Interesting Drug

"Interesting Drug" is a song by English singer-songwriter Morrissey. Co-written by Morrissey and former Smiths producer Stephen Street, the song was Morrissey's first fourth release after the Smiths break-up. Morrissey was inspired lyrically by the drug culture in the English lower class, which he felt was being clamped down on by a power-hungry government. The single was the second and final Morrissey solo single to feature his former Smiths bandmates Andy Rourke, Mike Joyce, and Craig Gannon.

"Interesting Drug" was recorded and released following Morrissey's debut album, ''Viva Hate''. Upon release, the single became yet another commercial hit for Morrissey, reaching number nine in the UK in spite of controversy regarding its lyrics and music video. The song would later appear on the 1990 compilation album, ''Bona Drag''.

In the years since its release, "Interesting Drug" has received positive critical reception.

Background

Lyrically, "Interesting Drug" sees Morrissey explore his feeling that the Thatcher-administration was clamping down on working-class drug use to "keep people in their place". As such, drug use results from a "sense of rebellion". Morrissey explained in a 1989 interview:

Morrissey attributed the song's controversy to the direct nature of these lyrics, commenting, "I think the pop establishment can deal with pop drug culture in its present form because it doesn't convey anything. It's very vague and wispy and (lolls tongue out and rolls eyes) ''uuuuungh, unngh''. But if you say. ''Interesting drug/ the one that you took/ God, it really helped you.'' That line was just far too direct."

The track features Kirsty MacColl on backing vocals as well as his former colleagues in the Smiths: Andy Rourke, Mike Joyce, and Craig Gannon. All three also appear on the B-sides. Ultimately, this would be the final single which featured this line-up, with Joyce and Gannon entering legal disputes with Morrissey afterwards. In his autobiography, Morrissey recalled, "The unhappy past descend don me each time I hear their voices and I decide not to invite them to any further recording sessions."

Like previous Morrissey solo singles, the music to "Interesting Drug" was written by former Smiths producer Stephen Street. This included the song's bassline, in spite of the presence of Rourke: Street explained, "I always was aware that the bass lines were very important to where Morrissey took his vocal, so we would often write a song around a bass line, like on 'Interesting Drug. Per Street, Rourke "did his own version of it" nonetheless. Gannon later pointed to the song as one of his best performances on any Morrissey or Smiths-related tracks.

Release

Street initially sought to halt the release of "Interesting Drug" as leverage to address a dispute over production royalties from ''Viva Hate''. Street explained, "My lawyer told me that the only way I could sort out my production royalty situation was to get an injunction that would delay the release of the 'Interesting Drug' single, which I'd worked on, after ''Viva Hate''. That did happen, but I thought it was making me look so bad that I relented and let them release the single. In the end it did get sorted out and I was given two-and-a-half points. I think my legal action left a bad taste with Morrissey. I remember the final postcard I got from him. It just said, 'Enough is too much' (laughs)."

"Interesting Drug" reached number nine in the UK, becoming Morrissey's last top-10 single until 1994. The song was not featured on one of Morrissey's main studio albums but can be found on the compilation album ''Bona Drag'' along with the B-side "Such a Little Thing Makes Such a Big Difference". The artwork for the single features Morrissey photographed by Lawrence Watson. Morrissey originally planned for "At Amber" to appear as the song's B-side, but it was instead shelved until it appeared as the B-side on the "Piccadilly Palare" single.

Music video

Like previous videos for Morrissey and the Smiths, the "Interesting Drug" video was directed by Tim Broad. The video features a group of high heel-wearing, ''NME''-reading schoolboys who join together with an older woman cyclist played by Diane Alton. At the end of the video, Morrissey appears to give the group animal rights literature, prompting them to break into a facility to free lab rabbits. This main story is interspersed with clips of Morrissey and his backing band performing the song. Among other things, the video features a cameo of a copy of ''Moby Dick'' as well as a reference to Morrissey favorite Charles Hawtrey in the fictional Hawtrey high school the boys attended.

The video prompted controversy and was banned by the BBC
...