The Smiths
The Smiths
The Smiths
The Smiths
The Smiths
The Smiths
The Smiths
The Smiths
The Smiths
The Smiths
Right after one of the bleakest songs in Smiths' history, we get this jangly, up-beat contradiction of a song that takes a frolicing tone through the cemetery.
This song recounts a few of Morrissey’s memories of visiting the enormous Southern Cemetery in Manchester with one of his best friends: Lin...
[Chorus]
A dreaded sunny day
So I meet you at the cemetry gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side
A dreaded sunny day
So I meet you at the cemetry gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side
While Wilde is on mine
[Verse 1]
So we go inside and we gravely read the stones
All those people, all those lives, where are they now?
With-a loves and hates and passions just like mine
They were born, and then they lived, and then they died
Seems so unfair, I want to cry
You say: "'Ere thrice the sun done salutation to the dawn"
And you claim these words as your own
But I've read well and I've heard them said
A hundred times, maybe less, maybe more
[Verse 2]
If you must write prose and poems the words you use should be your own
Don't plagiarise or take "on loan"
'Cause there's always someone, somewhere with a big nose, who knows
And who trips you up and laughs when you fall
Who'll trip you up and laugh when you fall
You say: "'Ere long done do does did"
Words which could only be your own
And then produce the text from whence was ripped
Some dizzy whore, 1804
[Chorus]
A dreaded sunny day, so let's go where we're happy
And I meet you at the cemetry gates
Oh, Keats and Yeats are on your side
A dreaded sunny day, so let's go where we're wanted
And I meet you at the cemetry gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side, but you lose
'Cause whale blubber Wilde is on mine
Sugar!
Cemetry Gates was written by Morrissey & Johnny Marr.
Cemetry Gates was produced by Morrissey & Johnny Marr.
The Smiths released Cemetry Gates on Mon Jun 16 1986.
The title was unintentionally spelt incorrectly by frontman Morrissey—who admitted he had always had trouble spelling the word.
Marr reflected on the song in Guitar Magazine back in ‘97:
When we signed with Rough Trade we were being hailed as The Great New Songwriters, and I was on the train coming back thinking, ‘Right, if you’re so great – first thing in the morning, sit down and write A Great Song