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You’re all wrong. This song is 100% about heroin. The usage of the word “heroine” is an obvious play on words and then the usage of tragic Hollywood beauties is both a cheeky expansion of the word play but also symbolic in several ways: first off, many of these “heroines” abused substances themselves and so are a literal representation of addiction in that sense, but also, when you use a drug as strong and addictive as heroin, you actually kind of see the drug as a beautiful yet tragic “hero” in a sense and for whatever reason (probably because society is patriarchal but who knows) it’s been consistently represented as female. So the heroine also literally symbolizes the heroin itself. “My Marilyn” = heroin is the singers Marilyn Monroe, “come to my slum for an hour” because the areas where one goes to get/do dope is often in, well, the slums. Now with that symbolism out of the way, the rest of the song is about as literal of a depiction of heroin/opioid addiction as it could possibly get! “I’m aching to see my heroine” do I even need to break this one down? Just drop the e at the end and it’s literally “I’m aching for heroin” lmao which is exactly what happens when you run out, you start to get sick and physically ache, the longer you go the worse it gets and it doesn’t take long until you feel like you are literally dying, which brings me to the next line, “been dying for hours and hours”. It’s beyond obvious at this point but let me further explain to those who are unaware of this sorta stuff-withdrawal lasts for hours and hours and hours (and days actually, but unless you’re trying to quit, no one makes it for days because it’s so brutal). Oh and the “nobody knows” line-many people go through addiction silently. Contrary to the common stereotype of a heroin addict, there are actually many functional and even successful opioid addicts (especially in the music industry where a lot of typical constraints don’t apply) you just don’t see it because they don’t look or act like the “typical” addict. I feel like I’ve already proven my point but since there’s *even more*, in case you somehow still haven’t caught it, behold: “I’m never alone now, cause I have been higher higher higher and nobody knows”. When you first start using heroin or other opioids, you literally feel like you are no longer alone. It’s hard to describe/explain, but it provides the same contentment and happiness that being in love does and it’s like your best friend in the beginning. Do I even need to comment on the “higher higher higher” part? Pretty damn self explanatory. And again “nobody knows” to add to what I said already about this, there’s also a certain high in itself that comes from knowing that you have this dirty little secret and nobody has a clue. Oh and let me just finish with this little gem: “I’m 18 and I need my heroines”. Literally just take off the last two letters. He is literally saying “I’m 18 and I need my heroin” which is self explanatory but also supports that this song is specifically about early addiction. Although obviously addiction can start at any age, it most commonly starts around the late teens. Then there’s also the cultural context of this song. This was written in Britain (London at that, correct me if I’m wrong though) in the 90s. Heroin was HUGE in that part of the world during that era. It was not only prominent in the street but prominent in the culture too, and was the thematic basis of gems such as ‘Trainspotting’ to name just one film and was very prominent in music as well and had been for several decades at this point (Lou Reed anyone?). I think a lot of people are averse to drugs and especially drugs like heroin and therefore don’t want that to be what this song is about, but I hate to break it to those folks-drugs are, have been, and will continue to be a major and inextricable element of music and art. And this song is most definitely, completely, unabashedly and unashamedly about heroin, and I love it. IYKYK, and I love honesty in music. I can’t help but think that when they wrote this song, they made it very literal on purpose just to see how people would still miss the point/say it’s about something else. |
