Lyrics for Barbarism Begins At Home as interpreted by YtseJam

Barbarism Begins At Home Lyrics
Unruly boys
who will not grow up
must be taken in hand
Unruly girls
who will not settle down
they must be taken in hand

A crack on the head
is what you get for not asking
and a crack on the head
is what you get for asking

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  • 21 Comments
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z0MbiE
09-23-2004

Rated 0 
kinda like the movie:
"an angel at my table"
(about gene frame)

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Kaguth
09-27-2004

Rated 0 
This has got to be the most funky smiths tune.

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tallulat
01-15-2005

Rated 0 
very funky indeed I love the fact that even Johnny Marr danced to this one onstage!!

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Kaguth
02-10-2005

Rated 0 
Yeah. Marr was in a funk band before the smiths formed and this is the only smiths tune that he allowed himself to bring the FUNK in. I'm dissapointed that these lyrics don't include the "A crack on the head is just what you get for any part of who you are" . That's the best part.

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Random Boy
03-31-2005

Rated 0 
AHA! Found it at last, had this on video as "a crack on the head" and couldn't find it anywhere.
I think it just goes to show you what a great bass player Andy Rourke was. The live version sounds better than the record

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clarapalmer
05-27-2005

Rated 0 
the brutality and violence of older people depends on their experiences as a child - thats the meaning i get from the title..

"A crack on the head is what you get for not asking"
- i think this is about the fact that some people wont have the courage the learn or ask questions.. which in the end is worse off for them, because they dont have a very good knowledge. but.. curiousity killed the cat..

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Boss Man
07-17-2005

Rated 0 
A crack on the head
is what you get for not asking
and a crack on the head
is what you get for asking

i think morrissey is implying that the person dealing out the crack on the head is not hitting to punish the child but rather just because they like hitting.

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Kaguth
01-19-2006

Rated 0 
I think this song is actually about unruly boys and girls doing the drug crack on someone's head........;)

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deadpilot
08-22-2006

Rated 0 
its about child abuse, and how if you ask about something your dad will hit you, yet if you fuck up cause you dont know, he'll hit you for not asking. the bass is amazing.

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CuteSparkina
11-23-2006

Rated 0 
Child abuse. The young'un gets beaten up by the abusive parent if he talks and he gets beat up by the abusive parent if he keeps quiet, so either way, the kid is royally sworded. he can't win for losing

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dalara
01-08-2007

Rated 0 
best bassline Rourke ever strum up. shows the bands potential to be musically different and bring funk into the predictable world of indie rock.

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v1cious
01-26-2007

Rated 0 
This is the video where Morrissey and Marr dance, fucking hilarious and awesome:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=dVDt03NyDzA

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SuperAlly
01-28-2007

Rated 0 
This is my favourite song on "Meat Is Murder", the lyrics are simple and repetitive but he sings in a more aggressive tone than usual which i find relates to the topic, as those above have explained. Great bassline and guitar tune, you almost feel that Marr and Rourke were given permission to take a lead on a song and this was their effort.

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Etch-a-Mirandaaa
06-10-2007

Rated 0 
I am a British 16 year old girl and am completely besotted with The Smiths. I don’t really have a favourite Smiths song as such, I feel as though daily I can ‘pick out’ any Smiths song, which suits how I feel that particular day. Like today, for instance this one [Barbarism Begins At Home] is mine :] Each song could be put across as 'universal', in the effect that anyone could relate to it. I first heard of The Smiths from my dad. But over the past few years I started listening to them and then began buying some of their CD’s.. IMO, I feel that if I love a band so much, then their CD’s deserve to be bought, rather than be downloaded. Also I enjoy just picking up the album booklets and just flicking through to read the lyrics :]
Eventhough I don’t play the guitar, Marr is a fucking legend to me. Morrissey’s voice is so unique, and their own individual talents equally balance one another. I actually watched the thing on Youtube that someone posted on this, of Moz and Marr dancing together.. It's one of the cutest things I have ever see. I'm so gutted that I wasn't around at the time when the band were still together.. I would have loved to have seen them play live. Oh well.


Kinda long comment, sorry :] But only 2 of my mates actually know who The Smiths are, so it's nice to be able to listen to all your opinions.

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3 Replies
forgotten412
08-27-2007

Rated 0 
This song's just incredible. Music/everything.

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Goodjohn
10-25-2007

Rated 0 
The meaning of the song is similar to that of "The Headmaster ritual". You may well have picked up on the fact that Morrissey is quite an individual, and depending on your experiences in school you may have discovered that some teachers really don't like those kind of students (but some love them, so no offence to teachers in general). There's an interview where Morrissey says he nearly got expelled for saying the dictionary was his favourite book.

The song is from the perspective of conservative authority. The unruly boys and girls who decide to do things their own way must be suppressed, it claims. Morrissey obviously had a few problems with that.
The second paragraph is probably Morrissey expressing a feeling that I certainly felt when I was in school - that sometimes teachers decide to punish you (because they don't like you) and then search for the excuse. So if a disliked student asks for help then they get told off for being stupid, if they they don't then they get told off for doing the work wrong. If a student is being falsely accused of something then he can keep silent and be punished for something he didn't do, or make his case and be punished for "answering back", and so on.

Basically it's Morrissey complaining about horrible teachers who had no respect for his individual character.

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adamxfaceless
06-12-2008

Rated 0 
its all contradictions. in the sense he fealt that no matter what you did, you would get hit. no matter who you were you were in the wrong. somewhat a rebellion against the "children must be seen and not heard" rule.

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tidesoncrim
11-19-2008

Rated 0 
Best bass line in Meat is Murder, and it continues the theme presented in Headmaster Ritual about corporal punishment if you ask me. But Rourke's bass playing trumps anything else done in this track.

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shakelly_blackmouth
04-11-2009

Rated 0 
i loooooveee his barking noise!
how did no one mentionn this?
it is probably the reason (well among others durr) why i love this song! the barking!wOOOOF!

Ahha

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mote71
05-20-2009

Rated 0 
"A crack on the head
is what you get for not asking
and a crack on the head
is what you get for asking"

This is what unrational-violent people do. They don't really need a reason to give you "a crack on the head"; They'll do it anyway.

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lankeyjb202
09-14-2009

Rated 0 
When I listen to this song, I feel that it is about the vicious, animalistic nature of some young people which is the roots of their 'barbarianism'. Basically, the song is about being bullied and how some young people need no reason to deliver a crack on the head.

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