"In the midst of life we are in..." what?

At the end of "Sweet and Tender Hooligan," WTF is Morrissey saying we're in?


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Yadda yadda...

Riah Shusher said:

YOU'RE ALL WRONG!

It's both :p: http://www.oz.net/~moz/lyrics/louderth/sweetand.htm, I read somewhere that the "debt" lines were a reference to a comedian Morrissey was a fan of...

Ah, from the Sources page...

Sweet And Tender Hooligan

"In the midst of life we are in debt"
Peter Cook & Dudley Moore
"In the midst of life we are in death"
Coleridge (adapted by Cook and Moore for their sketch)
Also from The Burial Service in the Book of Common Prayer
 
I voted other but upon listening it's "in debt."
 
I was going to say it's "in the midst of life we are ended" and make a case that he's singing the woes of a man suffering from erectile dysfunction, but to tell you the truth I sort of welcome a limp dick around these parts now and then.
 
I just heard 'debt' also in the last line. I just want to show weakness in admitting my wrongness quite yet. :D

edit: so it is both! haha, it is a twist.
 
Damn it. :doh:
I voted death.
But the last line is clearly debt.

I just heard 'debt' also in the last line. I just want to show weakness in admitting my wrongness quite yet. :D

edit: so it is both! haha, it is a twist.

There's peace through our school
It's so quiet in the hall
It's a strange sign for one
Of what's to come
Tough and cold and pale
Oh, they may just impale you on railings
Oh, English boys
It must be wrong
FOUR against one ? ;)
 
I'm in the scarlett stench of debt.
 
Ahem. The word is sung five times in the album version. The first and third are very clearly "death," the second sounds like "death" but is a little more uncertain. The fourth instance could be either, but the final one seems very definitely to be "debt."

How could you expect Morrissey to let a chance for wordplay slip by like that? I think it's his favorite thing. The songs are full of it. And still, to this day - "Je Suis Morrissey" is brilliant. Aren't there at least three different ways to interpret that?

Slightly more scandalous is this question: does he sing "et cetera" or "ec cetera," which is incorrect but a very common error?
 
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and we have a winner at least it's not a game it's 'debt' not 'death' lyrics nothing better to do pedantic search thy heart slow news night ye know it to be "both"
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