Lyrics for Girlfriend in a Coma as interpreted by weezerific:cutlery

Girlfriend in a Coma Lyrics
Girlfriend in a coma, I know, I know, it's serious
Girlfriend in a coma, I know, I know, it's really serious

There were times when I could have murdered her
But you know, I would hate anything to happen to her
No, I don't want to see her

Do you really think she'll pull through?
Do you really think she'll pull through?
Do

Girlfriend in a coma, I know, I know, it's serious
My, my, my, my, my, my baby, goodbye

There were times when I could have strangled her
But you know, I would hate anything to happen to her
Would you please let me see her

Do you really think she'll pull through?
Do you really think she'll pull through?
Do

Let me whisper my last goodbyes
I know, it's serious

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chemicalnova
01-12-2005

Rated 0 
This song is about a guy who likes a girl, but the little things she does really stress him out sometimes. But he knew that if anything was to happen to her, he might die.

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emi
01-26-2005

Rated 0 
I think it wouldn't be completely absurd to also enjoy the linearity of the meanings through the different songs. I've always heard this song as the continuation of "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out". Here, it would be the point of view of the guy who drove his girlfriend home... The car crash fantasy from "There is a light..." becomes true, in a very sarcastic twist. It really evokes the Morrissey's irony that once again ruins the neoromantic fervour.:)

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yabi
01-31-2005

Rated 0 
It's about the band. It is well known that Morrissey was quite obsessed with the Smiths, but he feared the worst for its future around the time when he wrote this. As everyone knows, the band broke up soon after.

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davisonfire1
02-10-2005

Rated +1 
In an interview with Morrissey he alluded to the fact that this song is about drug use and experimentation. The 'girlfriend' has overdosed and the boyfriend has yet to fully understand the seriousness of the situation (as this possibly happened before). He needs to be told that its serious because he keeps saying stupid things like ' there were times when i could have murder her'.. its really not the right time to say things like that!
When i hear the song i always picture Morrissey in his younger days pacing the corridoors of a hospital looking for ppl to talk to and trying to be mature about the situation in his arrogant manner.

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infotainment_lad
02-20-2005

Rated +1 
This is why I love the Smiths, you can interpret every song in any way! The sexual ambiguity, for one, helps, and it'd just great that everyone can apply it to their life in some way. This site, naturally, increased my love for them about tenfold, because now i have about ten more meanings for each song. I always saw the coma as being figurative, I saw one possible meaning being someone trying to pretend that he's over his ex-girlfriend, when he's quite clearly not, given that he still refers to her as his girlfriend. When you think about it, a coma is kind of like death with a chance of resurrection, and so he tells his friends he's over her, but he leaves the option of falling in love with her again open, so that if she ever loves him back again, he won't have to explain himself. (Is this making sense?) I also thought it could be about someone who is trying to get over his ex-girlfriend, but is failing, he's in a limbo where he realises and starts to acknowledge her failings, hence 'There were times when I could have murdered her', but he still loves her depite the fact that he can see she's not perfect. He tries to cut her out of his life ('No I don't want to see her'), but he suddenly starts to need her again ('Will you please let me see her?'). Then, he finally decides to go ahead with it, but still needs to see her one last time to 'send him on his way' ('Let me whisper my last goodbyes'). But whatever way you take it, it's still a beautiful song.

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emoabz
02-25-2005

Rated 0 
its always confussed me, at first i thought he had put her in that coma, but then after listening to it a few more times i began to wonder weather he had or not, n now am pretty much totally confussed! is he jus upset cos sometimes hes felt like killing her n now shes dying n he regrets it or has he phisically done it to her?!! nehu ace song!!

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ImInLoveWithMyWalls
03-07-2005

Rated 0 
no i totally think this song is just outrageously sarcastic. yeah, the last lines aren't so biting, but you cant deny the sardonic undertones of the rest of the song.

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Boss Man
07-19-2005

Rated 0 
this song is almost cloying in it's sweetness but morrissey manages to pull it off. this song never fails to put a smile on my face and is one of the smiths funniest songs...unless of course your girlfriend really is in a coma!

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1imaginarygirl
10-22-2005

Rated 0 
i think this songs pretty obvious and self explanitory and you're all reading way to deeply into it.

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Lola.C
12-04-2005

Rated 0 
I still think that he put her in a coma not just because of the lyrics but because of the way the music sounds. The first couple verses seem light and cheery, hardly the music you'd write if you were grieving for your dying girlfriend. But it suddenly gets dramatic when he sings the line "do you really think she'll pull through" as if he's afraid she'll wake up and tell his secret.

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CEREAL
02-17-2006

Rated +1 
Agree with Aurora2. He wants to dump her and is secretly glad in a way. He won't see her because of the guilt. Why else wouldn't he want to? Even if he was distraught he would. Then when he finds out she's dying he whispers his last goodbyes because of guilt or to look like he cares. Very dark humour indeed. Most of their songs feature an element of humour, often dark (there is a light etc).

To say it symbolises his love of women dying seems like people are over analysing it.

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ecureuil
02-18-2006

Rated 0 
People are really reading way too deeply in to this song! Basically, it's a joke song by Morrissey. Music critics accussed him of writing lyrics that were too depressing, so his response was "Girlfriend in a Coma" - one of the most depressing topics you can think of! That guy has one hell of a sense of humour. ;)

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1stGospel
02-27-2006

Rated 0 
This song makes me laugh. It is to do with sexuality - about the guy doing all the work and the girl just laying there, as if in a 'coma'. Lol!

