"Girl Afraid"
(Morrissey/Marr)

 

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

Girl afraid
where do his intentions lay?

Or does he even have any?

She says:
"He never really looks at me
I give him every opportunity
in the room downstairs
he sat and stared
in the room downstairs
he sat and stared
I'll never make that mistake again!"

I'll never make that mistake again
I'll never make that mistake again
1

Boy afraid
prudence never pays

and everything she wants costs money

"But she doesn't even LIKE me!
and I know because she said so
in the room downstairs
she sat and stared
in the room downstairs
she sat and stared
I'll never make that mistake again!"
No!

 

1 In live performances, this part of the song's bridge was not sung until April 1984 after it had been recorded. Live renditions were then thus more faithful to the studio version as we know it.

 

Quotes

"I think 'Girl Afraid' simply implied that even within relationships, there's no real certainty and nobody knows how anybody feels. People feel that just simply because they're having this cemented communion with another person that the two of you will become whole, which is something I detested. I hate that, that implication. It's not true, anyway. Ultimately, you're on your own, whatever happens in life, however you go through life. You die on your own. You have to go to the dentist on your own. It's like all the serious things in life are things that you feel on your own."
- Morrissey, Melody Maker, 16 March 1985