music & drugs

[hummingbird]

One of my favourite parts of our local weekly rag is "curious times" where they print odd news from around the globe. I thought you might find this story interesting:"Lucy in the Sky with Drugs""Researchers who studied references to drugs and alcohol in Top 40 music found one third of all songs favoured by teenagers include a reference to some kind of illicit substance. The study looked at 279 bestselling songs from 2005 in five genres considered popular with kids -- rap, country, R&B/hip hop, rock, and pop -- and found that rap music easily led the way with references to substance abuse in 77 percent of songs. Country music followed with 37 percent (must be those drinking songs), R&B/hip hop came in with 20 percent, rock music was at 14 percent, and a mere nine percent of pop songs dealt with drugs or alcohol." (Monday Magazine/Health Day News)

[tedsingingfox]

Interesting.So maybe I WILL be able to get something out of all those years I spent as a junkie after all... But, kids, stay in school.....

[squidlips]

Quote:Interesting.So maybe I WILL be able to get something out of all those years I spent as a junkie after all... But, kids, stay in school.....Really!! Don't do this stuff at home!! Go on the road and get them for free like the rest of us did. I'm only kidding. Really.

[anne]

Well, Squid and Ted - I'm all out of funny responses after reading yours!

[ciskokidd]

Hey Vickki,Is that a songwriting tip. Should I write some illicit drug references into my tunes to get that big hit with the kids? I think Matt will bring up the Daddy Don if he reads this one.Cheers,Cisco

[arkjack]

When I was a teenager, I thought the world would become this groovy place where everyone would be gitting high and writing songs..... pot would get legalized..... and everything would just be cool.......Instead, I wound up in this place where my peers decided to send all their kids to law schools and now everything is still this hyper-uptight legalistic penal anal toe the line or I'll jail ya... and don't step on my toe or call me a bad name or I'll sue ya for all you got kind of society...... and those that are doing drugs are psycho wacko murderin stealin low life morons...... I like co-writing the old fashioned way..... bottle of absinnthe... a bong and opium hashish.... couple of great songwriters at a beach house..... Ahhh those were the days....ArkJack

[tedsingingfox]

Quote:When I was a teenager, I thought the world would become this groovy place where everyone would be gitting high and writing songs..... pot would get legalized..... and everything would just be cool.......Instead, I wound up in this place where my peers decided to send all their kids to law schools and now everything is still this hyper-uptight legalistic penal anal toe the line or I'll jail ya... and don't step on my toe or call me a bad name or I'll sue ya for all you got kind of society...... and those that are doing drugs are psycho wacko murderin stealin low life morons...... I like co-writing the old fashioned way..... bottle of absinnthe... a bong and opium hashish.... couple of great songwriters at a beach house..... Ahhh those were the days....ArkJackYa know, I'm not really all that sorry I missed those days. Not to discount the important role that drugs and alcohol played in my youth , but those are not songs I would've wanted to write.

[stephen]

Have no idea what it's like to be high on anything. So I can't identify what writing under the influence is like or what writing about being under the influence. I for one won't be including those lyrics in my music seen to many addicts and what it does to them...

[baines]

I think drugs find music. Not the other way around. If you look at some of the most influencial and (arguably) greatest musicians in history: Elvis, Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Doors, to name a few, and again, this selection is subjective and there's a ton more to list, but for arugments sake, lets take these four. The first three all died from an overdose or from an event leading from abusing drugs and/or alcohol (suffocation). There's no secret that many of the Doors dosed themselves silly and finding (reportedly) Morrison in a bathtub can only lead to a couple conclusions. I'm just glad I made it past 27! My point is, if you take a group of the greatest and influencial musicians, from Bob Dylan to Elton John, the most common thread they have is drug and alcohol abuse, followed by crappy childhoods. Many of these folks use drugs and alcohol as an escape from their issues. Hell, how many times have you come home from a long day, or out of the studio, and just sat down with a cocktail of your choice just to unwind? Take that, coupled with compulsive personalities, mucho baggage and you get abusers, who just so happen to be musically gifted. It seems to work that way. Now, I'm not at all saying that ALL of the greatest musicians are junkies, that's hardly the case. But if you look at a chart, I'm sure it spiked starting in the 60's. Music is as much a part of culture as culture is a part of music. I think it's inevitible that the two dance together. I think for those individuals that the drugs and alcohol let them be free and open from their pasts, their issues. They are free to be who they want and write and play whatever they want. They attain a level of open-mindedness and clarity that they don't find sober. How's that for irony? Getting high for clarity. It's an individual thing, but another part of it I think has to do with image. Take Keith Moon. One of the notorious bad boys of Rock in the 60/70's. Driving cars into pools, trashing hotel rooms. Part of the 'image' of a rock star is being that rebellious 'bad boy.' Yet, if you talk to people who knew him and interviewed him behind the scenes, when he was at home, he was quiet and gentle, a family man. It's almost impossible to tell where the line is and where it gets drawn. Let's take Whitney Houston. One of the most beautiful and powerful voices to ever be recorded. Had the world in the palm of her hands. Grammy's, Platinum records, more money than she knew what to do with. So what does an innocent young woman do with herself after years of recording and accomplishing everything she sets out to do? She gets bored and then her husband turned out to be a bad influence. She turned to drugs. Its apparent in Britney Spears and the other little spoiled little brats that roam Hollywood, but's another thread Drugs have had a greater influence on the last few generations than anything else I can think of. It's sad, but when you have something so powerful saturate culture the way it does, it has no choice but to bleed through down into coporate life, family life, and the arts.

[arkjack]

I might be mistaken, but back in the day I think dudes like Mozart, Bach, and Bettovan had their little snuff bottles of coke, an opium pipe, and flask of brandy. And I think there is a difference between the prudent use of drugs and alcohol as a self-medicating escape for relief from stress versus reckless regular substance abuse and 'dropping out'. And from the mid 1800s thru the depression, absinthe, reefer, opium, and cocaine were readily available potions widely used by all stratas of society and particularly by artists, actors, performers, and musicians. That was back in a day where it wasn't as taboo or 'inappropriate' to get a little buzz as long as you maintained your cool and stayed responsible and respectable. Now its 'never touch it or you're a junkie." I also heard a story about a more modern group of rap and hiphop artists when it was first getting popular. The session musicians and this group would be in the studio, and one guy would whip out a joint the size of an elephant dong and when everyone was sufficiently stoned, they would turn on the tape and everyone would just "jam" for hours. Then someone took the tape, and cut it up and glued it back together to come up with one of the biggest selling platinum tracks of the decade. Somewhere in the story, it was said that that session was what lead to breakthrough innovations in stuff that came out later, because artists started to create imitations of those beats and tracks in sobriety and with intention. Kind of like the Paul is dead legend on the white album (reputedly produced under the influence of LSD). But the original sound came from being stoned off their asses.... Not sure if its true... olny a story I heard.ArkJack