Half a Person

The Smiths recorded “Half a Person” in early 1987 for release as a B-side to “Shoplifters of the World Unite.” Morrissey and Johnny Marr wrote and produced the track, with Marr, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce supporting Morrissey’s wistful London lyric and Stephen Street credited as engineer. Released by Rough Trade in 1987, it appeared first on “Shoplifters of the World Unite” and then on The World Won’t Listen and Louder Than Bombs. The song became one of the band’s most loved B-sides, showing the Smiths’ late-period ability to place fully realised songs outside their studio albums. The track remains a central deep cut in the Smiths’ catalogue and one of Morrissey’s most quoted portraits of adolescent displacement. Its later covers and regular Morrissey solo performances kept it visible beyond the band’s short original lifespan.