These words are transcribed without permission the way they appear in the "Viva Hate" album. Additions to the printed lyrics are in darker text while omissions are striken out.

The strange logic of in your clumsiest line
(it stayed, it stayed)
it stayed emblazoned on my mind
(you say)
you say break up the family
and lets begin to live our lives
I want to see all my friends tonight ¹
it wasn't Youth, it wasn't even Life
born Old, sadly wise
resigned (well, we were)
to ending our lives ²
I'm so glad to grow older
to move away from those awful times
I want to see all my friends tonight ¹
Yes you found love but you weren't
at peace with your life
home late, full of Hate
despise the ties that bind
oh I'm so glad to grow older
to move away from those younger years ³
now I'm in love for the first time ⁴
and I don't feel bad
Let me see all my old friends
let me put my arms around them
because I really do love them
now, does that sound mad?
Captain of games, solid framed
I stood on the touchline
hailstones, driven home
in his a car - no brakes? I don't mind
I'm just so glad to grow older ⁵
to move away from those darker years ³
I'm in love for the first time ⁴
and I don't feel bad
so wish me luck my friends
goodbye
so wish me luck again
goodbye
(wish me luck again goodbye)
(wish me luck again goodbye)

 

² On a few occasions on the Oye Esteban tour Morrissey sang "resigned well we were to ending my life".

³ On the Oye Esteban tour these lines were usually changed to "to move away from those awful times".

⁴ On the Oye Esteban tour these lines were often changed to "I'm in love for the last time".

⁵ Now and again on the Oye Esteban tour Morrissey sang "I'm so glad to be older".

Quotes

In an interview published in Melody Maker in 1988, Morrissey said "The song 'Break Up The Family' is strongly linked with 'Suedehead' and 'Maudlin Street', that whole period in 1972, when I was 12, 13. 'Break Up' is about a string of friends I had who were very intense people and at that age, when your friends talk about the slim separation between life and death - and you set that against the fact that this period of your youth is supposed to be the most playful and reckless - well, if you utilised that period in a very intense way, well, that feeling never really leaves you. (...) The family in the song is the circle of friends, where it almost seemed, because we were so identical, that for anybody to make any progress in life, we'd have to split up. Because there was no strength in our unity. And that's what happened, we did all go our separate ways, and quite naturally came to no good. I saw one of them quite recently, and it was a very headscratching experience."