Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now

"Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" is a single by The Smiths that reached #10 on the UK Singles Chart in June 1984 before its inclusion on the compilation album, Hatful of Hollow. It is listed as one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. The song is notable for marking the beginning of producer Stephen Street's working relationship with the band. As one of his first roles as "in-house engineer" at Island Records' Fallout Shelter studios, Street engineered the session. He was well aware of the band and excited by the prospect, saying in a HitQuarters interview, "I’d seen them just shortly beforehand on Top Of The Pops doing ‘This Charming Man’, and like most other people around that time who were into music I was really excited by them." Street says his enthusiasm must have rubbed off on Morrissey and Johnny Marr because they would take his name and number. Although not contacted for the subsequent recording "William, It Was Really Nothing", he was asked to engineer their next album, Meat Is Murder, with Morrissey and Marr producing for the first time.

[Verse 1] I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour But heaven knows I'm miserable now I was looking for a job and then I found a job And heaven knows I'm miserable now [Refrain 1] In my life, why do I give valuable time To people who don't care if I live or die? [Verse 2] Two lovers entwined pass me by And heaven knows I'm miserable now I was looking for a job and then I found a job And heaven knows I'm miserable now [Refrain 1] In my life, oh, why do I give valuable time To people who don't care if I live or die? [Verse 3] What she asked of me at the end of the day Caligula would have blushed "Oh, you've been in the house too long", she said And I naturally fled [Refrain 2] In my life, why do I smile At people who I'd much rather kick in the eye? [Verse 4] I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour But heaven knows I'm miserable now "Oh, you've been in the house too long", she said And I naturally fled [Refrain 1] In my life, oh, why do I give valuable time To people who don't care if I live or die?