B-side, 1986
. . .
As much as I love Robyn Hitchcock, I learned pretty early on that buying his singles for the b-sides was a dodgy proposition. Often times, the b-sides were rife with weird experiments, either dissonant, ambient or spoken word.
That said, occasionally you hit paydirt, like the “If You Were A Priest” 12″ single, which I’m sure I bought at Rasputin’s in Berkeley, and ended up containing a song I love as much as anything on Element of Light, the glamstomping “Tell Me About Your Drugs.”
Do you believe in the Holy Grail?
Tell me about your drugs
Do you know anyone in jail?
Tell me about your drugs
Do you wake up on somebody’s floor?
Tell me about your drugs
And you just can’t take it anymore?
Tell me about your drugs
There’s a lot to love about “Tell Me About Your Drugs:” the knowing lyrics, the over-amped guitars, the massive 80s drum sound, and Robyn’s half-amused half-annoyed vocals, because there is nothing more amusing and annoying than talking to somebody who is on drugs about the drugs that they’re on even if you’re on the same drugs and talking about the drugs that you’re taking.
Do you believe in the Holy Ghost?
Tell me about your drugs
Do you like the things that hurt you most?
Tell me about your drugs
Do you wish you were somebody else?
Tell me about your drugs
But you wake up and you’re still yourself
Talkin’ about your drugs
Which is pretty harsh on paper, I know, but it’s nothing compared to the utter savagery of the the bridge, in which an utterly fed up Robyn unloads.
Well, now tell me about your drugs, come on
(Bop bop shoo bop, a-wop bop shoo bop)
Why don’t you tell me about your drugs?
I’d love to know more about your drugs
Why don’t you get intimate about your drugs
Why don’t you call me up and go on for hours and hours
And hours and hours and hours and hours and hours about your drugs
After which Robyn screams “tell me, Morris” and there’s some guitar shredding over a kickdrum and it’s fascinating, even though I was always weirded out by the “tell me, Morris” like maybe this is a song about Morris Windsor’s drug problem or something.
Luckily, the real reason is much more benign: for whatever reason, everybody switched up instruments on this one — Robyn Hitchcock played keyboards, Andy Metcalfe played drums, Roger Jackson played bass and Morris Windsor played guitar, making Robyn’s exhortation part of that grand tradition where lead singers audibly turn the song over to their guitarist.
Which is also pretty fucking funny.
And as great as “Tell Me About Your Drugs,” is, it is actually tailor-made to be a b-side: the instrument switching makes it formally experimental, the subject matter a bit more direct than the songs on Element of Light, and the overall sound really didn’t fit.
But of course, that’s always made me love it that much more.
“Tell Me About Your Drugs”
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