There Is a Light that Never Goes Out

And if a ten-ton truck kills the both of us
- to die by your side, well, the pleasure - the privilege is mine

Song by The Smiths from the album The Queen Is Dead. Also appearing on The World Won't Listen, Best...2 and Singles.

A brilliant and beautiful song slightly marred from Morrissey's trademark insistence on only performing one or two vocal takes. The link between love and death springs up again in macabre chorus, as the verses reveal the author's nihilistic wish to never go home.

Often discussed is the passage about the "darkened underpass". Here there is a perfect opportunity to ask some question, but the chance just slips by. The most fitting interpretation is that he is asking whoever to go out with him - this would tie in with the "my chance has come at last" line, with its undertones of beginnings of a relationship never before experienced, as well as the "strange fear" - what is more strange than a fear of rejection ?

I have always been interested in the parallels between this song, and the later Driving Your Girlfriend Home. Both songs feature (implicitly) two people driving around. In "Driving..." the point at which the driver ends up dropping the girlfriend off at her home, there is an understated enigmaticity in the lyrics. Is this because it's not her home, as she doesn't have one ? (metaphorically of course). So the girlfriend is the subject of this song, and "Driving..." is from the other party's point of view. Specifically, each of these songs is the rumination of a different person in the subtly-implied love triangle. In the whole of "Driving...", the person whom the song is directed towards is very much abstract : all we ever learn of him is from the girlfriend's distressed questions.

The strange fear of asking could be something to do with this boyfriend. It's a fear of rejection again, but this time much more complicated. In many ways, "Driving Your Girlfriend Home" could be seen as an answer to the questions posed by this song. The search is on for the boyfriend's song ... Of course, it's all probably unintentional, after all, me being a conspiracy theorist, but if it isn't it is the first recorded answer that Morrissey has ever given.

Chris Huttman points out that it's possible the "darkened underpass" section may have a more sinister meaning, and refer to the author's suicidal thoughts at the steering wheel of a car.

Analysis by John Levon, moz@compsoc.man.ac.uk, republished with kind permission.

This is how you play and sing it:

Capo the fourth fret.
Intro:  Am F G

Am G       Am G   F    C G
   Take me out tonight
              Am                G
where there's music and there's people
        Am        G F  C G
who are young and alive
Am      G       Am  G
Driving in your car
  F                      C
I never never want to go home
G                 Am      G Am G
because I haven't got one
   F    C G
anymore

Am G       Am G   F    C G
   Take me out tonight
          Am          G
because I want to see people and I
Am          G      F C G
want to see lights
Am      G       Am  G
Driving in your car
   F                    C
oh please don't drop me home
G                Am            G
because it's not my home, it's their
              Am         G     F C G
home, and I'm welcome no more

Chorus:
  Em F
  G        C             Am
  And if a double-decker bus
  F               G
  crashes into us
            C
  to die by your side
         F               G
  such a heavenly way to die
           C         Am
  And if a ten ton truck
  F                    G
  kills the both of us
            C
  to die by your side
      F                         G
  the pleasure the privilege is mine


Am G       Am G   F    C G
   Take me out tonight
           Am                G    Am G F C G
oh take me anywhere, I don't care
           Am       G    Am
And in the darkened underpass
  G          F                               C G
I thought Oh God, my chance has come at last
            Am           G
(but then a strange fear gripped me and I
Am            G    F C G
just couldn't ask)

Am G       Am G   F    C G
   Take me out tonight
        Am                G    Am G F C G
take me anywhere, I don't care
     Am      G       Am  G
Just driving in your car
  F                      C
I never never want to go home
G                 Am      G Am G
because I haven't got one
          F       C G
I haven't got one

Chorus
Am         G            Am         G
There is a light and it never goes out
F                       C          G
There is a light and it never goes out