Along with literature, cinema has had a profound and lasting impact on Morrissey. Dialogue from French films (Les Quatre Cents Coups, Bande à part, Pépé le Moko), Italian films (several films by Pasolini) and American films (Alice Adams, The Subject Was Roses) has been directly sampled, adapted and reinterpreted throughout his discography, including his time with the Smiths. Indeed, the influence of cinema upon Morrissey most clearly manifests itself on the Smiths’ storied album art. Yet it is British cinema that has influenced Morrissey's music the most.
'Lifeguard Sleeping, Girl Drowning' is one of many examples of this cinematic influence. The song is the eighth track on Vauxhall and I,
Morrissey's fourth studio album. At 2:34 and again at the conclusion of the song, the echoing line "What's your name?" can be heard (most prominently at the conclusion of the song). This is a dialogue sample from the 1942 British film, In Which We Serve. It is spoken by the actress Kay Walsh1 (‘Freda’) to actor John Mills2' character (seaman ‘Shorty Blake’) at approximately 42-minutes into the film3.
The song is rather unusual in style from Morrissey's oeuvre up to that point - Morrissey almost whispers lyrics that are accompanied by music that more resembles an old sea shanty than a modern pop song.
The song is dominated by a the gentle, swaying sound of a clarinet, which provides an unsettling, almost sinister, backdrop to lyrics that can only be described as bleak. Morrissey’s slow, low, barely-singing style leaves the listener with an unsettled feeling as it acts as a sort of portent of the tragedy that soon unfolds. The lines “Please don't worry there'll be no fuss/She was...nobody's nothing” are uttered so nonchalantly that it provides added emotive ‘punch’ to the story that Morrissey has shared with the listener
.
According to Simon Goddard in 'Mozipedia', the song was inspired by a poem by Stevie Smith entitled: "Not Waving, But Drowning"(1957)4. Per Goddard:
‘Inspired by real facts’, or so Morrissey teased, this sinister if blackly comic vignette was strongly reminiscent of Stevie Smith’s famous 1957 poem ‘Not Waving, But Drowning’. Whereas in Smith’s tale a man drowns out at sea watched by oblivious bystanders who mistake his flailing arms for playful ‘larking’, in Morrissey’s version an exhausted lifeguard calmly and maliciously allows a girl in similar peril to drown so he can sleep in peace.
Always looking for attention
Always needs to be mentioned
Who does she think she should be?
The shrill cry through darkening air
Doesn't she know he's
Had such a busy day?
Tell her...shh
Somebody tell her...shh
No way, no way
There's no movement, no
Hooray
It was only a test
But she swam too far against the tide
She deserves all she gets
The sky became mad with stars
As an out-stretched arm slowly disappears
Hooray
Oh, hooray
No, there's no movement, no
Hooray, hooray
Please don't worry there'll be no fuss
She was...nobody's nothing
When he awoke the sea was calm
And another day passes like a dream
There's no, no way
Morrissey has never performed this song live.
Listen to 'Lifeguard Sleeping, Girl Drowning' here:
Kathleen ‘Kay’ Walsh (November 1911 – April 2005) was an English actress, dancer, and screenwriter. Her film career prospered after she met her future husband film director David Lean. Kay Walsh appeared in two additional films from which dialogue was sampled by Morrissey: the character ‘Nancy’ in 1948’s Oliver Twist (“Don’t leave us in the dark” at the end of ‘Billy Budd’), and as a prostitute in 1962’s The L-Shaped Room (opening lines of the song ‘Take me back to dear old Blighty” at the beginning of ‘The Queen Is Dead’).
Sir John Mills CBE (born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills; February 1908 – April 2005, exactly one week after In Which We Serve co-star Kay Walsh’s death) was an English actor who appeared in more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades. He excelled on camera as an appealing British “everyman” who often portrayed guileless, wounded war heroes. In 1971, he received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the film Ryan’s Daughter. For his work in film, Mills was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1976.
Mills also appeared in another film from which dialogue was sampled, and several from which a photo-still used as cover art; as ‘Willie Mossop’ in 1954’s Hobson’s Choice (brief audio clip of a marching temperance band at the beginning of ‘Sheila Take A Bow’), as ‘Corporal Binns’ in 1958’s Dunkirk (photo-still of fellow actor Sean Barrett kneeled in prayer on the cover of the UK ‘How Soon Is Now’ single), and as ‘Ezra Fitton’ in 1966’s In The Family Way (photo-still of fellow actor Murray Head on the cover of the US, German and Dutch ‘Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before’ single).
Watch In Which We Serve here:
Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.
Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he’s dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.
Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.
Quite haunting the way he sings it.