at ease. leisure for other people's pleasure
where we were: audrey's place, baltimore. the city that reads.
what we heard: belle and sebastian
fact: bjork


   
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As most people know, Morrissey wasn't exactly above taking on loan a few lyrics himself. This a list of some of Morrissey's sources; originals sources are not necessarily accurate quotes. Some of these are definitely "borrowed"; others are pure conjecture, and still others are mere references.
Most of the more suspect ones are listed as the original author is or was a Morrissey favourite. Where there are multiple sources, I am most interested in the source which Morrissey most likely used himself.
The Smiths
Accept Yourself
"I am angry, I am ill, and I'm ugly as sin"
Magazine (included because of Howard Devoto link)
A Rush And A Push And The Land Is Ours
"A Rush, a charge from North, South, East and West [and] the land is ours"
Speranza, in an Irish nationalist magazine around the turn of the century
"A rush and a charge and the land is ours"
Traditional Irish battle cry
"...the ghost of Troubled Joe"
Probably a reference to the film Carry On Jack
Asleep
"Sing me to sleep."
"A Taste Of Honey", by Shelagh Delaney. This could be dismissed as a common phrase, but considering the wholesale plundering of both this book and the film version, it's fairly reasonable.
Bigmouth Strikes Again
There is a Kenny Everett (late British 80s comedian) sketch where he is burned at the stake whilst wearing a Walkman.
Cemetry Gates
"All those people, all those lives, where are they now ? Here was a woman who once lived and loved, full of the same passions, fears, jealousies, hates. And what remains of it now ... I want to cry."
"The Man Who Came To Dinner", film
"The early village-cock hath twice done salutation to the morn"
Richard III, Shakespeare
Death At One's Elbow
Phrase from the Joe Orton Diaries
Death Of A Disco Dancer
"I'd rather not talk to my neighbour, I'd rather not get involved"
"Poor Cow", by Nell Dun
Frankly Mr. Shankly
Name possibly from onetime Liverpool FC manager Bill Shankly
Half A Person
"I hitchiked all the way down to Memphis, got a room at the YMCA..."
"Guitar Man", by Elvis Presley
"Caliban is only half a person at the best of times."
From "The Collector", by John Fowles
Hand In Glove
"...and everything depends on how near you sleep to me."
Take This Longing, by Leonard Cohen
"I'll probably never see you again. I know it."
"A Taste Of Honey", by Shelagh Delaney
Handsome Devil
A Boy In The Bush is a novel by D. H. Lawrence
"There's more to life than what you read in books."
"Slaughterhouse Five", by Kurt Vonnegut
The Hand That Rocks The Cradle
"The Hand that Rocks The Cradle" , title of "Crib"-detective series,1981
"Climb upon my knee, sonny boy..."
"Sonny Boy", Al Jolson
"Over the stones, rattle his bones, he's only a beggar who nobody owns."
Gray's Elegy (original source)
"So rattle her bones all over the stones, she's only a beggar-man whom nobody owns."
The Lion In Love, by Shelagh Delaney (this is the most likely direct source)
The Headmaster Ritual
"...who grabs and devours ..."
By Grand Central Station I Sat Down And Wept, by Elizabeth Smart
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
"Heaven Knows I'm Missing Him Now" , song by Sandie Shaw
How Soon Is Now ?
"To be born the son of a Middlemarch manufacturer, and inevitable heir to nothing in particular,.."
"Middlemarch", by George Eliot
I Don't Owe You Anything
"I don't owe you a thing."
"A Taste Of Honey", by Shelagh Delaney
I Want The One I Can't Have
"Health, Health, the blessing of the Rich, the Riches of the Poor"
From Edith Sitwell's "The English Eccentrics"
"A tough kid who sometimes sleeps on nails."
Director Howard Sachler's description of James Dean.
"We all want the things we can't have."
Samantha Eggar in The Collector.
Is It Really So Strange ?
"I could never never go back home again."
24 Hours From Tulsa by Gene Pitney
Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
"Last Night Was Meant For Love" is a single by Billy Fury (who features on the single sleeve)
London
"..because you notice the jealousy of those that stay at home..."
By Grand Central Station I Sat Down And Wept, by E



"Paint a vulgar picture"
Oscar Wilde
Pretty Girls Make Graves
"Nature played this trick on me"
The barber in the film "Victim"
"Pretty girls make graves"
Dharma Bums - Jack Kerouac
The Queen Is Dead
"The Queen Is Dead"
Last Exit To Brooklyn, Hubert Selby Jnr
"Shall we go for a walk where it's quiet ... ?"
From the film of Billy Liar
"Take Me Back To Dear Old Blighty..." is from the film Th
e L Shaped Room.
Reel Around The Fountain
"Take and mount me like a butterfly"
Exit Smiling - Morrissey (after From Reverence To Rape by M.Haskell)
"...like butterflies on pins."
"...reel around the cafe."
By Grand Central Station I Sat Down And Wept, by Elizabeth Smart
"You're the bee's knees, but so am I"
"I dreamt about you last night, and I fell out of bed twice."
both from the film adaptation of A Taste Of Honey by Shelagh Delaney
Rubber Ring
"Everybody's Clever Nowadays"
The Importance Of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde
Rusholme Ruffians
"Fourteen Again"
The whole song is loosely based around this song by Victoria Wood
Shakespeare's Sister
"Shakespeare's Sister"
An essay by Virginia Woolf, also a character in Tennessee William's "Glass
Menagerie"
"...our bones groaned like old trees..."
"rocks below could promise certain death."
From Elizabeth Smart's "By Grand Central Station I Sat Down And Wept".
Sheila Take A Bow
"If the homework brings you down, then we'll throw it on the fire."
Kooks, David Bowie
Shoplifters Of The World Unite
"My only weakness is ... well, never mind, never mind"
James Dean in "Kraft Mystery Hour : Danger !"
"It's a long time, six months."
"A Taste Of Honey", by Shelagh Delaney
Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others
"Send me the pillow, the one that you dream on"
"Send me the pillow you dream on" - Johnny Tillotson
The lines about Anthony and Cleopatra are about the film "Carry On Cleo"
Still Ill
"Society owes me a living"