Girlfriend In A Coma has always been one of my favourite Smiths songs and has remained its status over the years. The title alone made me curious from the first time that I held the cd case of Strangeways Here We Come in my hands. But the lyrics are very interesting as well.
The song basically tackles the most extreme feelings of humans (love and hatred) and brings on how close these two feelings can sometimes be to each other. Morrissey manages to, in one single sentence, bring on the both extremes and all feelings in between.
The contrast is brought on on several occasions:
"there were times I could have murdered her" expresses hatred and aggression towards the person, but is immediately followed by a desire to still not lose her: "I would hate anything to happen to her".
Also, the chorus expresses this same situation: "No I don't want to see her" expresses the wish not to see his dying partner again, but his insecurity over his own feelings rises immediately after when he somehow longs to hold her in his arms again and insecurely asks "do you really think she'll pull through?"
The song basically descibres a confused mind and shows how close human feelings can be to each other, how confused humans can be emotionally. The song uses the most extreme feelings (loving someone -vs- hating someone) and everything in between.
Also, the confusion is expressed by Morrissey having to convince himself and repeat to himself "I know - it's SERIOUS" (well, of course it's serious, she's in a coma !)
Of course Morrissey wouldn't be Morrissey when there would be no political reference in his work: the song was based on a conflict in the USA about if it is acceptable to let a person die when she's comatose for too long. In that time a woman in the US was at the breathing machine for ages, with little hope she'd ever awake. She was clinically alive but also braindead. There was a huge debate over if it should be allowed to just unplug the breathing machine or not. Morrissey based the song on this ongoing moral debate, and injected it with a dose of human confusion and personal drama.
Girlfriend In A Coma has always been one of my favourite Smiths songs and has remained its status over the years. The title alone made me curious from the first time that I held the cd case of Strangeways Here We Come in my hands. But the lyrics are very interesting as well.
The song basically tackles the most extreme feelings of humans (love and hatred) and brings on how close these two feelings can sometimes be to each other. Morrissey manages to, in one single sentence, bring on the both extremes and all feelings in between.
The contrast is brought on on several occasions:
"there were times I could have murdered her" expresses hatred and aggression towards the person, but is immediately followed by a desire to still not lose her: "I would hate anything to happen to her".
Also, the chorus expresses this same situation: "No I don't want to see her" expresses the wish not to see his dying partner again, but his insecurity over his own feelings rises immediately after when he somehow longs to hold her in his arms again and insecurely asks "do you really think she'll pull through?"
The song basically descibres a confused mind and shows how close human feelings can be to each other, how confused humans can be emotionally. The song uses the most extreme feelings (loving someone -vs- hating someone) and everything in between. Also, the confusion is expressed by Morrissey having to convince himself and repeat to himself "I know - it's SERIOUS" (well, of course it's serious, she's in a coma !)
Of course Morrissey wouldn't be Morrissey when there would be no political reference in his work: the song was based on a conflict in the USA about if it is acceptable to let a person die when she's comatose for too long. In that time a woman in the US was at the breathing machine for ages, with little hope she'd ever awake. She was clinically alive but also braindead. There was a huge debate over if it should be allowed to just unplug the breathing machine or not. Morrissey based the song on this ongoing moral debate, and injected it with a dose of human confusion and personal drama.
A true Smiths classic!