Pulp released “Cocaine Socialism” on the B-side of “A Little Soul” single a year after Tony Blair’s election win of 1997.

At the start of the ‘New Labour’ era, Blair was wanting to be seen as ‘hip’, formerly being in a band himself. Blair was claimed to have contacted Jarvis Cocker (lead singer of Pulp) to support his election campaign. Cocker rejected the offer saying, “I wasn’t prepared to use my position in that way.”

In Pulp’s most renowned song “Common People”, the lyrics refer to class differences. A self declared Labour voter, Cocker satirically mocks the politician in “Cocaine Socialism”. The title is a play on words with the political phrase ‘Champagne Socialist’ which is used to describe self-identified socialists who have comfortable upper-middle class lifestyles.

The song follows a classic Pulp theme, a fairly innocuous situation. In short, the left wing politician is lobbying Cocker to rally support for the party. The politician is typically sweet talking Cocker and offering him a line of cocaine.

Two versions of this song exist: the one released as a B-Side to A Little Soul and a slightly shorter version with louder horns and female backing vocals, dubbed “proper version”, released in the 2006 Deluxe edition of This is Hardcore.