Lyrics for Hand In Glove as interpreted by YtseJam

Hand In Glove Lyrics
Hand in glove
the sun shines out of our behinds

No it's NOT like any other love
this one's different
because it's us!

Hand in glove
we can go wherever we please
and everything depends upon
how near you stand to me

And if the people stare
then, the people stare
oh I really don't know
and I really don't care

Hand in glove
the Good People laugh

Yes, we may be hidden by "rags"
but we have something they'll never have
Hand in glove
the sun shines out of our behinds

Yes, we may be hidden by "rags"
but we have something they'll never have
And if the people stare
then, the people stare
oh I really don't know
and I really don't care

So hand in glove I stake my claim
I'll fight to the last breath
If they dare touch a hair on your head
I'll fight to the last breath

The good life is out there somewhere
so stay on my arm, you little charmer

But I know my luck too well
yes, I know my luck too well
and I'll probably never see you again
I'll probably never see you again
I'll probably never see you again

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hereticeye
06-17-2002

Rated 0 
big gay anthem... morrisseys lyrics are pretty cryptic but this ones obvious in my opinion...

consider...

'its NOT like any other love...' notice the precise capitalization...

'and if the people stare, then the people stare...'
'the Good People laugh...'

a friend of mine told me that 'sun shines out from our behinds' is a slang term for someone who thinks the world of themselves, if that doesnt describe a fag i dont know what does... plus theres that vulgar undercurrent... allusion to sodomy...

and finally the end... 'i know my luck too well, ill probably never see you again...'

describes every trick ive ever had...

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Chloe le Fay
06-19-2002

Rated 0 
I personally gree with the above interprettion, but 'd like to add that the reason wh the whole romance doesn'twork out is becaus one of the guys involved cares too much about what other folks will think of them.

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weezerific:cutlery
03-14-2003

Rated 0 
this is an awesome song. morrissey rocks my socks.

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SouthHibbing
04-21-2003

Rated 0 
Chloe Le Fay is right.
Its all gay obviously and it is about confusion and always worrying what over people think bout things you do when maybe you should just do it?

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socialdisease89
09-28-2004

Rated 0 
i hadnt noticed but it seems likely now. maybe its about one pompous homosexual who is trying to convince a closet homosexual to stay with him but it doesnt work out and he knows he'll never see him again... not sure

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tgd
12-16-2004

Rated 0 
"No it's NOT like any other love
this one's different
because it's us!"
Not sure if this has got anything to do with homosexuality... it's more about two people who believe that the love between them is better than the love between any other couple. As for not caring whether people stare and being hidden by rags surely, this is about dressing different to everyone else and not fitting in. In my mind this is very much about two adolescents who want to be different, want to believe that no-one else has ever felt liked them, dressed liked them or loved like them... in other words teenage rebellion. Obviously it can be, and often is, interpreted as a song about homosexuality.

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tallulat
12-27-2004

Rated 0 
Its someone trying to convince someone else that the relationship they have is nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to desert. it isn't necessarily homosexual I would say it is a great love song regardless of sexuality.it just refers to outsiders whose relationship is frowned upon (which occurs for many reasons). however in the end they lack the faith in the other to trust it will last

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sterile_adhesive
12-30-2004

Rated 0 
I love this song.

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tallulat
01-15-2005

Rated 0 
Another thing I've noticed is perhaps this is about the Marr/Morrissey relationship, I mean the relationship referred to isn't necessarily a sexual one, just a fiercely protective and appreciative one, two characteristics that their relationship had I think

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temporary_sedative
02-08-2005

Rated 0 
Ok i love the smiths and Morrissey, but i don't think this is about homosexuality, personally i don't think any of his songs, even the so called obvious ones. I agree that they about sexuality, but we are all sexual creatures, we jut have different ways of getting out fix. This is pretty much what morrissey said in an interview i read. So personally i don't think any songs are specifically about being gay, just love and sexuality

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CÆT
02-10-2005

Rated 0 
I don't even know if this is about two individuals. >.

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ruffians
04-05-2005

Rated 0 
hereticeye, you remind me of brian kinney from queer as folk.
and yeah, i definitely agree with you.

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richeye
04-08-2005

Rated 0 
I don't think it's about sexuality either. I thought it was a pretty straightforward song about the absurdity of love - you think you're the first two people to fall in love, but it occurs all the time. Love is a bit pretentious, that's what I think he's saying.
But then we are talking about Morrissey, so I'm probably totally wrong

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HungryLikeTheWolf
05-21-2005

Rated 0 
LOL! hereticeye, you think Morriseey's insulting gay people? Morrissey is gay! queer, homo, pansy. Morrissey is a big old gay man and that's why he's so unhappy. A lot of his songs are about his sexual orientaion and his confusion and his struggle to be open with it. He doesn't parade it around but if if you were the ask him if he was gay he wouldn't say no. Listen to 'I have forgiven Jesus' and 'What difference does it make' two of the smiths "gay" songs.

