Question The Smiths - Cemetery Gates lyrics

[Ashley_TakeABow]

So I'm trying to find exactly what Morrissey has written/sings at the very end of Cemetery Gates.
I'm reading things that seem like they just aren't it. I always thought he said "but where the love of Wilde is on the mind (sugar)" but im not sure if that's right now.

When I Google it, I'm seeing two different things between a few different lyric sites:
"'Cause whale blubber Wilde is on mine (sugar!)"
and
"'Cause weird lover Wilde is on mine
(sure!)"

(Whale blubber.. what dah fack? )
I don't have a physical The Queen is Dead record yet, so I don't have a lyric sleeve to check myself.

 

[Anonymous]

lol. Why does he say “sugar” at the end?

I don't know if people still use the word this way, but back in the 80's when I was a kid, this was the polite substitute word for 'sh*t'. So, if you messed up and wanted to use a faux swear word in polite society, you'd say 'oh sugar'. I'm presuming that's why Morrissey used it - maybe he wasn't entirely happy with his vocal performance, thought he'd messed up a line, so inserted it at the end. A bit like 'Can we do that again, Steven' at the end of 'I Started Something I Couldn't Finish'. Then, listening back, he decides it fits and leaves it in?

Either that, or the narrator of the song isn't exactly thrilled about ending up with Wilde on their side, and is politely expressing so.

 

[gashonthenail]

I'm still getting over the shock that NF Disco might be Davie and not David.

As discussed in a previous thread.

Question - National front disco lyrics

What is the protagonist known as in ‘The National Front Disco?’ I and I’m sure everyone else thought it was ‘David’ but upon discovering the Japanese CD version from 1992 (the only physical copy with printed lyrics I believe) reads ‘Davie the wind blows’ in the first line. Anyone got any info on...

www.morrissey-solo.com

 

[Orange Crush]

I tend not to listen to the lyrics. They're usually rubbish and don't mean much anyway.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm still getting over the shock that NF Disco might be Davie and not David.

'Death at One's Elbow' is the one that always puzzles me. The lyric sheet has him refer to 'Oh Glenn' throughout, but I'd swear it sounds more like he's actually singing 'Oh Den'.

 

[Ashley_TakeABow]

'Death at One's Elbow' is the one that always puzzles me. The lyric sheet has him refer to 'Oh Glenn' throughout, but I'd swear it sounds more like he's actually singing 'Oh Den'.

I thought he said "Oh, Death"! It makes sense to me with the rest of the lyrics and the title of the song.

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

According to Mike ….

Whale blubber Wilde

Is that really what Morrissey sings at the end of Cemetry Gates? Only just found that out from iTunes lyrics!

www.morrissey-solo.com

So I'm trying to find exactly what Morrissey has written/sings at the very end of Cemetery Gates.
I'm reading things that seem like they just aren't it. I always thought he said "but where the love of Wilde is on the mind (sugar)" but im not sure if that's right now.

When I Google it, I'm seeing two different things between a few different lyric sites:
"'Cause whale blubber Wilde is on mine (sugar!)"
and
"'Cause weird lover Wilde is on mine
(sure!)"

(Whale blubber.. what dah fack? )
I don't have a physical The Queen is Dead record yet, so I don't have a lyric sleeve to check myself.

 

[WinstanleyFan1649]

Oscar Wilde was a bit on the heavier end and naturally got heavier with age and from his decadent lifestyle. The whale-blubber line would make sense with Moz reading alot of Wilde biogs. If I remember right from reading Hesketh Pearson's Wilde biog (about 2 years ago), Wilde was very self-conscious and took care to look his best in photographs and in public, concealing his teeth, trying to look slimmer, and wearing perfumes and decadent outfits. Here's some primary source extracts calling Wilde fat:

'My encounter with Oscar Wilde could hardly have been more fleeting: it was at the Rodin pavilion at the International Exhibition in Paris. It must have been in July or June of 1900, just a few months before his death... Oscar Wilde was fat, his skin grey and greasy, his sagging cheeks reminding me faintly of Queen Victoria;... On the whole, it was a body in decay, occasionally rattled by a roar of laughter, which would time and again reveal the black and gold-coloured mass of his teeth.' (Rudolf Kassner, 1901)

'Their [Oscar and Constance Wilde's] neighbour Laura Trubridge wrote in her diary that Wilde had "grown enormously fat with tight curls all around his head. Not at all the aesthetic he used to look. He is vulgar." Three years later, her husband described 33-year-old Wilde as "fat and greasy as ever."' (Pfuntners, 1894-7)

Maybe not really relevant at all, but Wilde was hugely tall and broad, while Yeats was always very gangly, and Keats was extremely short for a man (likely from malnourishment as a child), and thin from sickness (tuberculosis). Cem.Ga. is bragging he's got the biggest man on his side
You're the one for me, fatty!

 

[Anonymous]

I thought he said "Oh, Death"! It makes sense to me with the rest of the lyrics and the title of the song.

Den Death - it's the Grim Reaper's full name.

 

[The Wild Turkey]

That's WILD.

T!

 

[Ashley_TakeABow]

Den Death - it's the Grim Reaper's full name.

 

[Ryan]

I thought he said "Oh, Death"! It makes sense to me with the rest of the lyrics and the title of the song.