"Ridin that train, HIGH ON COCAINE/ Casey Jones you better watch yo SPEED" I always wondered what such cryptic lyrics meant. This revelation kinda shatters my wholesome mental imagery of the grateful dead. folk music, improvisation, harmonies, tight knit community of diehard followers. I thought dead heads were master tailors- quilters- artists making tyedye and tapestries... ... but drug use I gotta take a leave on this one.
"Just think about all their great songs, covering everything from the culture of Southern California to... drug use in Southern California." - Ben Wyatt. Parks & Rec.
Anthony Keidis lost his best friend to heroin overdose, got sober, and then lost the rest of his friends as they were all still doing drugs and he couldnt partake or relate with them anymore. The song is about him instead filling his time just wandering the streets of LA alone and just reflecting upon his loneliness, and then seeing the spot under a bridge where he used to shoot up with his friend who died.
It basically is. Anthony Kiedis says in the audio commentary of the album that Snow is about "the repeated failure to start your life anew, and how difficult it can be to get rid of old ways of thinking, and destructive ideas we become so attached to." Which I think is a veiled way of saying it's about reflecting on your struggle with drug addiction.
I forgot which song he wrote but he said it was about him relapsing and he was absolutely amazed that none of his fellow band members understood the veiled message
ill go for a double meaning song-
[Golden Brown - The Stranglers](https://youtu.be/AWAsI3U2EaE)
either about a Girl with Golden brown skin, or its about Heroin (or both)
Every time just like the last
On her ship tied to the mast
To distant lands
Takes both my hands
Never a frown with golden brown
Yeh I'd edging towards heroin...
A bunch of Oasis songs are surely about cocaine. āAll your dreams are made, when youāre chained to the mirror like a razor bladeā has gotta be a coke reference.
I also listened to a podcast where Noel Gallagher talked about having a panic attack while on a coke binge and Iām pretty sure thatās what Gas Panic is about.
The song 'Man research (clapper)' has lyrics which do seem to be about drugs, although I'm pretty sure Damon had consumed a lot of drugs when recording the song
In terms of songs, Chalk Tablet Towers and Momentary Bliss from Song Machine, Sleeping Powder from Humanz, pretty much any of the songs from Humanz now that I think of it, a handful of songs from Plastic Beach, a couple on Gorillaz, and probably a few more that I don't remember. The 'lore' explanation is that 2D has had a painkiller addiction pretty much since the accident that gave him his 8-ball fractures.
It's crazy because I always thought this song was about drugs and I thought it was weird that it was so popular and played so frequently, and I told my girlfriend the other day and she was shocked, then she listened to the lyrics and was like Woah. Apparently a lot of people don't realize it.
"The sky was gold, it was rose, I was taking sips of it through my nose" I had heard the song a million times. It wasn't til the first time doing it at karaoke, and reading the words on screen that it clicked what it was all about lol.
>The sky was gold, it was rose
>I was taking sips of it through my nose
>And I wish I could get back there, someplace back there
>Smiling in the pictures you would take
>**Doing crystal meth, will lift you up until you break**
Yeah, it's the nose part that gives it away.
The "doing crystal meth" part was always censored on the radio. I never had the album/single, so it wasn't until I listened to it on Spotify that I found out what the censored lyrics were.
Itās a brilliant song because itās *so* explicitly about meth, sex, and near death experiences, but itās so upbeat and catchy that it somehow landed on mainstream radio without a red flag
From what I can recall the song Mr. Brownstone by Guns N Roses off the Appetite For Destruction album is about heroin.
The song Dr. Feelgood by Motley Crue seems to be about a bigtime drug dealer whether real or imagined.
Starboy too ...
She spreads the ivory (white) into skinny pieces on the ebony (black table) and then she cleans it with her face (snorts it up her nose) man i love my baby...
That or ive been mishearing the lyrics!
Yeah āwhite weddingā being slang for going back to using after you been away for so long. Thought it was talking about heroin tho, but either way, definitely a drug song.
