# What songs from the 60s really are about acid trips or drugs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 24, 2015, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-from-the-60s-really-are-about-acid-trips-or-drugs/726042 "2015-07-24T11:47:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2015, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-from-the-60s-really-are-about-acid-trips-or-drugs/726042/1 "2015-07-24T11:47:24Z")
I’ve come across the threads about the Beach Boys Sloop John B and Chicago’s 25 or 6 to 4. It seems these songs aren’t really about drugs or bad acid trips. But where did this idea come from? Are there a whole bunch of songs from the 60s that seem like they’re about something else, but are really about drugs? Are there are other songs from the 60s that are explicitly about drugs, so that you wouldn’t have people arguing what the song is really about since it’s obvious? I’m asking mostly about the 60s because that’s there’s this seems to be associated with, but if their are more recent examples, please free to mention those as well. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2015, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-from-the-60s-really-are-about-acid-trips-or-drugs/726042/2 "2015-07-24T12:15:29Z")
Paul McCartney has shared that **Got to Get You Into My Life** is his love song to marijuana. Songs like Strawberry Fields, A Day in the Life, I am the Walrus, and most famously, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds aren’t _about_ LSD, but John was experimenting with drugs at the time, and so his innovative songs are thought to reflect the effects… ---
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2015, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-from-the-60s-really-are-about-acid-trips-or-drugs/726042/3 "2015-07-24T12:35:04Z")
_Sweet Leaf_ although that is 71 _The Pusher_ ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2015, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-from-the-60s-really-are-about-acid-trips-or-drugs/726042/4 "2015-07-24T12:51:55Z")
Classic example: [White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HmJQyS8QVw). And of course tons of others, though the drug references are often ambigious, and the artists and songwriters often denied that their songs were about drugs, but you can’t always trust the writers talking about their creations. Take [_Eight Miles High_ by the Byrds](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoSwOrytf_M): probably meant to be ambigious, banned for the possible drug references, denied by the band (you know, it’s about flying into London). Make up your own mind. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2015, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-from-the-60s-really-are-about-acid-trips-or-drugs/726042/5 "2015-07-24T12:59:53Z")
> [@Sahirrnee](#): > > _The Pusher_ Another “anti”-drug song: [Amphetamine Annie - Canned Heat](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMzoqpyUbhg). ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2015, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-from-the-60s-really-are-about-acid-trips-or-drugs/726042/6 "2015-07-24T13:03:13Z")
If it sounded like a drug reference it probably was. Many of the denials have been rescinded since those days. ---
**Author:** ![mcgato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac8455/32.png) [@mcgato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcgato)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2015, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-from-the-60s-really-are-about-acid-trips-or-drugs/726042/7 "2015-07-24T13:16:42Z")
“I’m Waiting for the Man” and “Heroin” from Velvet Underground are pretty obvious. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_of\_Words](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f6c823/32.png) [@Jack\_of\_Words](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_of_Words)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2015, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-from-the-60s-really-are-about-acid-trips-or-drugs/726042/8 "2015-07-24T13:20:08Z")
Clearly, Bee Bumble’s ‘Nut Rocker’ was a paean to the hallucinogenic powers of nutmeg. Ray Charles’s ‘I Can’t Stop Loving You’ was a brutally frank account of his own addiction (possibly to nutmeg, the song doesn’t make that clear). The Searchers’ ‘Sweets For My Sweet’ hardly requires an explanation, and they of course went on to record ‘Needles And Pins’. Cilla Black’s ‘You’re My World’ is a bittersweet love song to her own drug of choice (again, probably nutmeg). The Kinks sang of the unreliability of dealers in ‘Tired of Waiting For You’. The Seekers wrote ‘The Carnival is Over’ in rehab (see also Mary Hopkins ‘Those Were The Days’). Jim Reeves’ ‘Distant Drums’ describes the audio-hallucinations common to cannabis users and as for Tom Jones’s ‘Green Green Grass of Home’…well, I’m sure you can all work that one out, just as you don’t need to ask what was the main ingredient of the ‘medicinal compund’ in The Scaffold’s ‘Lily The Pink’ (nutmeg, in case you did need to ask). Finally, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich’s ‘The Legend of Xanadu’ wasn’t actually _about_ drugs, but we can be sure they were all off their faces on nutmeg when they decided to record it. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2015, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-from-the-60s-really-are-about-acid-trips-or-drugs/726042/9 "2015-07-24T14:38:46Z")
