"Jack The Ripper"
(Morrissey/Boz Boorer)

 

These words are transcribed without permission the way they appear in Morrissey's "My Early Burglary Years" album. Additions to the printed lyrics are in darker text while omissions are striken out.

Oh, you look so tired
mouth slack and wide
ill-housed and ill-advised
your face is as mean
as your life has been
crash into my arms
- I want you
you don't agree
but you don't refuse 1
I know you
and I know a place
where no-one is likely to pass
Oh, you don't care if it's late
and you don't care if you're lost
and oh, you look so tired
but tonight you've presumed too much
too much, too much
and if it's the last thing I ever do
I'm gonna get you
crash into my arms
- I want you
you don't agree
but you don't refuse 1
I know you
and no one knows a thing about my life 2
I can come and go as I please
if I want to I can stay
or if I want to I can leave
nobody knows me, nobody knows me
nobody knows me, nobody knows me
aah, aah, nobody knows me
aah, aah, nobody knows me
aah, aah, nobody knows me

 

1 In live performances of this song on the You Are The Quarry tour Morrissey often sang "but you don't refuse me". On the Greatest Hits tour he usually improvised changes such as "but you never refuse", "but you didn't refuse", "just try to refuse", "but you had to refuse" or "and yet you don't refuse", and often followed these with the question "do you?", "did you?" or "would you?" instead of singing "...I know you".

2 This line and the ones following it are only heard in the studio version of the song. In live performances Morrissey drops them and repeats the chorus instead.