"Maladjusted"
(Morrissey/Boz Boorer)

 

These words are transcribed without permission the way they appear in the original edition of Morrissey's "Maladjusted" album (the lyrics in the redesigned edition have minor aesthetic differences). Additions to the printed lyrics are in darker text while omissions are striken out.

(sample: On this glorious occasion ... of the splendid defeat)

I wanna start from
before the beginning
loot wine: "Be mine, and
then let's stay out for the night"
Ride via Parkside
semi-perilous lives
jeer the lights in the windows
of all safe and stable homes
(But wondering then, well what
could peace of mind be like?)
Anyway do you want to hear
our story, or not?
as the Fulham Road lights
stretch and invite into the night
from a Stevenage overspill
we'd kill to live around
SW6-with someone like you
keep thieves' hours
with someone like you
...as long as it slides
You stalk the house
in a low-cut blouse:
"Oh Christ, another stifled
Friday night!"
and the Fulham Road lights
stretch and invite into the night
well, I was fifteen
what could I know?
when the gulf between
all the things I need
and the things I receive
is an ancient ocean
wide, wild, lost, uncrossed
still I maintain there's nothing
wrong with you
you do all that you do
because it's all you can do
well, I was fifteen
where could I go? 1
with a soul full of loathing
for stinging bureaucracy
making it anything
other than easy
for working girls like me
with my hands on my head
I'll flop on your bed
with a head full of dread
for all I've ever said
Maladjusted, maladjusted
maladjusted, maladjusted
never to be trusted
Oh, never to be trusted 2
There's nothing wrong with you
There's nothing wrong with you
There's nothing wrong with you
There's nothing wrong with you
There's nothing wrong with you

 

1 When performing this song on the Maladjusted tour, Morrissey sometimes sang this line as "what could I know?".

2 When performing this song on the Maladjusted tour, Morrissey sometimes sang "I'm never to be trusted".

 

Quotes

On the subject of this song in the 2009 expanded and redesigned edition of the "Maladjusted" album, Morrissey wrote: "Boz had written a risky tune with a dramatic outro. I ignore the risky tune and utilize only the outro, making it the entire recorded song. If Life is meaningless, then why did it ever begin? Michael Bracewell asks, 'are you mentioning Stevenage because you like Here we go round the mulberry bush so much?' and my answer is No. It is enough just to be."