Only lasting only five years, releasing afour studio albums and splitting up many years ago, The Smiths still have a passionate and dedicated fanbase. In 2002, the British music magazine, NME, named the band the "Most Influential Artist Ever," over The Beatles. The Smiths split up in 1987, after which all members pursued different music projects despite offers of reuniting.
In the 2009 film, 500 Days of Summer, the song “There is a Light that Never Goes Out” features during a crucial scene which serves to bring the two main characters together. Tom (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is listening to the song through headphones while riding an elevator with Summer (played by Zooey Deschanel), who overhears the song and comments that she loves The Smiths. This was the time I decided to look for the song and listen to it myself and that move of mine was not at all regrettable because I have found another piece of musical treasure.
To me, the song is about someone who feels isolated and depressed for so long, and finallybroken out of their misery and into the world. They want to see people and want to see life'. Finally they're out there, living it up, but they're scared that the moment's going to end and so they want to die there and then, at their happiest. It is something between hope, excitement and the thrill of what just might happen, and that anything could happen. The feeling that is so sadly extinguished in many by adult years, and replaced by cynicism and the idea that "If you expect nothing then you will never be disappointed.” The song is a celebration of chasing unlikely dreams of any form, the butterflies in your stomach, the anticipation of the unknown, of life being lived to its fullest, without the mind ever capturing how that might be, the thrill of opening your mind and heart to the most extreme emotions you can imagine without the fear of what harm may come of it.
This song speaks to listeners in various ways. It is like a helpful friend in times of need. You can just forget the world for a while listening to this song. You can escape through music. You can even follow what is said in the lyrics-- to be yourself and break free from the box that holds you back from embracing your true self. And always remember that despite the impending and suffocating darkness around you, there is still a light that never goes out.
