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

Take me out tonight
where there's music and there's people
who are young and alive ¹
driving in your car
I never never want to go home
because I haven't got one
anymore
take me out tonight
because I want to see people and I
want to see lights
driving in your car
oh please don't drop me home
because it's not my home, it's their
home, and I'm welcome no more
and if a double-decker bus
crashes into us
to die by your side
is such a heavenly way to die
and if a ten ton truck
kills the both of us ²
to die by your side
well the pleasure and the privilege is mine
take me out tonight
oh take me anywhere, I don't care, I don't care, I don't care
and in the darkened underpass
I thought Oh God, my chance has come at last
(but then a strange fear gripped me and I ³
just couldn't ask)
take me out tonight
oh take me anywhere, I dont care, I don't care, I don't care⁴
just driving in your car
I never never want to go home
because I haven't got one ⁵
No, no, no
I havent got one
and if a double-decker bus
crashes into us
to die by your side
is such a heavenly way to die
and if a ten ton truck
kills the both of us ²
to die by your side
well the pleasure, the privilege is mine
There is a light that never goes out... ⁶
(repeat last line to fade)⁷

 

² In live performances of this song on the You Are The Quarry tour and on the 2007-2008 Greatest Hits tour Morrissey sometimes followed these lines with "so what!" or "who cares!". This can be heard on live album "Live At Earls Court". Morrissey had previously done this on a very few rare occasions on the 1986 The Queen Is Dead tour.

³ In an early studio outtake of the song which has leaked on bootlegs, Morrissey sings "but then a strange fear gripped me and I just couldn't ask".

⁴ In an early studio outtake of the song which has leaked on bootlegs, Morrissey replaces this line by a repeat of "because I want to see people and I want to see lights".

⁵ In some live performances of this song on the You Are The Quarry tour Morrissey extended this line to "I haven't got one, believe me! I haven't got one" or something similar.

⁶ In live performances of this number the repeated title line was sung only once by Morrissey during the Smiths days, in Glasgow in July 1986. The rest of the time he would just stop singing at this point. When he resurrected the song on solo tours, he kept this pattern until halfway into the 2004 tour when he started doing that chorus again. This can be heard on live album "Live At Earls Court". On the 2007-2008 Greatest Hits tour he also sang these lines.

⁷ In an early studio outtake of the song which has leaked on bootlegs, Morrissey sings "there is a light and it never goes out" four times, then "There's a light in your eye(s) and it never goes out" three times, then simply "there's a light, there's a light..."

Quotes

"There are three lines in the song [There is a light that never goes out] that I can never bear to listen to because I find them so close: 'In the darkened underpass/ I thought, Oh God my chance has come at last/ but a strange fear gripped me and I just couldn't ask'. I can't listen to those lines willy-nilly. I have to sit down. It's like somebody hitting me with a hammer."
- Morrissey (source unknown)