Songs about or heavily featuring opiate drugs?

[neutron star]

Why? Friggin' because, that's why! Don't interrupt me while I'm shooting up! :D

Velvet Underground - Heroin

Marcy Playground - Poppies and Opium

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Opium Tea

[WordMan]

Guns n' Roses - Mr. Brownstone

Metallica - Master of Puppets (a bit more ambiguous but generally about being enslaved and powerless to a force - the lyrics seem to speak mostly to drug use...)

Countless others - but those come to mind first...I suppose that Velvet Revolver song I'm Falling...

[Biffy the Elephant Shrew]

Rolling Stones - Sister Morphine
Velvet Underground - Waiting for the Man
Savoy Brown - Needle and Spoon

[Tom Tildrum]

I've read that Iggy Pop's Lust For Life is all about heroin use. Personally I can't understand what he's saying. People in the US nowadays most likely know that song, oddly enough, as the theme from those cruise ship commercials, which obviously don't highlight the junkie aspect.

[Sam Stone]

Neil Young - The Needle and the Damage Done
Warren Zevon - Carmelita
Lynyrd Skynyrd - That Smell
Lynyrd Skynyrd - The Needle and the Spoon
Steppenwolf/Hoyt Axton - The Pusher
John Prine - Sam Stone

[Dumbguy]

I always liked Perfect Circle's Nurse, which features the lines:

She’s got everything I need, pharmacy keys.

and

Say hello to the rug's topography.

[pravnik]

U2 - Running to Stand Still
Nirvana - passim

[interface2x]

While opiates are not specifically mentioned, Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" is about drugs.

[koeeoaddi]

Well shoot, marijuana and other hallucinogens aren't opiates, so there goes half my list.

Cindy's Cryin', Tom Paxton

Codeine, Buffy St. Marie

Time Out of Mind, Steely Dan

Dead Flowers, The Rolling Stones

Cold Blue Steel and Sweetfire, Joni Mitchell

Treetop Flyer, David Crosby (?)

Smuggler's Blues, Glen Frey (?)

Cause I got High, Afroman (?)

Cure for Pain, Morphine

[Freudian Slit]

There She Goes, by the Las.

[Monkey Chews]

Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd

My Sweet Prince - Placebo

[sinjin]

Cocaine by Eric Clapton.

My kid loved this song. Took me forever to figure out what the "OK" song was though.

"It's OK, it's OK, it's OK......OK" :smack:

[mswas]

I've read that Iggy Pop's Lust For Life is all about heroin use. Personally I can't understand what he's saying. People in the US nowadays most likely know that song, oddly enough, as the theme from those cruise ship commercials, which obviously don't highlight the junkie aspect.

I know it as the theme from Trainspotting, a movie about junkies.

[mswas]

Skinny Puppy - Addiction
Nine Inch Nails - Hurt
Nirvana - In Bloom

[DrDeth]

"(Don't ride) the White Horse" by I don't know. :p

[Precambrianmollusc]

The Jesus & Mary Chain - Some Candy Talking

[freekalette]

Fleetwood Mac Gold Dust Woman
Rolling Stones Brown Sugar

[blondebear]

"Morphine Song", by Ray Davies. He wrote it in the hospital after being shot in New Orleans.

[OpalCat]

"(Don't ride) the White Horse" by I don't know. :p
by Laid Back

I think that the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Under the Bridge" is about heroine, isn't it?

[Darth Nader]

mswas, you could have added so many more of Skinny Puppy's songs...Harsh Stone White (http://www.metrolyrics.com/harsh-stone-white-lyrics-skinny-puppy.html) or Love in Vein (http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/skinnypuppy/lastrights.html#1), etc, etc...

What is it about great talent and heroin overdoses? RIP Dwane.

[Marley23]

What's that Nirvana song, pravnik?

