I finally found something worth living for? Well we did, 30 years ago on the 10th of October 1994. This was the 4th single off Definitely Maybe and what a single, what an anthem!
Cigarettes and Alcohol
Is it my imagination
Or have I finally found something worth living for?
I was looking for some action
But all I found was cigarettes and alcohol
It is so much more than the literal message. Cigarettes and Alcohol stood for the freedom to meet your friends in the pub for time well spent chatting, laughing, drinking and smoking in a place you felt you belonged, part of a group, a tribe, a place of sanctuary. Thats the action you were looking for, and it wasn’t your imagination, it was real.
What was better than balancing a ceramic lager branded ash tray on the cushion of a pool table having a game with your mates, a line of pound coins belonging to the rest of your mates lined up for the next games. A song for the people at a time long before the 2006 smoking ban in pubs and clubs. It does sound a lot better than;
But all I found was a sour raspberry vape in a smoking area and half price cocktails
Doesn’t quite have the same impact does it! Thats 30 years and a lot of lifestyle changes but the song still holds up.
Is it worth the aggravation
To find yourself a job when there’s nothing worth working for?
It’s a crazy situation
But all I need are cigarettes and alcohol!
Still fits today and it will remain timeless. How many people work the week looking forward to the weekend when they can be back in that happy place. This was written from a working class perspective and a area of high unemployment so the original influence is more telling here but the beauty of music is personal interpretation.
You could wait for a lifetime
To spend your days in the sunshine
You might as well do the white line
Cos when it comes on top…
You gotta make it happen!
Sunshine being a better life and skipping past the drug reference, it could be any vice, if you want better get out and take it, make it happen as it wont come to find you.
An anthem in 1994 and still an anthem in 2024, watch the crowds pogo and sing in 2025.
