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When Last I Spoke To Carol Lyrics
When last I spoke to Carol I said:
"I can't pretend it gets easier."
She said:
"I've hung on, I have edged around this narrow ledge since the day I was born in 1975."
When last I spoke to Carol I said:
"I can't pretend I feel love for you."
She said:
"I've hammered a smile across this pasty face of mine since the day I was born in 1975."
When I said goodbye to Carol
Black earth upon the casket fell
She had faded to
something I always knew
To the rescue
nobody ever comes.
"I can't pretend it gets easier."
She said:
"I've hung on, I have edged around this narrow ledge since the day I was born in 1975."
When last I spoke to Carol I said:
"I can't pretend I feel love for you."
She said:
"I've hammered a smile across this pasty face of mine since the day I was born in 1975."
When I said goodbye to Carol
Black earth upon the casket fell
She had faded to
something I always knew
To the rescue
nobody ever comes.
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Amazing, I love this. Quite different to anything he's done before and he pulls it off magnificently. Poor Carol, she is a symbol for someone not enjoying life, not fitting in, not experiencing the love she yearns for. All her life she's not been happy, waiting for someone to "save" her. But ofcourse, that person never comes. She dies young. From what it's not known, however my bets on suicide. However, the lyrics also give an insight into the narrator's life. He can't tell her that life improves with age, as he's experienced life. He can't tell her that he loves her when he doesn't (his own sexuality? his reluctance to enter relationships? hurt too many times?). Whatever it is, he can't help her, he's not the one. He seen in her himself, unhappy, lonely, isolated, depressed. The only difference is he's still here to tell the tale. Well, that's my take on it anyway. Love it!
Since the new album came out a couple of months ago I've had this song stuck in my head nearly every day. What a simple, elegant, sublime piece of music.
The line 'She said I've hammered a smile/across this pasty face of mine...' is heartbreaking, and he sings it so beautifully. It reminds me of one of the lines in Angel, Angel, Down We Go Together: 'Angel, don't take your life/some people have got no pride...'
Genius!
Seems to be about a deeply depressed woman who perhaps turns to the narrator/Morrissey for consolation because she identifies strongly with him. The narrator understands her but is unable to provide the typical lip service about life getting better so he plays it straight and confirms that life is a constant struggle and he cannot save her. She takes her life and the narrator/Morrissey appears to see it as something inevitable and brave because he knows that life would never have turned around for her. The song is a way for him to tell her story very simply and elegantly without sentimental flourish. In my opinion it is a song that illustrates that for some people suicide is much less tragic than living a chronically painful existence. This song really sticks in the head- it has a 1960's/early psychedelic feel to me.
I don't see how you came to realize that the suicide is portrayed as brave. I don't think a positive or negative opinion is actually made.
I don't see how you came to realize that the suicide is portrayed as brave. I don't think a positive or negative opinion is actually made.
Look at the follow up, "That's How People Grow Up." It's sarcastic; he wasn't really wasting his time looking for love, and he might be OK, but only "For now, anyway." He's inevitably going to continue struggling as did Carol.
Look at the follow up, "That's How People Grow Up." It's sarcastic; he wasn't really wasting his time looking for love, and he might be OK, but only "For now, anyway." He's inevitably going to continue struggling as did Carol.
It's about guilt. The speaker refused to help Carol, and his guilt is seen by his presence at the funeral. "Nobody," including himself "ever comes."
It's about guilt. The speaker refused to help Carol, and his guilt is seen by his presence at the funeral. "Nobody," including himself "ever comes."
I think this song has the exact same meaning as "What She Said" off meat is murder
I can follow you on this one Kay.
But I still feel Morrissey's humour is present. It's about someone whose pain and misery originates from being ugly (her pasty face), not from existential pain. The singer wants to help her, but he cannot possibly go physical. She just wants someone, but no one is interested by far, except the singer, who has words for her, but nothing more than that. The last person on earth turns her down and subsequently she kills herself. (Morrissey as the culprit again)