9th song on the album THE QUEEN IS DEAD:
THERE IS A LIGHT THAT NEVER GOES OUT
In January of 1987, the song THERE IS
A LIGHT THAT NEVER GOES OUT, from the album THE QUEEN IS DEAD, became the only Smiths single ever released exclusively
to France.
Also in 1987, a monumental "light that never goes out" was subsequently built in France, directly above the underpass in which Princess Diana would be killed ten years later. Officially known as the Flame of Liberty, this "light that never goes out" is an exact replica of the flame from the torch held by the Statue of Liberty and was presented in 1987 as a symbol of friendship between America and France.
The Flame of Liberty is a replica of the flame from the torch held by the Statue of
Liberty
Due to its serendipitous location directly above the underpass in which Diana crashed, the Flame of Liberty was spontaneously transformed into Diana's unofficial shrine.
Flowers, candles, photographs, messages, and other tokens, were placed on the base of the monument in memory of the Princess who famously wished to be a "Queen of People's Hearts". Inevitably, some people took it a step too far, vandalizing the monument with Diana-related graffiti. The Flame of Liberty therefore had to be cordoned off and was restored to its original pre-Diana condition.
Morrissey's lyrics to THERE IS A LIGHT THAT NEVER GOES OUT are written from the perspective of a car passenger whose estrangement from home, ("it's not my home, it's their home, and I'm welcome no more"), parallels Diana's estrangement from the Royal Family, while the circumstances and sentiments depicted in the song foreshadow the context of Diana's death:
THERE IS A LIGHT THAT NEVER GOES OUT
Take me out tonight
where there’s music and there’s people
who are young and alive
driving in
your car
I never never want to go home
because I haven’t got one
anymore
take me out tonight
because I want to see people
and I want to see lights
driving in your car
oh
please don’t drop me home
because it’s not my home,
it’s their home, and
I’m welcome no more
and if a double-decker
bus
crashes into us
to die by your side
such a heavenly way to die
and if
a ten ton truck
kills the both of us
to die by your side
the pleasure and
the privilege is mine
take me out tonight
oh take me anywhere, I don’t care
and in the darkened underpass
I thought 'Oh God,
my chance has come at last'
(but then a strange fear gripped me and I just
couldn’t ask)
Oh,
there is a light that never goes out
There is a light that never goes out
There is a light that never goes out
There is a light that never goes out …
Here, on the only Smiths single released exclusively to France, we have two people on a romantic date, at night, in the city, driving in a car. They fantasize about getting killed together in a car crash and mention is made of being gripped by fear in an underpass. The song concludes with Morrissey repeating that “there is a light that never goes out”.
Ten years later, we have Princess Diana with Mr. Dodi Fayed in France: two people on a romantic date, at night, in the city, driving in a car. They actually do get killed together in a car crash and the fearful event does occur in an underpass. It happens to be the underpass that goes directly beneath the Flame of Liberty, “a light that never goes out”.
When the people in the song fantasize about getting killed together in a car crash, they mention two possible examples of deadly auto accidents. But, of course, it would really only be possible to get killed together one time. So, if the song was actually about getting killed together by a "double-decker bus" then there would not be equal mention of getting killed together (a second time!) by a "ten ton truck", and vice-versa. Logically speaking, the two types of deadly crashes being fantasized must therefore be taken purely as examples. They are examples of deadly car crashes in which a boyfriend and girlfriend could be killed together, as would be the story of Diana's eventual death. If you read the lyrics in their entirety you can see that the song is not about a specific type of deadly crash; it is about the context in which a deadly car crash might occur. That context is depicted by Morrissey as being a romantic date at night in the city; where the one fearful location specified is an underpass; and where "there is a light that never goes out".
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The B-side of THERE IS A LIGHT THAT NEVER GOES OUT, the only Smiths single to be released exclusively to France, is the song HALF A PERSON:
It begins with these ominous lyrics from Morrissey:
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 shortly thereafter, Morrissey returns to the same theme:
Call
me morbid, call me pale
I've spent too long on your trail
Far too long
chasing your tail
Morrissey's words correlate unmistakably to the paparazzi – the tabloid photographers who had "spent years on [Diana’s] trail". Ultimately, they had "spent too long on [Diana's] trail" and by spending "Far too long chasing [Diana's] tail" they provoked her fatal car crash, at which point they were indeed being "called morbid" for taking photographs of the dying Princess instead of immediately phoning for an ambulance.
There is nothing in the remainder of the song's lyrics that would necessarily detract from its instantly obvious correlation to the paparazzi:
HALF A PERSON
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?
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."
Call
me morbid, call me pale
I've spent too long on your trail
Far too long
Chasing your tail
The middle verses merely reminisce about a fictional personal past that could hypothetically belong to anyone. It must therefore be said that they neither enhance nor diminish the correlation between the surrounding verses and the paparazzi.