Ambitious Outsiders

This sone in NOT about homosexuality. This song is about the Government in China. Where you can only have 1 or 2 kids, anymore and the Government takes you child and gets rid of it. Thats why he says "Top of the list is your smiling kids" and "Keeping the population down" China is over populated and this is a way to keep the population down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedophilia_and_child_sexual_abuse_in_songs says:

* "Ambitious Outsiders" by Morrissey, from Maladjusted

A song about child murderers scavenging suburban neighborhoods for potential victims, probably inspired by the Moors murders.

He almost seems to be putting himself in the position of some kind of murderer here. Thought - provoking stuff.

This is about immigrants who tend to commit a disproportionate number of crimes and constantly complain about their living conditions when they have more children than they can feed and raise.

Hm. Let's try sharing that link again... It should be: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedophilia_and_child_sexual_abuse_in_songs

I fail. Oh, well.

LycanthropicLion: Remember Wikipedia is not gospel - interesting as it may be, that's just one person's interpretation they've posted.

Great song, anyway; I always assumed it was about the public being afraid of gay chaps, treating them like murderers.

i think this song is another in the form of "the kind of person that..." you know
upper middle class homophobic,xenophobic,racist, suburban paranoia. but i don't think the other discussed meanings are excluded

thanks

@LycanthropicLion: Interesting to contrast this song with "Suffer Little Children" from the first Smiths LP... there he sympathized with the children, but here he seems to take the position of the murderers. Creepy song and I don't like it.

Originally when I heard this song, I assumed it was about xenophobic song about immigrants i.e. immigrants living off of the welfare system, immigrants overpopulating to overwhelm the native population in numbers, and the native population being naively unaware of the 'ambitious outsiders' plans.

However, in reading the lyrics and the other posters interpretations, I tend to agree that this song is more likely about child murderers. In two stanzas, children are referenced as the intended targets/victims, 'smiling kids' and 'school bus', reproduction is cited as the 'cause' of the problem, and the narrator talks about keeping the population down.

But to be honest, I don't get the 'point' of the song at all. If the intent is to bring more attention to a serious issue, it certainly offers no hope or solutions at all. It does no good to bolt lock your doors or call the police- you have no way of knowing who the bad guys are. The only possible solution in the song is to stop reproducing, which is absurd.

I also don't get the song title given the content. Ambition usually has a positive connotation- someone who is pushing themselves to achieve some higher aim. I would not associate a positive adjective with a child killer. A child killer would certainly be 'outside' of the mainstream of society, but an outsider could have a positive influence on society as well- causing the majority to think in a different way in order for society to progress e.g. immigrants, outsider artists etc. I would find a much harsher noun to describe child killers.

Songs like Suffer Little Children and Reel Around the Fountain did a much,much better job of handling sensitive topics like child abuse and child murders in a much more tasteful and respectul way. As with many of the songs on Maladjusted Morrissey misses the mark or doesn't do a good enough job or even seem to care to let us know what mark he was aiming for.

I don't think the song is about homosexuality. Considering Morrissey himself is bisexual, I don't know why he would write about homosexuality in a sinister way and playing into the ignorant stereotype that homosexuals target children.