Lyrics for Cemetry Gates as interpreted by weezerific:cutlery

Cemetry Gates Lyrics
A dreaded sunny day
so I meet you at the cemetery gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side

A dreaded sunny day
so I meet you at the cemetery gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side
while Wilde is on mine

So we go inside and we gravely read the stones
all those people all those lives
where are they now?
with the loves and hates
and passions just like mine
they were born
and then they lived and then they died
seems so unfair
and 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

If you must write prose and poems
the words you use should be your own
don't plagiarise or take "on loans"
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 you then produce the text
from whence was ripped some dizzy whore, 1804

A dreaded sunny day
so let's go where we're happy
and I meet you at the cemetery 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 cemetery gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side
but you lose because Wilde is on mine

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KILBY
03-05-2003

Rated 0 
Going to a cemetry and reading the gravestones, wondering how they lived their lifes. Morrissey also mentions some of his fave authors including Keats and Yeats, and of course Oscar Wilde. Also mentions being original and not to plagiarise and use your own words when writing.

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Corrupted-tomato
04-13-2004

Rated 0 
A twisting paradoxical story of literary plagiarism unfolds into one of Morrissey's largest ever borrowings : the "All those people .... I want to cry" section is ripped wholesale from the film "The Man Who Came To Dinner", which is also the source of Morrissey alias Sheridan Whitehead.
The words Morrissey has heard said a hundred times (maybe less, maybe more) come from Shakespeare's Richard III. Morrissey paradoxically both caustically dismisses Wilde ("weird lover Wilde") and champions him above Keats and Yeats, generally conservatively considered to be the more "important" poets.
This song echoes Morrissey's memories of visiting Southern Cemetery in Manchester with his greatest friend, Linder Sterling. This cemetry, by the way is absolutely huge. His mention of a "dreaded sunny day" is surely a tongue-in-cheek lyrical landmine for those who accuse him of being miserable all the time.
The mis-spelling of "cemetery" is a MozMistake, as opposed to any dire pun on the word "try", thank god.

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Shobina
05-21-2004

Rated 0 
finally an intelligent response to a song.... i keep reading block head responses to smiths songs. morrissey would turn in his satin sheets. thanks corrupted tomato.

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Spicy Pirate 69
06-01-2004

Rated 0 
Yea, I agree, CORRUPTED TOMATO and I hope not to repeat your articulations in my reading. For one thing though I always took the "Cemet'ry" to be the dialect that he was using and not a mistake.

This song , IMO, has assloads of meaning. It's paradoxical bc here he is advocating against plagiarizing yet he plagiarizes in this song and in many of his other songs. He champions Wilde over Keats and Yeats and take that to mean what you think about his sexuality (Some of Wilde's poetry having homoerotic overtones). My favorite part is where he talks about the lives of the people on the cemetary stones... very inciteful and thought provoking. I think the most important part of this though, is that Moz is an intelligent book-reading motherfucker and he should be placed in the tradition of guys like Wilde... though there may always be someone with a big nose who knows and says he's not quite up to Yeats and Keats...

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Jemaeux
07-06-2004

Rated 0 
have youe evr tried walking thorugh a cemetery listening to this song. Its cool, especially when its raining..
with loves and hates and passions just like mine.... and you know it wont be long till you're there with them...

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Yoink!
12-20-2004

Rated 0 
I think this is Morrissey's scathing critique of the whole movement of romantic poetry which is often so melodramatic and depressing to a fault. I think this song is a great example of Morrissey as a satirist. On the one hand he makes light of the weepy sentimentality of poets like Keats, Shelley, Byron, but on the other hand he admits to being steeped in their tradition.

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its_a_shambles
02-15-2005

Rated 0 
Fascinating, and a definite paradox. My first interpretation was that it might concern how strange it is that poetry is written, stolen, some (like that of Keats, Yeats) so well renowned, concerning definite weighty issues, but can't compare with something so rudimentary as, in Morrissey's own words, 'all those people, all those lives... born and then they lived and then they died'.

I'm not making any sense. Sorry.

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coolhandlukens
05-20-2005

Rated 0 
I am sure we have all had an experience where in which we knowingly paraphrased anothers' work, and inevitably there will always be someone else out there that is clever enough to realize.

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horror show
05-25-2005

Rated 0 
This is one of my favourite smiths songs, superb lyrics that never fail to raise a smile

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Reidsan
06-09-2005

Rated 0 
I think it's a contrast between the big romantic poets, Keats and Yates, and Wilde, the king of wit. The person he's going to the cemetery with is romantic and charming, but Morrissey is witty and his romance isn't always perfect - see Unhappy Birthday or Girlfriend in a Coma. Therefore, while Keats and Yates are on their side with their blind and poetic romance, Wilde is on his making witty observations.

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amongthetrees
12-13-2005

Rated 0 
I love the way the guitar's twist and turn on this
The Moz sounds as brilliant as always of course!

