# Best anti-drug message in rock **URL:** \ **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:** 16\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/82 "2015-08-12T00:57:45Z")
> [@Enlightening\_Meditation](#): > > This may be a zombie thread but it’s never too late to mention “Why does it hurt when I pee?” from Frank Zappa’s _Joe’s Garage_ album. But why would you? Nothin’ about drugs in that song. ---
**Author:** ![diggerwam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/919ad9/32.png) [@diggerwam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diggerwam)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/83 "2015-08-12T02:06:51Z")
Lord I’m Discouraged by Hold Steady. Very sad and tragic. The sutures and bruises are none of my business She says that she’s sick, but she won’t get specific The sutures and bruises are none of my business This guy from the north side comes down to visit His visits, they only take five or six minutes ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/84 "2015-08-12T02:33:37Z")
Happy to contribute to a fine zombie topic. The two that come to mind: **K’s Choice - I’m Not an Addict**. Told from the point of view of someone in complete denial. A one-hit band from Belgium; it sticks in my head as a great pop song, but the underlying meaning just kills me. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JT2SsWOCoEw/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCOADEOgC8quKqQMa8AEB-AGABYAC4AOKAgwIABABGGUgWihXMA8=&rs=AOn4CLCtf7ePqAb6pOm6oyzBWSenNdfGBA "K's Choice - Not An Addict") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT2SsWOCoEw) **Concrete Blonde - Joey**. Hearing Johnette Napolitano sing her guts out to get her substance-abusing boyfriend to come home when he’s probablly passed out somewhere on the floor also just kills me. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/OdpTcvSn8HQ/maxresdefault.jpg "Concrete Blonde - Joey (Official Video)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdpTcvSn8HQ) ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/85 "2015-08-12T03:09:26Z")
Alice in Chains - Angry Chair It’s basically describing going through Heroin withdrawal, And I actually lived with a heroin addict and one time this song came on the radio and he slammed the off button, he just couldn’t take listening to it. “Loneliness is not a phase Field of pain is where I graze Serenity is far away” The guy knew what he was talking about he destroyed himself on the stuff. ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/86 "2015-08-12T03:31:50Z")
Now she puts the kid away, and she’s gone to get a hit She hates her life, and what she’s done to it There’s one more kid that will never go to school Never get to fall in love, never get to be cool. Keep on rockin’ in the free world. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/87 "2015-08-12T03:52:11Z")
“Cocaine’s for horses, not for men. They say it’ll kill me, but they won’t say when.” – Cocaine Blues ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/88 "2015-08-12T04:11:21Z")
How about The Who’s anti-tobacco jingle “Little Billy”? > [@](#): > > _Most of them smoke maybe forty a day > A habit Billy doesn’t share > One by one they’re passing away > Leaving orphans to Billy’s care_ ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/89 "2015-08-12T08:48:54Z")
Ozzy’s [Suicide Solution](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UoPYv0Kq-0) is the gold standard as far as I’m concerned. Wine is fine, but whiskey’s quicker Suicide is slow with liqueur Take a bottle, drown your sorrows Then it floods away tomorrows ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/90 "2015-08-12T10:51:50Z")
Well, since we’re resurrecting a thread from before she even staked her claim to fame, I guess this is as good a place as any to nominate Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” as an ironic anti-drug anthem, in how it encapsulates her refusal to get help until it was too late. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/91 "2015-08-12T11:58:22Z")
This is where I get to be a pedant and mention that Ozzy apparently has [Parkin Syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkin_%28ligase%29) (similar to Parkinson’s Disease), and that his tremors aren’t due to drug use over the years. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/92 "2015-08-12T14:41:57Z")
Zombie or no, I would like to make a correction. My quotation was from the Dandy Warhols, not the Dead Kennedies. The song is called [Not if You Were the Last Junkie on Earth](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APrpB-i4d_E). I would also like to mention [Monkey on Your Back](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs6iMer68co) by Aldo Nova. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/93 "2015-08-12T15:08:47Z")
When I read the OP title, I didn’t even think of lyrics. The best anti-drug messages in rock were the corpses of so many great rock stars lying dead on the floor from ODs or other drug related deaths like choking on their own vomit. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/94 "2015-08-12T15:59:41Z")
I think the best anti-drug song ever may be Amy Winehouse’s ‘Rehab’, because it’s a long justification for why she doesn’t want to go to rehab for her drug and alcohol habits - and then she died. Now every time I hear that song it just sounds like the last thing you generally hear from people before the drugs get them. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/95 "2015-08-14T19:47:40Z")
How about a rap song? Not a single, but an album track from Sir Mix-a-lot, “I’m Your New God”: _girl weeping_ WHAT’S WRONG, SWEETHEART? DON’T YOU WANT ME? YOU PAID FOR ME. KNEEL TO ME. _rhythmic sniffing_ SMOKE ME. BREATHE ME. INHALE … HA HA HA HA HA HA, I’M YOUR NEW GOD. She’s only 16, she looks lost Bought crack from the dopeman, and got tossed Livin on the streets, smoked out Perfect individual for me to bust out You can sniff me, or you can puff me But the girl shoulda known, you can’t trust me She’s only 98 pounds and lonely She calls to her God for help, and that’s me COCAINE, go ahead n’ use me, heh heh Momma won’t know you’re a junkie Just put me in your pipe, light and SUCK _deep inhale_ Cluck cluck cluck! [Full Lyrics](https://play.google.com/music/preview/Tb3c37rqibmyn3guauol6umupvm?lyrics=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=lyrics&pcampaignid=kp-lyrics) ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2015, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/96 "2015-08-15T14:09:44Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > 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.” Thanks, Exapno. I remember that one from 1966, but didn’t know who performed it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Octarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/22d042/32.png) [@Octarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octarine)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2015, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712/97 "2015-08-15T15:03:34Z")
Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” could be seen as a critique of how the music industry forces performers into using drugs to keep them on stage. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anti-drug-message-in-rock/366712.md?page=4)