Meat is Murder does preach vegetarianism BUT more importantly and powerfully it actually is Morrissey identifiying with the raising, slaughtering and consumption of defenceless creatures by their superiors...so it can relate to Morrissey himself whilst at school in Manchester, where kids had their brains fried ("heifer whines could be human cries"). It is a metaphor for the violence society wreaks...hence the soldier on the cover of the album with Meat is Murder written on the helmet by Morrissey...The army is another institute of civilised barbarism....another part of the MEAT industry...Morrissey is preoccupied by Institutional Violence
Thanks for your insightful comment; I was beginning to think I would get to the bottom of the page without finding one. Nobody else thought to make the connection with the soldier's helmet on the cover, and I think it's right. "Civilised barbarism" - most of the album is about that subject.
Thanks for your insightful comment; I was beginning to think I would get to the bottom of the page without finding one. Nobody else thought to make the connection with the soldier's helmet on the cover, and I think it's right. "Civilised barbarism" - most of the album is about that subject.
I wish the connection was made explicitly in this song somehow, though, instead of - I'm sorry - horribly preachy and unintentionally hilarious lines like "sizzling blood and the unholy stench of murder". Throw in comedy chainsaws and cow noises and I have to side with the "worst song the Smiths ever did" brigade. Shame. Missed opportunity.
Meat is Murder does preach vegetarianism BUT more importantly and powerfully it actually is Morrissey identifiying with the raising, slaughtering and consumption of defenceless creatures by their superiors...so it can relate to Morrissey himself whilst at school in Manchester, where kids had their brains fried ("heifer whines could be human cries"). It is a metaphor for the violence society wreaks...hence the soldier on the cover of the album with Meat is Murder written on the helmet by Morrissey...The army is another institute of civilised barbarism....another part of the MEAT industry...Morrissey is preoccupied by Institutional Violence
Thanks for your insightful comment; I was beginning to think I would get to the bottom of the page without finding one. Nobody else thought to make the connection with the soldier's helmet on the cover, and I think it's right. "Civilised barbarism" - most of the album is about that subject.
Thanks for your insightful comment; I was beginning to think I would get to the bottom of the page without finding one. Nobody else thought to make the connection with the soldier's helmet on the cover, and I think it's right. "Civilised barbarism" - most of the album is about that subject.
I wish the connection was made explicitly in this song somehow, though, instead of - I'm sorry - horribly preachy and unintentionally hilarious lines like "sizzling blood and the unholy stench of murder". Throw in comedy chainsaws and cow noises and I have to side with the "worst song the Smiths ever did" brigade. Shame. Missed opportunity.