I remember when Pete Doherty appeared on The Late Late Show with Pat Kenny a few years ago. Kenny grilled Doherty about his drug use and his criminal convictions, but Doherty got the better of him when he forced Kenny to concede that he had not bothered to listen to even one of Doherty's songs in preparation for the interview.
If Kenny had bothered his overpaid arse to actually do his job properly, he would have discovered that Doherty is a gifted songwriter. Yes, Doherty's output has been of uneven quality, particularly in recent years, but he has written or co-written some of the finest rock songs of the Noughties.
This song below is one of my favourites. Can't Stand Me Now explores the tempestuous, obsessive relationship between Doherty and his co-frontman in The Libertines, Carl Barāt, who wrote the song with Doherty. Though both men denied it, there was much speculation that their relationship went beyond friendship, and the intensity and acrimony of this song merely added fuel to the fire.
Doherty:
"An ending fitting for the start
You twist and tore our love apart
Your light fingers threw the dark
That shattered the lamp and into darkness cast us."
Barāt:
"No, you've got it the wrong way round
You shut me up, and blamed it on the brown
Cornered the boy kicked out at the world
The world kicked back a lot fuckin' harder now"
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