Drugs and Rock n Roll

Syd said:

The difference I see is that in the 60's ... most artists took drugs for the first time once they were musicians, and had some sort of maturity about it.

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You don't really believe this, do you?

Very interesting topic, Truckin'. I have thought about this same phenomena myself and have come to the conclusion that the drugs and alcohol use was not the creative force behind the music. It is talent that is behind the music. But I do believe that drugs and alcohol were an outlet for the musician's to openly express themselves. That old saying "liquid courage" comes to mind.

The lyrics of the late 60's and 70's is very charged with politics and sexual innuendo. You have to remember that the 70's was a time of great change in the way people think. People were experiencing the sexual explosion....sex was no longer a dirty word and musicians used this concept to charge up their music, and people loved it!! The world was full of political unrest, too. I dont think anything has influenced music more than Viet Nam and how people felt about peace and war.


Another genre that was widespread in the 60's was psychedelic music. This is the only genre that I believe was truly fueled by drug use, and intended to enhance the psychedelic trip


As far as music appeal, I dont think the classic rock era is all that different than today's music.........musician's are still experimenting with sound and lyrics, in an attempt to come up with something unique. I feel that the music we grow up with will always be what appeals to us.

I think that there might not be as much cause and effect involved. I'm guessing that although there was certainly alot of drug use going on in the writing and performing of rock music throughout the 60's and 70's, it was probably not a case of purposely using the drugs as a tool or inspiration, but more a case of not bothering with sobriety. I'm sure there were alot of people that were pretty much high or drunk all the time.
Yeah, there's some musical or lyrical stuff that could only be attributed to some kind of altered state, but there's probably alot of it that would have happened anyway.

New artists today, seem to lack creativity, in my opinion,

I don't think it has anything to do with, doing or not doing with drugs.

I think the fundamental aspect is talent. Drug use may "color" the music somewhat but without talent there is no foundation.

Well, I appreciate everyone's input. One particular album comes to mind when I think of drugs and rock. Fleetwood Mac's album Rumours supposedly was born out of continuous drug use to the tune of several hundreds of thousands of dollars just for the drugs. What a great album that is.

^^Rumours was reported as the most expensive album recording ever made, over $1,000,000 back in the 70's. Yeah they were all playing around with drugs, but Rumours doesn't sound like a "druggie" record to me, simply a fantastic pop/rock album done when they were at their peak.(I still like the preceding album more myself, and always will.)

And one genre that no one has mentioned yet from the glory days of the 60's and 70's, "Space Rock". To me that is part of the whole drug scene, and I like quite a few of those bands myself. Hawkwind comes to mind right away.

Lord Grendel said:

^^Rumours was reported as the most expensive album recording ever made, over $1,000,000 back in the 70's. Yeah they were all playing around with drugs, but Rumours doesn't sound like a "druggie" record to me, simply a fantastic pop/rock album done when they were at their peak.(I still like the preceding album more myself, and always will.)

And one genre that no one has mentioned yet from the glory days of the 60's and 70's, "Space Rock". To me that is part of the whole drug scene, and I like quite a few of those bands myself. Hawkwind comes to mind right away.

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I always thought Gold Dust Woman and The Chain were kind of spacey.

For ''Rumors'', cocaine was the drug of choice.

I don't condone drug use, but maybe if some of these modern rockers took some acid - maybe they could write some decent tunes....it might be worth a shot.

Truckin said:

I always thought Gold Dust Woman and The Chain were kind of spacey.

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Gold Dust Woman is about cocaine