"Sister I'm a Poet" (2:44) is a song by Morrissey. It was featured as a B-side to the single "Everyday Is Like Sunday" as well as the live album Beethoven Was Deaf, compilation albums World of Morrissey, The CD Singles '88–91', The Best of Morrissey, and promotional film release Hulmerist. Though a fan favourite, the song was never released as an A-side.
Contents
Colin Meloy cover
"Sister I'm a Poet" was also covered by Colin Meloy of The Decemberists on the album Colin Meloy Sings Morrissey.
Darlington cover
Singer songwriter Christy Darlington covered Sister, I'm a poet live on a Dallas-area radio programme called the Adventure club. He has been known to cover Smiths/Morrissey songs live.
Trivia
"Sister I'm a Poet" was used as both the opening and closing song in the DVD recording of Russell Brand's "Doing Life" Tour.
The lyrics and title have been interpreted as an homage to Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie
From a Guardian Unlimited interview with Brandon Flowers of The Killers:
"He has a thing about death. 'Jenny Was a Friend of Mine' and 'Midnight Show', both from Hot Fuss, were about the murder of a girl. He traces this interest back to Morrissey singing about how he loved 'the romance of crime' in the song 'Sister, I'm a Poet'. 'I studied that line a lot. And it's kind of embedded in me."
Later on in the interview, Flowers declares himself as being 'on speaking terms' with Morrissey, a hero of the singer's.
The song is referenced in My Chemical Romance's 2004 song Thank You for the Venom, in the opening line "Sister I'm not much a poet/but a criminal".