"The Headmaster Ritual"
(Morrissey/Marr)

 

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

Belligerent ghouls
run Manchester schools
spineless swines
cemented minds
Sir leads the troops
jealous of youth
same old suit since 1962
he does the military two-step
down the nape of my neck
I wanna go home
I don't want to stay
give up education
as a bad mistake
mid-week on the playing fields
Sir thwacks you on the knees
knees you in the groin
elbow in the face
bruises bigger than dinner plates 1
I wanna go home
I don't want to wanna stay

Belligerent ghouls
run Manchester schools
spineless bastards all
Sir leads the troops
jealous of youth
same old jokes since 1902
he does the military two-step
down the nape of my neck
I wanna go home
I don't want to stay
give up life
as a bad mistake
please excuse me from gym
I've got this terrible cold coming on
he grabs and devours
he kicks me in the showers
kicks me in the showers
and he grabs and devours
I wanna want to go home
I don't want to stay

 

1 When he started playing the song without the Smiths on his 2004 tour, Morrissey changed this line to "Bruises as big as dinner plates", a formulation that Johnny Marr had tried to have him use originally when they wrote and recorded the song in 1984.