The Smiths A-Z: "Stretch Out And Wait"

[Famous when dead]

The lyrics changing between the single & The World Won't Listen version hasn't ever been clearly explained.

Morrissey:
"In The Smiths' song, 'Stretch Out And Wait', there is a line 'God, how sex implores you'. To make choices, to change and to be different, to do something and make a stand, and I always found that very, very encroaching on any feelings that I felt that I just wanted to be me, which was somewhere between this world and the next world, somewhere between this sex and the next sex, but nothing really political, but nothing really threatening to anybody on earth and nothing really dramatic. Just being me as an individual and not wishing to make any elaborate, strangulating statements."

Melody Maker - September 27, 1986.

Suggested sources for song lyrics:

* Men’s Liberation, a ‘new definition of masculinity’ by Jack Nichols: “We are here and it is now”.’
* Rebel Without A Cause (1955): Plato/Jim exchange: "You think the end of the world will come at nighttime, Jim"
* Karen (1978): The Go-Betweens: "Are so damn-da-da-da-damned cold. 'Cos they must have eskimo blood in their veins. And the one that I want I just can't see"

Played ~65 times by The Smiths & 44 times by Morrissey.

Thoughts?
Regards,
FWD.

 

[Anonymous]

Regardless of the lyric change, Morrissey's vocal performance on the original single version is a bit wavering and hugely inferior to the World Won't Listen version. I've always presumed they weren't fully happy with the original version, and went back in the studio to tidy it up

 

[The Wild Turkey]

That line "We're here and it's now", is probably one of the Moz lines
I go ahead and say the most.
Come to think of it, one time we were sittin' around at a family gatherin'
and my Aunt asked if anyone had a statement and I said yep, "we're here and
it's now".
They really liked the line and asked where it was from and I told'em it was
from a Smiths song "Stretch Out And Wait".