Produced by Mick Ronson
Record… Read Full Bio ↴Written by Morrissey & Alain Whyte
Produced by Mick Ronson
Recorded February/March 1992
Released 27th April 1992 on We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful and then on the 3rd studio album Your Arsenal.
Guitars & backing vocals by Alain Whyte
Guitars by Boz Boorer
Bass by Gary Day
Drums by Spencer James Cobrin
We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful
Morrissey Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
We hate it when our friends become successful
Oh, look at those clothes
Now look at that face, it's so old
And such a video !
Well, it's really laughable
Ha, ha, ha
We hate it when our friends become successful
And if they're Northern, that makes it even worse
And if we can destroy them
You bet your life we will
Destroy them
If we can hurt them
Well, we may as well
It's really laughable
Ha, ha, ha
You see, it should've been me
It could've been me
Everybody knows
Everybody says so
They say :
"Ah, you have loads of songs
So many songs
More songs than they'd stand
We hate it when our friends become successful
We hate it when our friends become successful
Oh, look at those clothes
Now look at that face, it's so old
And such a video !
Well, it's really laughable
Ha, ha, ha
[Chorus]
Just listen
La, la-la, la-la
In the song We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful, Morrissey seems to be highlighting the negative emotions that can arise when someone close to us achieves success. The opening line of the song emphasizes this sentiment, and throughout the song, Morrissey repeats how laughable it is that his friends have achieved success. He also expresses resentment about his own lack of success, wondering why it couldn't have been him in their position.
The lyrics go on to say that if these friends are from the North (presumably referring to Northern England), then it's even worse, as Morrissey may feel they are betraying the cultural identity they share. He suggests that if it's possible to destroy these friends' success, then he and others like him will do so, to alleviate their feelings of envy and resentment.
Overall, the song seems to explore the darker side of human nature, the tendency to feel bitter and resentful towards friends or acquaintances who have achieved success or reached milestones that we have not. Morrissey's use of irony and sarcasm adds a unique layer of commentary to the sentiment expressed in the song.
Line by Line Meaning
We hate it when our friends become successful
We feel a strong sense of dislike or resentment when our friends achieve success or recognition.
We hate it when our friends become successful
We feel a strong sense of dislike or resentment when our friends achieve success or recognition.
Oh, look at those clothes
We notice and are unimpressed by our friend's fashion choices.
Now look at that face, it's so old
We criticize our friend's aging appearance.
And such a video !
We find our friend's music video to be ridiculous or humorous.
Well, it's really laughable
Overall, we find our friend's attempt at success to be entertaining and amusing.
Ha, ha, ha
We express our amusement through laughter.
Chorus: We hate it when our friends become successful
We reiterate our initial sentiment, emphasizing our strong feelings of animosity towards our friend's success.
And if they're Northern, that makes it even worse
We intensify our dislike towards our Northern friends who become successful, highlighting a potential regional bias.
And if we can destroy them
We express a desire to harm or ruin our successful friends' lives or careers.
You bet your life we will
We are extremely committed to our goal of harming our successful friends.
Destroy them
We reiterate our desire to heavily damage or ruin our friends' success.
If we can hurt them
We acknowledge that even if we are not able to fully destroy our successful friends, we still want to cause them pain or discomfort.
Well, we may as well
Since we feel so negatively towards our friends' success, we see no downside to causing them harm.
It's really laughable
We find our friends' success to be so absurd that we cannot help but continue to laugh at it.
Ha, ha, ha
We express our amusement again with laughter.
You see, it should've been me
We feel a strong sense of entitlement, and we believe that we deserved our friend's success.
It could've been me
We feel that we were capable of achieving the same level of success as our friends, and that they took our opportunity away.
Everybody knows
We believe that our opinions on our friend's success are widely held and acknowledged.
Everybody says so
We believe that everyone around us agrees with our negative stance on our friend's success.
They say: "Ah, you have loads of songs
We believe that our friends' success is due to their lack of competition and our own abundance of talent.
