The Operation

You fight with your right hand
And caress with your left hand
Everyone I know is sick to death of you<a

With a tear that's a mile wide
In the kite that you're flying
Everyone I know is sick to death of you
Ever since
You don't look the same
You're just not the same, no way




Went from gender to gender



You say clever things and
You never used to

You don't catch what I'm saying
When you're deafened to advice
Everyone here is sick to the
Back teeth of you

With a tear that's a mile wide
In the kite that you're flying
Everyone here is sick to the
Tattoo of you

Ever since
You don't look the same
You're just not the same, no way
You say pleasant things and
There is no need to

Still, you fight with your right hand
And caress with your left hand
Ooh, ooh ...

Sad to say ...
How once I was in love with you
Sad to say ...



Was once the opposite sex



You don't catch what I'm saying
When you're deafened to advice
Ooh, ooh ...

Ever since
You don't look the same
You're just not the same, no way
What the hell have
They stuck into you ?







Now has a penis
 
i could never made out what he mean with

"You fight with your right hand
And caress with your left hand "

can some native english speaker explain this?
 
Possibly. I personally think that "the operation" is purely figurative- the narrator sees such a profound personality change in the auditor that he likens it to such a thing.

"You fight with your right hand / And caress with your left hand" brings to mind (at least for me) a hypermasculine gay man- I think it's a direct allusion to the album title. I think the song more than anything is about said gay man trying to establish an identity for himself with mixed results.
 
"You fight with your right hand / And caress with your left hand" brings to mind (at least for me) a hypermasculine gay man- I think it's a direct allusion to the album title. I think the song more than anything is about said gay man trying to establish an identity for himself with mixed results.
hmm interesting but what has that fight and caress thing to do with it...i still dont quite understand..or is it in in a figurative sense expression and cannot be explained ?
 
hmm interesting but what has that fight and caress thing to do with it...i still dont quite understand..or is it in in a figurative sense expression and cannot be explained ?

"Caress with your left hand" jumps out at me as masturbatory but that's all due to my retarded teenage mind. :cool:
When I turn that sector of my mind off it's just the tough/tender thing as already mentioned.
 
hmm interesting but what has that fight and caress thing to do with it...i still dont quite understand..or is it in in a figurative sense expression and cannot be explained ?

I see what you mean. In one sense, I think it's about the auditor's extreme reactions to different situations (as Not Right In The Head says). Ignore the bit about hands- there is a strict dichotomy between the auditor's response to hostility and to tenderness (like night and day, and left and right). Morrissey ties this together and makes it sound pretty by exemplifying it through the use of actions of the right and left hands. The fact that he "caresses" with his left hand is I think an allusion to the auditor being a southpaw (left-handed, but also slang for homosexual). I don't know if this makes any sense, or if I'm just overstating the obvious, but that's what I get from it.
 
Last edited:
Ever since
You don't look the same
You're just not the same, no way


Went from gender to gender


Sad to say ...
How once I was in love with you
Sad to say ...

Was once the opposite sex

You don't catch what I'm saying
When you're deafened to advice
Ooh, ooh ...

Ever since
You don't look the same
You're just not the same, no way
What the hell have
They stuck into you ?


Now has a penis


i think thts just him bemoaning a relationship which has ended and the other one didnt turn out the way morrissey wanted it to be...
the person changed during the relationship(the person`s personality/character)..

i dont see the sex change its more the person changes from being an nice pesonality to being ..hmm not soo nice

or
the big feelings at the beginnings of a relaltionship has gone...and morrissey sint rellay the person who had one relationship after another soo he dont seem used to the fact how relationships develop
 
Last edited:
Is this song about a sex change?

I had never ever thought about that!

There used to be this guy at work whom I called "Boy Racer" in his face because he drove a bike and had that biker attitude (and always thought he had the whole wolrd in his hands) and would have loved to tell him that everybody here was sick to death of him, and that there was no need to try to be clever. That "fight with the right hand" bit makes me think of hipocrysy, I tend not to overanalyze. The way Moz sings and the beat of the song gives me more of a sardonic feeling and makes me think of people like that (I have met more by now, they're reproducing!)
 
I have also taken the "fight with your right hand and caress with you left hand" lines as a kind of play on the whole "hate" and "love" tattoos you see,perhaps not literally but in that same vein,this is a person who is beyond difficult at times and then quite wonderful at other times.
as for "what have they stuck into you" we have all had friends or whom ever that you may loose contact with or drift apart from,they go off and find new friends and change themselves,almost kill their whole past,you recognize them but beyond that you do not know the person anymore.
and we all have had people in our life whom we see,be it a best friend,a girlfriend,a boyfriend,whatever, that you see out and about and think to yourself "yeah I was once in love that person" "or i really liked them" but their change in lifestyle,personality,friends perhaps has changed that view.


if that makes sense...

:rolleyes::)
 
I have also taken the "fight with your right hand and caress with you left hand" lines as a kind of play on the whole "hate" and "love" tattoos you see,perhaps not literally but in that same vein,this is a person who is beyond difficult at times and then quite wonderful at other times.
as for "what have they stuck into you" we have all had friends or whom ever that you may loose contact with or drift apart from,they go off and find new friends and change themselves,almost kill their whole past,you recognize them but beyond that you do not know the person anymore.
and we all have had people in our life whom we see,be it a best friend,a girlfriend,a boyfriend,whatever, that you see out and about and think to yourself "yeah I was once in love that person" "or i really liked them" but their change in lifestyle,personality,friends perhaps has changed that view.


if that makes sense...

:rolleyes::)

Totally. :)
 
we have all had friends or whom ever that you may loose contact with or drift apart from,they go off and find new friends and change themselves,almost kill their whole past,you recognize them but beyond that you do not know the person anymore.

Just like Stan in your signature. Or was it Kyle? No, I'm sure it was Stan.
 
Tags
jake lyrics
Back
Top Bottom