Oh Asian Boy - What Drugs Are You On?

Asian Rut
Words by Morrissey - Music by Mark E. Nevin

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"Oh Asian boy - what drugs are you on?"

Day oh so late
strangely the sun still shone
oh Asian boy
what are you on?
Day oh so late
strangely the sun still shone
oh Asian boy
what drugs are you on?
Tooled-up Asian boy
has come to take revenge
for the cruel, cold killing
of his very best friend
Tooled-up Asian boy
has come to avenge
the cruel, cold killing
of his only friend
There's peace through our school
it's so quiet in the hall
it's a strange sign for one
of what's to come
Tough and cold and pale
oh they may just impale you on railings
oh English boys
it must be wrong
three against one?
Brakes slammed, and
his gun jammed, and
as far as I could tell
brave Asian boy
was dealt a blow and fell
I'm just passing through here
on my way to somewhere civilised
and maybe I'll even arrive
maybe I'll even arrive?

Players
Andrew Paresi (Drums and Percussion)
Mark E. Nevin (Guitars)
Bedders (Bass)
Steve Heart (Keyboards)
Seamus Beaghen (Keyboards)
Nawazish Ali Khan (Violin)

Officially Released Versions
Studio Version: Kill Uncle album (February 1991) - Produced by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley

Live History
We were subjected to this song only too frequently during the Kill Uncle tour. It is preserved for all "posterity" on Live In Dallas.

Lyrical Changes
The lyric sheet has the line "tough and cold and pale" listed as "tough and hard and pale".

Critical Commentary
"'Asian Rut' is classically bonkers. Only Morrissey could have decided to answer critics by writing a song where an Asian teenager attempts to revenge his best friend's death and is murdered by English boys, the whole shebang set to a funeral march with grim violin stylings top it. The pudding is nearly over-egged, but not quite." - David Quantick, New Musical Express, 1991
"'Asian Rut' reprises 1988's 'Bengali In Platforms' and, to a marching beat spiced with the sort of music often associated with flock wallpaper, it pictures a 'tooled-up Asian boy' in a light both sympathetic and alarmed, as if Morrissey would like to be able to identify more closely with the mild-mannered victim-turned-avenger but can't close the cultural gap." - Mat Snow, Q

Comtesse Review (as if you care)
"Asian Rut" is one of Morrissey's least popular songs and it's easy to see why. The dirge-like music is completely uninteresting, and the lyrics, which depict the revenge-inspired battle between a drugged-out, "tooled-up Asian boy" and a group of "English boys," is uncomfortable, to say the least, coming as it does after the controversial "Bengali In Platforms". If Morrissey was seeking to silence his critics who had labeled him a racist due to the ambiguous lyrics of "Bengali...", he did a very poor job of it. This song makes you wish that Morrissey would just leave some topics alone. "Asian Rut" also initiates another terrible tradition - that of placing a dirge as the second or third song on an album. After the frisky "Our Frank" opens the album, "Asian Rut" quickly comes along to put the brakes on the festivities. This pattern would repeat itself on Maladjusted (where the "Asian Rut" sound-alike "Ambitious Outsiders" rains on the parade) and Ringleader of the Tormentors (where "Dear God Please Help Me" throws a spanner in the works). It's almost as if Morrissey is deliberately trying to sabotage his albums. "Hmmmmm... that first song is catchy and fun... we've got to throw a funeral march at 'em now to stop 'em in their tracks!" At least, that's how it FEELS listening to Kill Uncle. "Asian Rut" isn't catchy, it isn't artistic, it isn't moving, and it says nothing to me about my life.