A fairly obvious one is Ben Harper’s “Burn One Down”:
Now herb is the gift that’s from the earth,
And what’s from the earth is of the greatest worth,
So before you knock it, try it first,
And you’ll see it’s a blessing and it’s not a curse.
“Panama Red” by NRPS
*Everybody’s looking out for him
'Cause they know Red’s satisfies
Little girls love to listen to him
Sing and tell sweet lies
But when things get too confusing, honey
You’re better off in bed
And I’ll be searching all the joints in town for
Panama Red*
Wait, does marijuana even count?
My vote is that no, no it doesn’t count. Pro-pot rock lyrics are slightly more controversial than pro-whiskey country lyrics. Only slightly.
You ever have those “duh” moments when you realise something you should have realised years ago?
Yeah, I just had one. I always thought that song was about color positive film!
“Legalize It” by Peter Tosh is about as explicit as a song can get…
Some call it tampee
Some call it the weed
Some call it marijuana
Some of them call it ganja
Never mind
Got to legalize it
I’ve always found it funny that JL fans can go on and on about his genius, and then assume that he didn’t notice that his trip-upon-trip song arguably had the initials L.S.D. Can we really decide that JL didn’t know even after the fact that people might interpret this song this way?
I dunno. I just looked at the lyrics and there’s nothing there to suggest that its about anything other than color positive film.
OOO…I just thought of the greatest pro-speed anthem of all time…The Hawkwind/Motorhead classic “Motorhead”!
“Sunrise, wrong side of another day,
Sky high and six thousand miles away,
Don’t know how long I’ve been awake,
Wound up in an amazing state,
Can’t get enough,
And you know it’s righteous stuff,
Goes up like prices at Christmas…”
“Let’s Get High and Have Fun”
“Marijuana In Your Brain” both by Lords of Acid
“Marijuana in your brain,
takes more time to ejaculate,
roll up a spliff and drowse away the day
with marijuana in your brain”
Ditto for “Let’s Get Fucked Up” by the Cramps and add “Dopefiend Boogie.”
“Devil Went To Jamaica” by David Allan Coe
John Prine: Illegal Smile
Ah but fortunately I have the key to escape reality
And you may see me tonight with an illegal smile
It don’t cost very much, but it lasts a long while
Won’t you please tell the man I didn’t kill anyone
No I’m just tryin’ to have me some fun
Well done, hot dog bun, my sister’s a nun
How can we get this far without a mention of Puff the Magic Dragon?
For its promotion of the magical properties of weed over anything else, I have always enjoyed Pato Banton’s No Sniff Coke.
This one really is not a drug song, Is 'Puff the Magic Dragon' About Marijuana? | Snopes.com .
As for Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Paul McCartney is now saying it was definately about LSD (in an Uncut interview) and here BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Sir Paul reveals Beatles drug use but I’ll admit Snopes still says it isn’t Is 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' Code for LSD? | Snopes.com
[in the car listening to “Puff the Magic Dragon”]
Greg Focker: Who’d have thought it wasn’t about a dragon.
Jack Byrnes: Huh?
Greg Focker: Well some people think that ‘to puff the magic dragon’ means to… puff… smoke… a marijuana cigarette.
Jack Byrnes: Puff is just the name of the boy’s magical dragon… You a pothead, Focker?
Greg Focker: No, I pass on grass always. Well not always.
Jack Byrnes: Yes or no?
Greg Focker: No, um, yes, um…
Jefferson Airplane’s Blue Eskimo Day
or
David Peel’s Lower East Side, Legalize Marijuana or I Like Marijuana
Doesn’t the entire genre of Psychedelic Rock from the 60s and 70s constitute “pro-drug” music? For example, the Moody Blues’ Legend of a Mind, a trippy ode to the former Harvard prof who told the Flower Power generation to “tune in, turn on, drop out”?
And in terms of more recent music, hip-hop and reggae is rife with references to weed, ganja, indonesia, the chronic, etc. Snoop Dogg’s The Next Episode comes right out and says: smoke weed every day. Guess that counts as “pro-drug”, eh?
I don’t think “Panama Red” is all that pro-drug. The chorus says, “He’ll steal your money and he’ll rob your head.”
Since we’re talking hip-hop, you can pretty much add the entire Cypress Hill catalogue (e.g., “Insane in the Brain”).