Drugs in Music and Poetry

With the possible exception of the perennial favorite...LOVE...drugs may have been THE most popular subject of music and poetry in the 60's and 70's and well into the 80's. Whether it's that "peak experience" feeling or simply pleasant memories shared with friends when high, drug use was with us in song for a long, long time. It has only been with the recent return to the puritanical atmosphere of the 50's brought on by born-again bible thumpers and other right-wing types that the subject of recreational drug use in song has fallen from grace.

So...it is with my usual attitude of political-correctness-be-damned that I delve into some of my favorite lyrics and poetry about drug use.

1966...The Beatles Rubber Soul album. Was Norwegian Wood REALLY about smoking pot? "And when I awoke I was alone. This bird had flown. So, I lit the fire. Isn't it good? Norwegian wood." Hmmmm...and what ABOUT Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds?

1969...Woodstock...Arlo Guthrie, son of folk music giant Woody Guthrie (This Land is Your Land) performs a song that goes "Flying into Los Angeleez...Bringing in a couple of keys. Don't check my bags if you please mister customs man."

Also in 1969 (a great year for drug music), a seminal, low-budget film that was all about drugs and how they figured into pursuing the American dream. Yes, it was Easy Rider. The Holy Modal Rounders brought us: "Don't bogart that joint, my friend...pass it over to me." And a little-known group called Steppenwolf brings us "God damn the pusher-man." and "Born to be wild."

Was it in the late 60's or early 70's that an entire album devoted to pot was made? I guess if you remember for sure, you weren't there. But I DO remember the name of the record. It was called "Have a Marijuana" and was by a bunch of New Yorkers (with questionable musical talent) called David Peel and the Lower East Side. Yes...that's the recording that brought us such memorable hits as: "Mother, Where is my Father?" "I Do my Balling in the Bathroom" AND of course "Up Against the Wall Mother F*cker!" (Was that last title censored sufficiently?)

The Seventies...A scruffy and slightly scary writer of children's poetry, Shel Silverstein pens a poem called "The Great Smoke-Off" for Playboy magazine. The first little bit goes something like this: "In the laid-back California town of sunny San Rafael lives a girl named Pearly Sweetcakes. I think you know her well. She was stoned nineteen of her twenty years and I've heard the story told that she can smoke 'em faster than anyone can roll." A far cry from "Where the Sidewalk Ends", don't you think?

Also the seventies: John Prine sang, "You may see me some time...with an illegal smile. It don't cost very much but it lasts a long while. Won't you please tell the man I didn't kill anyone. No, I'm just trying to have me some fun."

The Eighties...A super-group called the Travelling Wiburies composed of music legends Roy Orbison, Bob Dillon, George Harrison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne get together and release a couple albums. The first one...by far the most popular of the two features a song about drugs, but not at all glorifying drug use. Perhaps just a hint of what the 90's will bring. Anyway, the song goes something like this: "Tweeter and the monkey-man were hard up for cash. They stayed up all night selling cocaine and hash...To an undercover cop who had a sister named Jan. For reasons unexplained she LOVED that monkey-man." A pretty weird little story in song, huh?

Anyway...that was my foray into the subject of drugs in song and verse. Of course, this blog was for artistic purposes only and in no way constitutes an endorsement of drug use...blah blah blah...yada yada yada.

Later. Peace Out. Word to your Auntie.