Rocktrospectiva: The Smiths Epic Single "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side" Turns 40

Released as a single on 16 September 1985, "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side" was a song by the Smiths, included on the band's third studio album "The Queen Is Dead" released in 1986. 

This was the first single by the Smiths to be accompanied by a promotional music video, something the band had previously resisted. They also performed the song on an episode of Top of the Pops. The main difference between the single version and the album version is in the use of synthesised strings, which are absent from the single version. Morrissey named it his favourite Smiths song

But this classic Smiths single from 1985 has a rather obscure lyric: “The boy with the thorn in his side, behind the hatred there lies / A murderous desire for love…”

The Boy With The Thorn In His Side was the tenth single to be released by The Smiths. It followed the release of Meat Is Murder and arrived long before its inclusion on the classic album The Queen Is Dead the following year.

Thanks to the band’s huge fanbase - and a memorable appearance on Top Of The Pops - the single charted at Number 23 in the UK and No. 15 in Ireland, but who was the "boy" of the title?

Back in 1985 around the time the single appeared in the shops, Morrissey was interviewed by actress Margi Clarke for the Channel 4 music show The Tube. The pair were old friends from the post-punk scene and Clarke thought she had the inspiration for the song nailed.

Clarke thought that The Boy With The Thorn In His Side was inspired by the Oscar Wilde story, The Nightingale And The Rose, in which a bird sacrifices its life to give a young man a rose to woo his sweetheart with: “The thorn must pierce your heart, and your life-blood must flow into my veins, and become mine.”

But Mozza told Clarke: "No, that's not true". The thorn is the music industry and all these people who never believe anything I said, tried to get rid of me, wouldn't play the records. So I think we've reached a stage where we feel… if they don't believe me now, will they ever believe me? You know, what more can a poor boy do?

Despite having a hit single in the charts, Morrissey and his songwriting partner Johnny Marr felt that they were not being served well by their label Rough Trade. But on top of this was the burden of stardom that the singer was struggling with. He told Clarke: "I wanted fame for so long and now I've got it. Isn't that odd? The strangest thing in the world is when you get what you really pray for. 

The NME were not impressed by the new Smiths single. Reviewer Richard Cook noted: "Seems like Morrissey himself gives up on the song half-way through when he stops the words and uses up the rest of the needletime with yodelling.", I wonder what he thinks about this impressive, celestial and influential single 40 years later after its original released.