“Jackie Paper?”
Every Steely Dan song, since they’re all about drugs?
I know there’s lots of strained metaphors in pop songs - “Killing Me Softly With His Song”; no, that won’t happen.
Here’s one called “I’m Drowning” that isn’t metaphorical. It’s about a guy in a boat that sinks. Cheerful even so.
There’s no real subtlety in the Divinyls’ I Touch Myself
“It Was a Good Day” by Ice Cube. He had a good day winning money, smoking weed and having sex (and no one died).
saucywench mentioned Jimmy Buffett and ‘Cheeseburger in Paradise’ as well as ‘Margaritaville’. But for sheer, in-your-face, no-two-ways-about-it lyrics, it’s difficult to top his so-called “love song from a slightly different point of view” entitled ’Why Don’t We Get Drunk and Screw?'
-“BB”-
Yeah, ol’ Jimmy doesn’t beat around the bush.
Yeah, I have a feeling that just before the last band member dies there will be a press release saying, “Of COURSE the song was about smoking something. Opium, pot, you decide. I can’t believe you took our denials seriously.”
Only if you ignore every lyric except the title.
It’s about growing up and the loss of childhood. I really don’t see how ANY line supports it being about pot. Seriously - go look at them. Tell me how they are secret code for drugs.
A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys
Painted wings and giant’s rings make way for other toys
I guess that means Jackie went on to hard drugs like heroin?
Besides which, it’s not like Peter, Paul, and Mary made a secret of their drug use. Why would they lie about it?
Whoa oh oh, woah oh oh, I love sangria wine
Whoa oh oh, woah oh oh, I love sangria wine
Sangria Wine - Jerry Jeff Walker
In Texas on a Saturday night
Everclear is added to the wine sometimes
Some nachos, burritos and tacos you know
Here’s how it usually goes, it goes…
Is anybody goin’ to San Antone
Or Phoenix, Arizona?
Any place is all right as long as I
Don’t have to go to Waco (kidding!)
I want a W.A.B.A.C. machine!
“Story songs” usually have obvious meanings. Examples include:
Gimme Three Steps by Lynyrd Skynyrd
Uneasy Rider by Charlie Daniels
Following “Why Don’t We Get Drunk and Screw” and “Sangria Wine” you eventually arrive at “Too Drunk To Fuck”, pretty straightforward lyrics there.
Fat Bottomed Girls - Queen
David Allan Coe didn’t beat around the bush when he titled the song Now there’s cum stains on the pillow
Where she once laid her head
There’s the fact that the two characters in the song are named Puff and Paper.
I’m not saying the song is about marijuana. But it does appear to reference marijuana.
‘Riding the dragon’ or ‘chasing the dragon’ is a euphemism for smoking Opium. The dragon’s name was Puff. The little boy was Jackie Paper.
It may very well be just a story about a little boy and his childish imagination, but the drug imagery is hard to avoid, and it was common at the time for artists to sneak drug imagery into their songs.
Noel “Paul” Stookey was an acquaintance a couple of decades ago and we chatted on the phone a few times. I wish I had asked him about it - but he probably would have denied it anyway.
From around that same time, “Heroin” by the Velvet Underground had some subtle drug imagery.
Was his middle name “Rolling”?
Show me. Show how the lyrics secretly mean drugs. I’ll wait.
No kidding! I’ve often said about rock lyrics, “If you don’t know what it is about, it’s about drugs (or sex).”
Puff is not one of those songs. Its meaning is clear.
And 25 or 6 to 4 isn’t about drugs, either. Nor Louie Louie.
“Peaches”, I think the band just like peaches a lot:
“Boys Boys Boys” (NSFW-ish). Buxom singer likes boys: