THE SMITHS – THE DRAIZE TRAIN
B-side of the single ‘Panic, instrumental THE DRAIZE TRAIN was a Johnny Marr composition written with the intention of getting Morrissey to provide lyrics. An added push for the latter was Rough Trade’s Geoff Travis’ belief that with words the song could become The Smiths’ first number one.
Alas it was not to be. Morrissey wasn’t keen.
“I thought it was the weakest thing Johnny had ever done,' explained Morrissey. 'I said, "No, Geoff, it's not right."'
“While its spacious riff sometimes yearned for an absent vocal, musically 'The Draize Train' was full of classic Marr-isms, whether in its pale-faced Wythenshawe reflection of Chic's Nile Rodgers or the fact that for all its funk ambition its feet forever clank with the chains of melancholy,” wrote Stuary Goddard in his book ‘Mozipedia’ (
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007ROGD2Q).
"To me, the music was so romantic," said Marr.
The title of the song came from the ‘Draize Test’, a now infamous toxicity test co-devised in 1944 by U.S. scientist John H. that involves applying a test substance to the eye or skin of a restrained, conscious animal, and then leaving it for set amount of time before rinsing it out and recording its effect.
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Random story post on FB.
FWD.