The Drugs Don’t Work
Monday, August 18th, 2008
“The Drugs Don’t Work” is a song written and performed by The Verve for their third album, Urban Hymns. It was first released as a single for the album, the second behind “Bitter Sweet Symphony”, and hit the top of the UK Singles chart in short order. The song’s meaning is generally thought to be a reaction by Richard Ashcroft losing his father to cancer.
“The Drugs Don’t Work” is generally considered to be The Verve’s most popular and successful single, and has been covered several times in the past, including versions by Ben Harper, Skin, Grinspoon and Adam Gontier. Interestingly enough, the song works as a kind of segue away from “Bitter Sweet Symphony”, as the music video for “The Drugs Don’t Work” takes place immediately after the video for “Bitter Sweet Symphony” ends.
Check it out for yourself below.