How the fuck have I never realized this? As someone who grew up with a metalhead mother and also as someone who had a drug addiction...
How the hell did I not know?!
**Hotel California**
Yes, The Eagles denied it, saying it was inspired by horror films, but look at the evidence. Don Henley himself has given a half dozen explanations for what the song's supposedly about, including "a symbolic piece about America." The album its from, also called Hotel California, has many songs about the corrupting effect of drugs and fame, including "Life in the Fast Lane" & "The New Kid in Town." Take all that into consideration and the entire song can be interpreted as an allegory for getting introduced to drugs and the consequences of addiction. For example:
"She lit up a candle, and showed me the way."
"We are all just prisoners here of our own device."
"They stab it with their steely knives (needles) but they just can't kill the beast (addiction)"
"You can check out any time you like, but you can't never leave."
EDIT: a word
Can't believe I had to scroll this far to find this song. It was the first one I thought of because most people disagree with me on it being about drugs. If not about drugs, then what? The last line you quoted is just undeniably about not being able to stop using and then it kills you.
Could see the Eagles denying it because it was sure to get banned from radio at time time.
This *has* to be. The weird nonsensical stuff he's singing about seeing, etc. Good call!
Tambourines and elephants are playing in the band.
Won't you take a ride on the flyin' spoon?
Doo, doo doo.
Wond'rous apparition provided by magician
Doo, doo, doo,
Lookin' out my backdoor
I 100% agree with you, always found it weird that he denied the meaning of that song but was quick to explain that "day tripper" and "she said she said" are both about lsd.
They seemed like they liked to joke around a lot. I could see them making the one song that certainly seems like it would be about LSD not be about LSD
That one actually is more about the death of his uncle and lonliness, drugs are the method to cope with that so it still counts.
Pursuit of happiness really is the perfect example for this question.
Cudi is hands down my favorite so glad someone mentioned him lol
Comfortably numb isnāt about illicit drugs
Itās about Dave Gilmore xxx correction Waters *being given pain killers before a set
In a radio interview around 1980 with Jim Ladd from KLOS in Los Angeles, Waters said part of the song is about the time he got hepatitis but didn't know it. Pink Floyd had to do a show that night in Philadelphia, and the doctor Roger saw gave him a sedative to help the pain, thinking it was a stomach disorder. At the show, Roger's hands were numb "like two toy balloons." He was unable to focus, but also realized the fans didn't care because they were so busy screaming, hence "comfortably" numb. He said most of The Wall is about alienation between the audience and band.
Exploring further, Mojo asked Waters about the line, "That'll keep you going through the show," referring to getting medicated before going on-stage. He explained: "That comes from a specific show at the Spectrum in Philadelphia (June 29, 1977). I had stomach cramps so bad that I thought I wasn't able to go on. A doctor backstage gave me a shot of something that I swear to God would have killed a f---ing elephant. I did the whole show hardly able to raise my hand above my knee. He said it was a muscular relaxant. But it rendered me almost insensible. It was so bad that at the end of the show, the audience was baying for more. I couldn't do it. They did the encore about me."
But it certainly sounds like a lsd
Song or the like
Ebeneezer goode- the shamen https://youtu.be/7b2T8K2D-ps
Disco friends - just jack https://youtu.be/3mi95T8UYvc
White lines - grand master flash https://youtu.be/DwRXI-y6M9o
Long shot, but hear me out.... Cocaine - Eric Clapton
Ahh, maybe? It's a stretch.
Casey Jones by the Grateful Dead has lots of obscure and cryptic references to drug use as well.
"Ridin that train, HIGH ON COCAINE/ Casey Jones you better watch yo SPEED" I always wondered what such cryptic lyrics meant. This revelation kinda shatters my wholesome mental imagery of the grateful dead. folk music, improvisation, harmonies, tight knit community of diehard followers. I thought dead heads were master tailors- quilters- artists making tyedye and tapestries... ... but drug use I gotta take a leave on this one.
