Music lyrics poll: Drug Use
August 13, 2011
In a Twittersation today we arrived at the possibility that being a heroin user is a unique lyrical stimulus. The specific assertion is that while a lot of so-called ‘crack rap’ discusses *selling* crack cocaine, there are no lyrics about being a crack *user*.
So let’s broaden the call…can you think of songs that are about using drugs other than heroin? Let’s leave alcohol aside for the moment, there are a bajillion songs about drinking.
DrugMonkey 
August 13, 2011 at 2:45 pm
Lots of songs are about marijuana use. Consider “just to get high” and “last dance with mary jane” as the two most obvious examples. My husband asserts that every single reggae song is also about pot one way or another. Probably true of all tom petty, come to think of it.
I find the “heroin is a unique lyrical stimulus” idea interesting though, because while thinking of the pot-songs I realized that I tend to like them more than “mr. Brownstone” or “waiting for my man” for example. Not that those aren’t great songs but they’re kind of downers. No pun intended.
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August 13, 2011 at 3:17 pm
There’s approximately half a bajillion songs about marijuana also.
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August 13, 2011 at 3:56 pm
How about a little coke and sympathy? We all need someone we can….lean on.
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August 13, 2011 at 4:40 pm
Eric Clapton’s “Cocaine”?
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August 13, 2011 at 5:11 pm
There’s that Moody Blues song, “Legend of a Mind,” that talks about how Timothy Leary will “fly his astral plane” and also “sells you thrills along the pier.” Just possibly a reference to LSD?
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August 13, 2011 at 5:22 pm
Led Zeppelin, For Your Life: “Don’t you wanna, don’t you wanna, cocai-cocai-cocaine…”
Sex Pistols, Seventeen: “I don’t work, I just speed, that’s all I need.”
Hawkwind, Days of the Underground: “In visions of acid, we saw through delusions…”
Lil Wayne, Me and My Drank: The whole damn song!
Jefferson Airplane, White Rabbit: The whole damn song!
Of course, most psychedelic/acid songs don’t mention the drug name explicitly, but how else would you classify “Purple Haze” and “Are You Experienced” by Jimi Hendrix, or “5 Years Ahead of My Time” by The Third Bardo?
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August 13, 2011 at 5:53 pm
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
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August 13, 2011 at 5:57 pm
I’m fairly certain Buffet’s not talking about salt in Margaritaville.
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August 13, 2011 at 6:24 pm
Have you lost your fucken mind, fuckeasse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????
Dude, you’re *IN* this fucken video. AMIRITE?
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August 13, 2011 at 6:29 pm
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August 13, 2011 at 7:09 pm
How about Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds? (LSD, although John Lennon swore it wasn’t about drugs.)
As for cocaine, there are whole top ten lists of songs about it:
http://listverse.com/2008/07/03/top-10-cocaine-songs-of-all-time/
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/crossfade/2010/08/top_ten_best_songs_about_cocai.php
Then there are Dylan’s lyrics about mescaline (Texas medicine) in “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again”:
Now the rainman gave me two cures,
Then he said, “Jump right in.”
The one was Texas medicine,
The other was just railroad gin.
An’ like a fool I mixed them
An’ it strangled up my mind,
An’ now people just get uglier
An’ I have no sense of time.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.
Not to mention, from the same album (Blonde on Blonde), “Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35” with it’s exhortation that “Everyone must get stoned!”
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August 13, 2011 at 9:26 pm
I’ve always liked the Lake Shore Drive song ( Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah), which is officially not about LSD (unlike “The Snow Queen”- I wish I could find an online version of that one). But was it *inspired* by it? Unknown.
After googling to about some of my favorite songs, I’m wondering how I’ve been singing along with “Under the bridge” (Red Hot Chili Peppers) all this time and not realized it’s about heroin.
If you’re going to argue all reggae and tom petty song is about marijuana, I’d have to add in all Grateful dead songs and Phish songs. Though some of the Dead are obviously about other drugs.
And I’d be surprised if 90%+ of House/Trance music remixes were not inspired by E. Just sayin’.
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August 14, 2011 at 1:06 am
DM, this is too easy. There are thousands of answers to your question. For example, most Steely Dan songs.
I want to mention The Smoke, and their 1967 album “It’s Smoke Time.” Not only does the album cover depict 4 dudes with stoned-out slits for eyes, but how can you beat “My Friend Jack,” as in, “My Friend Jack eats sugar lumps…” The BBC banned it, but it went to #1 in many European countries.
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August 14, 2011 at 5:08 am
“Dr. Green Thumb” by Cypress Hill
“Because I got high” by Afro Man
“Cocaine blues”, forget who wrote it, but Johnny Cash covered it
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August 14, 2011 at 6:23 am
A bunch of songs from Cypress Hill:
“Hits from the bong” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-u2wJm5AAs
“I wanna get high” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxrljsaGrqc
“Stoned is the way of the walk” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TxgXmNpSN8
“I love you Mary Jane” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbjyHXhUxM4
Enjoy !
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August 14, 2011 at 1:28 pm
Was surprised to see no other 90s music fans had mentioned the once ubiquitous “Semi-Charmed Life” by Third Eye Blind:
“The sky was gold, it was rose
I was taking sips of it through my nose
And I wish it could get back there, some place back there
Smiling in the pictures you would take
Doing crystal meth will lift you up until you break
It won’t stop, I won’t come down
I keep stock with a tick-tock rhythm, a bump for the drop
And then I bumped up, I took the hit that I was given
Then I bumped again, then I bumped again
Said how do I get back there
To the place where I fell asleep inside you?
How do I get myself back to the place where you said…
I want something else
To get me through this
Semi-charmed kind of life baby, baby”
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August 15, 2011 at 6:04 am
I’ll be whowing my age with:
A Horse With No Name, Sandman: America
Magic Carpet Ride, Snow Blind Friend: Steppenwolf
Truckin’: Grateful Dead
Blue On Black: Kenny Wayne Shepherd, which sounds very much like a drug withdrawel symptom song.
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August 15, 2011 at 9:17 am
BR5-49, “Me ‘n’ Opie” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XRXOjllwX4
Tori Amos, “Mary Jane”
Johnny Cash, “Cocaine Blues” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq344ks1ieg
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August 18, 2011 at 6:32 pm
When Hüsker Dü were just starting to get big, many people thought they were the fastest band ever, so they took a bunch of speed and recorded the live album ‘Land Speed Record’
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August 22, 2011 at 11:01 am
“Couldn’t Get High” and “New Amphetamine Shriek” by The Fugs spring to mind.
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August 22, 2011 at 12:18 pm
Jimmy Buffett — Kick it into the second wind:
“””
Losing any more hope of scoring any more coke
And we still gotta do another show
“””
Shpongle – Divine Moments of Truth repeats “DMT” “LSD” throughout the song. No specific references to consuming it though.
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August 22, 2011 at 12:21 pm
Also, “Ketamine ocean”
It would be hard for a non-K user to come up with “ketamine ocean”.
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August 22, 2011 at 12:29 pm
More Ketamine references: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2xmdJXDfmI
rx2008 also has a fantastic video in which “our favorite chemical technician ” references consuming (in order of appearance):
“government issued petro-pharmaceuticals”,
acid, weed, and mescaline
And, as far as describing the LSD mindstate, he does a great job.
“I’ve been watching you watching me.”
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October 16, 2011 at 6:29 am
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