Drugs & Music

Drugs have been key in influencing many musicans, and not just rock musicians.

The use of hallucinogens has been a part of 'tribal' culture since man first realised there were substances in nature that made you feel different. This was usually tied in with music, dancing and expansion of the senses. From the Shamanic rituals of native American Indians, to the kids pilling their tits off in some tent somewhere listening to a DJ, the principle is actually exactly the same!

We can bang the moral drum all we like about drugs, but they aint gonna go away. They are a reality in music and art, both in terms of their influence, and their capacity to enhance or skew our appreciation of music.

KingCrimson250 wrote: boo boo wrote:   Psychedelic drugs are not addictive, not even on a mental level.. If someone abuses those drugs and gets really excessive with them, then that's a personal choice that could have easly been avoided. A lot of musicians used LCD and they were just fine as long as they used it in moderation.   As for pot, you pretty much can't abuse pot at all. I don't think you can say that psychadelic drugs are not addictive on a mental level because when you get to that basis, that sort of psychological addiction, it's got almost nothing to do with the drug itself and everything to do with the person. If a guy feels, for example, that he can't fit in unless he smokes pot, or that acid is the only way he can escape the mundanity of his everyday life, then it's quite possible that he'll develop a psychological dependency and become mentally addicted.

Edited by boo boo - May 25 2009 at 15:30

boo boo wrote: Drugs are not gonna turn a talentless hack into Mozart. But they can help spark one's creativity, as long as there's some creativity to begin with.   It depends on the drug. LSD, Cannabis and other psychedelis and quasi-psychedelics are drugs that can open up a persons senses, open up a part of your subconscious.  Drugs like that have been very helpful. Espeically for The Beatles, Hendrix, Pink Floyd, The Doors, Grateful Dead and Flaming Lips to name a few.   But stimulants, like coke and herion. All they do is give you energy, they can't spark your creativity. They might enhance a musicians performance maybe.   Granted David Bowie put out some brilliant stuff when he was doing enough coke to kill a small horse. Low is a classic album. But he could have made that album if he was clean.   I don't think The Beatles could have made Sgt Peppers without the acid.

Setting the record straight on some of this information...

Heroin is not a stimulant, but an extremely strong opiate. When Bowie made Low, he was recovering from his coke addiction... that's why he was feeling so low.


Edited by Anderson III - May 25 2009 at 03:20

boo boo wrote: In response to what someone said earlier.   Gong = Anti drugs?   Man if those guys didn't do drugs, they did one hell of a job faking it. From some of the performances I've seen, Daevid Allen looked like he was tripping balls.   Dean wrote: annexusquam wrote: Negoba wrote: Someone who would know once sang....   first it giveth then it taketh away.........     which means....? cause my english is not that good (I think) it means that drugs can inspire music in the beginning but as the adiction takes hold the creativity vanishes.   Psychedelic drugs are not addictive, not even on a mental level.. If someone abuses those drugs and gets really excessive with them, then that's a personal choice that could have easly been avoided. A lot of musicians used LCD and they were just fine as long as they used it in moderation.   As for pot, you pretty much can't abuse pot at all.

If you have an addictive personality, it's possible to abuse pot. I know a dude going to rehab for severe pot abuse, but again, it must be stressed this was because he had an addictive personality and other underlying issues. For most people, it is correct that you generally wont get addicted to it and really wont affect your life in the way that a meth addiction would.

Yeah, the problem with LSD is the bad trip, and bad trips usually happen when you're in a bad mood or when you're already a mentally unstable person.

No way in hell 60's music (which in turn made seventies music) would have ever come about with the use of LSD and cannabis.  You can make trippy music without drugs, no problem, but the influence on society.... Piper at the Gates of Dawn for example.....not without psychedelics.  The genre is called PSYCHEDELIC rock

Hunter does pretty much every drug available at the time.  At first it's a little amusing but it descends into utter chaos.

How's that?

annexusquam wrote: Fear and Loathind convinces to stay away form drugs?.......ok....... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8knnO38JAw

If you actually managed to sit through it until the end you might know exactly what I mean by then.

lucas wrote: You can't deny that this band was inspired by drugs :

Really?  In what way?

By the way, I think one of the best movies to see to convince you to stay away from drugs would have to be Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas.