"Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth" is a song by American rock band the Dandy Warhols. It was released on June 16, 1997, as the first single from their second studio album, ...The Dandy Warhols Come Down.

Background and content

As documented in the film Dig!, the song is dedicated to the band the Brian Jonestown Massacre, friends and rivals of the Dandy Warhols, who in turn dedicated their own track "Not If You Were the Last Dandy on Earth" to them. Frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor revealed in an interview that the song is also about his girlfriend who he said had become a heroin addict while he was on tour. The song is known for its refrain "I never thought you'd be a junkie because heroin is so passé". Because of this, the song has often been erroneously titled "Heroin Is So Passé", and the song was later subtitled with this in some markets.

Music video

The music video for the song, directed by David LaChapelle, features the group "playing among a troupe of dancing syringes" and was called an "arch, playful, taboo-shredding hoot" by Mojo.

Release

"Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth" was released in 1997 as the second single from ...The Dandy Warhols Come Down. It peaked at number 13 on the UK Singles Chart and number 31 on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.

Track listings

All tracks were written and composed by Courtney Taylor-Taylor except where indicated. UK CD1 UK CD2 UK 7-inch single Australian CD single

Charts

Release history