TLDW; We won't know until Morrissey says whether it is or isn't.
You'd be
Because there's a children's choir on the studio recording? And that was added to give it a more anthemic singalong style to the big line repeated at the end?
British radio DJs were associated with children in the public mind of that time, whether from Top of the Pops, the Sunshine Club or records made for kids by the most popular DJs.An interesting musical choice to have what sounds like children singing the words “hang the DJ” on the studio recording. Of all the choices they could have gone with to accompany Morrissey’s voice and make the closing moments sound more anthemic: a soaring guitar solo, violins, regular layered backing vocals, keyboards, thumping ominous drums, they went with the sound of children singing the words. Children’s voices are often used to evoke something specific in song: childhood innocence or the removal of innocence, not just “let’s do this to make it sound more anthemic”. I’d like to think Morrissey put more thought into his decisions than that where the band and its music and imagery were concerned, and everything we know about him during that period suggests that he did. I know some people cling to established narratives like their lives depend on it, but there’s no ‘conspiracy’ thinking to this, no dark hidden secrets. It makes sense from one point to the next and logical leaps don’t have to be made in order to make it work. For that reason it’s an intriguing alternative explanation for the origins of ‘Panic’, but without some sort of confirmation it can only ever be guesswork.
Amazingly, the only time i heard Pregnant for The Last Time ever on the radio was on Steve Wright in The Afternoon. I think he made a pissy remark afterwards, but still, he did play it.Wright was known for saying The Smiths weren't suitable for daytime Radio 1. I don't think that t-shirt was official Smiths merch even though Morrissey wore one of them.
I don't think those parts of the lyrics fully fit with the Jimmy Savile interpretation either though.The Steve Wright/Chernobyl news report is a good cover story but isn’t in-keeping with the panic around Britain theme of most of the lyrics. What has jogging around provincial towns in Britain got to do with Chernobyl or Steve Wright? What’s the “panic” about, what’s the ‘honey pie’ of the song running from and seeking “safety” from? Bad music on the radio?
It's fairly obvious that Jack The Ripper is about The Boston Strangler.More importantly, is What Kind Of People Live In These Houses about Fred West??
And I’m working on a theory about the song Jack The Ripper. Stayed tuned to folk-devil.org for updates.
That’s what they want you to think.It's fairly obvious that Jack The Ripper is about The Boston Strangler.
TLDW; We won't know until Morrissey says whether it is or isn't.
Only half?"Panic" is pure genius, obviously. And I love that when you see the handwritten lyrics, they look like they were written by someone half deranged:
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Sadowitz being banned for accusing Saville is mentioned in Hargreaves' video in the 10th minute along with reference to Lydon getting in trouble for pointing the finger too.With regard to Jimmy Savile, 1987 was the year Jerry Sadowitz got in trouble with his Gobshite live comedy LP. Although he was banned, the subject wasn't exactly off-the-radar. In the days before internet and social media, there were lots of stories about celebrities which *everyone* knew but never talked about on record.
Jerry Sadowitz - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Ricky Gervais is one of several mediocre later comics who got a career off doing a weak imitation of Sadowitz.