I always suspected that this one is primarily about AIDS. Gaetan Dugas, the man who frequented gay bars and clubs and inadvertently infected a lot of people with AIDS to the extent that at in 1984 he was mistakenly dubbed 'Patient Zero'. Morrissey is a knowledgeable man and I expect he would have known about Dugas - he may even have been familiar with the underground gay scene himself.
Even the lines about love, peace and harmony make sense in this context - sure, it was great to go out, have fun, meet strangers and make love, but now AIDS has made that rather more difficult.
I always suspected that this one is primarily about AIDS. Gaetan Dugas, the man who frequented gay bars and clubs and inadvertently infected a lot of people with AIDS to the extent that at in 1984 he was mistakenly dubbed 'Patient Zero'. Morrissey is a knowledgeable man and I expect he would have known about Dugas - he may even have been familiar with the underground gay scene himself.
Even the lines about love, peace and harmony make sense in this context - sure, it was great to go out, have fun, meet strangers and make love, but now AIDS has made that rather more difficult.