I Can Have Both

This is definately one of my favourite B-Side tracks.

On the face of it it's a story about going to the shops and not being able to decide what to buy, but I presume it's really about bisexuality.

Does this track hold the key to Morrissey's sexuality, or was he writing generally about a "small shy boy" who might be unsure which gender he prefers?
 
i always thought he was looking in sex shop window and yes i think thats what he's saying if can have both (bisexuality)
 
I'm amazed that this song isn't crystal clear to everyone.
 
I always thought it was a metaphorical shop, selling metaphors. There are two different types of metaphors which are somehow diametrically opposed and cannot both be enjoyed. But Morrissey wants both.

I think the shop probably sells similes as well.

And, possibly, allusions.

I'm pretty sure it isn't a real shop, although it sounds a bit like Mr Fivvington's Chalk 'n' Cheese Shop in Skelmersdale.
 
I used to think it was an admission of bisexuality, but a closer reading, for me anyway, tells me it's about the ambivalence towards sex itself. He doesn't find it difficult to abstain, he doesn't find it difficult to indulge. I think the song is the bridge between the admission of his asexual years to the sexual years, and Morrissey admitting he's comfortable with both situations. Incidentally, don't believe everything you hear or see. At the Manchester conference some years ago (book of papers coming out soon!), Dave Haslam spoke very eloquently about his time knowing Morrissey, and flourished a postcard - ("I am critically maimed!" - Morrissey). It was Dave who said to the audience "...all that celibacy stuff, it's rubbish. I could tell you who he was sleeping with at the time!"; but he didn't.

Peter
 
Last edited:
Interesting idea about ICHB about ambivalence towards sex itself, Peter!

I, myself, would not close off other interpretations, but my personally preferred reading is that he is basically sexually open and available to anyone, to "anything you'd care to leave..." It's gotten to the point of being a silly put-on, but I do enjoy his panto about being some kind of desperate(ly lonely) slut overwhelmed with polymorphously perverse desire. The self-hating, self-defeating story of being able to have whomever he wanted but rejecting those who show interest a la Groucho Marx (I wouldn't want to belong to a club that would have me as a member) is old, but it goes on.

I've posted a couple of times (here and there) about an impromptu banner I made (out of a table cloth) at a concert: I wrote "We can have both", hoping that he would play it -- and he did on the next tour leg, a month and a half later, making it a tour staple. He was very coy, pretending he didn't know what the song was about. He asked me what "We can have both" meant and added that he's English and "therefore absolutely stupid" about the meaning of it. I retorted that it meant whatever he meant by "I Can Have Both" and asked him to explain himself, which he declined to do. My concertmate holding up the banner with me shouted out, "Special request!"

Mozzer's live show adlibs around this song are especially amusing. I liked it when he quipped that the song was merely about ice-cream -- that he could have vanilla AND strawberry -- that he didn't understand what all the fuss was about!

I have been to the shop that never opens, an actual place that inspired the song according to a big nose who knows. And I have seen Morrissey a couple of times at this place -- but sometimes I avoided Morrissey when I saw him there because he looked like he was in a foul mood (I was wrong, but oh well). It no longer exists in that location as it did in the mid-90s.
 
I used to think it was an admission of bisexuality, but a closer reading, for me anyway, tells me it's about the ambivalence towards sex itself. He doesn't find it difficult to abstain, he doesn't find it difficult to indulge. I think the song is the bridge between the admission of his asexual years to the sexual years, and Morrissey admitting he's comfortable with both situations. Incidentally, don't believe everything you hear or see. At the Manchester conference some years ago (book of papers coming out soon!), Dave Haslam spoke very eloquently about his time knowing Morrissey, and flourished a postcard - ("I am critically maimed!" - Morrissey). It was Dave who said to the audience "...all that celibacy stuff, it's rubbish. I could tell you who he was sleeping with at the time!"; but he didn't.

Peter

My only problem with this theory is that it cannot explain the statement "I can have both"? You can't. Can you?

You can't have your cherry and eat it :)
 
Every time I do my best to avoid making a decision I think about this song and love him for writing it :sweet:

(My default is to wait outside and hope to be dragged inside but I'm trying to change it now)
 
I love this song more than most. I'd say it's in my top 5 of his songs. To try and break down what he is saying into what I think he actually means, would be a waste of time. The song paints a picture of a shop and window, with him looking inside, but cuts to scenes of him walking the streets in a sort of frantic daze as he trys to figure out what it is that he actually wants, this, that, or both. Those are the images that come to my mind when I hear it.

For me, this song is musically fantastic. I do say that about many of his songs, but a lot of times I hear more the drums, guitars etc coupled with the sound of his voice and his inflection. More so than what he is actually saying. Still means the world to me but for different reasons.
 
I used to think the metaphor in this song was simply for bisexuality, especially as it relates to not conforming to expectations and not caring what people think, and that's probably not 100% wrong. But you can also interpret the 2 choices "take as I desire" or "wait and hope to be dragged inside" as metaphors for being the aggressor in a relationship.

It reminds me of one of his most common answers to any question about sex or love, "I'm never asked," or something to that effect. I think this song might be about telling himself that he can be the one pursuing people he's attracted to rather than waiting for them to make all the moves and drag him along. I've wondered if he has in mind a friend who he's also attracted to, and the "both" in this situation is making the huge step of asking that person to be both a friend and lover.
 
I always thought it was a metaphorical shop, selling metaphors. There are two different types of metaphors which are somehow diametrically opposed and cannot both be enjoyed. But Morrissey wants both.

I think the shop probably sells similes as well.

And, possibly, allusions.

I'm pretty sure it isn't a real shop, although it sounds a bit like Mr Fivvington's Chalk 'n' Cheese Shop in Skelmersdale.

I want a job in a shop like that. I can make metaphors to order. Like wedding cakes, you know? Only, that was a simile. Now you owe me ten bucks. :D
 
I used to think it was an admission of bisexuality, but a closer reading, for me anyway, tells me it's about the ambivalence towards sex itself. He doesn't find it difficult to abstain, he doesn't find it difficult to indulge. I think the song is the bridge between the admission of his asexual years to the sexual years, and Morrissey admitting he's comfortable with both situations. Incidentally, don't believe everything you hear or see. At the Manchester conference some years ago (book of papers coming out soon!), Dave Haslam spoke very eloquently about his time knowing Morrissey, and flourished a postcard - ("I am critically maimed!" - Morrissey). It was Dave who said to the audience "...all that celibacy stuff, it's rubbish. I could tell you who he was sleeping with at the time!"; but he didn't.
Peter
What a surprise! :rolleyes:
Is there any breed in Britain more gossipy, snipey and snarky than Mancs?
Especially Manchester musos. :rolleyes:reprise
 
I love this song more than most. I'd say it's in my top 5 of his songs. To try and break down what he is saying into what I think he actually means, would be a waste of time. The song paints a picture of a shop and window, with him looking inside, but cuts to scenes of him walking the streets in a sort of frantic daze as he trys to figure out what it is that he actually wants, this, that, or both. Those are the images that come to my mind when I hear it.

For me, this song is musically fantastic. I do say that about many of his songs, but a lot of times I hear more the drums, guitars etc coupled with the sound of his voice and his inflection. More so than what he is actually saying. Still means the world to me but for different reasons.

:thumb:
 
Mozzer's live show adlibs around this song are especially amusing. I liked it when he quipped that the song was merely about ice-cream -- that he could have vanilla AND strawberry -- that he didn't understand what all the fuss was about!

He said at a show I was at, very funny.

I've always liked this song and don't really care what it means.
 
Back
Top Bottom