"I swear to God I never knew, I never kew what drugs were."

[Neader]

Okay I quoted the song wrong, I realized that about 5 seconds after I made this post so don't call me out on it.

I was listening to The Queen is Dead about 30 seconds ago and this line struck me.

I always thought it was Morrissey just being surprised about the state of society.

However, the way his voice cracks on the "were" it makes me think differently.

Supposedly people's voice's crack when they lie, so is Morrissey lying about not knowing what drugs were when he was 9 and just trying to be funny?

 

[Amy]

Okay I quoted the song wrong, I realized that about 5 seconds after I made this post so don't call me out on it.

I was listening to The Queen is Dead about 30 seconds ago and this line struck me.

I always thought it was Morrissey just being surprised about the state of society.

However, the way his voice cracks on the "were" it makes me think differently.

Supposedly people's voice's crack when they lie, so is Morrissey lying about not knowing what drugs were when he was 9 and just trying to be funny?

Yeah. It's just a joke.

 

[Worm]

Okay I quoted the song wrong, I realized that about 5 seconds after I made this post so don't call me out on it.

I was listening to The Queen is Dead about 30 seconds ago and this line struck me.

I always thought it was Morrissey just being surprised about the state of society.

However, the way his voice cracks on the "were" it makes me think differently.

Supposedly people's voice's crack when they lie, so is Morrissey lying about not knowing what drugs were when he was 9 and just trying to be funny?

I like your interpretation a lot. You could be right. I've always thought it was more a way of sounding vaguely pathetic, though. More on the self-deprecating tip. Remember, this is the man who once joshed that he'd gone through twenty-six years of life without noticing that some women were shaped differently than others, and in a solo song made fun of himself for wearing a belted coat. He not-so-secretly knows he hasn't a clue and enjoys joking about it.

 

[Mr. Tibbles]

I always interpret that as the 9-year-old's voice maybe starting to crack due to early puberty. I could just be pulling this out of my ass, however.

 

[butley]

I think Morrissey is genuinely saying it is a sad state of affairs when children know what drugs are...as he didn't.

Incidentally there is a Victoria Wood monologue where she says that the some of the girls at her school were so rough that they just used to take drugs in the toilet all day. She then says that some of the girls were so posh they didn't know what drugs were!!! The punchline is that the posh girls didn't know what toilets were either. Boom boom