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TwitterJul 25, 2000 - Robert Whillans
"Back when Mark Walberg was Marky Mark This is how we used to make the party start We used to mix in with Bacardi dark And when it kicks in you can hardly talk" - Drug Ballad, Eminem (Marshall Mathers)
Drugs and rock. A partnership that has existed since the beginning, and seemingly will until the end. Songs and artists have been censored, banned and... idolized? How can something so bad not only cause music to be prosperous but also meaningful? Could it be that these substances that epitomize all that is wrong with society actually have beneficial "mind-expanding" effects that send creativity soaring?
Although they are perhaps more prominent in songs nowadays, drugs can be seen in popular music dating back to the jazz years. Alcohol-related songs were nothing new, but songs about harder drugs, such as marijuana ("Texas Tea Party", Benny Goodman, and "If You're A Viper", Bob Howard and his Boys) and even Cocaine ("Wacky Dust", Ella Fitzgerald) started to appear. During the war these references seemingly disappeared (at best they were pushed into underground music, because songs with drug references are hard to find during that period). This generally continued until the sixties, as music went from being controversial and experimental to boring and homogenized, and then back to controversial and experimental. During the forties and fifties, there were some examples, but none prominent enough to mention. Where the whole drug-and-rock train really picked up speed was in the folk scene, where artists like Bob Dylan ("Rainy Day Women #12 & 35") and Peter, Paul and Mary ("Puff the Magic Dragon") wrote songs that supposedly (although the accusations are vehemently denied) promoted the use of marijuana, the drug of choice at the time. It was no secret that drugs were a large part of the enlightened folk scene, where composers and audiences truly did use them to achieve a greater sense of the music. Since folk had not become a commercial success yet it didn't suffer from the effects of poseurs, which means people who don't understand the principle behind a certain lifestyle, be it the music, the concerts, the drugs, et cetera, and who are simply doing things because they are popular.
By the time folk had hit the mainstream, however, the hallucinogenics had become harder; LSD and PCP had become the order of the day. Folk-rock groups such as Simon and Garfunkel adapted to this new change, as is seen in "Mrs. Robinson" (Hide it in a hide away where no one ever goes/ put it in the pantry with your cupcakes/ ... most of all you've got to hide it from the kids) and supposedly "Bridge Over Troubled Water (which contains indirect references to heroin). The Byrds, another successful folk-rock group, proudly wrote about being "Eight Miles High". Out on the West Coast, bands revolving around the psychedelic scene infused these into their music ("White Rabbit", Jefferson Airplane, and a million and a half songs by the Grateful Dead). Large concerts were held with the intention of all the audience being on LSD - the Kool-Aid Acid Tests. Drugs became an even larger part of pop culture than ever. Everyone was doing them, and almost every song, if not referring to drugs, was written under the influence of them.
"Back when Mark Walberg was Marky Mark This is how we used to make the party start We used to mix in with Bacardi dark And when it kicks in you can hardly talk" - Drug Ballad, Eminem (Marshall Mathers)
Drugs and rock. A partnership that has existed since the beginning, and seemingly will until the end. Songs and artists have been censored, banned and... idolized? How can something so bad not only cause music to be prosperous but also meaningful? Could it be that these substances that epitomize all that is wrong with society actually have beneficial "mind-expanding" effects that send creativity soaring?
Although they are perhaps more prominent in songs nowadays, drugs can be seen in popular music dating back to the jazz years. Alcohol-related songs were nothing new, but songs about harder drugs, such as marijuana ("Texas Tea Party", Benny Goodman, and "If You're A Viper", Bob Howard and his Boys) and even Cocaine ("Wacky Dust", Ella Fitzgerald) started to appear. During the war these references seemingly disappeared (at best they were pushed into underground music, because songs with drug references are hard to find during that period). This generally continued until the sixties, as music went from being controversial and experimental to boring and homogenized, and then back to controversial and experimental. During the forties and fifties, there were some examples, but none prominent enough to mention. Where the whole drug-and-rock train really picked up speed was in the folk scene, where artists like Bob Dylan ("Rainy Day Women #12 & 35") and Peter, Paul and Mary ("Puff the Magic Dragon") wrote songs that supposedly (although the accusations are vehemently denied) promoted the use of marijuana, the drug of choice at the time. It was no secret that drugs were a large part of the enlightened folk scene, where composers and audiences truly did use them to achieve a greater sense of the music. Since folk had not become a commercial success yet it didn't suffer from the effects of poseurs, which means people who don't understand the principle behind a certain lifestyle, be it the music, the concerts, the drugs, et cetera, and who are simply doing things because they are popular.
By the time folk had hit the mainstream, however, the hallucinogenics had become harder; LSD and PCP had become the order of the day. Folk-rock groups such as Simon and Garfunkel adapted to this new change, as is seen in "Mrs. Robinson" (Hide it in a hide away where no one ever goes/ put it in the pantry with your cupcakes/ ... most of all you've got to hide it from the kids) and supposedly "Bridge Over Troubled Water (which contains indirect references to heroin). The Byrds, another successful folk-rock group, proudly wrote about being "Eight Miles High". Out on the West Coast, bands revolving around the psychedelic scene infused these into their music ("White Rabbit", Jefferson Airplane, and a million and a half songs by the Grateful Dead). Large concerts were held with the intention of all the audience being on LSD - the Kool-Aid Acid Tests. Drugs became an even larger part of pop culture than ever. Everyone was doing them, and almost every song, if not referring to drugs, was written under the influence of them.
The copyright of the article Drugs and Rock in History of Rock is owned by Robert Whillans. Permission to republish Drugs and Rock in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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