Rubber Ring

Hands down my favorite Smith's song. Everyone has their own opinion about what it means in general, and they're mostly right. But this is what it means to me, and it's extremely important to me. Plus, this is the only place I can actually seriously talk about it. Bear with me.

Isn't nostagia one of the greatest/worse feelings ever? Whenever I hear this song, I think back to the most horrible period of my life. Well, I thought it was my most horrible. Typical teenage angst. Now, I know that that was one of the greatest times of my life.

"A sad fact widely known The most impassionate song To a lonely soul Is so easily outgrown But don't forget the songs That made you smile And the songs that made you cry When you lay in awe On the bedroom floor..."

I lived in the middle of nowhere and I was an only child. So, I spent a lot of time in my bedroom bemoaning my fate. But then...I discovered music. REAL music. My music. It wasn't being fed to me through the popular radio stations. Oh, that is a great personal discovery, isn't it? Finding music that speaks to you. Especially if you're all alone in the middle of nowhere with only the cows to keep you company. I would 'lay in awe on the bedroom floor' for hours listening to that beautiful release.

"The passing of time And all of its crimes Is making me sad again The passing of time And all of its sickening crimes Is making me sad again But don't forget the songs That made you cry And the songs that saved your life Yes, you're older now And you're a clever swine But they were the only ones who ever stood by you."

It was then that I started to grow up- to find my own self and make up my mind about the world around me. At the time, I thought it was horrible. I'd wallow in my own angst and look around in disdain because no one knew what it was like. (What a tool I was, looking back on it now.) It got to the point that the songs that made me think were old and overplayed. They didn't touch me the way they used to. I didn't think about what was happening to me. I didn't even realize I was losing something precious. I was losing the very thing that made me, well, me. And I slowly forgot about the only ones who every stood by me.

"The passing of time leaves empty lives Waiting to be filled (the passing...) The passing of time Leaves empty lives Waiting to be filled I'm here with the cause I'm holding the torch In the corner of your room Can you hear me? And when you're dancing and laughing And finally living Hear my voice in your head And think of me kindly."

I jumped at life and slowly forgot the important songs. I was a music snob. (Oh, yes, I'll say it, I was a music hipster before being a music hipster was cool.) I just listened to them. I didn't feel them. That was my senior year of high school. That was when I was 'dancing and laughing and finally living'. I had friends who thought like me. That was something I never saw coming and I began to take it for granted. Then, it became clear something was missing. I'd be out with friends and I would realize that none of what we were talking about mattered. Don't get me wrong, I had fun. I had A LOT of fun. But it was all vapid. Shallow. Unimportant. I never got that feeling anymore. You know that feeling. When you listen to a song (an important one) and you're whole body aches and you can't breathe and you are so happy and so sad at the same time because somebody knows you. That impossible voice knows you and they want you to know that it's okay it's going to be okay I'm here for you whenever you need me I am yours. (Just thinking about that feeling right now makes me a bit teary-eyed.)

It was then that I realized I had turned my back on something so precious and innocent. And I would never get it back again. That one moment when you realize you are not alone. It's gone and you can never get it back and it hurts. The only thing you can do is look back and remember that voice in the darkness.

I can remember everysinglething about that voice. Everything about that voice is important. How it cracked on that one particular word or how it rose and fell in time with the music. And, sometimes, very rarely, I can get that feeling back. Just a ghost of it.

And I really hope Morrissey* knows how he made people like me feel more alive more than anything else in the world.

(*I know that The Smiths are more than just Morrissey...but it was his voice that made me feel.)

Teenage agnst is so easily forgoten or ignored when grown up. Music was and is the greatest escape from life's little quirks. Especially when we're young. Some people outgrow the music of their youth, and that's all the song is talking about, to please not forget him (the music) when you're dancing & laughing & finnally living, hear my voice in your head.......

The 'rubber ring' in this song refers to the little protective ring (made of rubber of course) on the turntable of a record player. The turntable is made from metal so the rubber ring is on top of the metal turn table to protect the record from damage whilst you're playing your records. I love the double meaning that Morrissey's created: the actual rubber ring on the record player playing Smiths classics and the rubber ring that saves you when you're drowning.

yes, i agree with inflamedmaggot totally. its not designed to chastise us, its morrissey asking us to remeber something that helped us grow up. i doubt that morrissey expects his fans to be fans for life because people change. the lyric "And when you're dancing and laughing And finally living Hear my voice in your head And think of me kindly" to me is saying that morrissey knows his fans will grow up eventually, but still he wants us to remember the smiths fondly. also, does anyone know where the sample at the end of the song (the "you are sleeping" part) comes from?

My mum is always telling me off for listening to too much music. Says it's unhealthy. She also says it's a teenager thing, that when you 'discover' music at about 13, for the rest of your adolescence, it's one of the most important, all consuming things to you. Then apparently when you're an adult, music gets a lower status and is only enjoyed on occasion. (Jeez, I'm only 15! I pray that doesn't happen to me!)

Anyway, point being, that could be sort of what this song is about- how in your youth you find the special songs that can help you overcome any adversity, but that it's a hard job trying to remember them later on: A sad fact widely known The most impassionate song To a lonely soul Is so easily outgrown But don't forget the songs That made you smile And the songs that made you cry When you lay in awe On the bedroom floor And said : "Oh, oh, smother me Mother..."

Wow, I'm shocked that only one person has commented on this song so far. It's got a really memorable lyrics and a great tune with an air of desperation to it. It's by far one of my favorite Smiths songs. I believe it's pretty straight forward...I think it was written for the purpose of chastising ex-scenesters who deny having felt strong emotions about a song/artist because they have "outgrown" it, or it's not the trendy thing to do.

"Rubber Ring" is what is thrown to people to save them from drowning - It basically is saying that music is our rubber ring saving us from all our problems; giving us an outlet for frustration and stress; finding someone who shares the feelings - Then people always grow up and move away from the music that helped them in there time of need; forget and ignore it, Morrissey is just asking us to always rember it because it was apart of us once - My all time fav song, no doubt about it

"Is that clever" and "Everybody's clever nowadays" is from an EMI Music for Pleasure audio recording of "The Importance Of Being Earnest" by Oscar Wilde (the actor spraking is John Gielgud). The "You are sleeping, you do not want to believe" is the voice of an interpreter on a record called "Breakthrough: An amazing experiment in electronic communication with the dead", apparently the dead person said "Du sovas, willst nicht glaube", which is half Swedish, half German. Another interesting note is that Morrissey overdubbed a 'lift-shaft' sound, made by him making the noise into a microphone, which can be heard just before the third chorus.

One of Morrissey's greatest lyrical achievements. He knew he inspired the same kind of intense adulation in his listeners that he had himself experienced through his strong relationship with the New York Dolls, T. Rex and other artists, and he used this knowledge to create a song aimed directly at his most passionate fans - a plea not to forget him, even when they had achieved the happiness he believes himself incapable of achieving.

Personally, it is the little things that really get me with Rubber Ring. The samples at the end lend a menacing, sinister air to the song, and the "lift shaft" sound never fails to send chills up my spine. Morrissey's delivery of the line "do you...love me like you used to?" is simply beautiful.

This song is everything to me. When i first heard it i was literally lying in awe on my bedroom floor. This song is about Morrissey's relationship with the listener, the fan, the lonely person sitting in their room clinging onto the smiths! When i hear it, it makes feel like he is throwing me a 'rubber ring' to save me from drowning through music. Also, it sounds like he himself is crying out for help. When he says 'Can you hear me?' it almost makes me want to shout YES! And to clear his doubts of any 'fake' listeners that he may be scared of. It's also funny...and he says 'Hear my voice in your head and think of me kindly'. It's just perfect! It's about music...and idolising artists beyond comprehension...and as a teenage girl, that's what i do with Mozza. It's about him and me, the listener, the fan, the lonely person sitting in their room clinging onto the smiths. xxx