Ah, The Smiths...
I could have chosen any number of their songs for my Desert Island Discs but 'Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me' rises like a lily from the rear pocket of my psyche, its heartbreaking grace and aching melody a match for anything else in their extraordinary canon.
Everyone knows the sadness of loneliness, be it for just a few hours or, more desperately, a lifetime. Perhaps the experience of a love unrequited or an outright rejection from someone you hold dear. Here, the tragedy of vain hope being dashed by waking from a dream moves me markedly every time I hear it.
Perfectly complimented by Johnny Marr's sudden, dramatic, burst of sound lurching us back into the woken world, its melodrama signifies the painful longing that isn't just about lust, sex or passion, but something altogether more fundamental to our human nature - that need to be loved.
From the dreamlike soundscape of the opening 2 minutes to Morrissey's relatively brief lyrical interlude and the haunting strings that conclude the track, 'Last Night...' not only reminds me of how incredibly lucky I am, but also how fragile love is and how powerful a force for enabling us the security of an unconditional love can be.
So often its importance to our well-being is dismissed but as in the case of this song's subject, the desire, both physical and emotional, can overwhelm and will forever sustain. I'm not sure any artist, anywhere, has quite captured this simple, surprisingly overlooked truth with such a melancholic beauty.
I could have chosen any number of their songs for my Desert Island Discs but 'Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me' rises like a lily from the rear pocket of my psyche, its heartbreaking grace and aching melody a match for anything else in their extraordinary canon.
Everyone knows the sadness of loneliness, be it for just a few hours or, more desperately, a lifetime. Perhaps the experience of a love unrequited or an outright rejection from someone you hold dear. Here, the tragedy of vain hope being dashed by waking from a dream moves me markedly every time I hear it.
Perfectly complimented by Johnny Marr's sudden, dramatic, burst of sound lurching us back into the woken world, its melodrama signifies the painful longing that isn't just about lust, sex or passion, but something altogether more fundamental to our human nature - that need to be loved.
From the dreamlike soundscape of the opening 2 minutes to Morrissey's relatively brief lyrical interlude and the haunting strings that conclude the track, 'Last Night...' not only reminds me of how incredibly lucky I am, but also how fragile love is and how powerful a force for enabling us the security of an unconditional love can be.
So often its importance to our well-being is dismissed but as in the case of this song's subject, the desire, both physical and emotional, can overwhelm and will forever sustain. I'm not sure any artist, anywhere, has quite captured this simple, surprisingly overlooked truth with such a melancholic beauty.
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