yes actually i believe it is about both, here is something i posted on another site about it, i hope it helps
Now to understand this song you must have gone through the EXACT same thing he is talking about and be in a equally as depressed mood as he was when he wrote it. dont listen to those people that say he just trys to find rhyming words and half of them mean nothing, they are all easy enough for a simpleton to figure out, and if you dont get the basis of the song maybe you should not be listening to Bush. to be plain about it, it is about drugs and the girl he lost because of them. throughout the song he is talking about his girl friend he lost and the drugs he now has, and sometimes it is hard to distiguish the diffrence. we start of with sinking into the skin refering to a needle for injection. then the " real feel" is obviously the state of euphoria of what is most likely heroin. white refers to cocaine, grey his life without the girl he lost. "now your here (heroin or cocaine) now your away (girlfriend)". dont let the days go by means dont get high and sit around. now the interesting part and most difficult to decipher: Glycerine. glycerine has a sweet taste and smell but cause the human body to have diarea. it also is used to stabalize dynamite, and might just refer to mixing something sweet and something dangerous and having a hell of a bad recipie for disaster-like the girl you love and the drugs your addicted to (i know all about that). hes never alone because he has heroin, but he is alone because shes not there. rising is refering to high, and of course strawberry fields is nicely borrowed from the beattles. have a beautiful taste refers to both her and tasting your powdered drugs for stoutness. couldnt change and old friend fear needs no explaining everyone gets paranoid on hardcore drugs. he needed drugs more when him and his girlfriend werent together. im not sure but to me clear simple and plain sounds like meth. but anyways out of all the ideas i have heard about the basis of this song, this ones makes the most sense to me, and certaintly leaves no room for " he was just looking for rhymes" lol. well tell me what you think of my evaluation, dont be too harsh, i know i cant spell. and kids... dont do drugs they make you think way to much about music and cost you the best things in your life