[fisha]

Voodoo-Godsmack
Hurt-NIN as mentioned, but better when Johnny Cash did it.
Not an addict-Fiona Apple
Hotel California-Eagles

[flodnak]

Johnny B (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqNJ7lGI-Gk) by The Hooters is either about heroin addiction or a destructive love affair, depending on how you read it. Personally, I vote heroin addiction.

[Ike Witt]

God Smack by Alice in Chains.
Sludge Factory by Alice in Chains.

[BaneSidhe]

by Laid Back

I think that the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Under the Bridge" is about heroine, isn't it?

Yes. According to Anthony Kiedis, the title refers to him buying dope under a bridge in a pretty bad neighborhood and his feelings about living in LA. Good song too.

[Marley23]

God Smack by Alice in Chains.
Sludge Factory by Alice in Chains.
And almost every other song Layne Staley wrote. Hate to Feel is one of the more blatant ones.

[MrDibble]

Golden Brown - The Stranglers
Mutiny (In Heaven) - The Birthday Party

[BrainGlutton]

Coleridge supposedly wrote "Kubla Khan" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubla_Khan) under the influence of the real Milk of Paradise!

[want2know]

Cold Turkey by John Lennon

Desire by U2 mentions the "needle and spoon".

Rehab by Amy Winehouse

[Will Repair]

Jones Coming Down - The Last Poets
Me and Mrs. Jones - Billy Paul

...

[Bambi Hassenpfeffer]

There She Goes, by the Las.
And covered by Contemporary Christian group Sixpence None The Richer.

As for opiate songs, the entire Aimee Mann album Lost In Space is about the cycle of addiction, recovery, relapse, and readdiction. It's not hopeful nor uplifting, but it's one of my favorites.

[Miss Purl McKnittington]

Momma by Rasputina.

"Momma was an opium smoker / She'd light it with a red hot poker / She'd never take a bath / We would ask her, she'd just laugh / Because our momma was an opium smoker"

[Geek Mecha]

Me and Mrs. Jones - Billy Paul
I don't buy this. How do you explain these lyrics?

We meet ev'ry day at the same cafe,
Six-thirty I know she'll be there,
Holding hands, making all kinds of plans
While the jukebox plays our favorite song.

We gotta be extra careful that we don't build our hopes too high
Cause she's got her own obligations and so do I


I've only ever heard one claim that the song was about drugs, and that was because they interpreted the Mrs. Jones to be reference to "jonesin'", slang for craving drugs. That's pretty weak. Using such leaps, any song could become a drug song.

Additionally (http://www.superseventies.com/1973_10singles.html):
Billy's fourth album was designed to show him off as "an all-round entertainer." In fact, it was called 360 Degrees of Billy Paul. Among the tracks was a tune that Gamble and Huff had helped write -- a soul ballad about the touchy theme of adultery.

"I knew that, 'Me and Mrs. Jones' would be a hit even before it was released," said Billy. "It's a song that everybody can relate to."

Not everyone agreed with that philosophy -- in fact, a number of stations refused to play the record because it discussed an "immoral" theme without condemning it. Regardless, "Me and Mrs. Jones" became one of the largest-selling singles of the year, with sales topping four and a half million copies.

[pravnik]

What's that Nirvana song, pravnik?Sorry, writer-nerd joke. :) Passim (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/passim), Latin for "throughout," used in footnotes, annotations, indices and the like for something that appears so frequently in the work or work cited that it would be burdensome to list each occurence individually (e.g., if the Fifth Amendment is discussed on nearly every page, the citations page would read "U.S. Constitution, Fifth Amendment, passim).

[Biffy the Elephant Shrew]

Stranglers - Don't Bring Harry

[Labdad]

Minnie the Moocher by Cab Calloway:

"Now, she messed around with a bloke named Smoky,
She loved him though he was cokey.
He took her down to Chinatown,
He showed her how to kick the gong around."

("kicking the gong around" was slang for smoking opium)

[Tool of the Conspiracy]

Not an addict-Fiona Apple
That was by a one-hit-wonder, K's Choice. I don't know the song well, but wasn't it about love addiction, like "Junkie" by Poe?

