A
Anonymous
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This was written at the time that gay marriage wasn't legal, so I always took this as various women begging the good-looking man to marry them, and settle down. But, this being a Morrissey song, it's all about rejection of heterosexuals norms and embracing some sort of repressed homosexuality. The good-looking man has got his degrees, and is outwardly successful, but feels wretched, because he's never been 'naked' with another man, and is 'scared to death of touching another man's flesh etc. Being a Morrissey song, the dream of this lifestyle never quite materializes, but becomes sand, and slips through his fingers.Me too. What do you think it means, lyrically?
I always thought it was either like a choir of random people shouting "marry me" at the good looking man about town because, well, he's so good looking....
Or it's the echoes of friends, family, acquaintances ("the gang") etc. getting older, getting married, starting their own families while the subject of the song still dreams of an alternative, meeting and bringing up the courage to look "at the flesh of a good looking man about town" etc.
Morrissey has dozens of songs along similar lines, back to the very earliest Smiths songs, so it seems fairly clear. The only thing I can't work out is if the frustrated 'good-looking man' is someone Morrissey is lusting after, and encouraging to reject heterosexuality - or if he himself is the subject, and he is himself the 'good looking man about town', and is talking to himself.