Bengali in Platforms
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Bengali in Platforms" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Song by Morrissey | ||
| from the album Viva Hate | ||
| Released | March 22, 1988 | |
| Recorded | Winter 1987 | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Length | 3:55 | |
| Label | HMV | |
| Writer(s) | Morrissey/Street | |
| Producer(s) | Stephen Street | |
| Viva Hate track listing | ||
|
||
"Bengali In Platforms" is a song from Viva Hate that was included as evidence of Morrissey's oft-discussed, purported racism. The lines most often referred to are:
- "Bengali, Bengali / Oh, shelve your Western plans / And understand / That life is hard enough when you belong here"
Writes the author of the "It May All End Tomorrow" Morrissey fan website:
- "As [Smiths biographer] Rogan says, with its tone of condescension 'politely mocking', it's hard to justify these lyrics as anything other than incredibly badly thought out. Easily offensive, two justifications are that it was purposefully done to incite the critics (although as the individual Morrissey was always so closely aligned with his lyrics, it's hard to see this) and Rogan's point that the definite setting of the song is in the 1970s. At no point is it made clear that the singer is in any way sympathetic with the lyrics - it's fair enough to say that the only endorsement of the lyrics is that Morrissey wrote them." [1]
In a 1988 interview with Shaun Phillips for Sounds Magazine, Morrissey justified the lyrics by saying: "If you went to live in Yugoslavia tomorrow, you would find you didn't really belong there."
Nancy Sinatra has named this one of her favourite Morrissey songs and has asked to record a cover version, a request Morrissey has not agreed to despite their friendship.
