The Drugs Don't Work

Taken from Wikipedia:

""The Drugs Don't Work" is a song by the Britpop band The Verve and is featured on their third album, Urban Hymns. It was released on 1 September 1997 as the second single from the album, charting at number 1 in the UK Singles Chart, becoming the band's most successful single in the UK. Composer Richard Ashcroft wrote the song in response to the death of his father to cancer [1] and is also thought to be influenced by his relationship with his wife. The chorus, and title line, 'The Drugs Don't work, they just make you worse' has double meaning; the drugs being given to his father not working and seemingly making him worse, and the undesired effect of drugs being taken to block out the pain of losing your father.

The song has also been covered by Ben Harper on his live album Live from Mars, and has also been covered by Skin. In Australia it was also covered by Grinspoon for youth radio station Triple J's Like A Version CD."

Yeah that should explain everything. It wasn't written about his mom or his sister or whatever, it was written about his father. =]

It is truly a beautiful song, but I'm not convinced it was about his father dying of cancer. According to Ashcroft's Wikipedia page his father died suddenly of a brain hemorrhage. The drugs don't work single Wikipedia page says

'Lead singer Richard Ashcroft wrote the song in early 1995. He briefly mentioned it in an interview at the time, relating it to his drug usage: "There's a new track I've just written [...] It goes 'the drugs don't work, they just make me worse, and I know I'll see your face again'. That's how I'm feeling at the moment. They make me worse, man. But I still take 'em. Out of boredom and frustration you turn to something else to escape." '

There is also an acoustic version on the live peel sessions where he changes the lyric to the 'The drugs don't work, they just make me worse'. The lyric 'never coming down' is also usually associated with drug use as in the come down after getting high. They were heavily drug influenced and their early music was, according to Ashcroft, recorded on acid and many other songs they wrote were also related to recreational drugs such as 'Blue' and 'make it til Monday'.

I think people who have gone through the experience of a loved one dying of cancer can relate to this song and identify with it in their own way and that's part of what makes the verve's music so unique and so emotional, that they become personal. The song is what you want it to be, but I reckon Richard wrote it with recreational drugs in mind.

Aside from the confusion about the 'drugs' lyric I think the meaning and themes within the song are fairly obvious. Personally, I think its a love song to someone who is in pain and whose attempts to escape the pain through drugs (recreational, medicinal or metaphorical) is ultimately just making their pain worse. But they're likely to repeat the pattern over and over again (like an addiction) - 'I know I'll see your face again' could be a double meaning for both this pattern perpetuating itself and also the hope or knowing that 'if heaven calls' you'l still see your loved one again.

Also the first verse ends 'This time I'm coming down', indicating Ashcroft is mirroring the addiction of the loved one, which makes sense when taking into account the alternate version of the 'drugs make ME worse', in terms of how he evolved the song. Making the ending of 'never coming down no more no more' and the intensity he sings it at as he takes destiny into his own hands to change the pattern, which is certainly a theme on the urban hymns album, all the more emotional.

But as i said before, the important thing is what you get from it.

Really? I heard somewhere that Richard Ashcroft wrote this song about himself getting over his addiction to drugs...

After listening to this song and reading the lyrics I have decided it's a song about somebody's wife or girlfriend or something and they are dying of cancer. The drugs that don't work are the chemo drugs I'm guessing, cause chemo drugs make you worse as in really sick and stuff. Well that is what I think, I don't know much.

I totally love this song, it's really sad.

As a couple people have already pointed out, I think the importance of these lyrics lies in their transparency of meaning.

For me, they remind me of when my mother passed away from cancer after a long struggle. She'd underwent chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and was, of course, on a heavy regimen of drugs.

These lyrics have a double meaning for me, however, since I was also using quite a few myself at the time to cope. In the end and as the song goes, the drugs didn't work, and that was that.

Every time I hear this song, I think of her.

This song is brilliant!!

genius, ashcroft is genius

xonix, did you actually read my message, because if you did, you obviously didn't notice the word "supposedly", in it.

At the time it was released, a lot of people looked at Richard Ashcroft (who lets face it, even at his best, looked as though he was strung out on skag), then looked at the title of the song and assumed that it was a song about doing drugs, and dismissed it, before even bothering to listen to it. Most notably, was the case of a radio DJ (I can't remember his name), who refused to play it on his show, gave an on air tirade about how it was irresponsible to talk about drug use, because it might encorage fans to do drugs aswell and how other DJs should be ashamed of themselves, for playing it. A few days later, he was forced to apologise.

The song was definately written about the death of Richard's dad, despite the fact that some references: "my love" and "if you leave my life im better off dead" my appear out of this context. There's no reason why a song based on the death of his father can't also be incorporating other ideas/emotions. Song's dont have to necessarily be themed around one set thing, and even if another idea or emotion is being brought into the song with these lines, there is no reason why this should detract from the fact that the central theme is that of his dad's death. All in all a very powerful song however interpreted.

if it doesn't make you cry...are you human?

I f-ing love it.