Song Lyric Sunday. 5/5/2019

Jim Adams of NewEpicAuthor has given us a huge theme for Song Lyric Sunday. It is: Hurt/Pain/Agony/Suffer. Distress, discomfort, misery, torture and torment are all close synonyms, so there should be a lot of songs out there relating to this topic that you can choose from.

Well yes Jim that’s a wide canvas you have given us.

I have chosen The Drugs Don’t Work. By The Verve.

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.”

Ashcroft also performed the song when the band was touring in support of A Northern Soul.
The song was eventually recorded for Urban Hymns. The album’s producer, Chris Potter later referred to it as both the best song and best vocal he had ever recorded.

The single was noted during Channel 4‘s 100 Greatest #1 Singles programme as unintentionally capturing the spirit of the nation as it was released the day after Princess Diana died. Info from Wikipedia

The song is also linked with death of his father – who died from a blood clot when Richard was just 11 years old – and his wife’s Kate Radley’s father, who died of cancer.

Either way this is a beautiful and sad song that encompasses every word in your challenge.

Get the tissues out 💜