"Stretch Out And Wait"
(Morrissey/Marr)

These lyrics are transcribed in light blue as they appear in the Smiths "The World Won't Listen" and "Louder Than Bombs" albums and are reproduced here without permission. Variations between the printed lyrics and what is sung by Morrissey are indicated in darker text for additions and omissions are deleted.

As the single version compiled on "Louder Than Bombs" is different to the alternate version on "The World Won't Listen", the lyrical variations are given separately.

"Louder Than Bombs" aka single version

Off On the high-rise estates
What's at the back of your mind?
Your face I can see Oh the 3-day debate
And it's desperately kind On the high-rise estate
But what's at the back of your mind?
Two icy-cold hands conducting the way
It's the Eskimo blood in my veins
Amid concrete and clay
And general decay
Nature must still find a way
So ignore all the codes of the day ¹
Let your juvenile impulses sway
This way and that way
This way and that way
God, how sex implores you
To let yourself lose yourself
Stretch out and wait
Stretch out and wait
Let your puny body lie down, lie down
As we lie, you say
As we lie, you say
Stretch out and stretch out and wait
Stretch out and wait
Let your puny body lie down, lie down
As we lie, you say:
Will the world end in the day time night time?
(I really don't know )
Or will the world end in the night time day time?
(I really don't know)
And is there any point ever having children?
No I really don't know
All What I do know is that we're Here and it's Now
So stretch out and wait
Stretch out and wait
There is no debate, no debate, no debate
How can you consciously contemplate
When there's no debate, no debate
Stretch out and wait
Stretch out and wait
Stretch out and wait
wait, wait, wait, wait...

Off the high-rise estates All the lies that you make up
What's at the back of your mind?
Your face I can see
And it's desperately kind
But what's at the back of your mind?
Two icy-cold hands conducting the way
It's the Eskimo blood in my veins
Amid concrete and clay
And general decay
Nature must still find a way
So ignore all the codes of the day ¹
Let your juvenile impulses sway
This way and that way
This way and that way
God, how sex implores you
To let yourself lose yourself
Stretch out and wait
Stretch out and wait
Let your puny body lie down, lie down
As we lie, you say
As we lie, you say
Stretch out and stretch out and wait
Stretch out and wait
Let your puny body lie down, lie down
As we lie, you say:
Will the world end in the day time night time?
(I really don't know )
Or will the world end in the night time day time?
(I really don't know)
And is there any point ever having children?
No I really don't know
All I do know is that we're Here and it's Now
So stretch out and wait
Stretch out and wait
There is no debate, no debate, no debate
How can you consciously contemplate
When there's no debate, no debate
Stretch out and wait
Stretch out and wait
Stretch out and wait
wait, wait, wait, wait...

 

Note: The song started changing from its original single form to its alternate version during the Scottish tour of September 1985. In Dundee on that tour, Morrissey sang the first five lines as "With the lies that you say, what's at the back of your mind, oh the three day debate with the lies that you say, what's at the back of your mind". At the next gig in Lerwick, he sang "All the lies that you say, what's at the back of your mind... Ah your face I can see and it's desperately kind, what's at the back of your mind". Before that point in time, the song had been performed like the single version, the first one given here. From these Scottish dates and through 1986, the song was done like the alternate version later released on "The World Won't Listen".