The single debuted on the UK charts at number 5 and then peaked the next week at number four. It continues to circulate Europe and other places with great success, receiving a great deal of air time.

It also has its own video, which is available below. Check it out, it’s appropriately neat and bizarre, with lots of neat shots of the mountains coupled with other, seemingly random imagery intertwined with the band doing their stuff.

“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.

The album’s title is a reference to a soul movement in 1960’s Britain known as Northern Soul. Northern soul dancing was known for its extreme athletics used in clubs.

Running at just under 63 minutes, A Northern Soul contains the following songs:
“A New Decade”
“This Is Music”
“On Your Own”
“So It Goes”
“A Northern Soul”
“Brainstorm Interlude”
“Drive You Home”
“History”
“No Knock on My Door”
“Life’s an Ocean”
“Stormy Clouds”
“(Reprise)”

“Bittersweet Symphony” was a controversial song at the time as it sampled a song done by the Andrew Oldham Orchestra, a cover of The Rolling Stones song “The Last Time”. It was successfully argued in court that The Verve had used too much of the song in their own rendition, however, and the rights to “Bittersweet Symphony” eventually reverted to ABKCO Records (the company that owned the rights to most Rolling Stones music from the 1960’s). Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were granted songwriting credits for the song.

Most recently Coldplay did a live cover of “Bittersweet Symphony”, inviting Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft to play with them on stage.

Lyrics:

Cause it’s a bitter sweet symphony this life…
Trying to make ends meet, you’re a slave to the money then you die.
I’ll take you down the only road I’ve ever been down…
You know the one that takes you to the places where all the veins meet, yeah.

No change, I can’t change, I can’t change, I can’t change,
but I’m here in my mold, I am here in my mold.
But I’m a million different people from one day to the next…
I can’t change my mold, no,no,no,no,no,no,no

Well I’ve never prayed,
But tonight I’m on my knees, yeah.
I need to hear some sounds that recognize the pain in me, yeah.
I let the melody shine, let it cleanse my mind, I feel free now.
But the airwaves are clean and there’s nobody singing to me now.

No change, I can’t change, I can’t change, I can’t change,
but I’m here in my mold, I am here in my mold.
And I’m a million different people from one day to the next
I can’t change my mold, no,no,no,no,no

Have you ever been down?
I can’t change, I can’t change…

Cause it’s a bittersweet symphony this life.
Trying to make ends meet, trying to find somebody then you die.

You know I can’t change, I can’t change, I can’t change, I can’t change
but I’m here in my mold, I am here in my mold.
And I’m a million different people from one day to the next.
///I can’t change my mold, no,no,no,no,no///

(It justs sex and violence melody and silence)
(It justs sex and violence melody and silence)
(I’ll take you down the only road I’ve ever been down)
(It justs sex and violence melody and silence)
(I’ll take you down the only road I’ve ever been down)
(Been down)
(Ever been down)
(Ever been down)(Lalalalalalaaaaaaaa…)
(Ever been down)
(Ever been down)
(Have you ever been down?)
(Have you ever been down?)
(Have you ever been down?)

Lyrics courtesy Live365.com.)