It's difficult to tell, with the lyrics being unclear at certain points. The irony is that it's my all-time favourite song, yet I can't be 100% sure about all the lyrics and his intentions for writing the piece. I guess the reason it's such a powerful song is because of what it tells you despite its lyrics--the melody of it. You start with an aggressive beat and aggressive verse. It's so different from anything else he released, so raw, so intense.
You start out with "He got flat, baby, kicked in the back, baby, a heart attack, baby..." all told from an outsider's perspective by using "he," a detached third person pronoun. You almost think he's going to tell a story, which is the approach he used in Little Susie, another interesting and deeply emotive song of his. You wonder, who is "he", and how did he die of a heart attack? Then, it goes on to address someone: "you make me sick, baby", "All down the line, daddy, I hate your kind, baby." What kind? Assumingly, drug-addicts, since a "line", at least in my interpretation of it--is highly reminiscent of the slang term "lines of cocaine."
The first verse is notorious for using predominantly negative adjectives such as "unreliable," "swine" (interestingly in addressing himself) and negative verbs like "hate," ultimately leaving us with "another drug, baby, you so desire," before switching tone entirely and pleading "trust in me, trust in me, put all your trust in me..."
I think the beginning verse represents a conflict between his attitudes towards drug use and drug addiction in general, and the ultimate addiction he ended up in at that time--we all know Michael did not do recreational drugs, and was not an "addict" in the generally perceived term of the word. Therefore, the lines "you make me sick" would make sense, and the subsequent "he's one of us, baby!" could be the drug addicts who make him sick saying he's, in their eyes, one of them. "Another drug, baby, you so desire..." almost sounds like a taunting remark, as if these imaginary addict archetypes in his mind are saying to him, "well, you might not do coke, or meth, or whatever else, but you certainly are addicted to pain medication in the same way we are psychologically/physically dependent on (desire) our recreational drugs..."
Then, we switch to the pleading, "trust in me, trust in me, put all your trust in me..." followed by the exclamatory, "he's doing morphine!"
The key word in this verse seems to be the word "trust." More importantly, we tie in the concept of trust with that of the song's title and the only noun which comes up in this verse--morphine. Well, a bit of a history lesson here--what we currently recognize as morphine was discovered in the 19th century by German scientist Friedrich Sertürner, and was used throughout the 19th and early 20th century. Especially during WWI, morphine was <b>prescribed by doctors</b> as a painkiller to unsuspecting soldiers, one of the most famous cases of this being German aerial ace Hermann Göring (who remained a morphine addict his entire life.) The highly addictive nature of morphine was not known back then, but it certainly required that the patients put their <b>trust</b> in their doctors, who must have known what they were doing to relieve their pain.
What does this have to do with Michael Jackson? Well, I think it is obvious he placed his trust in the doctors who prescribed him the medications, and I think he is not literally talking about Morphine (modernly, morphine addiction/medical use/illicit use is rather uncommon, having been replaced by the more popular and addictive opiate heroin [which was ironically developed as a cure for morphine addiction.]) It is seldom prescribed by doctors anymore (after its highly addictive qualities were documented given all the morphine-addicted WWI veterans, people became hesitant to prescribe it, and prescribed heroin instead, now, they seldom, if ever, prescribe either out of fear of being sued.)
In any case, we can largely agree that morphine is a symbol--something that was marketed to end your pain, prescribed by a doctor, something you could "trust." So...the exclamation at the end, "you're doing morphine!" (not "I'm doing morphine!") is notably from an outsider's perspective... someone who knows these drugs will turn out to be "morphines," i.e. highly addictive with dubious benefits.
The subsequent knocking and saying "you heard what the doctor said," seems to support my point.
The second verse seems to embody all the media accusations and lies, "you hate your race," "you're just a liar," all things which they accused him of and I have no doubt contributed to his state of mind at the time of the addiction. It is also important to note that he chose to use audio from the 1980 film The Elephant Man--I am sure you all remember the tabloid story about him wanting the bones of Joseph Merrick, etc. but it goes deeper than that--in regards to this verse, especially, with its accusatory "you's" reflecting tabloid lies about him--it is just as in The Elephant Man, in that his life was made a spectacle by the media who abused him as the Victorian circus did Merrick in the 1980 film. In the film, Merrick is revealed to be an artist of fine sophistication, and not an imbecile at all, as he once was thought to be--just as Michael was not at all the sum of all the lies the media said about him. Yet, these verses reveal to us what <i>he</i> had to hear from them... it's no longer "He hates his race," which is detached--it's about a he--but "YOU hate your race," now directly addressing "you."
