Lyrics for Half A Person as interpreted by weezerific:cutlery

Half A Person Lyrics
Call me morbid, call me pale
I've spent six years on your trail
Six long years
On your trail
Call me morbid, call me pale
I've spent six years on your trail
Six full years of my life on your trail
And if you have five seconds to spare
Then I'll tell you the story of my life:
Sixteen, clumsy and shy
I went to London and I
I booked myself in at the Y....W.C.A
I said: "I like it here - can I stay?
I like it here - caan I stay?
And, do you have a vacancy
For a Back-scrubber?"
She was left behind, and sour
And she wrote to me on the hour
She said: "In the days when you were
hopelessly poor
I just liked you more..."
So if you have five seconds to spare
Then I'll tell you the story of my life:
Sixteen, clumsy and shy
I went to London and I
I booked myself in at the Y....W.C.A
I said: "I like it here - can I stay?
I like it here - caan I stay?
And, do you have a vacancy
For a Back-scrubber?"
Call me morbid, call me pale
I've spent too long on your trail
Far too long
Chasing your tail
And if you have five seconds to spare
Then I'll tell you the story of my life
Sixteen, clumsy and shy
That's the story of my life
Sixteen, clumsy and shy
The story of my life
That's the story of my life
That's the story of my life
That's the story of my life

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clumsy and shy
04-16-2002

Rated +1 
this is my FAVORITE smiths song by far...

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mwalker
04-16-2002

Rated 0 
i can't pick a favorite, i normally have a favorite for the week of theirs...this is definitely a great song though.

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butterflykiss84
07-24-2002

Rated 0 
One of my favourites - but I constantly change my mind beacuse I love the Smiths :)

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butterflykiss84
08-26-2002

Rated 0 
Still, I've always wanted to know why Morrissey chose to ask for a vacancy or a backscrubber?

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Chloe le Fay
10-05-2002

Rated +1 
He's asking if there's a vacancy FOR a back-scrubber...so he's the back-scrubber. So I guess he's asking if he can stay, even if he's has to do some lowly job or whatever. Plus, I've heard before (I'm not sure if this is true or not) that the phrase backscrubber has (presumably pejorative) homosexual connoctations in some places, so in that case it would be more like "so, do you have room for a worthless little poof like me?"

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Miss_Chainsaw
10-14-2002

Rated 0 
scrubber - an easy girl. i supose it could have homosexual connetations too. but i always got the impression that it was a girl saying that bit who was talking to morrisey, or whoever. which sort of explains why its the YWCA. but anyway, its a great song

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socialdisease89
09-28-2004

Rated +1 
i love this song. i tried looking for some hidden meaning but all i could come up with was that it's this guy who chased this girl and that they were both poor but when he came back from the "YWCA" he was better off and he had changed. maybe it has nothing to do with money. but i love this song.

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Aurora2
10-26-2004

Rated +1 
I think it's him realising that no matter how famous and rich he is going to get it's not actually going to change his life. He'll always be 16, clumsy and shy.

In fact, his success has managed to alienate him from people who might have liked him in the past. It's increased his isolation when he thought it would make his life better.

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1 Reply
smithskid84
11-01-2004

Rated +1 
The backscrubber and YWCA mentions are, I belive, in reference to his support of the feminist cause (at least, early in his life). But it also factors well in the self-loathing the title suggests.

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unexplained_lights
11-19-2004

Rated 0 
But who was he spending six years tailing?

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Moz1000
12-06-2004

Rated 0 
perhaps its about a gay 'whore',

scrubber is a bit of a whore, a backsrubber would be a male gay version

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Boss Man
07-18-2005

Rated 0 
Please! Please! Please ! Don't!
A back scubber would be someone who scrubs your back when you're in the bath! The joke being: Morrissey, a male, wanting such a job in a female institution. Not that there is such a job...except maybe in Prince Charles house.

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mnonm
07-28-2005

Rated 0 
Boss Man is right! You guys are missing a good joke!