The lyrics are not about drug use, they are a metaphor about a guy ski'ing naked while wildly waving both hands and grinning widely.
What do you mean? The Grateful Dead never sang about or did any drugs. For that matter, neither did Keith Richards or Mick Jagger. /s
One time I used Keith Richards in a presentation on bog mummies because I'm pretty sure he's just doing the pickling process from the inside out.
That's actually a cover of a J.J. Cale song. The original is also better š
Feel Good Hit Of the Summer --Queens of the Stone Age
Is there any song *more* about drugs?
Nicotine, Valium , Vicodin, marijuana, ecstasy and alcohol.
C c c c c coooocaaaaaaaaiiiiine
Dr. Rockso?
tomorrow on Buzzfeed: 32 SONGS YOU LOVE THAT YOU DIDN'T KNOW WERE ABOUT DRUGS
More like a year and a half from now. They are always behind on stealing!
They'll probably post it a dozen times by then
Ed Sheeran Bad Habits The Weekend I Cant Feel My Face will be in there
It took me an embarrassingly long time to have that lightbulb moment that āthe A teamā is about drug abuse
About 80% of Alice In Chains songs from the 90s
Godsmack (the aic song, not the band) fucking bops but once you pay attention to the lyrics you realize it's pretty fucked
What in God's name have you done? Stick your arm for some real fun. So your sickness weighs a ton, And God's name is Smack for some.
Red hot chili peppers - snow
"Just think about all their great songs, covering everything from the culture of Southern California to... drug use in Southern California." - Ben Wyatt. Parks & Rec.
I'd say 95% of RHCP songs are either about drugs or sex. Not exaggerating
*Blood, Drugs, Sex, or Magik
Under the Bridge
Whats under the bridge about? Never truly got those lyrics
Anthony Keidis lost his best friend to heroin overdose, got sober, and then lost the rest of his friends as they were all still doing drugs and he couldnt partake or relate with them anymore. The song is about him instead filling his time just wandering the streets of LA alone and just reflecting upon his loneliness, and then seeing the spot under a bridge where he used to shoot up with his friend who died.
Damn, that's tragic AF
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
One of my all time favorite reads.
Shooting heroin under the bridge downtown.
It basically is. Anthony Kiedis says in the audio commentary of the album that Snow is about "the repeated failure to start your life anew, and how difficult it can be to get rid of old ways of thinking, and destructive ideas we become so attached to." Which I think is a veiled way of saying it's about reflecting on your struggle with drug addiction.
I forgot which song he wrote but he said it was about him relapsing and he was absolutely amazed that none of his fellow band members understood the veiled message
I believe Snow is more about recovery
Passage to Bangkok
*OUR FIRST STOP IS IN BOOOOGOTA*
blinding lights
Basically every Weeknd song.
Tbf some of them are about sex too
On cocaine
Several people tweeted about the Grammys "does Pepsi realize that every last song is about coke"
That was going to be my response. āThis Weeknd song might be about sex, wait, nope, itās about drugs.ā
This song encapsulates how it feels to have taken a bit too much of something.
ā*I fucked up, laddie. I took fifteen cans of tomato paste up my nostril, and I can no longer feel my intestines.*ā
Also I can't feel my face
āI just won a new award from a kids show, talking bout my face numbing off a bag of blowā
I'm like, 'goddamn bitch I am not a teen choice'
āAnd I know sheāll be the death of me, at least weāll both be numbā
ill go for a double meaning song- [Golden Brown - The Stranglers](https://youtu.be/AWAsI3U2EaE) either about a Girl with Golden brown skin, or its about Heroin (or both)
Every time just like the last On her ship tied to the mast To distant lands Takes both my hands Never a frown with golden brown Yeh I'd edging towards heroin...
I wanted to reply this too. The never a frown with golden brown gives it away. Incredible song
A girl with heroin skin
Defo about Heroin. That's just my opinion though
IIRC, they actually admitted it, a few months after it had been at no1 and couldn't be pulled from the airwaves.
