Girl Afraid
‘Girl ‘Afraid’ was released in May 1984 as the B-side (along with ‘Suffer Little Children’) to the Smiths’ fifth single, ‘Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now’. The song appeared on the 12-inch version of the single. “FOREVER ILL” is etched on the B-side of the UK 12-inch single.
The lyrics of ‘Girl ‘Afraid’ (which very well could have been called ‘Boy Afraid’) are rather cynical, examining the dearth of trust and the surfeit of uncertainty in relationships from both the female and male perspective. Morrissey describes a female who is fraught with trepidation as she doesn’t know the true intentions of her suitor. He then switches to the boy’s perspective, whom he describes as questioning the soundness of investing time and money in a relationship that may very well turn out to be fleeting (more likely, a relationship that may not progress to sexual intimacy).
The boy and the girl separately (and preemptively) conclude that they will not go on - individually intoning that they will “…not make that mistake again!” (the girl declining to remain in a relationship that may not be genuine and lasting, while the boy decides to not expend time and money in a relationship that will likely not bring immediate physical intimacy).
Listen to ‘Girl Afraid’ here:
The song was written sometime in January 1984 after the Smiths’ one night stand at Danceteria1 in New York City on New Years Eve. The Smiths recorded the song in March 1984 at Island Records' Fallout Shelter in London with producer John Porter.
The song shares its title with that of an on-screen fictional novel title that appears in the 1943 American film Old Acquaintance.
The film featured Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins. In the film, Katherine 'Kit' Marlowe (Davis) is friends with Mildred ‘Millie’ Drake (Hopkins), who writes popular pulp novels. Girl Afraid is the title of one of Millie’s novels.
In November of 1984, the song was featured on the B-side of the US release of the ‘How Soon Is Now’ single.
The Smiths’ included the track on their 1984 Hatful of Hollow compilation album,
their 1987 Louder Than Bombs compilation album,
and the Australia release of The World Won’t Listen compilation double LP and double cassette.
Subsequent to the dissolution of the Smiths, ‘Girl Afraid’ was released on 1992s Best…II compilation album,
2008s deluxe edition of The Sound Of The Smiths compilation album,
2008s Singles Box compilation album,
and finally on 2011s Complete compilation album.
"I think 'Girl Afraid' simply implied that even within relationships, there's no real certainty and nobody knows how anybody feels. People feel that just simply because they're having this cemented communion with another person that the two of you will become whole, which is something I detested. I hate that, that implication. It's not true, anyway. Ultimately, you're on your own, whatever happens in life, however you go through life. You die on your own. You have to go to the dentist on your own. It's like all the serious things in life are things that you feel on your own."
- Morrissey, Melody Maker, March 16, 1985
Danceteria was a nightclub that operated in New York City from May 1980 until 1986.