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1stGospel
02-27-2006

Rated 0 
'Coma' here is used as a metaphor.

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Paega
02-28-2006

Rated 0 
I'm sure butterflykiss is right - actually I'd never thought of it like that before.

I've always enjoyed the song because it's got a great tune and he sings the words in such a carefree happy way! He keeps singing: "I know - it's serious" like he's hoping to convince himself - hehe.

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ShakespearesSister
03-05-2006

Rated 0 
When i first heard this song i fell in love with it, as i did with all Smith songs. The way Morrissey sings 'My, my, my, my, my, my baby, goodbye', makes me love it even more. It's beautiful.
I agree with Kez's (2nd post) take on this song.

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vividnod
04-19-2006

Rated 0 
This is apparently about one of the first cases of a girl being in a prolonged coma and the court case about whether or not to turn off the life support machines..."do you really think she'll pull through?" "there were times when I could have 'murdered' her." I think it was called the karen quinlan affair.

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alfiebaby
04-30-2006

Rated -1 
Sorry, vividnod, but it's got fuck all to do with the 'Karen Quinlan Affair' or whatever you call it. Try and make valuable contributions to song meanings.net please, love.

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1 Reply
Kei
04-30-2006

Rated +1 
Yeah, because condescending someone for a valid (if possibly misguided) interpretation is a highly valuable contribution.

Aren't you the clever one.

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vividnod
05-01-2006

Rated 0 
Ok, whoah. I recently read the book "Morrissey: Scandal and Passion" by David Bret in which the theory about Karen Quinlan was put forward in detail. I thought it was quite a good theory and was surprised that it hadn't appeared here. I always think it's good to have several possible theories discussed as often we never know the true meaning of songs and so I was inspired to register for the first time with this website and make my first contribution. I'll obviously have to think twice in future, I didn't realise having an alternative opinion was so offensive.

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miss-nothing
05-07-2006

Rated 0 
I always thought this song was about a boyfriend who tries to kill his girlfriend and he regrets it when she is in a coma. It's like all those bastards who beat their gfs or wives and regret it the following day. It's easy to imagine when you hear the song an image of a guy saying his last words to his gf when he's about to get caught by the police, because he's guilty.

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myspandexparadise
06-19-2006

Rated +1 
ITS NOT ABOUT HIM BEING GAY! Retards, its about a girl in a coma. just because morrisey is gay doesnt mean every song was a metaphor for it. turd breaths

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Cracked Pleasures
06-24-2006

Rated +1 
Girlfriend In A Coma has always been one of my favourite Smiths songs and has remained its status over the years. The title alone made me curious from the first time that I held the cd case of Strangeways Here We Come in my hands. But the lyrics are very interesting as well.

The song basically tackles the most extreme feelings of humans (love and hatred) and brings on how close these two feelings can sometimes be to each other. Morrissey manages to, in one single sentence, bring on the both extremes and all feelings in between.

The contrast is brought on on several occasions:

"there were times I could have murdered her" expresses hatred and aggression towards the person, but is immediately followed by a desire to still not lose her: "I would hate anything to happen to her".

Also, the chorus expresses this same situation: "No I don't want to see her" expresses the wish not to see his dying partner again, but his insecurity over his own feelings rises immediately after when he somehow longs to hold her in his arms again and insecurely asks "do you really think she'll pull through?"

The song basically descibres a confused mind and shows how close human feelings can be to each other, how confused humans can be emotionally. The song uses the most extreme feelings (loving someone -vs- hating someone) and everything in between.
Also, the confusion is expressed by Morrissey having to convince himself and repeat to himself "I know - it's SERIOUS" (well, of course it's serious, she's in a coma !)

Of course Morrissey wouldn't be Morrissey when there would be no political reference in his work: the song was based on a conflict in the USA about if it is acceptable to let a person die when she's comatose for too long. In that time a woman in the US was at the breathing machine for ages, with little hope she'd ever awake. She was clinically alive but also braindead. There was a huge debate over if it should be allowed to just unplug the breathing machine or not. Morrissey based the song on this ongoing moral debate, and injected it with a dose of human confusion and personal drama.

A true Smiths classic!

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sam99foster
08-16-2006

Rated 0 
Someone mentioned Girlfriend in a Coma the book (by Douglas Coupland). The connection between the song and the book seems to be little, except that the book is strewn with Smiths and Morrissey references. One character laments at one point "Bigmouth strikes again" while another later on finds the place she's in boring because "Everyday is like Sunday."

My two cents on the meaning of the song (which without a doubt is very black-humoured) is that it's about a guy who's probably put his girlfriend in the coma and is experiencing some rather mixed emotions about it. But all that's been said before.

I don't think it's about Morrissey being gay.

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bubbles3115
08-28-2006

Rated 0 
While it might be ironic because Moz includes homoerotic content in so many of his songs, I think it is akin to the dark humor that the guy wants to breakup with his girl, so he doesn't want to see her and it's convenient, but on the other hand, he can't totally ignore the situation so he asks the doctor "do you really think she'll pull through?" ... then again, he might be hoping she doesn't pull through!

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