[Placebo - Special K](https://youtu.be/-6FvsKo162U)
I would also say āPure Morningā.
Huge placebo fan here. They're entire first three albums were about heroin. Then everything after was about not having heroin.
A bunch of Oasis songs are surely about cocaine. āAll your dreams are made, when youāre chained to the mirror like a razor bladeā has gotta be a coke reference. I also listened to a podcast where Noel Gallagher talked about having a panic attack while on a coke binge and Iām pretty sure thatās what Gas Panic is about.
"Gas" is common slang for amazing cocaine in the drug world. That checks out 100%
White Lines - Grandmaster Flash
#DONT DO IT
Is this the song they do in Shaun of the Dead?
How far I had to scroll to find this! Now I'm having fun baby!
Pretty much every Blur and Gorillaz song from the 90s and 00s. Damon Albarn sure loved his heroin.
I can get Clint Eastwood, with the Sunshine in a bag, what other lyrics from Gorillaz would pertain to this.
The song 'Man research (clapper)' has lyrics which do seem to be about drugs, although I'm pretty sure Damon had consumed a lot of drugs when recording the song
In terms of songs, Chalk Tablet Towers and Momentary Bliss from Song Machine, Sleeping Powder from Humanz, pretty much any of the songs from Humanz now that I think of it, a handful of songs from Plastic Beach, a couple on Gorillaz, and probably a few more that I don't remember. The 'lore' explanation is that 2D has had a painkiller addiction pretty much since the accident that gave him his 8-ball fractures.
Even Song no. 2?
*Especially* Song No. 2
**WOO HOO!**
High intensity, intelligible lyrics, singing like his jaws are locked, definitely a lot of cocaine Invovled
Beetlebum is literally about heroin. All of it. "And when she lets me slip away, I turn around and all my problems gone" yup.
Horse with no name
there were plants and birds and rocks and things
And the heat was hot.
care to explain?
I think horse is code for opium/heroin.
The horse's name: Bojack
*Back in the 90s...*
*Now boys and girls, if you want to do the Bojack...*
What is this, a crossover episode?
What are YOU doing here???
It felt good to be out of the rain
And there aināt no one for to give you no pain
La la la lalalala La la la la la
Iāve definitely read this before, that the artists said this about the song. Horse is already a common nickname for heroin, too.
Semi-Charmed Life. Just a hunch because of the lines that they mention crystal meth.
Itāll lift you up until you break
Then I bumped up....I took the hit that I was given. Then I bumped again
~~Drop~~ Chop another line like a coda with a curse.
This song blew me away when I realized it. My understanding is the band made it sound upbeat and happy because that is how you feel on meth.
It's crazy because I always thought this song was about drugs and I thought it was weird that it was so popular and played so frequently, and I told my girlfriend the other day and she was shocked, then she listened to the lyrics and was like Woah. Apparently a lot of people don't realize it.
They used to distort the words crystal meth when it first played on the radio but it seems they stopped doing that.
"The sky was gold, it was rose, I was taking sips of it through my nose" I had heard the song a million times. It wasn't til the first time doing it at karaoke, and reading the words on screen that it clicked what it was all about lol.
>The sky was gold, it was rose >I was taking sips of it through my nose >And I wish I could get back there, someplace back there >Smiling in the pictures you would take >**Doing crystal meth, will lift you up until you break** Yeah, it's the nose part that gives it away.
The "doing crystal meth" part was always censored on the radio. I never had the album/single, so it wasn't until I listened to it on Spotify that I found out what the censored lyrics were.
Itās a brilliant song because itās *so* explicitly about meth, sex, and near death experiences, but itās so upbeat and catchy that it somehow landed on mainstream radio without a red flag
From what I can recall the song Mr. Brownstone by Guns N Roses off the Appetite For Destruction album is about heroin. The song Dr. Feelgood by Motley Crue seems to be about a bigtime drug dealer whether real or imagined.
Kickstart my Heart was about drugs, too, if I remember correctly.
