The poll closed yesterday, and the most votes went to
"I am the son and the heir", which appears to be the correct answer, as
rsvman points out.
Song lyrics are tricky, both before and after the rise of the Internet. Growing up in the 1980s, you knew that unless the artist or group provided the lyrics in their album/cassette/CD liner, you were on your own. Nowadays there are lyrics websites that compile the words to millions of songs, but they're unreliable -- they copy off each other and are occasionally, objectively, obviously wrong.
The (Internet) lyrics of "How Soon Is Now?" say that the second line is
"Of a shyness that is criminally vulgar", which pretty locks in the preceding word to be "heir" and not "air". Back in the day, I thought Morrissey was saying
"And a shyness..." which kept either possibility, and knowing his love of wordplay, I thought he was using both "sun/air" and "son/heir" interchangeably in the song. I still like this interpretation, but that's probably not the case.
I voted for the "Hippychick" lyric --
"It's hard to tell you how I feel without hurting you" -- because, of the three poll options, it sounds the most like something Morrissey would write. Despite not being in the new wave/alternative genre, Soho pretty much made a working class British song that would not be out of place in The Smiths' catalog. (It also might be the only popular song to use the phrase "blue devils" and not be talking about Duke University.)
Songfacts elaborates on Soho, The Smiths, and the identical opening riff:
Contrary to rumor, The Smiths didn't sue Soho - they didn't need to as Johnny Marr, The Smiths guitarist, was happy to receive 25% of the song's royalties. The 'Hippychick' riff was originally recorded by Bo Diddley (on a track called 'Hey Mona') but Marr ripped off the Rolling Stones' version of the song, although neither were credited on The Smiths' version.
So it's like a song lineage.
Bo Diddley to
The Rolling Stones to The Smiths to Soho.
As a final note,
HoKogan brought up the 1990s cover of "How Soon Is Now?" by Love Spit Love. Until today, I had no idea that this band was a spinoff of 1980s band The Psychedelic Furs, and that they share a lead vocalist.
Songfacts again:
The band Love Spit Love, which included Psychedelic Furs members Richard and Tim Butler, recorded a new version of this song for the 1996 movie The Craft, which is about a coven of strikingly attractive teenage witches. In 1998, this same cover version was used as the theme song to the TV series Charmed, which is about a coven of strikingly attractive teenage witches.
I've heard the
Charmed theme so many times that I don't even connect it to The Smiths anymore.