Interesting Drug

Re: 'on the right' v 'on the rise'. It's a deliberate pun. The video has 'on the right' written on a wall, in the song lyrics he clearly sings 'rise'. I suppose it's a way of commenting on the rise of the Conservative right (though in Britain at the time, the right had risen to its height).

I assume the interesting drug is money and power for the people at the top. The complaint among the British left has always been that the pro-corporate right tread on the rest of the people for their own personal gain.

It's a common Morrissey trick to sing different lines of one song as different characters. Here I think 'Look around... can you blame us?' is satirising the fake innocence of the rich. Despite what they do to other people, they still think they deserve sympathy.

This song has really started to grow on me. The bad people that Morrissey is refering to are the Conservatives especially that political party which were in power at the time he wrote the song. It is about their immorality and stopping people from having a chance is life. 'Once poor always poor' i think refers to Thatchers Conservative Britain where you were either extremely rich or poor, and could never relaly get out of the rut.

I agree with the above comments characterizing the song as an attack on British economics. More broadly I think the song is about an individual's rights versus the government's right to legislate one's lifestyle. As far as drugs go I know Morrissey does not do them but he said that he tried E once and supposedly this song was inspired by that. The singer's accepting but not indulging words seem to be just about his position, as expressed by the song's theme itself.

Morrissey was inspired lyrically by the drug culture in the English lower class, which he felt was being clamped down on by the power-hungry Thatcher government. These political themes were further explored in its music video.

Yes i particularly like it when he say "and look around can you blame us...." Its great he's saying why should we feel guilty for wanting to have a good time. All this shit that you have brought on the country Thatcher was a bitch!!!

i think the two previous entries summed it up. i love that morrissey equates money with drugs, it seems the more money the rich get the more they want. just look at the greedy bastards at enron.
morrissey's opinion of conservatives and thatcher is further explored in "margarette on a guillatine."

How good is the "..and look around ... ...can you blame us ? CAN you blame us ?"" line? love this song to death...the video clip is kinda fun as well :)

I love this song and although Mr Disco's interpretation seen through the viewpoint of the greedy politicians wanting more and more power like a drug is interesting, I think it's more straight forward.

Much like "Irish Blood English Heart" Morrisey is deriding the 'ruling classes' in Britain who are content to keep the working class down and 'in their place'. I love the way the song is so upbeat and jovial. It sounds like a happy song which is very ironic because it is Morrissey at his miserable best!

On a government scheme Designed to kill your dream Oh mum, oh dad Once poor, always poor

I think tinfoil really hit it on the head with the suggestion that the Interesting Drug is a play on the idea of an anti-depressant, to combat the actual economic depression in the 1980s. It sounds like Britain was a miserable place to live in at the time (I was too young to know) and the only way to escape the poverty and depression was with an Interesting Drug of some sort.

Morrissey is obviously of the opinion that Thatcher was doing a shabby job of running the country. Morrissey came from a working class Irish immigrant family and he always managed to paint a dreary, mundane and depressing picture of 1980s Britain. He doesn't blame working class people (or himself) for turning to drugs or medication to escape their surroundings, he blames the people in power for messing everything up. Sounds like a pretty familiar theme these days...

You wonder why we're only half-ashamed? "Because ENOUGH is TOO MUCH! ...and look around ... ...can you blame us ? CAN you blame us

Just look at songs like Handsome Devil "Who will swallow whom?" and on Pretty Girls Make Graves "I could and been wild and I could have been free but nature played this trick on me" , "I've lost my faith in womanhood", and "I'm not the man you think I am"

It kinda makes me think Morrissey wanted a hot beef injection. But I still luv him

isnt it on the right?