"Get Off The Stage"
(Morrissey/Andy Rourke)

 

This song has yet to appear on an album. Its lyrics are transcribed here without permission, as they are heard.

You silly old man
You silly old man
You're making a fool of yourself
So get off the stage

You silly old man
In your misguided trousers
With your mascara and your Fender guitar 1
And you think your can arouse us

But the song that you just sang
It sounds exactly like the last one
And the next one I bet you it will sound
Like this one

Downstage and offstage
Don't you feel all run in?
And do you wonder when they will take it away
And this is your final fling

But then applause ran high
But for the patience of the ones behind you
As a verse drags on like a month drags on
It's very short but it seems very long

And the song that you just sang
It sounds exactly like the last one
And the next one I bet you it will sound
Like this one

So get off the stage
Get off the stage
And when we get down off of the stage
Please stay off the stage old age

Get off the stage
Get off the stage
And when we've had our money back
Then I'd like your back in plaster

Oh I know that you say
How age has no meaning
Oh but here is your audience now
And they're screaming

Get off the stage
Get off the stage
Cause I've given you enough of my time
And the money that wasn't even mine
(have you seen yourself recently)

Oh get off the stage
Oh get off the stage

For whom the bell tolls

 

1 In an interview to GQ magazine in 2005, when discussing his most 'ambitious lyrics', Morrissey said "Pathetically I once tried to rhyme ‘mascara’ with ‘Fender guitar’".

 

Quotes

In an interview published in The Face in 1990, Morrissey said "There's a song on this album that has the Rolling Stones in mind because I've been so disgusted by their most recent comeback that I no longer find it sad or pitiful, I just feel immense anger that they don't just get out of the way. You open papers in this country, and every day there's the obligatory picture of, y'know, Mick-with-bags-at-the-airport, or Keith saying he's completely normal now. They just won't move away! The song is called 'Get Off The Stage'."

When questioned about which of his song he is most proud lyrically in a Q&A published on the True-To-You website in November 2005, Morrissey answered "It's impossible to answer this because I'm proud of most of them. There are only a few that make me shudder – such as "Get Off The Stage," "Journalists Who Lie," "I Don't Owe You Anything"... But most of them, I think, somehow stand the test of time. Of course, some songs are better than others..."