Where I am admittedly at a loss is in the verses following that. Where he says, "she never cut from me, she never cut, baby, I've got to what baby, you're just a rival." I can see the relation in that (in my own experience) cutting has proven itself to be as addictive as any drug--in fact, they both involve a rush of chemicals, mostly adrenaline in cutting, but in any case--they both produce a sense of relief during painful situations, so the relation to drugs and "morphine" is present from that perspective, but who "she" is? My hypothesis is that "she", just as in Little Susie, is Michael--the more feminine aspect of Michael. The masculine side of him is the angry narrator throughout this entire song, but "she" cuts--she is a depressive, not an aggressive (self-harm and other inwardly aggressive behaviours are considered depressive, as is drug use.) I don't think Michael ever cut, but he was knowledgeable about a lot of things, so is this perhaps his way of comparing his addiction to cutting--as a cry for help, in some cases. Alternately, it could be a reference to "cutting cocaine", as in "she never cut, baby", he could be saying that the painkiller use was never recreational or for "fun," but was in fact strictly medical, and therefore different from the drug use of addicts.
The "you're just a rival" verse and references to rivals throughout the song could be how the media or other artists saw him--as just a rival, competition, etc. and therefore not worthy of help, or at least not convenient to help--you don't help rivals, after all.
As for the "daddy" references, they tend to be pretty negative. If you are to take them literally, then, I suppose they could be in reference to Joe and a desire to always please him only to have him leave in the end. That could be the child in him talking (hence the infantile daddy as compared to the sober and adult father.) It is clear that Joe's coldness towards Michael in childhood really hurt him and caused him great emotional distress (understandably, and I can understand to a degree having no father in my own life, and a cold and largely cruel mother figure.) In any case, this verse could be in reference to that.
After this verse, we have one more "morphine" chorus, followed by a great and very important change--the melody changes from rapid electronic beats to an orchestral piece with a slow piano, which suggests (to me) a state of utter despair despite its high notes. The most important part of the song is at this point.
The tone of Michael's voice also changes, from aggressive to empathetic and consoling/reassuring:
"Relax, this won't hurt you. Before I put it in, close your eyes and count to ten. Don't cry, I won't convert you, there's no need to dismay, close your eyes and drift away."
This sounds to me like a doctor speaking (street thugs aren't going to tell you to relax lol), specifically, a doctor who gave him something that can be equated with "Demerol." It is obvious from this verse that the patient didn't want the demerol, that he was very hesitant about being given any drugs at all, and was evidently very nervous. He had to close his eyes and count to ten, a common stress-reduction technique most people don't revert to unless they are undergoing stress they can't manage through other means. In other words, the stress is so high they have to physically shut out their surroundings, as appears to be the case, with him crying and everything. The "I won't convert you" verse is of real interest--to me, it shows the patient had some suspicions about Demerol and potential addiction, but his doctor reassured him he wouldn't "convert" him to a drug-addict, and that there was no need to dismay (worry), and to just "drift away," in other words, let the drug take effect. (I wonder if the doctor is a Demerol addict himself, from the way he attempts to reassure his patient that the drug won't hurt him and describe the experience as just "drifting away.")
The other parts of the "slow" verse are pretty self-explanatory, with his realization that he has a drug addiction he never asked for due to medical irresponsibility, hence the part "I won't resent you," in which he seems to be addressing himself with the second person pronoun "you." He is not worthy of resentment because he did not go out and seek the Demerol, it wasn't used for "fun," and therefore he is not a drug addict in the way society thinks of them.
The next verse is a repetition of "your dog's a bitch," (or alternately he dug a ditch?) "you make me sick, baby," and "you are a liar," which I have already discussed as outsider's perspectives on him.
The rest I honestly can't say for sure, since I can't really hear what the lyrics say the verses are (and this is true for a lot of the past verses, to which I just went along with what most people seem to think the lyrics are.)
In any case, the final verse is pretty clear--you just sit around talking about it and doing morphine--so the problem is by and large unresolved (or was at whatever point in time he was referring to), we can deduce.
Overall, even with the dispute as to what the lyrics are, the song's message remains unchanged: whether autobiographical or not, the song could be interpreted as being somebody's cry for help. If it is pertaining to him, I think it's talking about the time he was addicted to pain medication--in 1993. I think by the time Blood on the Dance Floor came out, he had enough time to think about his experience with painkillers in 1993, and "Morphine" was born out of it.
Note me in that I don't claim to be right at all--this is just my attempt at analyzing a song that I honestly do not understand to the fullest, so I could be (and probably am)wrong about a lot of things.
To be honest, the majority of songs I have mused over here (I won't call it interpretation because most of this stuff happens on the spot hence the overall lack of sophistication in my posts) are songs I have not really set out to interpret/decipher.
