A Reflection on the Smiths song “Still Ill”
Morrissey would argue that an influx of immigrants into the West has caused us to regress on animal rights and environmentalism, at least temporarily. The clues are everywhere regarding Morrissey’s personal inclinations, he’s on record numerous times regarding why he named the band The Smiths — it’s named after common everyday people, after all.
I was born in 1984, in California. I wasn’t a super cool kid, but I had some cool friends. I got into 70s punk and 80s New Wave more than 15 years after they happened. Like many my age, I started listening to The Clash, New Order, The Cure, The Smiths in the late 90s and early 2000s. By the time I reached early adulthood, it was clear that English pop music was far superior to the American variety, as the English churned out quality music at rate that when adjusted to a per capita basis, was astonishing. I chalk it up to better music education in British schools, but there are other reasons, surely.
Still Ill is probably my favorite track by the Smiths, and the live version bests the recorded one, a rare case of that. The opening lines:
I decree today that life is simply taking and not giving
England is mine, it owes me a living
But ask me why, and I’ll spit in your eye
In the above stanza it’s unclear exactly what Morrissey is saying, but it seems clear enough that he is criticizing people that feel entitled to the riches of British societies without having to work or contribute.
Morrissey is a bit of a mystery — for example nobody knows for sure what his sexual orientation is, and this has been subject of much curiosity. But I think it’s no secret that Morrissey is a conservative, or more accurately a populist conservative. Proving that you can be an animal rights proponent and queer, and still hold primarily conservative political views.
I think we can suss out his exact political orientation, from his public statements. It’s important to remember that Morrissey is Irish by blood who was born and lived his formative years in England. For centuries there was animosity between the English and Irish. Even in the United States the same was true. The Irish in England were considered foreigners for centuries. So it’s a bit ironic for him to criticize foreigners, although we can say that there is a greater British identity, not just an English one.
I remember reading circa 2012 that Morrissey had discussed London becoming lost to foreigners: “If you walk through Knightsbridge on any bland day of the week you won’t hear an English accent. You’ll hear every accent under the sun apart from the British accent…England is a memory now. The gates are flooded and anybody can have access to England and join in.”
Let’s get back to Still Ill:
Does the body rule the mind
Or does the mind rule the body?
I dunno
He’s admitting to plenty of uncertainty and doubt — and in my opinion that often leads to conservative views — if you don’t have any utopian plans or grand schemes, the best solution is to fall back on tradition.
Under the iron bridge we kissed
And although I ended up with sore lips
It just wasn’t like the old days anymore
No, it wasn’t like those days, am I still ill?
In the above stanza, I think Morrissey is admitting he’s lost most of his youthful idealism, whatever it might have been. Now let’s see what he reportedly said in the media 15 years after writing Still Ill:
“Although I don’t have anything against people from other countries, the higher the influx into England the more the British identity disappears.”
but then Morrissey will say things like:
“The sorrow of the IRA Brighton bombing is that Thatcher escaped unscathed.”
Now returning to probably the most interesting lines of Still Ill:
But we cannot cling to the old dreams anymore
No, we cannot cling to those dreams
This part I am not sure about — was he talking about socialism or a general sense of idealism? Like any good lyricist, he leaves things open-ended and up to interpretation on the part of the audience.
I might not agree with Morrissey on everything, but I think what he says regarding immigration are truisms. And I think it’s fair to say that Morrissey expatriated himself from Londonistan, or if I may coin the term Britainistan. Morrissey is an old school conservative — a populist. Morrissey is a fan of Brexit, but not of the neo-conservatism and neo-liberalism of Thatcher, etc. His negative views of Muslims and Asians make sense given their treatment of animals was less progressive than treatment of them in England, at least according to Morrissey. Well we can say that for sure that “Big Mouth Strikes Again”!
