Lyrics such as "No more rope and too much dope, she's lying on the bed/Angels pacing, gently placing roses 'round her head," describe the overdose of the protagonist's friend.
[1] The song was released to critical acclaim; Bill Janovitz of Allmusic said that "Pink Turns to Blue"'s buzz saw guitar riff and three-chord chorus sounds like a meeting between the Stooges and the Beatles, or a more serious, soulful Buzzcocks.
Treble's Chris Karman justified the ranking by noting that the song "is the perfect encapsulation of what made Hüsker Dü stand out from their peers."
By being "one of (the) first bands to truly mix hardcore's serrated riffs with pop song smarts, Hüsker Dü essentially provided a blueprint for pop-punk's evolution."
He criticized the recording as being "a little thin, but everything else about it, right down to its melancholic tone, is practically a perfect prediction of the approach that would be adopted by many early '90s alternative bands.