I’m a rookie when it comes to these diaries so I am not sure what themes have already been used and which ones haven’t. I don’t remember this one but it was probably used before. Hopefully it was long enough ago that y’all don’t mind doing it again.
Drug use has been a theme of popular music for at least a century, probably earlier.
Drugs have been celebrated in lyrics and vilified — and everything in between.
And there is also a long tradition of interpreting lyrics about being about drugs that were not necessarily about drugs. A good example is John Denver’s “Rocky Mountain High,” which many people were sure was about getting high on chemical substances rather than mountain air.
So … post your favorite drug songs, anti-drug songs or songs rumored to be about drugs.
One of my favorites is "Kid Charlemagne" by Steely Dan, which is said to be about the rise and fall of LSD chemist Owsley Stanley from San Francisco.
The final verse describes Stanley’s 1967 arrest after his car reportedly ran out of gas:[7]
“Clean this mess up else we’ll all end up in jail
Those test tubes and the scale
Just get it all out of here
Is there gas in the car?
Yes, there’s gas in the car
I think the people down the hall know who you are”
Freddie’s Dead by Curtis Mayfield came out in 1972. It was featured in the movie “Superfly,” but only as an instrumental. The lyrics are decidedly anti-drug use.
Everybody's misused him
Ripped him off and abused him
Another junkie plan
Pushin' dope for the man
Billy Joel wrote “Captain Jack” in 1971 about a heroin dealer near his Long Island home called Captain Jack.This is from the song’s Wikipedia entry:
The song, according to Joel, is an anti-drug song. He says, "What's so horrible about an affluent young teenager's life that he's got to shoot heroin? It's really a song about what I consider to be a pathetic loser kind of lifestyle. I've been accused of, 'Oh, this song promotes drug use and masturbation.' No, no, no. Listen to the song. This guy is a loser."[4] In writing about the song in the liner notes of his Songs in the Attic album, Joel once again emphasized the point: "...so many friends shoveled under the Long Island dirt. The miracle of modern chemistry killed them if Vietnam didn't.
And, of course, no list like this would be complete without The Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” which everyone was so sure was a drug song, but John Lennon insisted came from a drawing his son Julian made.
But folks were sure that “tangerine trees and marmalade skies” (among others) was a psychedelic reference and pointed to the fact that the song’s title, if made an acronym, was LSD
From Wikipedia:
Lennon said that his inspiration for the song came when his three-year-old son Julianshowed him a nursery school drawing that he called "Lucy – in the Sky with Diamonds",[4] depicting his classmate Lucy O'Donnell.[5] Julian later recalled: "I don't know why I called it that or why it stood out from all my other drawings, but I obviously had an affection for Lucy at that age. I used to show Dad everything I'd built or painted at school, and this one sparked off the idea."
Gentle reminder: Those on phones really appreciate it if you put the name of your selection in your comment along with your song; and people using screen readers need this in order to identify the video as well. You know how this works — Put your quarter in the slot and your song in the comments. This is your Saturday night jukebox and the party starts NOW~!
Upcoming diarists:
12/13: Al Dorado
12/20: Al Dorado
12/27: Nanny Ogg
1/3: ???
1/10: anotherdemocrat
1/17: ???