See, historically, when a man is down and out and broke, he goes to the YMCA (Young Mens Christian Association) for a cheap place to sleep. In this case, he went to the YWCA (Womens!).

He asks if they have a vacancy (he's a man!) He offers his services as someone who will stand in the shower scrubbing womens' backs for them (as if that would seal the deal)!

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davidbeauy
09-11-2005

Rated +1 
I concur with most of the above suggestions. HALF A PERSON is one of Morrissey's finest moments -- a Smithian treasure tucked away on a B-Side aimed at unfurling a circular relationship between himself the pop star and the young boy who like us is on a journey of discovery from small town to the big city, from a position of despair and strangeness to one of metaphorical prostitution to become what we want, SOMEBODY. And in our glory we are told that we are missed for our adolescent endearing troubles selves and we yearn again for those make belive days and the full circle continues. Morrissey lived this as do many a clumsy, shy teenager with a dream. Will you fall into the circle? I am and I hope only that I am soon promoted from back scrubber.

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1 Reply
marquicerise
12-28-2005

Rated 0 
"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."

-"The Collector", by John Fowles

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nightandday
12-28-2005

Rated 0 
From Nick Kent's 1990 "The Face" interview with Morrissey:

In my favourite of your confessional songs - "Half A Person" - you sing about being hopelessly smitten with a girl who, after you return to impress her as a famous personage, simply tells you, "When you were hopelessly poor I just liked you more"... Is that autobiographical?
Morrissey: "Yes, that is all absolutely true. She does exist."

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nightandday
12-28-2005

Rated 0 
I know about the line from "The Collector", but don't you think there might be another meaning to it. You know the old story that people were once a whole and then the gods split them in two, so they keep looking for each their other half all their lives. That would mean that everyone is only half a person until they find their 'other half', their true love!

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LostOnTheCarpet
02-01-2006

Rated 0 
I've always been absolutely cuckoo over this song...

But, correct me if I'm wrong: Isn't "she wrote to me on the hour" supposed to be "she wrote to me equally dour"? I thought that it sounded slightly more accurate...

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Acesgirl
03-07-2006

Rated +1 
One of the most fantastic verses in this song:

I've spent six years on your trail
Six full years of my life on your trail
And if you have five seconds to spare
Then I'll tell you the story of my life:

He spends 6 full years obsessed with a person and asks back only 5 seconds from her! This is fantastic! This is Morrissey!!!!

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Acesgirl
03-07-2006

Rated +1 
One of the most fantastic verses in this song:

I've spent six years on your trail
Six full years of my life on your trail
And if you have five seconds to spare
Then I'll tell you the story of my life:

He spends 6 full years obsessed with a person and asks back only 5 seconds from her! This is fantastic! This is Morrissey!!!!

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nightandday
05-15-2006

Rated +1 
"But, correct me if I'm wrong: Isn't "she wrote to me on the hour" supposed to be "she wrote to me equally dour"? I thought that it sounded slightly more accurate... "

Yes, you are right, he sings "she wrote to me, equally dour" but for whatever weird reason, in Louder Than Bombs lyric sheet it says "she wrote to me on the hour" (?!) That's not the only case that the lyrics in the lyric sheet are different from what Morrissey actually sings in the song.

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matthewallen5000
02-24-2007

Rated 0 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myyyKu1GYSY

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JumpinJackFlash
05-27-2007

Rated 0 
Yeah it sounds like 'equally dour' to me, also I thought it was "I went to london and died" not "I went to london and I"...works both ways

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1 Reply
DPR4444
06-15-2007

Rated +1 
i especially like the repetition of certain phrases within the lyrics - e.g. "six long years on your trail." The repetition gives the phrase a feeling of almost an indictment of the other person.

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eddieb
07-30-2007

Rated +1 
and she wrote to me equally dour she said in the days when you were hopelessly poor I just liked you more....Poetry and poignancy the two leathal weapons of the Mozzer. Some of these phrases will just float around in your head for days they're so elegant...

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