This song was written during the recording sessions for the "Strangeways, Here We Come" album which took place in March-April 1987 at Wool Hall Studios in Bath, with Stephen Street as producer, helped by Johnny and Morrissey.

album version {1:58}

• "Strangeways Here We Come" album

This song has never been performed specifically for radio or television.

This song was never done live by the Smiths. It has been performed live 25 times by Morrissey after the Smiths. It was on the setlist for Morrissey's live debut at Wolverhampton in 1988, backed by Andy Rourke, Mike Joyce and Craig Gannon. The song was then done every night on the 2009 Swords tour, except for the two concerts that were interrupted after only one or two songs.

There are no officially released live recordings of the song at this point in time.

No demos or studio outtakes of this song have leaked to the general public at this point in time.

Quotes

"[Johnny's] tremulous quaver on Death at one's elbow is a honeyed flow, although he insists that he cannot sing."
- Morrissey, "Autobiography"