[Bridget Burke]

John Nova Lomax is Music Editor at The Houston Press. Here's his take on Codeine and Houston Music (http://www.houstonpress.com/2005-05-05/music/codeine-country/full), back in 2005.

On Sunday, April 17, the centerpiece story in the Arts and Entertainment section of The New York Times was a story about how, via the Slim Thug/Mike Jones/Paul Wall hit single "Still Tippin'," Houston's homegrown screw music was poised to take over the hip-hop nation. Screw -- the slowed-down hip-hop invented by DJ Screw as music for people to enjoy while high on codeine cough syrup -- was presented as something new, weird and uniquely Houstonian.

All of which it indubitably is -- at least for hip-hop. But it's mostly forgotten today that Screw was really the second Houston codeine aficionado to revolutionize a local scene. Back in the late '60s and early '70s, Townes Van Zandt turned Houston's folk and country/Americana music on its head, thanks in no small part to his appreciation for the drug that is today called lean.

I told former Houstonian and Texas songwriting legend Guy Clark about screw music -- which he had never heard of -- and here is what he had to say: "Some things never change. You can always count on Houston's codeine heads."

[mswas]

mswas, you could have added so many more of Skinny Puppy's songs...Harsh Stone White (http://www.metrolyrics.com/harsh-stone-white-lyrics-skinny-puppy.html) or Love in Vein (http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/skinnypuppy/lastrights.html#1), etc, etc...

What is it about great talent and heroin overdoses? RIP Dwane.

I think it's a certain type of great talent. They tend to be the more morose sort.

And yes, there are quite a few Puppy songs with heroin references.

[T_SQUARE]

Minnie the Moocher by Cab Calloway:

"Now, she messed around with a bloke named Smoky,
She loved him though he was cokey.
He took her down to Chinatown,
He showed her how to kick the gong around."

("kicking the gong around" was slang for smoking opium)

And the dream about the King of Sweden, was of course, a pipe dream. I was really surprised to hear the song performed at the half time of a bowl game last year. I wonder how many people know it's not really family friendly?

[T_SQUARE]

I almost forgot about "Lit Up" by Buckcherry. Now that's a song to get a party started.

[ZipperJJ]

D12's Purple Pills (http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Purple-Pills-lyrics-D-12/BFC679DCFC834E0448256AC000289AA3) [lyrics site link] is about just about every drug you can find, including coke and heroin.

Cocaine Blues (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocaine_Blues), made famous by Johnny Cash.

The Dead Milkmen have a song called My Best Friend Is a Junkie (http://www.lyricstime.com/dead-milkmen-junkie-lyrics.html) [link to lyrics site] which isn't exactly about heroin but a quick punk romp about having a friend who's a junkie.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure Afroman (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=305vRNoofr8) is just a pot smoker. (re: post #9)

[Talon Karrde]

Chinese Rocks was written by Dee Dee Ramone but The Ramones originally didn't want to do it because of the drug content, so The Heartbreakers recorded it. Later The Ramones did a version with the title changed to "Chinese Rock".

Elliot Smith's song "Needle in the Hay" is about shooting up.

[neutron star]

Damn. I hadn't expected quite so many responses. Keep 'em coming.

Oh, and it's no big deal, but just FYI: cocaine isn't an opiate. Pretty much the polar opposite, actually.

[DrDeth]

by Laid Back

I think that the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Under the Bridge" is about heroine, isn't it?

Thanks. I have always liked that song, although it does seem like they are suggesting Cocaine is a good sub for Heroin. :eek:

[Suburban Plankton]

How about Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit?

They don't go into exactly what's in that hookah the caterpillar is smoking, but I think it's a bit stronger than tobacco...

[NDP]

"Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth" (http://youtube.com/watch?v=9mgjZK46_uw&feature=related) by the Dandy Warhols.

[Dolores Reborn]

I read somewhere that Black Magic Woman by Santana is about smoking opium - "magic sticks."