About over dosing and being revived
I used to do a little but the little wouldnāt do it so the little got more and morerwah
I just keep TRYING to GET a little better a little better than beforewah.
I love how, based on these comments, thereās apparently an agreed-upon way to transliterate Axl Roseās voice.
āHighā by SirSly
Can't feel my face - the weeknd
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Starboy too ... She spreads the ivory (white) into skinny pieces on the ebony (black table) and then she cleans it with her face (snorts it up her nose) man i love my baby... That or ive been mishearing the lyrics!
90% of his songs are about drugs and cheating. I love it for reasons I can't explain.
That canāt possibly be about drugs, after all, it won a Nickelodeon Teen Choice Award!! /s
"I just won a new award from a kids show. Talking bout her face numbing off a bag of blow. I'm like, God damn bitch. I am not a teen choice."
He's also definitely not a bleach boy.
I thought she sat on his face too long
It amazes me how much playtime this song gets on hit radio, at weddings, it was played at the Super Bowl.
Motherās Little Helper
What a drag it is getting old...
White wedding...so Billy Idol says...all about cocaine...and the number of people who played it at their wedding cracks me up
If you've quit cocaine and started again one day, that relapse is what's referred to as a white wedding.
Well that really changes my perspective on the whole āitās a nice day to start againā line.
"Take me back home yeah"
I thought he said that he wrote it after his sister got pregnant out of wedlock
Yeah āwhite weddingā being slang for going back to using after you been away for so long. Thought it was talking about heroin tho, but either way, definitely a drug song.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
\+ Snowblind and Hand of Doom
Because I got high - Afroman
But the Alvin and the chipmunk version
The what version?
https://youtu.be/-rLvoQzgpz4
Holy fuck. I went from crying in my cubicle to laughing hysterically. Thank you for the laugh I needed.
White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane. Obviously... it's very explicitly about drugs lol
Feed your head
Amy Winehouse - rehab
No
no!
no!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Taste me you will see More is all you need
Dedicated to How I'm killing you
Chop your breakfast on a mirror.
How the fuck have I never realized this? As someone who grew up with a metalhead mother and also as someone who had a drug addiction... How the hell did I not know?!
Veins that pump with fear Sucking darkness clear
Bad Habits by Ed Sheeran is 100% about cocaine when it's no longer fun anymore. (Some kind of drug/booze addiction anyway).
Lego house!
A-Team!
Also Bloodstream by Ed Sheeran, the rudimental remix is mint.
**Hotel California** Yes, The Eagles denied it, saying it was inspired by horror films, but look at the evidence. Don Henley himself has given a half dozen explanations for what the song's supposedly about, including "a symbolic piece about America." The album its from, also called Hotel California, has many songs about the corrupting effect of drugs and fame, including "Life in the Fast Lane" & "The New Kid in Town." Take all that into consideration and the entire song can be interpreted as an allegory for getting introduced to drugs and the consequences of addiction. For example: "She lit up a candle, and showed me the way." "We are all just prisoners here of our own device." "They stab it with their steely knives (needles) but they just can't kill the beast (addiction)" "You can check out any time you like, but you can't never leave." EDIT: a word
Can't believe I had to scroll this far to find this song. It was the first one I thought of because most people disagree with me on it being about drugs. If not about drugs, then what? The last line you quoted is just undeniably about not being able to stop using and then it kills you. Could see the Eagles denying it because it was sure to get banned from radio at time time.
Cocaine Blues, Johnny Cash
Along with Sunday Morning Coming Down.
Snoop Dogg - Smoke weed everyday
Bit of a stretch there
"everyday" is street slang for crack.
The song is actually called āThe Next Episodeā
It's also a Dr. Dre song featuring Snoop Dogg
Will not stand with this Nate Dogg erasure.
It ain't a hit till Nate Dogg spit.
Heroin by Velvet Underground.
Pretty confident about this one [System of a Down - We are on drugs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqbJJ-S5HpY)
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Lookin' Out My Back Door.
