"Big Black Smoke" is the B-side to The Kinks' single "Dead End Street", written by Ray Davies.
The song was not originally included on any album, but has since appeared as a track on the popular 1972 Kink Kronikles compilation and as a bonus track on the CD reissue of Face to Face.
The Big Smoke is a euphemism for London, the setting of the story told in the lyric.
The song makes reference to the recreational use of the drug Drinamyl with the lyric "And every penny she had was spent on purple hearts and cigarettes."
According to band researcher Doug Hinman:[2] The Kinks