There Is a Light That Never Goes Out (1986) – The Smiths

“I didn’t realise that ‘There Is a Light That Never Goes Out’ was going to be an anthem, but, when we first played it, I thought it was the best song I’d ever heard.”

– Johnny Marr’s (guitarist) comment on the song’s enduring popularity

This classic Smiths song is everything that’s so darn cool about them, wrapped up in one package:

• Morrissey’s warped, melancholic black-humour trickery – And if a double-decker bus crashes into us / To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die. AllMusic’s Tim DiGravina argued 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.”
• Johnny Marr’s jangly, metallic yet rustic guitar sound,
• an irresistibly alluring melody that makes you grin, even as it carries a romantic and pensive wistfulness,
• and the subject matter itself – the joy and reckless abandonment of early adulthood, heading out with your partner simply to go “where there’s music and there’s people.” The narrative recalls the James Dean film Rebel Without a Cause (1955), in which Dean – an idol of Morrissey’s – flees his torturous home life, riding as a passenger with a potential romantic partner. Morrissey even echoes a line from that movie (“It is not my home”) in the song. 

The clever fan-made music video at the end of this post, adapted from scenes of 500 days of Summer, begins with hopeless romantic Tom Hansen listening to this very song in an elevator. Summer, standing beside him, turns and says: “I love the Smiths.” Tom, startled, replies: “Sorry?” She repeats: “I said I love the Smiths… you’ve got great taste in music.” Tom, suddenly besotted, asks: “You like the Smiths?” She smiles and answers: “Yeah. To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die… I love them.” Then she steps out of the elevator, leaving Tom stunned, his only response a whispered: “Holy shit.”

It’s so perfectly captured – that instant of connection when someone loves a song as deeply as you do. I totally get that.

There Is a Light That Never Goes Out makes you want to relive your youth – go out, take risks, have fun, and soak up life. It’s an absolute humdinger.

The following was abridged from the Wikipedia reference below:
It featured on the band’s third studio album The Queen Is Dead (1986), and was not released as a single in the United Kingdom until 1992, five years after their break-up. It peaked at No. 25 on the UK 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“.

The Smiths began working on “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out” during their late-1985 recording sessions at London’s RAK Studios. Morrissey was sceptical about using synthesised strings, the lack of a budget to hire a real string ensemble as well as the band’s reluctance to allow outsiders into the recording process. 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.”

[Verse 1]
Take me out tonight
Where there’s music and there’s people
And they’re young and alive
Driving in your car
I never, never want to go home
Because I haven’t got one anymore
Take me out tonight
Because I want to see people
And I want to see lights
Driving in your car, oh, please don’t drop me home
Because it’s not my home, it’s their home
And I’m welcome no more

[Chorus]
And if a double-decker bus crashes into us
To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die
And if a ten tonne truck kills the both of us
To die by your side, well, the pleasure, the privilege is mine

[Verse 2]
Take me out tonight
Take me anywhere
I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t care
And in the darkened underpass
I thought “Oh God, my chance has come at last”
But then a strange fear gripped me and I just couldn’t ask
Take me out tonight
Oh, take me anywhere
I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t care
Driving in your car, I never, never want to go home
Because I haven’t got one
La-dee-dum, oh, I haven’t got one
Oh-oh, oh-oh-oh

[Chorus]

[Outro]
Oh, there is a light and it never goes out
There is a light and it never goes out..

References:
1. There Is a Light That Never Goes Out – Wikipedia