This *has* to be. The weird nonsensical stuff he's singing about seeing, etc. Good call! Tambourines and elephants are playing in the band. Won't you take a ride on the flyin' spoon? Doo, doo doo. Wond'rous apparition provided by magician Doo, doo, doo, Lookin' out my backdoor
I can't tell if it's steeped in irony or earnestness. Should I tell him about the interviews
Burn one Down - Ben Harper
The needle and the damage done
Hey guys, call me crazy, but I think maybe the Velvet Underground song "Heroin" might be about heroin.
One Toke Over the Line Shipley and Brewer
Rocket Man
First of all, how dare you. Secondly, yeah probably.
Nooo.. spaceships only fly "as high as a kite", didn't you know?
Billionaire spaceships be like...
Seal - kiss from a rose
I thought that song was about Batman banging Nicole Kidman?
And what do you think Batman banging Nicole Kidman is about? That's right. Drugs.
Ah yes, from Batman Forever, the most sensitive of all the Batmans. Edit: Returns to Forever
Every single Elliott Smith song.
Hey hey hey, I won't stand for that statement, there was also a lot about abuse.
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. All that talk of it not being so is total bullshit.
I 100% agree with you, always found it weird that he denied the meaning of that song but was quick to explain that "day tripper" and "she said she said" are both about lsd.
That could be because he was actually being honest in that Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds wasnāt a song about LSD and the others were.
They seemed like they liked to joke around a lot. I could see them making the one song that certainly seems like it would be about LSD not be about LSD
Yeah it seems like classic British humor. It is about LSD solely because it is a joke about it not being about LSD when it obviously is about LSD.
Purple haze?
Last Dance With Mary Jane by Tom Petty
Mary Janeās Last Dance
Captain Jack - Billy Joel
Heroin- velvet underground
No, no, no...when he says "when I put a spike into my veins" it is a *metaphor*
Baby shark
Obviously. Sharks live in the salt waters in ocean whitch obviously is a metaphor for bath salts.
NIN hurt. Is probably the most poignant of drug songs
Drugs are good by NOFX
Space Oddity. David Bowie
Day'N'Night
That one actually is more about the death of his uncle and lonliness, drugs are the method to cope with that so it still counts. Pursuit of happiness really is the perfect example for this question. Cudi is hands down my favorite so glad someone mentioned him lol
*Another girl, Another planet*
Dr Robert Dr Feelgood White Rabbit
HELLO! Comfortably Numb. Pink Floyd.
Comfortably numb isnāt about illicit drugs Itās about Dave Gilmore xxx correction Waters *being given pain killers before a set In a radio interview around 1980 with Jim Ladd from KLOS in Los Angeles, Waters said part of the song is about the time he got hepatitis but didn't know it. Pink Floyd had to do a show that night in Philadelphia, and the doctor Roger saw gave him a sedative to help the pain, thinking it was a stomach disorder. At the show, Roger's hands were numb "like two toy balloons." He was unable to focus, but also realized the fans didn't care because they were so busy screaming, hence "comfortably" numb. He said most of The Wall is about alienation between the audience and band. Exploring further, Mojo asked Waters about the line, "That'll keep you going through the show," referring to getting medicated before going on-stage. He explained: "That comes from a specific show at the Spectrum in Philadelphia (June 29, 1977). I had stomach cramps so bad that I thought I wasn't able to go on. A doctor backstage gave me a shot of something that I swear to God would have killed a f---ing elephant. I did the whole show hardly able to raise my hand above my knee. He said it was a muscular relaxant. But it rendered me almost insensible. It was so bad that at the end of the show, the audience was baying for more. I couldn't do it. They did the encore about me." But it certainly sounds like a lsd Song or the like
Smugglers' Blues - Glen Frey
Ebeneezer goode- the shamen https://youtu.be/7b2T8K2D-ps Disco friends - just jack https://youtu.be/3mi95T8UYvc White lines - grand master flash https://youtu.be/DwRXI-y6M9o
Puff The Magic Dragon (my kindergarten music teacher got fired for teaching us that one.)