'Barbarism Begins at Home'
Released February 11, 1985 as the 8th track on Meat Is Murder (the Smiths’ second studio album), ‘Barbarism Begins At Home’ ardently condemns the corporal punishment of children. Andy Rourke's repetitive, funk-influenced bass line is a hallmark of the song.
Of Andy’s performance on the song, Marr commented, "Andy is, quite rightly, proud of that bass line." For himself, Mike Joyce has said, "The bass line's a killer. It's interesting to see how Morrissey got his head around it. We'd be playing and when we'd stop Andy would often continue with a Stanley Clarke1 bass line. It's incredible the way he can shift into that." Interestingly, Marr has also stated that he "didn't think [the song] really represented the band", adding that he felt that the track was "a little bit corny".
"Barbarism Begins at Home" has generally seen positive critical reception since its release. The Guardian described the song as "brilliantly titled," while Pitchfork wrote that extended song length "works remarkably well for 'Barbarism Begins at Home', seven minutes of tense funk".
According to Stephane at PassionsJustLikeMine.com, the writing of the musical half of this song goes back as far as the summer of 1983, with its lyrics being written between that time and the moment of its first live performance later that year. The song would continue to evolve both lyrically and musically throughout 1984 as the band regularly performed it live.
Barbarism Begins at Home’ was first performed live by the Smiths on December 19, 1983 - nearly a year before they recorded it for Meat Is Murder, and 14 months prior to its release - at their concert at the Electric Ballroom in London. Supposedly the song was referred to as ‘Fascism Begins at Home’ when it was initially introduced at this concert.
According to Mike Joyce, the initial version of ‘Barbarism Begins At Home’ was about seventeen minutes long:
”Mozzer had been knocking the red wine back and we got out there and it was about seventeen minutes long. Moz kept going into that middle bit—yodeling. Fuckin' on and on. Johnny [Marr] kept coming over and looking at me, and every time he did it I thought, 'Thank God, he's going to stop it.' We were knackered.”
The song performed at the Electric Ballroom had many of the lyrics that appear on the studio version, but with a very different verse structure. Significantly, it had additional lyrics that were later dropped. After the first two verses of the song as it was recorded for Meat Is Murder, Morrissey would sing:
A crack on the head is what you get
A crack on the head is what you get
for never asking, never asking
A crack on the head that's what you get
because you never ask
And a crack in the groin is what you get
and more
A crack on the head is what you get
because you never ask me
A crack on the head is what you get
because you ask me anything
A crack on your head
A warp on your mind
I've always been such a decent lad
I've always been such a decent lad
I've always been such a decent lad
I don't know what came over me today
I've always been such a decent lad
A crack on the head is what you get
Why for asking
A crack on the head is what you get
Why for asking
Unruly boys
who will not grow up
must be taken in hand
Unruly girls
who will not settle down
they must be taken in hand
Unruly boys
who will not grow up
they must be taken in hand
I am the man, I am the man
I am the man, I am the man
I am the man to keep you in place
I am the man you need to keep you in place
Unruly boys, unruly girls
I'm your man
I am your man...
The Smiths continued to perform ‘Barbarism Begins At Home’ live throughout 1984, but the extra lyrics gradually disappeared, eventually becoming the song heard on Meat Is Murder.
As an aside, from late 1984 to the end of the song's live career (in June 1985), Morrissey would sometimes end the song with "...a crack on the head because of all the silly little things that you said, and you said the queen is dead...". Considering that ‘The Queen Is Dead’ wasn’t written until late 1985 (in October or November 1985), it would seem that the genesis of the song occurred in this earlier time-frame when Morrissey began to include this extra lyric.
‘Barbarism Begins At Home’ was primarily recorded in October 1984 at Amazon Studios in Liverpool, with the Smiths (mostly Johnny) acting as producer and Stephen Street as recording engineer. Overdubs were added the following month at Ridge Farm Studios in Surrey. The song's final mixing was done in December 1984 at Island Record's Fallout Shelter.
Two months after its initial release on Meat Is Murder, ‘Barbarism Begins at Home’ was given a limited release as a single in Germany (7 and 12 -inch versions) and Italy (7-inch version only) in April 1985. In both countries the length of the title track was edited down to 3:48 on the 7-inch versions. The B-side of the single in both Germany and Italy consisted of ‘Shakespeare’s Sister’, though the German 12-inch saw the inclusion of ‘Stretch Out And Wait’ on its B-side.
The song was not released as a single in the UK until 19882.
The single’s cover art consisted of a photograph of Vivian "Viv" Nicholson3 (who was previously featured on the cover art for the Smiths’ single "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now"). The reverse side of the single contained the following blurb : "Cover Star: VIV NICHOLSON in ‘Viv At The Pithead’: Here is Viv with suitcase before going to Malta on a later spending-spree after tragedy had almost robbed her of what remained of her fortune".
The reverse side of the 7-inch German single also had "All god's Children Got Wings" (sans quotes) printed in the lower right corner.
As stated above, the lyrics of the song is a critique of the use of corporal punishment (a practice that Morrissey elevates to being on par with child abuse).
"From the time you get hit when you're a child, as covered in a song called 'Barbarism Begins At Home', violence is the only answer. Conversation is pointless."
-Morrissey Melody Maker/March 1985
Indeed, the use of physical violence against children (who are virtually always unable to defend themselves) to impart “discipline” or to reinforce behavior desired by a parent or teacher is a Faustian exercise inasmuch as it reaps a grim harvest of like-behavior as a blunt instrument in lieu of constructive dialogue, being passed down from one generation to the next. More to the point, the inclination of some children to mature and to then engage in the very same behavior (often unconsciously) they were subjected to in their youth, thus perpetuating a sort of cycle of violence.
Morrissey’s choice of subject for this song is both brave and illuminating - it is a subject that had never been so honestly, and directly, addressed in a pop song. That the Smiths’ included such a song on what was only their second studio album (along with another song concerning the ethics of eating meat) while still in the process of establishing themselves as a band is nothing short of astonishing.
‘Barbarism Begins At Home’ became a live favorite for the Smiths, appearing as a set-opener and, alternatively, as an encore. In fact, the song was performed live by the Smiths at least 87 time, and possibly up to 92 times given that a there are number of early Smiths concerts with no surviving setlists. The Smiths’ dropped the song from their live performances after the conclusion of the North American leg of the Meat Is Murder tour on June 29, 1985.
The Smiths performed the song live on the UK music television program The Tube in March 1984. Watch this live television performance here:
At a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in April 1985, the band performed the song with Dead or Alive's Pete Burns, who duetted with Morrissey on lead vocals. Listen to this duet here:
Watch an especially robust performance of the song (beginning at 9:58) on the French television show Les Enfants Du Rock on May 9,1984 at the Eldorado in Paris:
Stanley Clarke (born 1951) is an American bassist, music composer and founding member of one of the first jazz fusion bands (Return to Forever). Clarke gave the bass guitar a prominence it lacked in jazz related music. He is the first jazz-fusion bassist to headline tours, sell out shows worldwide and have recordings reach gold status.
The song saw an extremely limited release in 1985 to UK DJ’s in the form of a promotional single. The single did have a general release in the UK, albeit three years later (1988) after the dissolution of the Smiths.
Vivian ‘Viv’ Nicholson (née Asprey; 1936 – 2015) was an English woman who became famous when she told the media that she would "spend, spend, spend" after her husband won £152,319 (equivalent to over £4,500,000 in 2024) on the football pools in 1961. Nicholson became the subject of tabloid news stories for many years because of the couple's subsequent rapid spending of their fortune and her later chaotic life.