Although everyone has their own interpretation and is welcome to it, I think this is one Smiths song that is pretty straightforward and requires little analysis. The song has very little to do with love, it is primarily about success and money. It runs pretty much like this:
1) At school Moz felt superior (most likely intellectually) to this person.
2) Now however, this person has it all (money? love? a career?) and Moz has nothing to show for all of his perceived superiority.
3) "No, I've never had a job because I've never wanted one". This is the only clue in the song as to what the ambiguous "everything" he refers to in the title actually is. The other person has a job, something Moz has never craved but now makes this other person somehow now superior to him.
4) Moz questions how real this person's supposed success is - "I've seen you smile but I've never really heard you laugh so who is rich and who is poor? I cannot say".
5) Moz entertains the idea of entering (maybe re-entering) into a relationship with this person before concluding "I don't want a lover, I just want to be seen... in the back of your car". He explains that they were never really friends and he never really liked the other person's face (looks), but such is his envy that he is willing to do almost anything, the other person could even tie them to the back of their car, just as long as Moz could bask in some of their success for a while.
If this wasn't written prior to the 1st album and all of the Smith's subsequent success, I would swear it was in the reverse perspective i.e. Morrisey is the one who has everything now and this is what he imagines his old friends from school think of him. Also he would be wary of them trying to get close to him simply because of his fame and success. That would also be a worthy interpretation if we didn't already know this was written before The Smiths' fame and success.
For that reason, this song has to be about Morrisey's disillusionment with post-school existence, his refusal to get a job and ultimately his envy of other people's success. It's almost a prelude to "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful".
Although everyone has their own interpretation and is welcome to it, I think this is one Smiths song that is pretty straightforward and requires little analysis. The song has very little to do with love, it is primarily about success and money. It runs pretty much like this:
1) At school Moz felt superior (most likely intellectually) to this person.
2) Now however, this person has it all (money? love? a career?) and Moz has nothing to show for all of his perceived superiority.
3) "No, I've never had a job because I've never wanted one". This is the only clue in the song as to what the ambiguous "everything" he refers to in the title actually is. The other person has a job, something Moz has never craved but now makes this other person somehow now superior to him.
4) Moz questions how real this person's supposed success is - "I've seen you smile but I've never really heard you laugh so who is rich and who is poor? I cannot say".
5) Moz entertains the idea of entering (maybe re-entering) into a relationship with this person before concluding "I don't want a lover, I just want to be seen... in the back of your car". He explains that they were never really friends and he never really liked the other person's face (looks), but such is his envy that he is willing to do almost anything, the other person could even tie them to the back of their car, just as long as Moz could bask in some of their success for a while.
If this wasn't written prior to the 1st album and all of the Smith's subsequent success, I would swear it was in the reverse perspective i.e. Morrisey is the one who has everything now and this is what he imagines his old friends from school think of him. Also he would be wary of them trying to get close to him simply because of his fame and success. That would also be a worthy interpretation if we didn't already know this was written before The Smiths' fame and success.
For that reason, this song has to be about Morrisey's disillusionment with post-school existence, his refusal to get a job and ultimately his envy of other people's success. It's almost a prelude to "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful".