The Smiths - The Boy With The Thorn In His Side

Morrissey releases a new single today (buy it here) and to celebrate here's a classic Smiths track.

The Smiths - The Boy With The Thorn In His Side

This new single is called All You Need Is Me and was first released as a new track on last year's Greatest Hits. Here's the video; below are the brilliant lyrics, which are clearly directed toward music critics:

You hiss and groan and you constantly moan
But you don't ever go away
That's because
All you need is me

You roll your eyes up to the skies
Mock horrified
But you're still here
All you need is me

There's so much destruction
All over the world
And all you can do is
Complain about me

You bang your head against the wall
And say you're sick of it all
Yet you remain
'Cause all you need is me

And then you offer your one and only joke
And you ask me what will I be
When I grow up to be a man
Uhm, nothing!

There's a soft voice singing in your head
Who could this be?
I do believe it's me

There's a naked man standing, laughing in your dreams
You know who it is
But you don't like what it means

There's so much destruction
All over the world
And all you can do is
Complain about me

I was a small, fat child in a council house
There was only one thing I ever dreamed about
And Fate has just
Handed it to me - whoopee

You don't like me, but you love me
Either way you're wrong
You're gonna miss me when I'm gone
You're gonna miss me when I'm gone

I love Morrissey. He is absolutely brilliant at writing pointed lyrics with double meanings and ambiguous allusions. He's one of those artists who totally repays the amount of listening time you invest. I particularly like the line "There's a naked man standing, laughing in your dreams / You know who it is / But you don't like what it means". Clever clever man. And he's very funny in the video too. Obviously he's not perfect, as I've discussed before, but who is?

----------------
Now playing: The Smiths - How Soon Is Now?