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1imaginarygirl
12-20-2005

Rated 0 
is "GRAVEly read the STONES" a pun on GRAVESTONES? and is morrissey a bit of a hypocrite to tell you not to plagiarise when half his lyrics are taken from some poem or other?!?!?

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xanya
01-02-2006

Rated 0 
Love this song - others have pretty much already given the reasons why - but what always cracks me up is his pronunciation of "plagiarise". Hee. No hard "g" there, Moz.

(Someone please correct me if this the way people from Manchester generally pronounce this word.)

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kitchensink
01-12-2006

Rated 0 
I'm afraid the Mancunian pronunciation of 'plagiarise' isn't any different to anyone else's, the speech of your average Manc not exactly being liberally sprinkled with such words. It's just another, as Mr Tomato put it, 'MozMistake'.

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marquicerise
01-13-2006

Rated 0 
The misspelling of this title was not intentional. Morrissey also spelled it "cemetary" in the manuscript of his "Exit Smiling."

"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, a film.

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jonuta
02-10-2006

Rated 0 
im not sure but i heard somewhere that this song is speaking out against critics saying he was plaigerising lyrics from other people.
not sure if its true tho
great tune whatever it means though

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Acesgirl
03-09-2006

Rated 0 
I think he is mocking, since the song tells about getting quotes from others and whatever, he creates new words, new ways of writing (cemetry, cemetary) and pronounce (plagiarise) in order to create something of his own.

"You say: "ere long done do does did"
words which could only be your own
and then you then produce the text..."

I got that you claim that you experienced things in your life (you do, did...), that you thought they were only yours, but it is not because lots of people go through the same! It's like plagiarise lives.

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Acesgirl
03-09-2006

Rated 0 
Well, I forgot to say that I find this song really cute! I read the lyrics and I thought the song was a sad tune, but when I listened to it, I got really enchanted by the cheery way he sings and the melody too. It is a light song even though he is talking about a "nice" promenade at a cemetery! Well, cemeteries are sad! Only gothics like it... And Morrissey too!

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HeavenlyAngora
03-11-2006

Rated 0 
Oscar on plagiarism: "When I see a monstrous tulip with four petals in someone else's garden, I am impelled to grow a monstrous tulip with five wonderful petals, but that is no reason why someone should grow a tulip with only three petals."

Oscar did like to "borrow," so maybe that's one of the ways he's on the narrator's/Morrissey's side.

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ShakespearesSister
03-22-2006

Rated 0 
I don't know why people can call Moz unhappy and miserable when he has songs like this. He's clearly taking the mickey out of himself.

And just in case no one knew the last line of the song is....

"Because weird lover Wilde is on mine"

I always used to think that he said either Shut up or Sugar and i'd sing accordingly. It is Sure though.

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miss-nothing
05-07-2006

Rated 0 
Yeah, he says "sure" at the end of the song....
I always thought that this song was a kind of fight between classical English writers, in which Morrissey took part for Oscar Wilde, maybe because Wilde was Irish just like him, and Keats was English. Yeats was Irish too, but it seems that Moz doesn't agree with his vision of Ireland, only full of myths and legends.
This song reminds me of when I studied English literature at university. By the way, we spend more time studying Yeats and Keats than studying Wilde, maybe the former two were more "in the cannon"

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Viva_Hate
02-22-2007

Rated 0 
How deliciously ironic that Corrupted-tomato has ripped his interpretation, word for word, from the excellent LASID fansite.

Remember : there's always someone, somewhere, with a big nose, who knows and trips you up and laughs when you fall ;-)

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cs15hammer
06-06-2007

Rated 0 
Im a huge fan of the Smiths and so many of their songs but to me this is the one song I would always pick as my best.

Obviously it is a satire on borrowing ideas and material.

To me I just love the basic event that is happening. It seems like a meeting of two young educated people walking and discussing art and life with passion. I like the contrast between the sun and the cemetery. The holding up and championing ghosts the of the past. Trying to understand.

"passions just like mine
they were born
and then they lived and then they died
seems so unfair
and I want to cry"

It feels timeless could be in any decade and a lovely historical aspect to it too. It feels very English. Definitely a gothic feel and quality to the poem.

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jomiha
07-03-2007

Rated 0 
Just an observation that's illustrated perfectly by this song- it's interesting to me that sometimes the most poignant lyrics are not classically poetic or overtly cleverly composed, but straight-forward and thought provoking. A simple string of words such as "They were born and then they lived and then they died." has more effect on me than anything else in this song. Simple truths that are easily overlooked, when thrown into the spotlight can resound so intensely.

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jonnyward
09-16-2007

Rated +1 
This song's just so clever. Even some of the smaller lines are outstanding in themselves, not just the plagerism theme. 'and we gravely read the stones' - just a fantastic play on words that stands out and always makes me smile

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