First of all, I'd like you to know that this is my favourite song by The Smiths, and they are my favourite band, and Morrissey is my favourite person in the whole world. So, this song means a lot to me.
As we all know, Morrissey is one hell of a writer! His lyrics have many layers of mystique and no one really manages to peel these layers off, which I find very appealing. This song has a thousand interpretations and here is mine.
"What she said:
'How come
someone hasn't noticed that I'm dead?
And decided to bury me
God knows I'm ready!'
La la la la"
I picture a fragile woman around the age of twenty-eight. I have also imagined someone in their fifties or sixties but that doesn't match the early death implication.
This is an intelligent and quiet young woman who lives in an industrial city in England, perhaps London, presumably Manchester; she has a very good job, perhaps as an apprentice at a law firm; she lives on her own in a lonely apartment ("with its cupboard bare"); she is single, has never had a serious relationship, partly because she is confused about her sexuality, partly because she is shy and spends her time reading heady books and prophesising.
Even though she has secured a stable job and platonic success, she knows that she is growing old and she feels worn and torn. She decides to go out one Friday night, she meets a tattooed boy from Birkenhead. He unearths her and for once she feels alive. He takes her virginity.
But their romance is not to last and he leaves her bare after a few weeks. She resumes to her life as it was before and is again successful at her job though she is not happy. She grows depressed and takes up smoking and doing drugs. She finally takes her own life. No one seemed to understand WHY she did so because she was an intelligent woman who had a good job, but she had an inner conflict, something that Morrissey knows all too well.
I could write a much thorougher description of this poem but I feel like that could ruin the song!
But I'd like to add that the line
"I smoke 'cause I'm hoping for an early death
And I need to cling to something!"
reminds me of this:
"‘Why do you smoke so damn fast?’ I asked.
She looked at me and smiled widely, and such a wide smile on her narrow face might have looked goofy were it not for the unimpeachably elegant green in her eyes. She smiled with all the delight of a kid on Christmas morning and said,
‘Y’all smoke to enjoy it. I smoke to die.’"
John Green, Looking for Alaska
First of all, I'd like you to know that this is my favourite song by The Smiths, and they are my favourite band, and Morrissey is my favourite person in the whole world. So, this song means a lot to me.
As we all know, Morrissey is one hell of a writer! His lyrics have many layers of mystique and no one really manages to peel these layers off, which I find very appealing. This song has a thousand interpretations and here is mine.
"What she said: 'How come someone hasn't noticed that I'm dead? And decided to bury me God knows I'm ready!' La la la la"
I picture a fragile woman around the age of twenty-eight. I have also imagined someone in their fifties or sixties but that doesn't match the early death implication.
This is an intelligent and quiet young woman who lives in an industrial city in England, perhaps London, presumably Manchester; she has a very good job, perhaps as an apprentice at a law firm; she lives on her own in a lonely apartment ("with its cupboard bare"); she is single, has never had a serious relationship, partly because she is confused about her sexuality, partly because she is shy and spends her time reading heady books and prophesising.
Even though she has secured a stable job and platonic success, she knows that she is growing old and she feels worn and torn. She decides to go out one Friday night, she meets a tattooed boy from Birkenhead. He unearths her and for once she feels alive. He takes her virginity.
But their romance is not to last and he leaves her bare after a few weeks. She resumes to her life as it was before and is again successful at her job though she is not happy. She grows depressed and takes up smoking and doing drugs. She finally takes her own life. No one seemed to understand WHY she did so because she was an intelligent woman who had a good job, but she had an inner conflict, something that Morrissey knows all too well.
I could write a much thorougher description of this poem but I feel like that could ruin the song!
But I'd like to add that the line "I smoke 'cause I'm hoping for an early death And I need to cling to something!"
reminds me of this:
"‘Why do you smoke so damn fast?’ I asked. She looked at me and smiled widely, and such a wide smile on her narrow face might have looked goofy were it not for the unimpeachably elegant green in her eyes. She smiled with all the delight of a kid on Christmas morning and said, ‘Y’all smoke to enjoy it. I smoke to die.’" John Green, Looking for Alaska
@mrjones90 you're funny and intelligent because you're not
@mrjones90 you're funny and intelligent because you're not