Killer Whale Tank Wrote:"Opiated" is smoulderingly sublime, showing that the Hip can work with much subtler dynamics, both lyrical and musical, than just the kick-ass rockers that define the album; it's got that quality of menace that became such a distinctive Hip trademark, and showcases Downie at his best in every respect. It's also a sadly neglected deep cut appreciated only by serious fans, and in that sense deserves not to get voted off, just because it is so under-appreciated.
Opiated has to be counted among the Hip’s darkest songs. To me, it’s a melancholic documentation of the suicide of a close friend. Downie opens the song with the not-immediately-obvious metaphor of gasoline for alcohol and then pulls back that curtain with a sly nod to the Grateful Dead. Two fifths of gasoline is about one and half litres, enough to barely get you down the road in a car. However whiskey was formerly measured in fifths (a fifth of a gallon or about 750 mL) and two fifths of that would get you a whole lot further down the road, and maybe take you right off the road and into the ditch, in the figurative sense. The line “the bottle is dusty but my engine is clean” likely has its origins in the Grateful Dead’s “Brown-Eyed Women” in which Garcia sings “the bottle was dusty but the liquor was clean”. Downie uses this to bring the alcohol metaphor forward.
The narrator conveys the idea that the protagonist is struggling with depression. He was “addicted to approval” that he wasn’t getting and there was “poison in his head”. Drinking, depression and suicide are often intertwined. The purchase of the suit is for a “future” bride (I don’t interpret “bride” to be a reference to a current wife), but he realizes that if those dreams aren’t realized, hell, they can just bury him in it after he kills himself as the suit would be suitable attire for meeting Saint Peter at the pearly gates.
In the chorus the narrator describes the pain of the loss of his friend. He is trying to dull his feelings with opiates (possibly heroin, or this may be a metaphor) and is confronting the “Why” and “What could I have done?” that anyone touched by suicide faces. He feels that he maybe didn’t do all he could (“Maybe I couldn’t catch up”), but puts some of the onus for seeking help back on his friend (“But maybe he could have waited”).
Overall, there is a lot of depth to this tune. It’s stellar, both musically and lyrically. One of my all-time favourites, not just from the Hip, but from anyone. I have a feeling that this song isn’t going to make it past this round so I will consider this my eulogy for Opiated.
