Song
There Is a Light That Never Goes Out
The Smiths
Album:
The Queen Is Dead
Song Meaning of There Is a Light That Never Goes Out by The Smiths
"There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" is a song by the English rock band the Smiths, written by guitarist Johnny Marr and singer Morrissey.
Featured on the band's third studio album The Queen Is Dead, it was not released as a single in the United Kingdom until 1992, five years after their split, to promote the compilation album.
Marr later described the recording process of the song as "magical" and commented, "Someone told me that if you listen with the volume really, really up you can hear me shout 'That was amazing' right at the end."
It was written in tandem with "Bigmouth Strikes Again". The two songs share the same key as well as similar chords.
The song features a sequence that guitarist Johnny Marr took from the Rolling Stones cover of Marvin Gaye's "Hitch Hike". Marr said he included it as an "in-joke" to determine if the music press would attribute the inspiration for the part to "There She Goes Again" by the Velvet Underground, who he contended "stole" the figure from "Hitch Hike". Marr commented, "I knew I was smarter than that. I was listening to what the Velvet Underground were listening to".
Morrissey was not sure the song should be released. He wrote in his memoir, “It is often a relief to be wrong.”
There Is a Light That Never Goes Out lyrics by The Smiths
Take me out tonight
Where there's music and there's people
And they're young and alive
Driving in your car
I never, never want to go home
Because I haven't got one anymore
Take me out tonight
Because I want to see people
And I want to see life
Driving in your car, oh, please don't drop me home
Because it's not my home, it's their home
And I'm welcome no more
And if a double-decker bus crashes into us
To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die
And if a ten-tonne truck kills the both of us
To die by your side, well, the pleasure, the privilege is mine
Take me out tonight
Take me anywhere, I don't care, I don't care, I don't care
And in the darkened underpass
I thought "Oh God, my chance has come at last"
But then a strange fear gripped me and I just couldn't ask
Take me out tonight
Oh, take me anywhere, I don't care, I don't care, I don't care
Driving in your car
I never, never want to go home
Because I haven't got one, la-di-dum, oh, I haven't got one
Oh, oh
And if a double-decker bus crashes into us
To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die
And if a ten-tonne truck kills the both of us
To die by your side, well, the pleasure, the privilege is mine
Oh, there is a light and it never goes out
There is a light and it never goes out
There is a light and it never goes out
There is a light and it never goes out
There is a light and it never goes out
There is a light and it never goes out
There is a light and it never goes out
There is a light and it never goes out
Release Date
1992
Songwriter/s
Johnny Marr, Morrissey
Producer/s
Johnny Marr, Morrissey
Label/s
WEA