There Is a Light That Never Goes Out (1992)

"There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" is a song by the English rock band the Smiths, written by guitarist Johnny Marr and lead vocalist Morrissey. Featured on the band's third studio album The Queen Is Dead (1986), it was not released as a single in the United Kingdom until 1992, five years after their break-up, to promote the compilation album ...Best II. It peaked at No. 25 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 22 on the Irish Singles Chart. The song has received considerable critical acclaim; in 2014, NME listed it as the 12th-greatest song of all time. In 2021, it was ranked at No. 226 on Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

In 2005, Morrissey released a live version of the song as a double A-side with his cover of Patti Smith's "Redondo Beach", reaching No. 11 on the UK Singles Chart. In Ireland, the song was released alone and peaked at No. 45.

Origin and recording

The Smiths began working on "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" during their late-1985 recording sessions at London's RAK Studios. In early September, the band recorded a rehearsal tape of the song performed in the key of F♯ minor. Four days later, the group made a monitor mix in the key of C♯ minor, this time accompanied by a synthesised string arrangement Marr created on an E-mu Emulator (credited to the "Hated Salford Ensemble" on the album release). In his autobiography, Morrissey stated that he was initially sceptical of the song and suggested to Marr that it be left off The Queen Is Dead. He later reflected with relief that he had been mistaken, as the song went on to become one of The Smiths' most popular songs. Marr later described the recording process of the song as "magical" and commented, "Someone told me that if you listen with the volume really, really up you can hear me shout 'That was amazing' right at the end."

Composition and lyrics

It was written in tandem with "Bigmouth Strikes Again". The two songs share the same key as well as similar chords. Simon Goddard noted both the guitar break in "Bigmouth Strikes Again" and the flute section in "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" (originally written as a guitar part) are based on C♯ minor arpeggio figure. The song features an ascending F♯m–A–B chord sequence that guitarist Johnny Marr took from the Rolling Stones cover of Marvin Gaye's "Hitch Hike". Marr said in 1993 he included the figure as an "in-joke" to determine if the music press would attribute the inspiration for the part to "There She Goes Again" by the Velvet Underground, who he contended "stole" the figure from "Hitch Hike". Marr commented, "I knew I was smarter than that. I was listening to what the Velvet Underground were listening to".

AllMusic's Tim DiGravina argues that, while depressed characters were a regular feature in Morrissey's work, his lyric on "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" "ups the sad-and-doomed quotient by leaps and bounds." Goddard argues in his book Songs That Saved Your Life (2002) that the basic narrative story is similar to that of the James Dean film Rebel Without a Cause (1955), in which Dean—an idol of Morrissey's—leaves his tortuous home life, being the passenger to a potential romantic partner. In fact, a line from that movie ("It is not my home") is alluded to in the song. According to Goddard, an earlier version lacked some of the finished version's ambiguity, culminating in the line "There is a light in your eyes and it never goes out". Uncut also cited the British kitchen sink drama Saturday Night and Sunday Morning as an influence, specifically its line "Why don't you take me where it's lively and there's plenty of people?"

Release

Due to a dispute between the Smiths and its record label Rough Trade Records after the group completed The Queen Is Dead, nine months passed after the release of "The Boy with the Thorn in His Side" before the group issued another single. Once the matter was resolved, Rough Trade owner Geoff Travis felt that "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" should be the band's "comeback" record. Despite Travis's advocation of the song, Simon Goddard expressed doubt that the song's "explicit glamorisation of suicide" would have endeared it to daytime radio. Additionally, Johnny Marr was insistent that "Bigmouth Strikes Again" be the band's next single. Marr stated:

For a long time I worked on the premise that we should always have a song on each album that people said, 'That should be a single.' But in fact really wasn't. 'Reel Around the Fountain' was that for the first album and 'There Is a Light That Never Goes Out' for The Queen Is Dead.

Morrissey affirmed Marr's position, commenting, "We did want 'Bigmouth Strikes Again'. I suppose it should have been followed by 'There Is a Light That Never Goes Out' but by then we'd written 'Panic' and we were very eager to have it thrown out into the pop wilderness."