Brilliant Mind Lyrics
Where everything I thought meant something seems so unappealing
I'm ready for the real thing but nobody's selling, oh
Except you and you're saying opening up your eyes and ears, and let me in
You must be out of your brilliant mind
You want your empty words heard and everybody's ready
I want to know your secrets but you're not telling
You're just gesturing, saying open up your arms and hearts, and let me in
You must be out of your brilliant mind
Where I want my words heard and no one wants to listen
No one wants to listen 'cause everybody's yelling
About you and yours and how I'd have the answer if only I'd open up up up and let you in
They must be out of their brilliant minds
Oh shay-ay-ame, shame on you you you you
Shay-ay-ame, Shame on you you you you you yeah
Where I want my words said and no one wants to listen
No one wants to listen 'cause everybody's yelling
About you and yours and how I'd have the answer if only I'd open up up up and let you in
They must be out of their brilliant minds
Everyone ou-ou-ou-ou-out of their brilliant minds
Oh, I must be out, I must be out, of my brilliant mind
Oooh my brilliant mind
I heard this shortly after it was released in about 1986. It's open to all kinds of interpretation, so here's how it struck or strikes me.
"I'm at the stage" mean becoming an adult and also disillusionment. The song begins and ends with disillusionment, not just ennui. "Ready for the real thing" could mean truth or true love, because we as individuals have the capacity for both, but it is frustrated. This is not a love song though, nor addressed to a potential lover as the "Shame on you" bridge confirms. It's cynical and mordant but maybe in a deeper way than most of the Smiths' stuff about meaningless alienation and youth; there's still something sincere about it.
"You must be out of your brilliant mind" recalls for me the first line of Allen Ginsberg's famous "Howl": "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness". The tension and passion in the music is critical of society, bemoaning and castigating those who lie.
"empty words" - for example, advertising or political "gestures" latching on to the desire to believe in something. "Let me in", into one's heart, but that heart is rightly sceptical, and knows falsehood cannot satisfy the hunger it feels, nor can buying into shallow 80s values. "I want my words heard and no one wants to listen" - this verse seems to be about the disillusionment of being in a not-yet successful band, but wider than that being young and unheard and misunderstood and ignored and drowned out by those who are "successful". "You and yours" often means a family, but can also mean other people like you. "I'd have the answer if only I'd open up" means pressure to buy into the system, or could mean religious proselytising.
"They must be out of their brilliant minds" - despite people having ability to do the right thing and tell the truth, those with the chance do the opposite. Oppenheimer was a brilliant mind for example, but was led to become a "destroyer" and this could be Reagan and the Soviet leaders escalating their nuclear madness, or the huge amount of waste and nonsense we are sold. For Morrissey, "Come, Armageddon" is a joke, but there is a chilling reality to the way Irvin delivers this line. You either mock or risk mockery, and this song balances both.
"Shame on you", for forgoing honesty, for perpetuating a dishonest system for personal gain. A powerful phrase, often misused.
A wants to connect with B, but the times not right, then B is trying to relate to A and the times not right again, and so on, B is some kind of Artist/writer/creative.(As is A). A realizes that no one can understand him and now he doesn't even know if he 'wants' to be 'understood', then he seems to wonder if anyone wants to really relate to anyone, anyway, which leads the author to postulate the absurdity of the situation, possibly.