Pregnant For The Last Time - meaning?

[Young And Alive]

I've always wondered what Morrissey was thinking of when he wrote this track.

Could it be about a disloyal lover? Either that or someone whom the protagonist wanted to have a relationship with, but they have left them in the lurch by taking ages to make up their mind over whether they want a relationship or not, only to "see someone new" and "have someone new" i.e. go out with someone else.

Sarcastically, the protagonist proclaims that "we're so glad that you've finally decided!", resigned to his fate that he is of course unloveable and knew he never had any real chance of winning over the object of his desire, hence the line "I don't blame you" but then also expressing sadness at the hurt his love has caused him "we would all do the same as you, if ever we had the nerve to".

 

[Uncleskinny]

Phlegm lapels?

One of his oddest lyrics.

Peter

 

[Oh my god. it's Robby!]

i think its actually about "losing meaning"
or having it for the last time, but i was a pretty messed up dude when that song was new, so i could be wrong now
however, the meaning i attach to Moz songs tends to be to very specific to a time in my life, not his

 

[Irish Budd]

"Phlegm lapels for the last time"

That line never fails to makes me laugh,i always associate with a mother holding a baby that has just barfed up some phlegm on her jacket..

 

[troubleluvsme]

"Phlegm lapels for the last time"

That line never fails to makes me laugh,i always associate with a mother holding a baby that has just barfed up some phlegm on her jacket..

Yes! I had phlegm lapels for a long time.

 

[Lemon]

"Phlegm lapels for the last time"

That line never fails to makes me laugh,i always associate with a mother holding a baby that has just barfed up some phlegm on her jacket..

That's what springs to my mind too, I've heard it also called (if I remember rightly) burp badges .

 

[Dothatagain?]

"Phlegm lapels for the last time"

That line never fails to makes me laugh,i always associate with a mother holding a baby that has just barfed up some phlegm on her jacket..

I think that's just about it.

I honestly don't think the song is anything deeper than a comedy about a woman who just keeps getting pregnant, with different men. She keeps "deciding" that this is the last time ... but then she sees, wants, and has someone new, and ends up pregnant again.

 

[Uncleskinny]

I think that's just about it.

I honestly don't think the song is anything deeper than a comedy about a woman who just keeps getting pregnant, with different men. She keeps "deciding" that this is the last time ... but then she sees, wants, and has someone new, and ends up pregnant again.

Six filthy children, by six absent fathers...

Peter

 

[Mel_Torment]

Six filthy children, by six absent fathers...

Peter

Slum mums?

Yes, I've always thought PFTLT had too many specifics about actual pregnancy to be simply metaphorical. But it can extend to metaphor about having the nerve to be footloose and fancy free (i.e., slutty) precisely because of the line "we would all do the same as you if ever we had the nerve to".

Back to six filthy sprogs from six absent fathers...on a public health rotation I met several teen mums who had had several children all by different fathers. Sadly, their outlook is very poor -- no education, drug use, poverty and inertia. One mum, who had begun having children every year since age 15, is now 19 with her fifth newborn and says that she knows she should go on birth control. Ya think? Why start now? Well, I guess starting now is better than starting after the 10th or so child. Better late than never.

Don't get me started on Nadya Suleman. She's not some uneducated teen who doesn't know any better. But she refused the free housing and free expert nursing care for her children, probably because the nurses firmly nixed any kind of "reality show" involvement if they were to provide free care. But apparently she has no problem being a multimillion $ burden to taxpayers. Suleman appears more interested in scoring a reality show than caring for the real needs of her children. I hope the state takes all of her children away and places them in loving homes with fit parents. And I really hope that she was pregnant for the LAST time.

Hey, maybe like David Alice, I can create a whole website around the thesis that Morrissey presciently wrote PFTLT about Octumum!

I find Morrissey's comments about auto-impregnation for males and wanting to be a candidate (batner during the 1st night at the SF FIllmore in 2007), the song PFTLT, and posing with the baby of his tour manager on YOR very interesting. Oh, and let's not forget that every night on that tour leg he had been singing "STretch Out & Wait" where he wonders, "And is there any point in having children?" He usually answers it with "No, no, no..." I try to give a different answer every time he proffers the mic to me during that verse. He never seems to like the answer I give.

