These words are transcribed without permission the way they appear in the "Bona Drag" album, except for the last few lines and italics which were taken from the "Viva Hate" lyrics. The transcriptions from each of these albums are slightly incorrect in different places, though the "Bona Drag" transcription is more accurate. See note 2 at the bottom of this page. Additions to the printed lyrics are in darker text while omissions are striken out.

Why do you come here
and why, why do you hang around? ¹
I'm so sorry
I'm so sorry
why do you come here
when you know it makes
things hard for me?
when you know, oh
why do you come?
Why do you telephone
and why send me silly notes?
I'm so sorry
I'm so sorry
Why do you come here
when you know it makes
things hard for me?
when you know, oh
why do you come? ²
You had to sneak into my room ³
'just' to read my diary
it was just to see, just to see
all the things you knew ⁴
I'd written about you
and oh so many illustrations ⁵
oh but I'm so very sickened
oh, I am so sickened NOW
It was a good lay, good lay ⁶
It was a good lay, good lay
It was a good lay, good lay
It was a good lay, good lay ⁶
It was a good lay, good lay
It was a good lay, good lay
It was a good lay, it was a good lay
It was a good lay, good lay, good lay
It was a good lay...

 

² In the live version heard on "Beethoven Was Deaf", this line was followed by the answer "Well it was because / everything that I did / I wrote it down / On the wall". In the live version from 1991 found on the "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful" single, he sings something undecipherable but different. On the Later With Jools Holland performance from 1995 he sang "Well it's because / everything that I am / I never know" or something similar.

³ When Morrissey did this song on the very first few dates of the Tour Of The Tormentors MMVI, this line and the following were changed to "You had to sneak into my room just to play Your Arsenal / It was just to see, just to see all the songs you knew I'd written about you" and "...just to see, just to see all the crap you knew I'd written about you".

⁴ On the 2002 tour Morrissey very often changed this line to "all the crap you knew I'd written about you".

⁵ During the one-off Wolverhampton gig from 1988, most of the 1991 Kill Uncle tour and a bit of the 1992 Your Arsenal tour, Morrissey sang this line as "but so many blank pages". In the lyrics given with the "Bona Drag" album, this line is actually printed as such.

⁶ As heard on the live album "Beethoven Was Deaf", Morrissey would often sing these lines as "Still it was a good lay, good lay" on the Your Arsenal tour as well as during the 1995 Japanese dates and the 2006 warm-up dates.

Quotes

Here is an excerpt of a Morrissey interview by journalist Len Brown published in the NME in February 1988:
LB: "For starters, surely 'Suedehead' has something to do with Richard Allen's pre-punk seminal trash novel of the same name? Yet there's no mention of suedehead(s) in the lyrics?"
M: "No, I'd noticed that. Does the song have anything to do with the title? Well, I did happen to read the book when it came out and I was quite interested in the whole Richard Allen cult. But really I just like the word 'suedehead'."
LB: "So it's not even based on an episode from Suedehead?"
M: "No, not really."
LB: "And it's not about anyone in particular?"
M: "Yes, it is, but I'd rather not give any addresses and phone numbers at this stage."

Sounds interview, June 1988:
Sounds: Did [you] really sing, "It was a good lay" at the end of "Suedehead"?
M: "No, 'It was a bootleg'. I mean, good heavens, in my vocabulary? Please..."
Sounds: Honestly?
M: "Well, have I ever been dishonest?" he laughs. "Do people think it was 'a good lay'?"
Sounds: I do.
M: "And is that quite racy?"
Sounds: Oh, yes.
M: "Well, it was actually 'a good lay'."
Sounds: And was there one?
M: "No, I just thought it might amuse someone living in Hartlepool."