{"id":7633,"date":"2014-10-18T17:48:03","date_gmt":"2014-10-18T17:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2014\/10\/18\/saturday-night-at-the-oldies-anti-drug-songs\/"},"modified":"2014-10-18T17:48:03","modified_gmt":"2014-10-18T17:48:03","slug":"saturday-night-at-the-oldies-anti-drug-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2014\/10\/18\/saturday-night-at-the-oldies-anti-drug-songs\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday Night at the Oldies: Anti-Drug Songs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Sex, drugs, and rock & roll without the drugs.  In memory of the recently late<\/a> Paul Revere of Paul Revere and the Raiders<\/em>, a '60s outfit with a garage-band sound I never much liked, which had a hit with the anti-drug Kicks<\/a> with which I shall kick off tonight's offerings.<\/span><\/p>\n

Buffy Sainte-Marie, Cod'ine<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

An equally powerful version<\/a> by Janis Joplin<\/span><\/p>\n

Hoyt Axton, The Pusher<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Dave Van Ronk, Cocaine Blues<\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n

Velvet Underground, Heroin<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Warren Zevon, Carmelita<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Dubiously classified as drug songs<\/em>:<\/span><\/p>\n

Peter, Paul, and Mary, Puff the Magic Dragon<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Doors, The Crystal Ship<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Tim Hardin, Red Balloon<\/a>.   Small Faces version<\/a>. Hardin died of a heroin overdose in late December, 1980.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Donovan, Mellow Yellow<\/a>.  Supposedly about cigarettes filled with dried banana peels.  I tried one of these mellow yellow joints  in Hollywood, Cal, in '67.  It had no psychoactive effect I could discern.<\/span><\/p>\n

Beatles, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds<\/a>.  Supposedly about LSD. <\/span><\/p>\n

UPDATE 10\/19:<\/strong>  Jeff Hodges<\/a> thinks I should have included Neil Young, Tonight's the Night<\/a>.  He's right.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dennis Monokroussos<\/a>:  <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

No \u201cCocaine\u201d<\/a> by Eric Clapton?! That\u2019s a huge and surprising omission, unless you don\u2019t take it to be either pro- or anti-drug. Clapton himself calls it anti-drug, so perhaps a Sunday supplement should ensue. On the kudos side, I\u2019m glad that you labeled \u201cPuff\u201d and \u201cLucy\u201d as only dubiously classified as drug songs, as both songs\u2019 authors have vehemently and repeatedly protested their songs\u2019 innocence.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

My title indicates that my focus is on anti-drug sons.  J. J. Cale's tune "Cocaine" is pretty clearly pro-drug, as witness the lyrics:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

If you wanna hang out you've got to take her out; cocaine.
If you wanna get down, down on the ground; cocaine.
She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie; cocaine. <\/p>\n

If you got bad news, you wanna kick them blues; cocaine.
When your day is done and you wanna run; cocaine.
She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie; cocaine. <\/p>\n

If your thing is gone and you wanna ride on; cocaine.
Don't forget this fact, you can't get it back; cocaine.
She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie; cocaine.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

True, Clapton has claimed that the song is anti-drug, but the claim is simply not credible.  Generally speaking, artists' opinions about their works are not to be given much credence.  Dylan is an example of one who has spoken nonsense about the meaning of his own songs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just read the above lyrics.  The meaning is clear.   You need cocaine to 'hang out' and to 'get down.'  The second phrase means to party, to have sex, to have a good time, to jump up and dance.  It does not mean to bring yourself down either physically or mentally.  But then why "down on the ground"?  Because it rhymes, and this is just a popular song the lyrics of which were scribbled in a couple of minutes.  To write a song like this you start with a chord progression and a guitar riff and then find some words to go along with them.  <\/span><\/p>\n

And then we are told that cocaine "don't lie"; she takes you away from the phony workaday world of the uncool and puts you in touch with reality.  And in her embrace there is an escape from bad news and a cure for the blues.  If you've lost your 'mojo'  and its on the sag and your 'thing' is gone, you can get it back with this stuff.  And "she don't lie!"<\/span><\/p>\n

There is simply no way this song could be interpreted as anti-drug.  It is pretty clearly, though not obviously, pro-drug.<\/span><\/p>\n

Clapton ought to 'man up' and admit it.  Arguing that it is anti-drug would be like arguing that the Rolling Stones' Let's Spend the Night Together<\/a> is a stern warning against premarital sex, or that their Under My Thumb<\/a> is a feminist anthem.<\/span><\/p>\n

That's why I didn't include Clapton's "Cocaine" on my list of anti-drug songs.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sex, drugs, and rock & roll without the drugs.  In memory of the recently late Paul Revere of Paul Revere and the Raiders, a '60s outfit with a garage-band sound I never much liked, which had a hit with the anti-drug Kicks with which I shall kick off tonight's offerings. Buffy Sainte-Marie, Cod'ine An equally … Continue reading “Saturday Night at the Oldies: Anti-Drug Songs”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,146],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-sixties"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7633\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}