like the line "There's ice on the sink where we bathed/ how can you call this a home when you know it's a grave?" really strengthens this notion.

I don't know, this is just my interpretation from a very similar experience I've had and it seems to make alot of sense. When I hear this song, I'm able to relate completely.

Morrissey is imagining a time he briefly shared a flat with Myra Hindley in Gorton in the early sixties. With 'Suffer the Children' already likely to upset people with the same dark subject matter, Moz here shrewdly veils the identity of the story's villainess. However, as with many other early Smiths lyrics, there are clues left out in the open to be discovered, much like a criminal who secretly wants to be caught so that he is i) finally stopped and ii) so people can see how clever he is. Why 'Jeane' rather than another name? According to the City Fun zine from May 1983, this was simply coz Moz needed a single syllable name to rhyme with 'clean', and that the original, reproduced lyric had been 'YOU will never be clean, Jean' [my italics]. Perhaps he had also seen his auntie that afternoon ;0). Coincidentally, a few years later Moz formed a fascination for Jean Ritchie, author of the Hindley biography 'Inside the Mind of a Murderess', with whom he corresponded through 1988.

Myra, or Jeane, is the psychopathic villain of the story, coaxing Moz into strangling a local ruffian who is then buried beneath the floorboards of the ground floor flat on Friendship Ave (her own later accounts reverses the roles). The episode sends Myra over the edge of sanity. Her buried traumatic memories surface via her obsessive cleaning but the incident is never repeated or referred to again until this song—and of course until Myra finds work the following year at Millwards Merchandising, where she meets her next partner in crime. The unlucky pair move out of the two-room flat after less than six months together.

So how can you call this a home When you know it's a grave?

As you tidy the place But it will never be clean, Jeane

But I think you know I really think you know I think you know the truth.

Their cohabitation was between May and September 1960, so in reality there was unlikely to have been ice in the sink. Rather, this line is a metaphorical reflection of her actions and of her true character, which cannot merely be washed away...

this song is great. It should be on all the albums. I really dont know why it isnt

A masterpiece, the Sandie Shaw version is possibly the best song ever put to tape.

Although an early song it is probably Morrissey's best for encapsulating that kitchen-sink-drama he is (or was at the time of the smiths) enthraled with. The whole Shelagh Delaney thing (where he steals many lyrics from)

Anyhow, i love this song, as jemaeux says it is a well hidden secret.

The Sandie Shaw version should be downloaded by any music fan, smiths fans who dont own it are being cheated

xo

The Sandie Shaw version is superior, yes, but this song is beautiful in both versions.

To be honest, I prefer the version with Morrissey on vocals. I'm pretty sure it is about his mother - "Yet you still hold a greedy grace as you tidy the place".

Jeane is almost impossible to get hold of (I think it's going to be on a double-cd compilation released soon), which is a disgrace because for me it is right up with their best work.

It's just an incredibly powerful song and perfectly sums up the 'mythology' of the Smiths - listening to it you genuinely feel that this was what Morrissey's life was like before the start of the band.

The last verse ('No heavenly choir/not for me and not for you...') is absolutely sublime, as good if not better than the endings to other Smiths songs like Hand In Glove and I Know It's Over.