I always reckoned that the world can be divided into two kinds of people: those who think that The Smiths’ There Is A Light That Never Goes Out is the greatest love song ever written, and those who think it’s sick and wrong.
I was reminded of this on Monday night, lying on a sofa listening to the Divine Comedy’s cover of aforementioned song, on the cover album The Smiths Is Dead, which is an entire rendition of The Queen Is Dead in covers. (Aside: it’s really patchy. Highlights include Billy Bragg’s Never Had No One Ever, Therapy?’s Vicar In a Tutu, and (in a way) the Divine Comedy track. The real standout, though, is Bigmouth Strikes Again by Placebo. Which is awesome, strident, and punky.) Neil Hannon takes it all a bit slower and schmaltzier, and I’m not convinced it works entirely - but what is carried over is the conviction within the song, the passion therein. And so the different take on it still gives it the same emotional kick of the Smiths’ track; just in a different voice.
At University, we had a blind date for charity. I did it two years running; it’s not the most pleasant of nights and generally most people hate it, not to mention it’s not quite my bag, but I did it nontheless; it was for charity, after all. On the form you filled in to be matched with your partner, it asked you for your favourite song lyric. I tried to think of something both romantic and enigmatic. And wrote:
“And if a double-decker bus crashes into us, to die by your side, such a heavenly way to die“.
Whoever got that would either think I was deranged, or fascinating and sensitive.
I prayed for the latter.