Demons and Lyrical Absurdity: the 10 most poetic songs by The Smiths
For many, discovering The Smiths was their first exposure to groundbreaking indie rock. Despite their short tenure, Johnny Marr and Morrissey managed to create a unique sound from the roots of the punk movement, endearing countless musicians and music lovers to an entirely new movement that blended melancholy lyricism with upbeat rock anthems.
While therein lies their entire appeal, the other driving factor that made The Smiths hit home so intensely was that there’s a song for every mood. Most of this is owed to Morrissey’s ability to craft immensely poetic lyrics that hinge on the multifaceted nature of life, drawing from complexities that coast the line between satire and realism.
While the band didn’t invent the concept of writing dark lyrics and setting them to upbeat music, The Smiths’ ambiguity is where they thrive. Their focus often shifts to their own vagueness, making it more central than any other defining feature. For instance, many lyrics could have emerged directly from Morrissey’s subconscious, blending a whirlwind of personal experience and political commentary.
At the same time, absurdity lies at the heart of his appeal. For instance, it might be easy to detect the societal significance of some of his lamentations, but there are also moments where he seeks to shock or surprise, delivering unconventional observations as though they were entirely normal or expected.
Perhaps this is because he manages to execute such an approach without giving too much away, but mostly, it feels like the inner workings of someone who saw the shortcomings in the music industry and made it his mission to make music great again. Whether tackling the demons in his own inner psyche or placing the darkest corners of society under the spotlight, here are ten of the band’s most poetic songs.
The most poetic songs by The Smiths:
10. ‘Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me’
One of the greatest songs The Smiths ever wrote, ‘Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me’ is perhaps as close to a masterpiece as they ever got. The track, which captures Morrissey’s own experiences with loneliness and romantic disillusionment, succeeds in creating an ambient sonic atmosphere from its opening moments, proving that the band were just as adept at scene setting as they were at crafting timeless poetic lyricism.
However, its lyrics are what make it even more enticing. Starting with what might appear relatively blunt and straightforward, the tune represents the deep yearning for connection through words that feel all-consuming, even in their starkness. Emotionally, it’s incredibly raw, compounded by an overwhelming stroke of accompanying arrangements to create a more anguish-filled visceral setting. It’s completely spellbinding.
9. ‘Cemetry Gates’
A somewhat overlooked gem in The Smiths’ discography, at least in terms of poeticism, ‘Cemetry Gates’ presents a more playful side to Morrissey where overt references to other literary greats become his main source of ammunition. As he reflects on mortality and the plague of pretentiousness, the singer laments the nature of plagiarism and artistic expression while doing many things he seeks to call out.
Interestingly, one of the main reasons why this song makes it on this list isn’t its lyrical poeticism but its visual evocation. For instance, even without focusing on the lyrics themselves, the song paints a vivid picture upon every listen, almost as though we imagine ourselves walking alongside the musician himself as he delivers such cynical observations. The entire experience feels delightfully irreverent instead of condescending—which is usually Morrissey’s game.
8. ‘Back to the Old House’
Throughout history, musicians have almost tried to personify the physical place, be it a house, hotel room, or another significant rendezvous location. For some reason, ‘Back to the Old House’ feels like the most bittersweet representation of a place that was once home, or as close to becoming a home as you could imagine before it was taken away in a moment’s breath, leaving nothing but the shadow of hollow promises.
Its beauty lies in its elegance, with the house used as a metaphor for the remnants of a past life as he longs to go back, no matter what might be waiting for him there. His words, although simple, hold significance in their unexpected directness, channelling the emotional weight and pain of losing something you never really knew you ever had to begin with.
7. ‘I Know It’s Over’
Another sentiment about a place that cannot be reclaimed, ‘I Know It’s Over’ continues Morrissey’s desperation and despair as he navigates unrequited love and how it makes him feel as though he has reached a place he can never come back from. Although, in this particular case, the lyrics seem considerably darker than most other songs, the intensity of the arrangements balances them out, proving that some of the band’s best moments are the ones that appear synchronised in lyrics and ambience.
