"Panic"
(Morrissey/Marr)

 

These words are transcribed without permission the way they appear in the "The World Won't Listen" and "Louder Than Bombs" albums. Additions to the printed lyrics are in darker text while omissions are striken out.

Panic on the streets of London
Panic on the streets of Birmingham
I wonder to myself
Could life ever be sane again
on the Leeds side-streets that you slip down
I wonder to myself
Hopes may rise on the Grasmeres
But Honey Pie, you're not safe here
So you run down
To the safety of the town
But there's Panic on the streets of Carlisle
Dublin, Dundee, Humberside
I wonder to myself
Burn down the Disco
Hang the blessed D.J.
Because the music that they constantly play
IT SAYS NOTHING TO ME ABOUT MY LIFE
Hang the blessed D.J.
Because the music they constantly play
On the Leeds side-streets that you slip down
On the provincial towns that you jog 'round
Hang the D.J., Hang the D.J., Hang the D.J.
Hang the D.J., Hang the D.J., Hang the D.J.
HANG THE D.J., HANG THE D.J., HANG THE D.J.
HANG THE D.J., HANG THE D.J., HANG THE D.J. 1
(repeat to fade)

 

1 On the 2007 Greatest Hits tour Morrissey sometimes followed this final line with exclamations such as "any DJ!", "all of them!", "everyone of them!" or "any will do!".

 

Quotes

"To those who took offence at the 'burn down the disco' line I'd say -- please show me the black members of New Order! For me, personally, New Order make great disco music, but there's no black people in the group. The point I'm making is that you can't just interchange the words 'black' and 'disco', or the phrases 'black music' and 'disco music'. It makes no earthly sense... 'Panic' came about at the time of Chernobyl. Morrissey and myself were listening to a Newsbeat radio report about it. The story about this shocking disaster comes to an end and then, immediately, we're off into Wham!'s 'I'm Your Man'. I remember actually saying 'what the fuck has this got to do with peoples' lives?' We hear about Chernobyl, then, seconds later, we're expected to be jumping around to 'I'm Your Man'... And so -- 'hang the blessed DJ'. I think it was a great lyric, important and applicable to anyone who lives in England. I mean, even the most ardent disco fan wouldn't want to be subjected to that stuff, would they?"
- Johnny Marr, New Musical Express, February 1987