Meaning of “Suffer Little Children” by The Smiths

Suffer Little Children is a song performed by The Smiths. The song is about the gruesome Moors murders which saw killers Myra Hindley and Ian Brady murder five children between 1963 and 1965. The murders occurred on the Saddleworth Moor near Manchester,  England which is The Smiths’ singer Morrissey’s hometown. According to Morrissey, he wrote the song as a tribute to all the children who lost their lives in the Moors murders.

Our Favortie Line From “Suffer Little Children”

Facts about “Suffer Little Children”

• Morrissey wrote the lyrics of Suffer Little Children, whereas the music was written by Smiths’ guitarist Johnny Marr.
• Morrissey composed the lyrics of the song after reading Emlyn Williams’ 1967 book Beyond Belief: A Chronicle of Murder and its Detection about the Moors murderers – an incident which had a lasting impression on Morrissey, who was at the time of the murders only just a few years younger than the murdered children.
• Despite five children being killed in the Moors murders, the song only mentions the names of three of the children, namely John Kilbride, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans. The probable reason why Morrissey didn’t add the names of the other two victims (Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett) was simply because authorities didn’t have solid proof that Ian Brady and Myra Hindley murdered them until somewhere in 1985 (by that time Suffer Little Children had already been written and released).
• The song got its title from the Book of Mathew from the Bible (Mathew chapter 19 verse 14 to be precise).
• Upon the release of the song, many relatives and friends of the murdered children strongly condemned the song because they found it very offending. The outrage led to several record stores in the United Kingdom banning the single as well as the album The Smiths, which contained the “offending” song. Morrissey took no time in coming out to defend the band saying that he never intended offending the loved ones of the victims with the song and that the song was rather paying tribute to the murdered children. Morrissey’s explanation went a long way in calming the relatives of the victim down and even led to Morrissey becoming friends with Lesley Ann Downey, the mother of one of the Moors murders victims (Lesley Ann).
• Suffer Little Children was the 10th track from The Smiths’ 1984 eponymous debut album.