There’s Morrissey’s unflinching honesty, reflected in lyrics like, “Love is natural and real, but not for such as you and I,” which feels particularly poignant with Morrissey’s bitter resignation, almost like he knows his fate and what he deserves but longs to express the depth of his yearning and the pain of his exclusion from a love he deems unattainable.
6. ‘Asleep’
Within The Smiths’ broader discography, ‘Asleep’ is perhaps the most heartbreaking song they ever wrote. For starters, its atmosphere feels exactly like its namesake being, though less in the mundane way and more like a soothing lullaby into the abyss. Secondly, this creates a sense of both despair and comfort, where wallowing becomes the primary source of enjoyment, even if it’s veiled in something darker.
While the melody itself feels somewhat plain and monotonous, Morrissey’s lyricism carries the narrative as he entertains the idea of “another world” and “a better world,” offering solace amid the pain. Songs like ‘Asleep’ earned The Smiths descriptions like “depressing,” which isn’t too distant from the truth, but the song also proved Morrissey to be a master at capturing the spirit of human fragility in the face of existential suffering.
5. ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’
Several songs by The Smiths could be described as overplayed or overhyped, but somehow, ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’ feels immune to such sentiments. Perhaps this is due to the explosiveness with which it starts, but mainly, it feels more a result of Morrissey’s signature self-deprecating humour, which faces up to the concept of speaking without thinking and the consequences of such an expected action.
But the song’s clever wit isn’t the only thing that holds it up; there’s also an unspoken awareness of life’s complexities, the understanding of which enhances the track to no end, signalling Morrissey at his best as he carries his underlying sense of vulnerability blended with poetic wordplay. This is particularly evident in the line: “I was only joking when I said / By rights you should be bludgeoned in your bed.”
4. ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’
Morrissey had a strange way of writing about romance. True to the hopelessness of The Smiths, the song talks about being enamoured with a lover cannot be reduced to something as simple as “I love you.” Instead, this expression is littered with hints of death, as Morrissey tells the person he’s travelling with that he loves them so much he wouldn’t mind dying in a car crash so long as it meant sitting next to them when doing it.
The song is sweet (in the macabre sense), but the stand-out section of the track is the death-flooded choruses, which have been sung by crowds on dance floors since the song’s release. “I didn’t realise that ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ was going to be an anthem,” admitted Johnny Marr. “But when we first played it, I thought that it was the best song I’d ever heard.”
3. ‘Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now’
Many a teen have had the potential of indie music shown to them through the power of ‘Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now’. Picture it: a happy little youth out on the town for the first time and experiencing new music as a result, when shortly after midnight, The Smiths classic starts playing, and their world changes forever.
Who knew that melancholy could be so sweet-sounding? The idea of life being futile, of working and finding love being our aim, only for us to realise the real meaning of life will never be something tangible, is hardly a topic you would confine to dirty dance floors and singalongs, yet here we are.
2. ‘Girlfriend in a Coma’
‘Girlfriend in a Coma’ was the first single released from The Smiths’ final album, Strangeways, Here We Come. While fans are divided on their favourite album, Morrissey and Marr have said their last record is their favourite. It’s easy to see why when you listen to tracks like the leading single, as the album saw the band at their most confrontational and experimental.
The song was inspired by Bob and Marcia’s reggae track ‘Young, Gifted And Black’. Marr said in an interview, “We bonded over a lot of records, but we both loved that song in the same way at the same time,” said Marr. “And that’s very likely to be the thing that inspired the music for ‘Girlfriend in a Coma’.”
1. ‘Franky, Mr Shankly’
As a working-class band, The Smiths were never afraid to write and express emotions that bubbled up from their roots, even after finding success. This was done comically with their track ‘Frankly, Mr Shankly’, which saw Morrissey write to his boss from the point of view of a disgruntled employee.
The track was supposedly addressed to the head of Rough Trade at the time, Geoff Travis, as the line that mentions “Bloody awful poetry” is a reference to a poem Travis wrote for the singer. “It’s a funny lyric, and the music’s galloping rhythm makes me smile, too,” the head of Rough Trade noted. “I love music hall and the whole breezy Max Miller feel was great.”