So many songs
We believe that we are more musically gifted than our successful friends.
More songs than they'd stand
We believe that our own musical style is superior to our friends', and that our music would have been received better by the public.
Just listen La, la-la, la-la
We conclude the song by singing a simple melody, potentially as a nod to our own musical abilities and the idea that our friends' success is undeserved.
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: ALAIN WHYTE, STEVEN MORRISSEY
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Hawksnacks -
We hate it when our friends become successful
We hate it when our friends become successful
Oh, look at those clothes
Now look at that face, it's so old
And such a video !
Well, it's really laughable
Ha, ha, ha
We hate it when our friends become successful
And if they're Northern, that makes it even worse
And if we can destroy them
You bet your life we will
Destroy them
If we can hurt them
Well, we may as well
It's really laughable
Ha, ha, ha
You see, it should've been me
It could've been me
Everybody knows
Everybody says so
They say :
"Ah, you have loads of songs
So many songs
More songs than they'd stand
We hate it when our friends become successful
We hate it when our friends become successful
Oh, look at those clothes
Now look at that face, it's so old
And such a video !
Well, it's really laughable
Ha, ha, ha
We hate it when our friends become successful
And if they're Northern, that makes it even worse
And if we can destroy them
You bet your life we will
Destroy them
If we can hurt them
Well, we may as well
It's really laughable
Ha, ha, ha
Just listen
La, la-la, la-la
Anjali
We hate it when our friends become successful
We hate it when our friends become successful
Oh, look at those clothes
Now look at that face, it's so old
And such a video !
Well, it's really laughable
Ha, ha, ha
We hate it when our friends become successful
And if they're Northern, that makes it even worse
And if we can destroy them
You bet your life we will
Destroy them
If we can hurt them
Well, we may as well
It's really laughable
Ha, ha, ha
You see, it should've been me
It could've been me
Everybody knows
Everybody says so
They say :
"Ah, you have loads of songs
So many songs
More songs than they'd stand
We hate it when our friends become successful
We hate it when our friends become successful
Oh, look at those clothes
Now look at that face, it's so old
And such a video !
Well, it's really laughable
Ha, ha, ha
We hate it when our friends become successful
And if they're Northern, that makes it even worse
And if we can destroy them
You bet your life we will
Destroy them
If we can hurt them
Well, we may as well
It's really laughable
Ha, ha, ha
Just listen
La, la-la, la-la
Try to Calm me now
We hate it when our friends become successful
We hate it when our friends become successful
Oh, look at those clothes
Now look at that face, it's so old
And such a video
Well, it's really laughable
Ha, ha, ha
We hate it when our friends become successful
And if they're northern, that makes it even worse
And if we can destroy them
You bet your life we will destroy them
If we can hurt them
Well, we may as well, it's really laughable
Ha, ha, ha
You see, it should've been me
It could've been me
Everybody knows
Everybody says so
They say, "Ah, you have loads of songs
So many songs, oh, songs and they can stand, and middle eighth
Break a fade, just listen"
La, la-la, la-la
miss demeanor
When I was 5 I vividly remember my mom playing this song getting ready for work now I'm just finding this again and it brings me so much nostalgia aww❤️
RJ Badman
Let's be honest: All the dislikes are probably by Morrissey.
How I See It
Powergame or northerners 😂
Edward Sarinana
Salvatore Gravano perhaps Marr or Marr wants a ReUnion! 😂😂😂😂😂
PUNKISINTHEDETAILS
Yup. He hates it when his friends become successful.
יעקב לוי
Lolllll definitly
Gabrialla Vossli
😂😂😂
Huus67209 Huus67209
I don't know you Morrissey but I love you through your lyrics. I'm an older man now. I'm 50 years and I look back at your lyrics and your lyrics are like my life. I've listening to The Smiths since I was 17. 1984. I love EVERY word Morrissey says.
Mike Thompson
Bit much.... almost fanatical...
Dagmar
@Mike Thompson could be me!