Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCCLXXXIV--The Verve: The Drugs Don't Work

When I first started Friday Night Jukebox, I had intended to do a lot more posts on tunes like this week's, that is songs that were album cuts that didn't quite get the attention of hit singles.  Unbeknownst to me before I did my weekly half-assed research, this week's featured song was actually quite a hit in the U.K. but since the bulk of my readers (both of them) are from the U.S. I figured I was living up to the spirit of that intention.  Might be splitting hairs, but....

I wrote a post in 2019 about The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony," and since that time nothing in the band's history has changed--they have not reunited since breaking up in 2009, and the odds of it happening still are very slim.  And that's all I have to say about that....

Fun Fact:  The Verve were originally just the Verve, but because they shared a name (of sorts) with Verve Records it caused some legal ramifications which the band resolved by becoming The (with a capital 't") Verve.

"The Drugs Don't Work" was the released in 1997 in their native U.K. as the second single from arguably their best album, Urban Hymns.  The single reached #1 on the U.K. Singles Chart, but as noted above was not released as a single in the U.S. As a reminder for those who don't remember a post from three years ago (my guess, everyone who isn't the title character in Rain Man), the album hit #1 in  England, and #23 here in America. 

As many people as have listened to the song is the number of meanings you'll find for "The Drugs Don't Work," and songwriter Richard Ashcroft has only said it's a song written when he and the band were using a lot of recreational drugs and how their effectiveness eventually lessened...and purposefully said nothing more so each listener can enjoy their own interpretation.  Trained in the "Shit Doesn't Have to Have Meaning, It Just Is" school of art appreciation, I don't have a dog in the hunt.  But for myself, I love Ashcroft's soulful singing, the winsome acoustic guitar, the lush strings, and the repetition of lyrics at the end (especially helpful for an old coot singing along whose memory isn't what it used to be).  I will say, from what I've read, I don't find the song as sad as many do--I find it incredibly hopeful, though laced with a heavy dose of reality.  All in all, just a stellar song, and another find addition to the annals of Friday Night Jukebox (if I do say so myself...).

Lyric Sheet:  "But I know I'm on a losing streak/Cause I passed down my old street/And if you wanna show, then just let me know/And I'll sing in your ear again..."

Enjoy:

Republican = Traitor

Peace,

emaycee