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JimmyD
06-10-2005

Rated 0 
This debute single was the wedding music for The Smiths...the wedding being betweem Morrissey and Marr...the lyrics are a declaration of Morrisey's love for Marr..as well as being the manifesto for the Smiths..this is actually the same thing. Therefore it is a declaration of War on the World. The hidden agenda of all great love affairs. ..w'ell have something you will never have" is a pop at the current climate in the 80's..what The Smiths have (Morrissey and MArr) is integrity, honesty, intelligence, genius, scary stage movements...i.e Morrissey himself...these are the words of a man taking on the world and loving it...I dont think MArr was full aware of the lyrics otherwise the SMiths would have split sooner.

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maggotbrain
06-28-2005

Rated 0 
lol you dudes are funny. i really do love the smiths and morrissey but saying morrissey is a pansy... awh :(

i'd go with just saying gay.

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Boss Man
07-15-2005

Rated 0 
this is a song about love for a friend...about how one person can transform your life just by their presence (how near they stand to you.) in fact they make you feel so alive that you know it's impossible for the feeling to sustain this intensity

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freeefalln
07-23-2005

Rated 0 
i've always thought it was...

"no its not like any other glove
this one's different
because its yours"

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davidbeauy
09-11-2005

Rated 0 
Regardless of your orientation, Hand In Glove speaks to the young lover as a passionate, dizzying, desperate, forlorn, pessimistic imbueing of all that is love. Morrissey and The Smiths immediately burst into our world as a unique, honest vehicle for those of us longing to be driven away by dreams, intoxicating possibilities, and the unrelenting reality that is our cloudy world. Hand In Glove, a love song for all but as a homo I adore Morrissey's willingness to garnish his songs with the perspective of a lover of men. I also adore his solemn decree that loneliness will prevail as most times it seems as though it will.

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juki
10-10-2005

Rated 0 
All You guys are Wrong this songs is about his tour of duty in Vietnam and all the hookers he picked up there... no wait that's another artist and another song.
The meaning could be so many things I think, that is Morrisey's genius. His ability to put himself in many situatuions that describe the human expirience, 70% chance it is about Gay love, I mean there are a few clues that are hard to deny as full proof that it is other than that, most of them have been mentioned already. Now Morrisey will never make such a obvious song and I belive it is inteneded to be like that, it could very well be about interacial love or different social class love. And when it comes down to it, I'm pretty sure that that feeling of alienation because of who you choose is the theme of the song and the fact that many people can relate to that, well then may be we can be more sympathetic to lovers whom ever society deems inapropiate.

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marquicerise
12-28-2005

Rated 0 
"...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

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nightandday
12-31-2005

Rated 0 
HungryLikeTheWolf: "Morrissey is a big old gay man and that's why he's so unhappy. A lot of his songs are about his sexual orientaion and his confusion and his struggle to be open with it. He doesn't parade it around but if if you were the ask him if he was gay he wouldn't say no. Listen to 'I have forgiven Jesus' and 'What difference does it make' two of the smiths "gay" songs. "

ROTFL HungryiketheWolf, you are so hilarious LOL LOL LOL

I Have Forgiven Jesus is a 'gay' song? LOL Just how did you get to that conclusion? What Difference Does It Make is 'obviusly gay? HUH?

"He doesn't parade it around but if if you were the ask him if he was gay he wouldn't say no. "
Well, actually he would - and he did.

"I'm gay? Well, that's news to me." (Morrissey in Rolling Stone, 1990)

Your reasoning is really dumb. He's unhappy because he's gay?! Why would that make him unhappy?! He's never had any prejudices against homosexuality, and he had no problems mentioning he's felt attraction for men AS WELL as women, and that he's had sexual encounters with both women and men. He's never been afraid to be really controversial and speak his mind, but you think he's less brave than Elton-f***ing John?! People like you who think they understand Morrissey when they have no bloody idea would be trully annoying with their condescening attitude, if they weren't that absurd. If Morrissey was gay and that was all to it, his life would be much simpler. He would have found a guy, and not just that, he would then fit into your silly little categories, and that would make him into more of a regular and 'normal' person by your standards. hell, it would even give him less problems with the media - he would be a 'gay artist', which is such a popular thing to be in the days of political correctness! But I think he knows much better than any of you what he is, or at least what he isn't, and he knows that he does not fit into your categories, even though there are so many people like you who feel they just need to pigeonhole such a complex and unique person! He's far more complicated than that and he has far deeper problems, which you would be aware of if you REALLY paid attention to his songs!