[Annie-Xmas]

Cindy's Crying and Hooker by Tom Paxton

How do you spend your days?
How do you spend your days?
When you can sleep no more
How do you spend your days?

I rise at four in the afternoon.
I take a match and a kitchen spoon.
I wrap my arm in an old necktie
And I find religion on the very first try.

[WordMan]

I read somewhere that Black Magic Woman by Santana is about smoking opium - "magic sticks."

Black Magic Woman was written by Peter Green and was first performed by Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac - which of course evolved into the FM we know and love. Santana covered the song as an homage to Peter Green, just like Clapton covered Freddie King's Hide Away with the Bluesbreakers - and Clapton took his cover to much greater popularity, just like Santana did with his...

Santana worships Peter Green - with good reason; he sounds exactly like Peter Green with a bit of Latin influence added. Unfortunately, Green went 'round the bend, another 60's drug casualty, like Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd. To my knowledge, he was an acid casualty, but I have no problem seeing opium / opiates involved - I just can't find a specific reference to this song...

[Spectre of Pithecanthropus]

Don't forget Minnie The Moocher and Kicking The Gong Around performed by Cab Calloway in the 1930s. There were surprisingly many drug related songs in that era.

[Fugazi]

The only one that's coming to me off the top of my head, that hasn't been mentioned is:

Styx - Snow Blind

[Really Not All That Bright]

The Prodigy named an entire section of their second album (Music for the Jilted Generation) for opiates, The Narcotic Suite; it was made up of 3 Kilos, Skylined and The Claustrophobic Sting.

There aren't actually any lyrics, though, so I don't know if you'd count that.

Also, Bug Powder Dust by Bomb the Bass includes the quote ”I think it’s time to discuss the philosophy of drug use as it relates to artistic endeavour” from The Naked Lunch, but doesn't really go into drugs much in the lyrics (well, it might but it's virtually impossible to figure out what most of the lyrics are.)

[Jackknifed Juggernaut]

Third Eye Blind - Semi-Charmed Life

[St. Urho]

Carmelita- Waren Zevon

And I'm all strung out on heroin on the outskirts of town

[Justin Credible]

Rush - A Passage to Bangkok

[Jophiel]

That was by a one-hit-wonder, K's Choice. I don't know the song well, but wasn't it about love addiction, like "Junkie" by Poe?No, it's pretty explictly about actual drugs.

Breathe it in and breathe it out
Pass it on, it's almost out...
[...]
The deeper you stick in in your vein
The deeper the thoughts, there's no more pain...

[Don't fight the hypothetical]

One of my favorite songs:

'I Love You' - Ass Ponys

"As my habit forms, the morphine drips
Lean on over and read my lips...

...I love you"

[Hostile Dialect]

If you ask me, Clint Eastwood by the Gorillaz is all about heroin.

(ETA: I should explain this, since most people ask.

I'm happy, I'm feeling glad
I've got sunshine in a bag
I'm useless, but not for long
My future is coming on

The whole stanza screams "heroin" to me, but the parts I bolded are especially key. Lots of drugs come in bags, but the only one with enough euphoric, carefree lift for anyone to call it "sunshine" with a straight face is heroin, IMO. And "my future is coming on" sounds to me like the nostalgia-twinged apathy of the last few minutes of heroin's effect, when it slowly dawns on you that you'll be coming back to the world of emotions and needs soon enough. Tough to explain to anyone who hasn't been on heroin. Oh, and "I'm useless, but not for long" sounds to me like a rough translation of "my high is wearing off", in general. YMMV.)


Lynyrd Skynyrd - That Smell

Um......opiates? You sure about that?


Cause I got High, Afroman (?)

Nope.

Cocaine by Eric Clapton.


Nope...

And Bridget Burke, AIUI, it's dextromethorphan, not codeine, that's such a heavy influence on Houston's music scene. It's not an opiate per se, although it has many opiate-like effects--even, IIRC, strongly resembling codeine in brain scans.

it does seem like they are suggesting Cocaine is a good sub for Heroin.

