Troubled Joe is hung by his "pretty white neck." The narrator travels to a mystical timezone. The title of the song is a reference to a quote from Sperenza Wilde.
Too much caffeine in the blood stream = Tea, China
Lack of real spice in your life = Spice trade, India
People who are uglier than you and I = the colonised people, the "other"
He's using colonisation as a metaphor for the power struggle of an unequal romantic relationship. He's taking "love is a battlefield" and turning it into "love is a colonial occupation."
Not sure if it is about colonisation but you are right about the song title. Lady Wilde/ Speranza was an Irish freedom fighter and she wrote: "One instant to take breath, and then a rising; a rush, a charge from north, south, east and west upon the English garrison, and the land is ours”.
Not sure if it is about colonisation but you are right about the song title. Lady Wilde/ Speranza was an Irish freedom fighter and she wrote: "One instant to take breath, and then a rising; a rush, a charge from north, south, east and west upon the English garrison, and the land is ours”.
There's another reference to Oscar Wilde in the line 'some eighteen months ago'. Wilde was inside Reading Goal for eighteen months. It's also in 'I started something I couldn't finish' where Morrissey sings "And now eighteen months hard labour seems fair enough".
There's another reference to Oscar Wilde in the line 'some eighteen months ago'. Wilde was inside Reading Goal for eighteen months. It's also in 'I started something I couldn't finish' where Morrissey sings "And now eighteen months hard labour seems fair enough".
I...
I think it is metaphorical. It's more about the imagery than the literal lines of the song. Being in love can make someone feel quite 'colonised' in a way. Taken over and without freedom or will left.
Agree about the colonial metaphor for love....but I think the "people who are uglier" part is about those doing the colonizing, because "they take what they need & just leave", the way the colonists take natural resources, etc, then leave problems. This is about someone feeling that whoever had "occupied" them (in love) was lesser, but because they pushed for it, then got what they wanted out of the relationship.
Agree about the colonial metaphor for love....but I think the "people who are uglier" part is about those doing the colonizing, because "they take what they need & just leave", the way the colonists take natural resources, etc, then leave problems. This is about someone feeling that whoever had "occupied" them (in love) was lesser, but because they pushed for it, then got what they wanted out of the relationship.
@OscarWildin a lack of real spice in life has nothing to do with India or China or anywhere else, it's just a contrast of caffeine being in bloodstream yet his life having no spice, but yes you can say song is about conquest
@OscarWildin a lack of real spice in life has nothing to do with India or China or anywhere else, it's just a contrast of caffeine being in bloodstream yet his life having no spice, but yes you can say song is about conquest
@OscarWildin I think it's an astronomical leap to read "caffeine" and "spice" as code for China and India, respectively. I think you're reading way too much into that bit, it's like you decided it was about colonialism and then worked backwards to force the words to fit your conclusion. I really don't like Strangeways as an album, and yet this opening track has somehow become one of my Top Ten Smiths songs... I absolutely adore it. But it has one of the most cryptic meanings of any of Morrissey's Smiths-era material. It really does my head in and I've never...
@OscarWildin I think it's an astronomical leap to read "caffeine" and "spice" as code for China and India, respectively. I think you're reading way too much into that bit, it's like you decided it was about colonialism and then worked backwards to force the words to fit your conclusion. I really don't like Strangeways as an album, and yet this opening track has somehow become one of my Top Ten Smiths songs... I absolutely adore it. But it has one of the most cryptic meanings of any of Morrissey's Smiths-era material. It really does my head in and I've never found an explanation that satisfies me, I think yours is interesting though.
This song is obviously about colonisiation
Troubled Joe is hung by his "pretty white neck." The narrator travels to a mystical timezone. The title of the song is a reference to a quote from Sperenza Wilde.
Too much caffeine in the blood stream = Tea, China Lack of real spice in your life = Spice trade, India People who are uglier than you and I = the colonised people, the "other"
He's using colonisation as a metaphor for the power struggle of an unequal romantic relationship. He's taking "love is a battlefield" and turning it into "love is a colonial occupation."
Not sure if it is about colonisation but you are right about the song title. Lady Wilde/ Speranza was an Irish freedom fighter and she wrote: "One instant to take breath, and then a rising; a rush, a charge from north, south, east and west upon the English garrison, and the land is ours”.
Not sure if it is about colonisation but you are right about the song title. Lady Wilde/ Speranza was an Irish freedom fighter and she wrote: "One instant to take breath, and then a rising; a rush, a charge from north, south, east and west upon the English garrison, and the land is ours”.
There's another reference to Oscar Wilde in the line 'some eighteen months ago'. Wilde was inside Reading Goal for eighteen months. It's also in 'I started something I couldn't finish' where Morrissey sings "And now eighteen months hard labour seems fair enough".
There's another reference to Oscar Wilde in the line 'some eighteen months ago'. Wilde was inside Reading Goal for eighteen months. It's also in 'I started something I couldn't finish' where Morrissey sings "And now eighteen months hard labour seems fair enough".
I...
I think it is metaphorical. It's more about the imagery than the literal lines of the song. Being in love can make someone feel quite 'colonised' in a way. Taken over and without freedom or will left.
Agree about the colonial metaphor for love....but I think the "people who are uglier" part is about those doing the colonizing, because "they take what they need & just leave", the way the colonists take natural resources, etc, then leave problems. This is about someone feeling that whoever had "occupied" them (in love) was lesser, but because they pushed for it, then got what they wanted out of the relationship.
Agree about the colonial metaphor for love....but I think the "people who are uglier" part is about those doing the colonizing, because "they take what they need & just leave", the way the colonists take natural resources, etc, then leave problems. This is about someone feeling that whoever had "occupied" them (in love) was lesser, but because they pushed for it, then got what they wanted out of the relationship.
@OscarWildin a lack of real spice in life has nothing to do with India or China or anywhere else, it's just a contrast of caffeine being in bloodstream yet his life having no spice, but yes you can say song is about conquest
@OscarWildin a lack of real spice in life has nothing to do with India or China or anywhere else, it's just a contrast of caffeine being in bloodstream yet his life having no spice, but yes you can say song is about conquest
@OscarWildin I think it's an astronomical leap to read "caffeine" and "spice" as code for China and India, respectively. I think you're reading way too much into that bit, it's like you decided it was about colonialism and then worked backwards to force the words to fit your conclusion. I really don't like Strangeways as an album, and yet this opening track has somehow become one of my Top Ten Smiths songs... I absolutely adore it. But it has one of the most cryptic meanings of any of Morrissey's Smiths-era material. It really does my head in and I've never...
@OscarWildin I think it's an astronomical leap to read "caffeine" and "spice" as code for China and India, respectively. I think you're reading way too much into that bit, it's like you decided it was about colonialism and then worked backwards to force the words to fit your conclusion. I really don't like Strangeways as an album, and yet this opening track has somehow become one of my Top Ten Smiths songs... I absolutely adore it. But it has one of the most cryptic meanings of any of Morrissey's Smiths-era material. It really does my head in and I've never found an explanation that satisfies me, I think yours is interesting though.