In this song, it is unclear if The Smiths' front man, Morrissey, is truly distraught about the condition of his girlfriend, or if he is being sarcastic. Morrissey's sexuality has been a matter of conjecture for many years, so it is even debatable whether the "girlfriend" referred to in this song is his own.
The B-side to this single is a cover of Liverpudlian singer Cilla Black's song, "Work Is a Four Letter Word." Guitarist, Johnny Marr, detested this cover so much that he quit the band soon after recording it. Marr recalled to Record Collector magazine in 1992: "'Work Is A Four Letter Word' I hated. That was the last straw, really. I didn't form a group to perform Cilla Black songs. That was it, really. I made a decision that I was going to get away on holiday. The only place I could think of was L.A. L.A. was the only place I knew where there'd be sunshine, so off I went. I never saw Morrissey again."
The single artwork is an image of the British dramatist, Shelagh Delaney, who wrote the play, A Taste of Honey - a work which Morrissey references in multiple Smiths songs, including "Hand in Glove" and "Reel Around the Fountain."
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