Getting High on Music — Song Lyrics About Drugs

Drugs were a part of music culture long before rock and roll was even an embryo.  But as that embryo began growing up and experimenting with drugs, it began writing music and lyrics about them, and became closely associated with them in the public’s mind.  Sex, drugs and rock and roll—weren’t they what a musician’s life was all about?  Some rockers didn’t mince words when they wrote about drugs, while others left their lyrics open to interpretation.  Here’s a sampling of songs with lyrics describing the seductive—and destructive—power of drugs:

“Cocaine” by Eric Clapton

An obvious lyric, right?  Not quite.  Originally written and recorded by J.J. Cale in 1975, the song was hugely popularized by Eric Clapton’s cover version.  But Clapton stresses that the lyrics, “If you wanna get down, down on the ground,” are very anti-cocaine and describe its ravages.  To emphasize that point, Clapton later added the lyrics, “that dirty cocaine,” during his concerts.

“White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane

This song’s music sounds trippy.  Its lyrics sound trippy.  Its vocals sound trippy.  And for a good reason:  it’s about LSD.  A Jefferson Airplane classic, its psychedelic lyrics and music were written by singer Grace Slick.  The song equates an acid trip to the hallucinatory imagery of author Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass.”  When Slick sings the lyrics, “Feed your head,” she’s not exactly encouraging listeners to go to the library.

“Dancing on Glass” by Motley Crue

When it comes to drugs, Motley Crue—particularly bassist and recovering heroin addict, Nikki Sixx—aren’t shy about writing lyrics about them, or admitting they used them.  Sixx’s lyrics, “Valentine’s in London, found me in the trash,” refer to an incident in which he immediately OD’d after allowing a seedy London drug dealer to shoot him up.  The panicked dealer thought Sixx was dead, and threw him into a dumpster.  Sixx miraculously revived on Valentine’s Day, surrounded by trash.  Not exactly the same as receiving flowers and candy.

“Mr. Brownstone” by Guns N’ Roses

Guns N’ Roses is another band whose members used their bodies as chemistry labs, and lived to write lyrics and music about it.  In the song lyrics, “We’ve been dancing with Mr. Brownstone,” “brownstone” is slang for heroin.  According to guitarist Slash, he and co-guitarist Izzy Straddlin came up with the lyrics while they were complaining about being heroin addicts, and scribbled the words on a grocery bag.  He said the lyrics described a typical day in the two guitarists’ lives, at the time.

“The Needle and the Damage Done” by Neil Young

The sorrowfully sung lyrics of this classic made it a renowned anti-heroin song.  The lyrics, “I’ve seen the needle and the damage done...every junkie’s like a settin’ sun,” were about the heroin use of Young’s guitarist, Danny Whitten, who overdosed several months after the song’s release.  Young’s comment about the song lyrics was, “I am not a preacher, but drugs killed a lot of great men.”

Who knows how many amazing unsung songs and lyrics those men still had in them?