 

[PregnantForTheLastTime]

Oh, and let's not forget that every night on that tour leg he had been singing "STretch Out & Wait" where he wonders, "And is there any point in having children?" He usually answers it with "No, no, no..." I try to give a different answer every time he proffers the mic to me during that verse. He never seems to like the answer I give.

At one show I attended, he sang, "Is there any point ever having... puppies?" Yes, of course! Puppies are housebroken much sooner than human children. And they don't talk back.

I suppose it's inevitable that a person who chose not to have children will continue to revisit that decision throughout life. It's human nature to second guess every decision you've ever made.

I chose the song title as my username on an interpretive twist: I have two children now, and had considerable medical problems achieving those two healthy births. When I registered here I grabbed that song title as a symbol of my thought process at the time: "that was the last time." So I'm sure I read the song in light tinted the color of... relief?

 

[zacksfansite]

I've always wondered what Morrissey was thinking of when he wrote this track.

Could it be about a disloyal lover? Either that or someone whom the protagonist wanted to have a relationship with, but they have left them in the lurch by taking ages to make up their mind over whether they want a relationship or not, only to "see someone new" and "have someone new" i.e. go out with someone else.

Sarcastically, the protagonist proclaims that "we're so glad that you've finally decided!", resigned to his fate that he is of course unloveable and knew he never had any real chance of winning over the object of his desire, hence the line "I don't blame you" but then also expressing sadness at the hurt his love has caused him "we would all do the same as you, if ever we had the nerve to".

Wow.
I'm going through this.
:/

Thanks to the girl leaning against me in my avatar.

 

[EPbabe]

I think that's just about it.

I honestly don't think the song is anything deeper than a comedy about a woman who just keeps getting pregnant, with different men. She keeps "deciding" that this is the last time ... but then she sees, wants, and has someone new, and ends up pregnant again.

That. It's a great song, very catchy, bouncy and lyrics are hilarious.

 

[Mel_Torment]

Why would he want to be a candidate for auto-impregnation if he says that there is no point in ever having any children?
In an interview in the 80s he said he wanted children and thought he'd become a good parent.
What happened between then and now?

Which interview? I recall an interview around the mid-90s where Morrissey says he'd be a horrible father, all Dickensian-like. It was probably in Les Inrockuptiles because it was in French. He probably was exaggerating somewhat.

I was at the concert where Moz talked about auto-impregnation. He was probably half-joking, half-serious in that the idea intrigued him. I mean more musing-aloud of whatever nonsense was rolling around in his mind. And since when have you known Moz NOT to be self-contradictory?

Like Prego said, it's natural for him to wonder about the road not taken.

I fleetingly wonder sometimes about having children. I've long passed the age of where I would want to have my first pregnancy, so i feel safe now. If I don't have baby urges now, I likely never will. It seems like an incredible hassle. I'd probably love my children, but the only way I'd end up pregnant would be if I lived in the bad old days of no legal birth control and enforced heterosexual marriages. Because I have the power, I can choose not to inflict life upon someone who never asked for it. I would not wish the current state of the world on someone I loved or even just liked. There's too many humans overruning and destroying the planet already. What makes my progeny so special? Nothing.

 

[5am]

I always thought it's about the embrace pregnant women get from society, and how it can sound appealing for someone how doesn't fit in.

 

[CrookedLittleVein]

I also saw it as vaguely political - when it came out there was still a lot of Tory/Daily Mail victimisation of single mothers ("benefit cheats blah blah") going on in the UK. I always thought of Pregnant For The Last Time as being a satire on that situation and, in a comedy manner, offering sympathy to single mothers at a time when they were being persecuted in the media.

Whereas The Slum Mums is just a bad repeat of the same theme with none of the humour.

I think Slum Mums is the grim flipside of Pregnant for the Last Time. It's one of the things that makes Morrissey's songwriting so interesting, his ability to hop from one perspective to another: The Headmaster Ritual/The Teachers are Afraid of the Pupils, Suffer Little Children/Ambitious Outsiders, Paint a Vulgar Picture/Suedehead etc. I'm sure there are more...

 

[CrookedLittleVein]

Don't get that one?

As well as being about the brutalities of the record industry, Paint a Vulgar Picture shows Morrissey as the adoring fan ("I walked a pace behind you at the soundcheck..."), whereas Suedehead is very much from the perspective of the irritated idol ("Why do you come here? Why do you hang around?").

 

[koffinjoe]

Its about a HOE having lots of kids maybe OCTOMOM.