10 Radio-Friendly Songs About Drugs

5. There She Goes - The La's

By rights, The La’s should have been one of the greatest British indie bands of the 1990’s. Their self-titled debut, released at the beginning of the decade, was a delightful, hook-laden nod to 60s guitar pop, but with the smarts and same feeling of necessity that accompanied The Smiths’ flowery post-punk explosion of the mid-80s.

For a while it seemed that they would be for Liverpool what Oasis would become for Manchester a few years later, and with signature single There She Goes, they had a perfect slice of indie pop that still sounds as crisp and fresh today as it did way back when it was released.

But the general consensus is that this sonic ray of sunshine is actually about a much darker subject - heroin. With lines like “There she goes again... racing through my brain... pulsing through my vein... no one else can heal my pain”, it’s easy to see where that theory comes from, and for his part, lead singer Lee Mavers has admitted to using the drug in the past.

The timeline is a little crooked on this one, with the songwriter claiming to have dabbled with dope after penning the tune, but there’s certainly enough here to think the lyrics are more than just a coincidence.

Alas, Mavers’ perfectionist streak and near-obsessive eye for detail meant that the band were never able to kick on and fulfil their potential, only ever releasing the one studio album, but if nothing else they gave us one of the most definitive songs in British musical history.