Girlfriend in a Coma

Girlfriend in a Coma may refer to:

Girlfriend in a Coma (song)

"Girlfriend in a Coma" is a song by The Smiths. It was released as a single in August 1987, reaching No. 13 in the UK Singles Chart.

The track was the first of three UK singles from the band's last studio album Strangeways, Here We Come. As such, it was the last single to include newly recorded material on the B-side. It holds the distinction of containing the last recorded Smiths song, "I Keep Mine Hidden". Also included—and recorded at the same session—is a cover version of a Cilla Black song, "Work Is a Four-Letter Word".

Release

Morrissey's insistence on releasing this single incurred the wrath of Johnny Marr, due to his dislike of the B-side, and he left the band not long afterwards. Marr recalled to Record Collector magazine in 1992: "'Work Is A Four Letter Word' I hated. That was the last straw, really. I didn't form a group to perform Cilla Black songs. That was it, really. I made a decision that I was going to get away on holiday. The only place I could think of was L.A. L.A. was the only place I knew where there'd be sunshine, so off I went. I never saw Morrissey again." The video, which featured clips from the film The Leather Boys (starring Rita Tushingham), was directed by Tim Broad. BBC Radio 1 refused to play the song. Morrissey later commented, "You're not really supposed to like those songs. They're very depressing and not supposed to be played on radio."

Girlfriend in a Coma (film)

Girlfriend in a Coma is a documentary about Italian and western decline directed, produced and co-written by Annalisa Piras, journalist and film-maker, co-written and narrated by Bill Emmott, former editor-in-chief of The Economist. It has been lauded as being ground-breaking in its creative combination of animation, interviews and hard facts, and has caused fierce controversy in Italy.

Background

The "Girlfriend in a Coma" title is derived from a British musical hit by The Smiths from their album Strangeways, Here We Come (1987). It reflects Emmott's emotional involvement with Italy - the often exasperating "girlfriend" - and the country's present state of comatose paralysis. The film was inspired by Bill Emmott’s book, Good Italy, Bad Italy: Why Italy needs to conquer its demons to face the future, published by Yale University Press in 2012.

Excerpts from Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, read by Benedict Cumberbatch, are used to illustrate the vices and virtues of Italy, connecting today’s malaise to that of seven centuries earlier and placing it in the context of Italian history and culture. Animation by the London-based artist Phoebe Boswell provides a fil rouge through the film that is light in appearance but dark in nature.