Driving Your Girlfriend Home

Song Meaning

In "Driving Your Girlfriend Home," Morrissey spins a familiar, yet still subtly devastating, tale of misplaced affection and quiet desperation. The setup is deceptively simple: the narrator is literally doing what the title says, yet the car ride becomes a confessional, a space where the girlfriend airs her regrets about her relationship. The repeated lines, "I'm driving your girlfriend home," act as a kind of bleak mantra, underscoring the awkward intimacy and the narrator’s passive role in this drama. He is merely a vehicle, both literally and figuratively, for her discontent. The genius of Morrissey's lyrics lies in the unspoken. The girlfriend's questions – "How did I end up so deeply involved...?" and "How did I end up attached to this person...?" – are rhetorical, aimed less at the driver and more at the void. She's trapped, questioning her choices, and the narrator's inability to answer only amplifies her sense of isolation. The song meaning hinges on this dynamic of unacknowledged longing and the slow erosion of love. Her lament about his humor getting "gradually worser" is a particularly sharp observation, suggesting a slow, almost imperceptible decline that's led her to this point of quiet crisis. It's not a sudden catastrophe, but a gradual wearing down of affection. The politeness of their goodbye – "shaking hands goodnight, so politely" – is the final, crushing blow. The forced civility speaks volumes about the chasm that has grown between her and her boyfriend. Ultimately, "Driving Your Girlfriend Home" is a masterclass in Morrissey's signature blend of mordant wit and melancholic observation. It's a song about the quiet tragedies of everyday life, the moments of regret and resignation that often go unsaid. The narrator's silence becomes a mirror reflecting the girlfriend's own internal struggle, and the listener is left to ponder the uncomfortable truth that sometimes, the most profound pain is expressed not in grand gestures, but in the polite exchange of a handshake at the end of a drive.