It is, actually. It's quite a bit less addictive, generally more pure, much less expensive and less dangerous (generally because of the first three reasons). Did you see the movie Ray? Remember when Ray got his first shot of heroin and his junkie players were trying to convince him not to do it, saying, "This ain't no lady"? "Lady" is short for "the white lady", a (then-)common slang term for cocaine ("white girl(s)" or just "girl" is more common these days). The implication is that Mr. Charles had been openly using cocaine and was fully in control of it, which is quite a contrast to what heroin eventually did to him.

[neutron star]

And Bridget Burke, AIUI, it's dextromethorphan, not codeine, that's such a heavy influence on Houston's music scene. It's not an opiate per se, although it has many opiate-like effects--even, IIRC, strongly resembling codeine in brain scans.Lean/purple drank/ten-other-slang-names is prescription codeine/promethazine cough syrup.

[Hostile Dialect]

Fair enough. I was going off of what I've heard from Houstonites. Maybe I've been misled.

[OpalCat]

Third Eye Blind - Semi-Charmed Life
I thought that was about meth?

Not sure on that though. It does seem like people are throwing any ole song about any ole drug into this thread, though, even ones that are clearly about drugs like cocaine and marijuana, which makes me wonder if somehow people don't understand what "opiate drugs" means...?

[Hostile Dialect]

IME, a lot of people have a shaky grasp of drug classifications in general. I'm always hearing bizarre classification mistakes. It doesn't help that most categories (hallucinogen, depressant, and stimulant in particular) sound like effects that a lot of illegal drugs of different kinds have. My WAG about opiate confusion is that "opiate" sounds like it could mean "kind of like opium", which gobbles up dextromethorphan, marijuana, a lot of unrelated depressants, etc; and/or that people think "opiate -> heroin -> cocaine" because cocaine and heroin are linked in popular culture (possibly because of the speedball?).

[Biffy the Elephant Shrew]

Rush - A Passage to Bangkok
Totally about cannabis. (Midnight oil = hash oil.)

[WarmNPrickly]

Black Sabbath - Hand of Doom (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_of_Doom_%28song%29)

[Rhythmdvl]

Black Sabbath - Hand of Doom (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_of_Doom_%28song%29)

One of the great anti-drug songs. It's ironic that a band that people probably associate with pro-drug and pro-satanism and whatnot wrote some of the most powerfully anti-X songs in Rock history. I came here thinking of that song; good call.

[Siam Sam]

White Punks on Dope, by The Tubes.

[WordMan]

Oh! I forgot Chinese Rocks by heroin casualty and punk icon Johnny Thunders, formally of the New York Dolls and the Heartbreakers (not Tom Petty; the punk band with Richard Hell in it, too)...

[phungi]

Pearl Jam's Severed Hand is clearly referencing hallucinogenics:
Tried to walk, found a severed hand
Recognized it by the wedding band

"It's okay, do you want some more?"
I said, "Yeh,..."
"You'll see dragons after 3 or 4...:
I said, "Yeh,..."

"Understand, I'm not falling down"
I said, "Look around, the room's taller now,.."
I can't close my eyes, cause i see the sound
In waves

[OpalCat]

Pearl Jam's Severed Hand is clearly referencing hallucinogenics:
...so probably not opiates.

[Annie-Xmas]

Some folks called it suicide and others blamed the speed.
But we just called it crucified when Billy Dee O.D.'d.

Yes, I know speed is not an opiate.

[Precambrianmollusc]

Totally about cannabis. (Midnight oil = hash oil.)

Pretty sure it is a grand tour of drugs. They start in Columbia, go through Jamaica Morroco, Central Asia and end up in south east asia. The meth labs of the high desert are missing.
Either that or Neil Pert was writing some sort of Agatha Christie murder mystery musical and has a shaky grasp of geography and the capabilities of trains.