Talk:Suffer Little Children

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Song name[edit]

Is there any source where Morrissey states he was inspired by that Biblical passage when naming the song? Many phrases can be found in the Bible, but that doesn't mean the author referred to it intentionally, which the article in its present form seems to suggest or hint at. ICAO 4444 (talk) 18:38, 18 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Beyond belief[edit]

I read that the book 'Beyond Belief' recounted how the murderers were code-named the Smiths by the police, prior to their being identified. Given that this was the first song written by Morrissey and Marr, there is a possibility that this book provided them with the name of the group. MegdalePlace (talk) 00:52, 27 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Untrue. Morrissey has explained on many occaisions in both radio and music press interviews that the name "Ths Smiths" was chosen simply to differentiate themselves from many other bands at the time who had particularly complicated, outlandish or shocking names. By chosing the UK's most common surname as the band name the idea was basically to say "the name is unimportant - concentrate on our music".

I don't agree with the statement that this song is "non-notable". It is the first song that Morrissey/Marr wrote and was highly controversial when it was first released. Also the song's existence highlighted the Moors Murderers as being one of Morrissey's major obsessions. Having said that I do think the article needs sources which it currently doesn't have. I will try and find these and then reinstate the article, if no one objects. MFlet1 (talk) 15:39, 2 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The song wasn't contraversial at all when it was first released. It was only when "The Sun" decided to make a big play of it in yet another desperate attempt to sell newspapers by pointless muck stirring that it became apparently "contraversial". It wasn't only this song that was identified for "shock horror" treatment, but also "Reel Around the Fountain", which is hardly a contraversial song - its about a young guy's affair with an older woman - much like Rod Stewart's "Maggie May" in fact. It should also be pointed out that the word "suffer" doesn't actually mean anything like "go through pain" in it's original sense. It actually means "permit" or "allow" (the word "sufferage" = "being allowed to vote" comes from the same route). That didn't bother most Sun readers though, who were beating their chests before they'd even worked out how to spell "suffer".

There is an ambiguous statement here here - the article states that 'Many of the victims were only a few years older than Smiths frontman Morrissey' which is incorrect. The oldest victim was 17 years old, Morrissey was in his 20's when he wrote the song. It should be changed to make it clear that this means at the time the murders took place, not when it was written. 220.233.109.220 (talk) 04:18, 13 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Laughter in the song[edit]

I'm confused as to why there is laughing during the song, which starts around 3:58. I've looked around for a reliable source too but I can't find one anywhere... can someone please find this out? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.121.152.246 (talk) 14:34, 20 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]