# Best anti-drug message in rock
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 31, 2006, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712 "2006-07-31T14:09:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/1 "2006-07-31T14:09:58Z")
On the Who’s original album version of _Tommy_, the song “We’re Not Gonna Take It” has the lines
_Hey you smoking Mother Nature
You missed the bus!_
That was a lot better than the movie version of this song, where the camera cuts to a closeup of Roger Daltrey saying, half-jokingly,
_This is a bust!_☹
Shortly after delivering these lines, Tommy is confronted by an anti-Tommy teen rebellion. Hmm… Give me some better examples.
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/2 "2006-07-31T14:18:26Z")
Go back, way way back
Steppenwolf:
You know I smoked a lot of grass.
Oh Lord! I popped a lot of pills.
But I’ve never touched nothin’
That my spirit couldn’t kill.
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### Author:  [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/3 "2006-07-31T14:25:47Z")
Lynyrd Skynyrd, is addition to performing _Free Bird_, the perfect song for any occassion, also performed _That Smell_…
_Whiskey bottles and brand new cars;
oak tree you’re in my way.
There’s too much coke and too much smoke
Look what’s going on inside you._
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### Author:  [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/4 "2006-07-31T14:33:25Z")
_Wasted_ by Def Leppard:
_(Wasted) I’ve wasted my time
(Wasted) I’m shooting a line_
_(Wasted) I’m out of my head
(Wasted) I wish I was dead_
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### Author:  [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/5 "2006-07-31T14:33:48Z")
Footage of Ozzy Osbourne these days.
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### Author:  [@Gail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gail)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/6 "2006-07-31T14:35:44Z")
My favorite is Neil Young’s _The Needle and the Damage Done_
“I hit the city and I lost my band
I watched the needle take another man
Gone, gone, the damage done…”
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### Author:  [@Smitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smitty)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/7 "2006-07-31T14:36:42Z")
_White Lines_ by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
“A million magic crystals
Painted pure and white.
A multi-million dollars
Almost overnight.”
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### Author:  [@Smitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smitty)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/8 "2006-07-31T14:39:27Z")
> [@ddgryphon](#):
>
> Footage of Ozzy Osbourne these days.
You know, I’ve often thought that, myself. I think a great anti-drug commercial would be just to show a few seconds worth of clips from _The Osbournes_ and end with:
“Ozzy is a millionaire. He can afford the very best in treatment, rehab, and medical care. So just imagine what your broke ass will look like at his age.”
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### Author:  [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/9 "2006-07-31T14:45:41Z")
> [@don't ask](#):
>
> Go back, way way back
>
> Steppenwolf:
>
> You know I smoked a lot of grass.
> Oh Lord! I popped a lot of pills.
> But I’ve never touched nothin’
> That my spirit couldn’t kill.
“Snowblind Friend” by Steppenwolf is the best anti-drug song I’ve ever heard. I don’t think anybody else has ever painted a bleaker picture of drug abuse.
_He said he wanted Heaven but prayin’ was too slow
So he bought a one way ticket on an airline made of snow
Did you say you saw your good friend flyin’ low?
Flyin’ low
Dyin’ slow_
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/10 "2006-07-31T14:54:14Z")
We take all kinds of pills to get all kinds of thrills
But the thrill that we’ve never known
Is the thrill that will hitcha when you get your picture
On the cover of the Rolling Stone
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### Author:  [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/11 "2006-07-31T15:12:38Z")
Please remember that lyrics are copyrighted, and that beyond Fair Use, you cannot post them without the permission of the copyright holder(s). (This, of course, doesn’t apply to lyrics in the public domain.)
The best thing to do is to post a few lines and then link to the rest. I’ve trimmed the lyrics in some of your posts because the amount posted went beyond Fair Use. Please be more careful in the future.
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### Author:  [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/12 "2006-07-31T15:18:35Z")
Another Dr. Hook:
I’m gonna throw it out the window (someday)
Give away my cocaine
Bust my spikes and flush a million mikes of acid right down the drain
And we’ll be makin’ it natural
But don’t you ask me how
It’s the cause of all my sorrow, but I think I’ll start tomorrow
'Cos I sure could use a hit right now.
(Roll me up another one!)
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### Author:  [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/13 "2006-07-31T15:23:54Z")
I’ve seen the needle and the damage done
A little part of it in everyone
But every junkie’s like a settin’ sunnnnnnn…
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### Author:  [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/14 "2006-07-31T15:26:05Z")
_Mama told me not to come…
That ain’t the way to have fun, son
That ain’t the way to have fun, no!_
- **Three Dog Night**
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/15 "2006-07-31T15:26:40Z")
Kicks, by Paul Revere and the Raiders. Written that by brilliant Brill Building team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.
Girl, you thought you found your answer on that magic carpet ride last night
but when you wake up in the morning the world still gets you uptight
well there’s nothin’ that you ain’t tried
to fill the emptiness inside
when you come back down girl, still ain’t feelin’ right
don’t it seem like
kicks just keep getting harder to find
and all your kicks ain’t bringin’ you peace of mind
before you find out it’s too late
girl, you better get straight…
Ironically, this is also the source for Steppenwolf’s drug-trip ode “Magic Carpet Ride.”
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### Author:  [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/16 "2006-07-31T15:36:11Z")
Keith Richards.
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/17 "2006-07-31T15:47:25Z")
> [@Clothahump](#):
>
> Keith Richards.
Richards & Brian Wilson are proof positive that taking every illicit drug ever devised is a way for some people to live forever and a day (and in ten years I suspect you can add Whitney Houston to the list).
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### Author:  [@Autumn\_Almanac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autumn_Almanac)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/18 "2006-07-31T15:58:28Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#):
>
> Brian Wilson
He may still be alive, but drugs helped erase decades of potential productivity. If he had completed “Smile” back in 1967…
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### Author:  [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/19 "2006-07-31T16:22:39Z")
Heroin by Lou Reed
Whiskey Man by The Who
Cocaine Decisions by Frank Zappa
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### Author:  [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/20 "2006-07-31T16:38:26Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#):
>
> Richards & Brian Wilson are proof positive that taking every illicit drug ever devised is a way for some people to live forever and a day (and in ten years I suspect you can add Whitney Houston to the list).
But only their bodies live. I suspect that they all lost higher brain function quite some time ago.
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