[Sugar Man](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyE9vFGKogs) by Rodriguez (one of my favorite obscure artists from this period) is pretty explicit. ---
**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:** [July 24, 2015, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-from-the-60s-really-are-about-acid-trips-or-drugs/726042/10 "2015-07-24T14:46:18Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Classic example: [White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HmJQyS8QVw). As the years passed, ambiguities dropped away. Shortly after Tricky Dick started the Official War on Drugs in 1970 – targeting the soft drugs enjoyed by lefty college students and urban hippies, who Nixon seemed to hate a lot more than the average junkie – the Airplane came up with the little-known classic “Mexico.” Which refers to “King Richard…a small-headed man,” and includes the lines “You’re famous, Uncle Charlie, for your Mexican smoke…you’re a legend, Owsley, for your righteous dope.” The following live video opens with Jack Casady lighting up a huge bomber. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p41rCBCk7Ss) ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2015, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-from-the-60s-really-are-about-acid-trips-or-drugs/726042/11 "2015-07-24T14:57:30Z")
Nancy Sinatra had a big hit with a song called “[Sugar Town](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_Town),” which its composer Lee Hazlewood later confessed was about LSD - and yes, she knew it too. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2015, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-from-the-60s-really-are-about-acid-trips-or-drugs/726042/12 "2015-07-24T16:56:54Z")
“I Couldn’t Get High” by the Fugs. David Peel and the Lower East Side had an entire album titled _Have a Marijuana,_ with “I Like Marijuana,” “Here Comes a Cop,” and “Show Me the Way to Get Stoned.” ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2015, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-from-the-60s-really-are-about-acid-trips-or-drugs/726042/13 "2015-07-24T17:07:09Z")
“Legend of a Mind” by the Moody Blues is a tribute to Timothy Leary and LSD trips. That said, singer/composer Ray Thomas admitted years later that he had very little personal experience with hallucinogens and didn’t really know what the astral plane was! He says he sort of imagined it was a multicolored, psychedelic propeller plane that flew around San Francisco Bay! [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ldSFuEOA9wc/hqdefault.jpg "Legend of a Mind ~ Moody Blues") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldSFuEOA9wc) ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2015, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-from-the-60s-really-are-about-acid-trips-or-drugs/726042/14 "2015-07-24T17:09:29Z")
I can also think of many songs that aren’t “about” drugs but which allude to drug use in a non-judgmental or even positive way. For example, in “Late In the Evening,” Paul Simon sings matter-of-factly about how he “went outside and smoked himself a J” (i.e. joint) before his first major gig. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2015, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-from-the-60s-really-are-about-acid-trips-or-drugs/726042/15 "2015-07-24T17:12:16Z")
The Small Faces’ “Itchycoo Park” sure sounds like it’s about playing hooky from school and going off to smoke some weed in the park. Paul McCartney’s “Hi Hi Hi” is pretty blatant. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2015, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-from-the-60s-really-are-about-acid-trips-or-drugs/726042/16 "2015-07-24T17:50:45Z")
Amboy Dukes - [Journey to the Center of the Mind](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN2VNFpiGWo) ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2015, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-from-the-60s-really-are-about-acid-trips-or-drugs/726042/17 "2015-07-24T18:05:55Z")
Pretty much all of them. The ones that aren’t about drugs are about getting laid. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2015, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-from-the-60s-really-are-about-acid-trips-or-drugs/726042/18 "2015-07-24T18:08:52Z")
“Mother’s Little Helper”, The Rolling Stones In line with **astorian’s** post #14: “A Little Help From My Friends” by The Beatles … Anyone else remember the rumors about Peter, Paul, and Mary’s “Puff the Magic Dragon”? ---
**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:** [July 24, 2015, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-from-the-60s-really-are-about-acid-trips-or-drugs/726042/19 "2015-07-24T18:12:25Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > Pretty much all of them. The ones that aren’t about drugs are about getting laid. Yeah, that. Bob Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay” wasn’t even subtle about it. ---
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2015, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-from-the-60s-really-are-about-acid-trips-or-drugs/726042/20 "2015-07-24T18:12:27Z")
The Beatles’ _A day in the life_. When I hear the lyric, “and somebody spoke and I went into a dream” I am reminded of similar experiences. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-from-the-60s-really-are-about-acid-trips-or-drugs/726042.md?page=2)