‘I Know It’s Over’: The Smiths song Johnny Marr suggested wasn’t as depressing as it seemed
Mancunian post-punk favourites The Smiths pulled together a strange juxtaposition of moods in their music. While lyricist and singer Morrissey penned songs full of dissatisfaction, loneliness and self-loathing, Johnny Marr penned guitar lines as if he was working with a much more optimistic songwriting partner. His parts were jangly and jubilant, full of the kind of hope you would never find in Morrissey’s lyrical laments.
Few artists could have pulled off such a dramatic sonic juxtaposition in their music, but The Smiths did. They captivated audiences with their confusing collage of melancholic lyrics and gentle guitars, becoming one of the most important bands of their generation. Even now, budding bands and record-collectors still turn to Morrissey and Marr for inspiration.
Just as Marr’s jangly guitar lines were essential to the band’s success, so too were Morrissey’s ventures into unhappiness and frustration. His lyrics dove into dormant dreams and mournful longings, each phrase enhanced by his drawn-out vocal delivery. From ‘Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now’ to ‘Please, Please Please Let Me Get What I Want’, The Smiths’ catalogue is full of sonic sadness, but there is one song that has a particularly devastating effect.
In 1986, The Smiths released The Queen Is Dead, an album that earned them both commercial and critical acclaim. It spawned some of their most well-known songs, such as ‘There Is a Light That Never Goes Out’ and ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’, reasserting their mix of melancholia and jangle pop. The record also included one of their saddest offerings: ‘I Know It’s Over’.
The track featured a sparse beat and Marr’s gorgeously gentle guitars, each serving to cushion Morrissey’s dark lyrical laments. “Oh mother,” he sings, “I can feel the soil falling over my head, and as I climb into an empty bed, oh well, enough said.” Each and every line serves this melancholic atmosphere, as Morrissey takes on the voice of another to ask why he’s so alone.
There is no escaping the melancholy in the song, and Morrissey’s songwriting partner knew this. Speaking about ‘I Know It’s Over’ during a conversation with NME, the Smiths guitarist remembered recording the song at “about teatime, but England being England it was dark and wet outside.” This dreariness found its way into the song, but Marr also felt that ‘I Know It’s Over’ contained a sense of acceptance too.
“It was very beautiful and it reflected how I felt for a large part of my life,” he remembered, “and particularly during that period. But I didn’t see a dependency in that, there’s an acceptance of melancholia being a part of life, that’s why I don’t think it’s depressing.” Upon first listen, ‘I Know It’s Over’ can certainly seem inescapably depressing, but perhaps there’s another layer to the song.
Morrissey’s descriptions of falling soil and depleting self-worth certainly root the song in depression, but perhaps there is also a sense of acceptance that sadness is a natural part of life, a part of life that only serves to enhance those happier moments. There is also, perhaps, joy and hope to be found when Morrissey ruminates on a series of virtues in the bridge, declaring, “It takes strength to be gentle and kind.”
Although the speaker in the song may not yet have achieved that strength, he knows of their existence and of the strength they require. ‘I Know It’s Over’ is still one of the most devastating songs in The Smiths’ catalogue, but perhaps, with Marr’s interpretation, there is hope to be found amongst it.
