Lifeguard Sleeping, Girl Drowning

From Morrissey-solo Wiki
Revision as of 13:27, 22 August 2021 by Davidt (talk | contribs)
Cover art
MORRISSEY song
Name Lifeguard Sleeping, Girl Drowning
Album/single Vauxhall And I
Length 3:42
Writer/composer Morrissey/Boorer
Producer Steve Lillywhite
Recorded Summer 1993


Information

The song features a sample of the line "what's your name?" by actress Kay Walsh from the 1942 film "In Which We Serve."

The title is asserted by Goddard in Mozipedia to be derived from a poem by Stevie Smith entitled: "Not Waving, But Drowning" (1957). Excerpt:

‘Inspired by real facts’, or so Morrissey teased, this sinister if blackly comic vignette was strongly reminiscent of Stevie Smith’s famous 1957 poem ‘Not Waving, But Drowning’. Whereas in Smith’s tale a man drowns out at sea watched by oblivious bystanders who mistake his flailing arms for playful ‘larking’, in Morrissey’s version an exhausted lifeguard calmly and maliciously allows a girl in similar peril to drown so he can sleep in peace.

Lyrics

Always looking for attention Always needs to be mentioned Who does she think she should be?

The shrill cry through darkening air Doesn't she know he's Had such a busy day?

Tell her...shh Somebody tell her...shh

No way, no way There's no movement, no Hooray

It was only a test But she swam too far against the tide She deserves all she gets

The sky became mad with stars As an out-stretched arm slowly disappears

Hooray Oh, hooray No, there's no movement, no Hooray, hooray

Please don't worry there'll be no fuss She was...nobody's nothing

When he awoke the sea was calm And another day passes like a dream

There's no, no way


Live History

Play count (Morrissey concert): 0


Appears On


Related Forum Threads