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nightandday
12-31-2005

Rated 0 
"The favourite lyric I have written appears in a song called 'Hand In Glove'. The lines which are most precious to me are: 'The good people laugh/Yes we may be hidden by rags/But we have something they'll never have'. Which is how I felt when I couldn't afford to buy clothes and used to dress in rags but I didn't really feel mentally impoverished.
"The inspiration? Just the very idea of people putting enormous importance on what they had and how they dressed and this very materialistic sense of value which is completely redundant. It goes back to the old cliche of what one has inside is really what one is. And that was it really.
"I remember vividly the night I wrote 'Hand In Glove'. It was just over a year ago. I just wanted to use the theme of complete loneliness. It was to be our first record and it was important to me that there'd be something searingly poetic in it, in a lyrical sense, and yet jubilant at the same time. Being searingly poetic and jubilant was, I always thought, quite difficult because they're two extreme emotions and I wanted to blend them together.
"I was in my room, alone, with a cassette with a guitar tune on it and I was surrounded by lots of words, and I just sat there for two hours and threw the whole thing together."
- Morrissey, Star Hits, 1985

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nightandday
12-31-2005

Rated 0 
for Hand In Glove:

All I can see from the lyrics is that it is about a great love, and that the narrator feels that together the two of them can defy society and their own lack of means - "Yes, we may be hidden by rags, but we have something they'll never have!" (and Morrissey has commented on that aspect of the song - ). Who those two people are, is completely open to interpretation. As if the reason why people "stare" at them. Of course, it may be a homosexual couple. Or an interracial couple. Or a couple with a big age difference. Or the "good people" may be staring at them simply because they are "hidden by rags" (which is the first thing I would think on hearing the song) - a poor, possibly homeless couple (maybe even a bohemian, punk rock couple?)

"No, it's not like any other love/This one is different because it's us" - isn't that what any two people in love feel like?!
But some people think that this refers to a homosexual love? Which, I guess, is like no other love?! What about the love of any other two homosexuals? It's not like there's just one gay couple in the world, is it? LOL

BTW, do you also consider No Ordinary Love by Sade and Strangelove by Depeche Mode to be 'gay anthems'? LOL

So we're left with the line 'sun shines out of our behinds'... well, of course you can see that as reference to homosexuality... especially since it's a well known fact that women have no behinds... no, wait, they do? ;) Well, you can always see sexual meanings if you want to. There's a possible double entendre in every lyric, if you want to look for it. And I don't mean just Morrissey's lyrics, you know.

Some other opinions:
Johnny Rogan says the song spoke to "star-crossed lovers, budding teenage romatics and to-be-declared homosexuals alike".

Andy Rourke thinks it was about the feeling of togetherness within the band.

Mark Simpson in his 'Saint Morrissey' book has the idea that there is a similarity between Hand In Glove and a relationship from Morrissey's favourite book, Taste of Honey. he quotes a dialogue between the main character, Jo, and her best friend Geoff, where they express defiance at the society. (I know I've also read somewhere tha the last line "I'll probably never see you again" is from Taste of Honey. and furthermore, Simpson has the idea that Moz identified with the main character, the girl Jo.. But as far as I have read, Jo is a teenager who has an opressive mother, is bored to death at school, and finds herself pregnant after a one-night stand with a black man (Jimmy); and then she finds rescue in a relationship with a gay fellow student, Geoff (who shows her the joy of life, "taste of honey"). failure/disappointment in romantic love, then rescue in a platonic love/friendship - yes, I guess I see the connection.Well, Simpson's idea is that Johnny and the band were for Morrissey what Geoff was for Jo, and he says that the band is his 'Hand In Glove'. (But he also makes a connection with Rebel Without A Cause, with Moz as the James Dean character, the outsider, and Johnny as the Nathalie Wood character who helps him blend in. That part of the book was quite funny, BTW.:))

Well, obviously that's one of the ways to see Hand In Glove. But you might just take the song as a universal statement - it can even be from fantasy / the book and also from some personal experiences, whether romantic love (real or imaginary) or friendship, togetherness, and the band, as you said. It might mean all those things. Do we have to pick just one meaning?

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CEREAL
02-17-2006

Rated 0 
Morrissey is a very witty guy. I think he likes a bit of mystery surrounding him. For a start he's a recluse. Plus he likes to toy with what people think, especially about his sexuality. Almost all of his lyrics have a hidden meaning, thats what makes the Smith's music so appealing. You can interpret it how you like or take it at face value. He said himself "I refuse to recognize the terms hetero-, bi-, and homo-sexual. Everybody has exactly the same sexual needs. People are just sexual, the prefix is immaterial." The fact he didn't give a direct answer demonstrates he likes playing with this uncertainty. It makes him interesting and adds a spin to his music. Is he, isn't he? type thing. Obviously if you write music like he does as well with these hidden meanings, if you write a song about a relationship people will interpret it diferently. Christ, on here people have said its gay, interracial, inter class, about his relationship with Marr, confusion, about himself and noone else! Besides, if he was gay but hadnt come out the closet, he wouldnt release a song that could be interpreted as saying he was homosexual.

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