Explain these smiths lyrics please?
- Thread starter I_Cried
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CrystalGeezer
My secret's my enzyme.
I have no idea.
Death at one's elbow is I belive a rephrasing of the phrase 'Death by one's own hand.' It links to suicide which is the theme of the song.
The hand that rocks the cradle, is linked to the protagonist of the song. Basically, the narrator tells the child that they are safe and shall be loved: 'there never need be longing in your eyes, as long as the hand that rocks the cradle is mine.'
That Joke isn't funny anymore reffers to the jokes and jibes that Morrissey likely suffered in his childhood. 'When you laugh about people who feel so very lonely their only desire is to die...'
The hand that rocks the cradle, is linked to the protagonist of the song. Basically, the narrator tells the child that they are safe and shall be loved: 'there never need be longing in your eyes, as long as the hand that rocks the cradle is mine.'
That Joke isn't funny anymore reffers to the jokes and jibes that Morrissey likely suffered in his childhood. 'When you laugh about people who feel so very lonely their only desire is to die...'
There's no way to correctly or incorrectly interpret a song. Everything has a different meaning to everyone and I believe you interpretations are as equally valid as anybody elses. I like what you say about The Hand that Rocks The Cradle, which is a consoling song against fears and frustrations.
Worm
Taste the diffidence
"The Hand That Rocks The Cradle" puts the man in the familiar role of the woman whose mate has run off to avoid parental responsbility. It is about empathy and moral imagination.
"That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore" puts Morrissey/the speaker in the role of the person who has never known severe loneliness. It is about empathy and moral imagination.
"Death At One Elbow" is an ass-backward attempt to encourage empathy and moral imagination which collapses in morbid self-pity and delusions of homicide; the phrase "Death at one's elbow" is from Joe Orton's diaries, so this may be a case of Morrissey setting his reading to music.
"That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore" puts Morrissey/the speaker in the role of the person who has never known severe loneliness. It is about empathy and moral imagination.
"Death At One Elbow" is an ass-backward attempt to encourage empathy and moral imagination which collapses in morbid self-pity and delusions of homicide; the phrase "Death at one's elbow" is from Joe Orton's diaries, so this may be a case of Morrissey setting his reading to music.
CrystalGeezer
My secret's my enzyme.
You know how at the end of pigsty Morrissey sings that he's falling in love again in his final hour? What if Morrissey courts ghosts and has been doing that for a very long time, since the time he wrote That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore. And he gets wrapped up in falling in love with the ghost "I've seen that happen, in other people's live (falling in love) and now it's happening in mine." THEN, typically, the ghost turns out to NOT be real or never materialize and heart broken he sings that the joke of love isn't funny anymore. Or the joke of promising to show up and never showing up isn't funny anymore?
That's how I hear it.
Worm
Taste the diffidence
I'm sure your interpretation is valid. (But you didn't mention the ghost in "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle"!)
I always assumed it was about people who mock the broken-hearted, the lonely, the downcast, etc, with jokes, only to find themselves, one day, in a very lonely place themselves. Morrissey/the speaker in the song is a person who has gone through that unfortunate reversal and is telling someone else not to joke so cruelly about others.
CrystalGeezer
My secret's my enzyme.
Not all ghosts are lovable. Ask Trouble who loves and needs him and seeks to find him, yet in the end fails to deliver what he needs. Compassion and trusting love. That ghost is the same ghost that irritates him in THTRTC.
That makes sense too.
Worm
Taste the diffidence
bhops
Last of the famous international screw ups.
That Joke Isn't Funny was allegedly a song Morrissey wrote about a music journalist whom he was seeing at the time. Hence the part about "when laugh about people who feel so very lonely their only desire is to die" is about belittling artists in the press and the next part is of course the fact that he now is in turn becoming/become famous "I've seen this happen on other's people's lives and now it's happening in mine" and will ultimately be under the same level of scrutiny/belittlement from the press.
And you know a ways back in 1985 he was darned right!
The other 2 I haven't got the foggiest.
S
Skylarker
Guest
Protecting a child from evil.
Longing for death.
General bitching.
peptastic
New Member
That's how I always viewed the song as well. That it's about empathy. He relates too well to someone being mocked that he used to look down on.
Mozzafan#1
New Member
call me Mr Obvious, but isn't 'that joke isn't funny anymore' just him telling previous tormentors that - whilst they may have thought he was in on the joke - they were actually hurting his f***ing feelings? occam's razor approach to interpretation which may not be valid in this scenario.
Worm
Taste the diffidence
Which doesn't rule out the interpretation that he's singing about one person in particular (a journalist, a colleague, or a friend). But I think the song works best as a universally valid lyric and I don't see anything in particular to tie the song to a specific person. It isn't like "You Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby", for example, which by most accounts is pretty obviously about Geoff Travis.
G
goinghome
Guest
A little dissection http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2012/apr/17/old-music-smiths-miserable-lie?newsfeed=true from The Guardian of Miserable Lie .
Worm
Taste the diffidence
The blogger got something wrong. Morrissey's praise in the 1984 Melody Maker interview wasn't for "Miserable Lie". It was for the album "The Smiths". Sort of makes a difference.
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