Everyday Is Like Sunday

I think this song is about expressing boredom and suppression. The boring holiday in a sea side town seems to be a spiritual place to reflect the boredom where everyday is like sunday; all the shops are closed and there's nothing to do. The first verse implies that he feels naked and alone and he wishes that the sea side town (his boredom) could just be destroyed and made rid of. This is one of the best songs I've ever heard to express unhappiness and boredom, which also cleverly makes fun of typical holidays, for instance "etch a postcard, how i dealy wish i was not here", replacing the typical "wish you were here" with a message more honest, almost like a cry for help.

I agree that boredom is certainly a central theme of this song, but I think that we're not fully recognizing the nuclear undertones. Bear in mind that this was written and released during the time of Margaret Thatcher as Britan's PM, and before the fall of the Soviet Union. Thatcher's heavily militaristic policies coupled with the still-present threat of nuclear war may have been the driving force behind these lyrics.

My interpretation (and I am not comitted to it) is that this isn't about boredom as much as it is about the aftermath of a nuclear war. The quiet boredom that accompanies a sleepy town on a sunday could also be that of a deserted town after a nuclear war. The story (in my opinion) is that of two lovers who have survived the war, but probably not for much longer. Note the lyrics don't just refer to wanting a nuclear bomb to come, but that they're in a town that "they forgot to bomb." This strikes me as a reference to the fact that the town that they're in was spared nuclear destruction, only to face a more prolonged one, and that the earlier mention of wishing for nuclear bombs is so that their suffering can be ended.

The last lines of the song, which note the falling of a "a strange dust" probably refers to that of the ash that follows a nuclear detonation and the fires that follow. Again, I'm not convinced that I'm right, but this has always been my interpretation.

Morrissey is simply talking about the tacky, run down seaside towns of Britain where the beaches are littered with concrete or wooden groynes, where the promenade has an arcade or an ice cream stall, but it just makes it seem so depressing. Where old people go to retire and people steal your clothes off of the bench;) I think he is expressing the idea that British beaches, especially in England can be very dull places just like those rainy Sundays you had as a child with absolutely nothing to do as every Brit has probably experienced. This is an opinion that I had before I even heard the song.

I have to disagree with comments about how this describes the futility of life. It beautifully details the dullness of the many gone to seed British seaside towns. The song describes Whitstable so perfectly it made me laugh out loud when I first heard it.

Nobody's mentioned that this, like so many of Morrissey's songs is funny... "trudging back to the bench where your clothes were stolen" is a scene from a sitcom! Calling for the bombing of a town because it's boring is self-consciously and hilariously adolescent. I have no idea what greased tea and strange dust is about but wouldn't be surprised if there were some literary innuendo there.

On the subject of which, the "come nuclear bombs" line is an obvious reference to John Betjeman's "Slough": "Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough" but lacks its snobbishness. Morrissey admirers might like to wonder if this little poem didn't influence him just as much as Wilde: http://www-cdr.stanford.edu/intuition/Slough.html

The song is about a coastal town that has been abandoned and is in a state of decay. The singer trudges slowly back to a bench where their clothes were stolen, which creates a feeling of loss and violation. The mention of Armageddon and a nuclear bomb suggests a longing for some kind of destruction or change to end the monotony and sadness of life in the town.

The singer repeats the phrases "everyday is like Sunday" and "everyday is silent and grey" to convey how monotonous and joyless life is in the town. The repetition emphasizes the lack of excitement and variation in daily life, and how it all seems to blend together into a dreary sameness.

"Hide on the promenade, etch a postcard, How I dearly wish I was not here" the singer wants to escape from their current location and situation. They may feel trapped or bored with their surroundings and long for something different. The act of etching a postcard implies a desire to preserve memories or send messages from a different, more desirable place.

The phrase "Come, come, come, nuclear bomb" expresses the singer's wish for a fresh start, a chance to start over and leave behind the pain and monotony of their current situation. It implies a desire for a drastic change, as if a nuclear bomb could wipe the slate clean and allow for a new beginning.

Towards the end of the song, the singer continues walking on the beach and encounters a strange dust that lands on their hands and face, adding to the overall sense of desolation. The repetition of "on your face" reinforces the feeling of finality or acceptance of the singer's situation.

"Win yourself a cheap tray, share some greased tea with me" implies a desire for human connection or companionship, even if it is in a simple or modest way.

Excuse me? Colin Meloy? I'll stick with this version. One of the best songs ever written.

It's about how life in general is "Silent and Gray" and when people get a chance they 'Escape' to lovely fun towns were all of your cares will go away. But then you get there and you realise that it feels 200 times worse.

"Etch a postcard : 'How I Dearly Wish I Was Not Here' In the seaside town ...that they forgot to bomb"

Its about holidaying in a seaside town out of season and how sleepy and boring it is

I think this is about Morrissey relating his boring, sad and depressing existence (and in life in general) through relating it to a wet, seaside town on a Sunday. Bearing in mind it was the late 80s when there wasn't much open or to do on a Sunday anywhere let alone a seaside town out of season in Britain. I think he just describes a powerful scene of a lonely seaside town as an example which we relate to. This is typical of him in many of his and the Smiths songs to describe things we can relate to as a means to portray a point.

the video for this was made in southend, something which i was extatic about, he even passes my house... 51 burdett avenue, westcliff on sea, so if you want to recreate the video...

I guess this is sort of a paraphrase or a combination of stuff that other people have already said, but yeah, this song is about the desire to escape from boredom and depression that comes with living a ‘nice’ simple life. The only thing that seems able to break the routine is for something terrible to happen, like a nuclear bomb.

To trudge over wet sand gives the sense that a mundane task such as walking back to get your clothes is a difficult one. Even worse, they find out their clothes are gone. This feeling of disappointment sets the mood for the rest of the song, in which this person contemplates how unhappy they are with their life (how I dearly wish I was not here) because they are confined to a place, though where nothing terrible seems to happen, nothing great either. This results in a feeling of mind-numbing pain. Typically, a seaside town may be associated with an escape from the stress of life, but it is the source of misery for this person.

The only escape seems to be in something extreme, like complete destruction so he/she imagines a nuclear bomb to end it all. But after the nuclear bomb has hit (image of the ‘strange dust’ that lands), this is where it is kind of ambiguous for me. Whether or not this is a real or imagined scenario, it seems that everyday is just silent and grey again and that nothing much changes (win yourself a cheap tray)? Except this time, the tea is contaminated from the bomb? Though we may desire to escape from life through death, as long as we are alive, we will have to deal with the same old stuff. In the end, there’s no escape from anything. Life and death are the same.

This is a really beautiful song.