There Is A Light That Never Goes Out. The Smiths

  

 There are some songs that however many times you hear them they just sound as good as the first time. Driving to work this morning my Ipod picked out “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out” by The Smiths, I listened to it 3 times in a row and thought I would write my own eulogy to this timeless classic.

Part of Morrisseys genius was to write lyrics about real life but in a completely unique way. Basically this song is a love song of unrequited love and the singers inability to deal with possible rejection. The song begins with Morrissey asking his paramour to take him out anywhere, “I don’t care I don’t care”. Which of us haven’t experienced those feelings when just being in the presence of an object of desire is enough. That feeling in the pit of your stomach that you just can’t act on?

The chance comes “In a darkened underpass” and is missed thanks to a “strange fear”. Of rejection, of the unknown or just plain  shyness, you are left to decide, ambiguity is a Morrissey trademark.

The song reaches it’s peak with perhaps the greatest lines from any love song, certainly they’re my favourites. “And if a double decker bus crashes into us, to die by yourside is such a heavenly way to die. And if a ten ton truck kills the both of us, to die by your side well the pleasure; the privilege is mine”. Morrissey is saying that his emotions and inability to deal with them leave him with death along side his loved one as the perfect escape. Has any love song ever put so succinctly?

The song finishes with the title repeated almost as a form of self harm, the repetition a constant reminder that this unrequited, unfulfilled desire will never leave his tortured soul.

Enjoy the lyrics, enjoy the video and take your chance when it comes along.

Take me out tonight
Where there’s music and there’s people
And they’re young and alive
Driving in your car
I never never want to go home
Because I haven’t got one
Anymore

Take me out tonight
Because I want to see people and I
Want to see life
Driving in your car
Oh, please don’t drop me home
Because it’s not my home, it’s their
Home, and I’m welcome no more

And if a double-decker bus
Crashes into us
To die by your side
Is such a heavenly way to die
And if a ten-ton truck
Kills the both of us
To die by your side
Well, the pleasure – the privilege is mine

Take me out tonight
Take me anywhere, I don’t care
I don’t care, I don’t care
And in the darkened underpass
I thought Oh God, my chance has come at last
(But then a strange fear gripped me and I
Just couldn’t ask)

Take me out tonight
Oh, take me anywhere, I don’t care
I don’t care, I don’t care
Driving in your car
I never never want to go home
Because I haven’t got one, da …
Oh, I haven’t got one

And if a double-decker bus
Crashes into us
To die by your side
Is such a heavenly way to die
And if a ten-ton truck
Kills the both of us
To die by your side
Well, the pleasure – the privilege is mine

Oh, There Is A Light And It Never Goes Out
There Is A Light And It Never Goes Out
There Is A Light And It Never Goes Out
There Is A Light And It Never Goes Out
There Is A Light And It Never Goes Out
There Is A Light And It Never Goes Out
There Is A Light And It Never Goes Out
There Is A Light And It Never Goes Out
There Is A Light And It Never Goes Out

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