My nominee is the song “[a href=http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~marwak/lyrics/stranger.htm]Stranger in Blue Suede Shoes[/a]” by Kevin Ayers. Its message is gentle, positive, and witty. It tells the story of an uptight square who smokes some sort of “cigarette” and is transformed into a mellow person.
From the green cigarette he told a long drag
And said “I think I’ll pack my traveling bag
I’m tired of cheating and wasting my head
And filling the boss’s bags with bread
I want to get out in the sun and rain
And feel the wind on my skin again
The world is large, and I’ve got time yet
And by the way, thanks for that… cigarette…
Thank you very much”
*Then I learned to play some lead guitar, I was underage in this funky bar
And I stepped outside to smoke myself a J
When I come back to the room, everybody just seemed to move
And I turned my amp up loud and I began to play
It was late in the evening, and I blew that room away*
Is there really any competition here? Sweet Leaf, Black Sabbath. The riff to that song is way better than Iron Man. And for best pro-legalization song, I’ll say Don’t Step on the Grass, Sam by Steppenwolf - who knows, they might be the only band to get a nomination in both threads.
I was going to mention in the other thread that I didn’t think Heroin by Lou Reed counted as anti drug…hell, it was one of the reasons I tried it (I’ve given it up since! But it was a Perfect Day.)
Catnip is a kitty cat drug
One puff two puffs - high in a dream
Funny kitty’s got very sleepy eyes
I wonder what he’s dreaming of
Catnip dream catnip dream catnip dream
Meow meow meow
I
Don’t know
Just what I’m doin’
But I’m
Gonna try
For the Kingdom if I can
‘Cause it makes me feel like I’m a man
When I put a spike into my veins
And I tell ya, things aren’t quite the same
When I’m rushin’ on my run
And I feel just like Jesus’ son
Well, I guess, but I just don’t know
Well, I guess, but I just don’t know
The greatest pro-drug song ever: Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys – Strike a Match and Light Another. (Written by Jay “Theme for Ken Burns’s The Civil War” Ungar.)
*When your feet are in the stirrups and your ass is on the ground
Cause the grass that he’s been eating is the finest stuff around
Well let us not remember boys and let us not forget
Strike a match and light another marijuana cigarette
[/quote]
And, of course, you have to mention the oeuvre of David Peel and the Lower East Side, with songs like “I Like Marijuana,” “I’ve Got Some Grass,” “Show me the Way to Get Stoned,” “Legalize Marjiuana,” “I Want to Get High,” “Everybody’s Smoking Marijuana,” and “The Pope Smokes Dope.” As the titles indicate, Peel was exhuberantly pro-marijuana.
I’d say the “best pro-drug message in rock” is about 2/3 of the best tunes from the last 40 years.
To quote Bill Hicks: “If you don’t believe drugs have done good things for us, then go home and burn all your records, all your tapes, and all your CDs because every one of those artists who have made brilliant music and enhanced your lives? RrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrEAL fucking high on drugs. The Beatles were so fucking high they let Ringo sing a few songs.”
There’s The Mentors “Up The Dose”-
…“Now take qualludes and thorazine
Heroin and morophine
Reds, dilaudid, percodan, valium, codeine number 4
Alcohol, sleep eze, marijuana, romilar, niquil,
Angel dust, librium,
Take tons of it baby
Take it all
And we’ll be naked
Ballin’ together”
“Romilar D” by The Fuzztones-
“…Don’t know where I’m Goin, Don’t know where I’ve been/
But I’m where It’s at when this stuff kicks in…”
The Cramps-“Lets Get Fucked UP”
Eddie Spagetti (of the supersuckers)-“Killer Weed” “…Its Exactly what you need”
and speaking of The Supersuckers, how 'bout “Non-Addictive Marijuana”?
“I like smokin’ non addictive marijuana/I like a big ole bump of that soothin’ speed,
But what I really want is a big spoonful of heroin/'cause heroin always gives me what I need”
