Yeah I am talking about smack, junk, horse, china white, chiva, H, tar, black, fix, speed-balling, dope, brown, dog, food, negra, nod, white horse, and stuff of which Dionysus’ dreams are made. The little white angel that sits on your shoulder and rocks you to sleep, returning you to the soft, pillowed encasement of the womb, warm, satiated, arms jelly, thoughts fluttering, creative synapses trickling like sweat down your forehead. I'm not talking about the cluttering in the kitchen, the droopy eyes afterwards or the sniffing, inhaling, injecting, or smoking that comes with it. Instead, I am talking about heroin and its influence music… the songs in which heroin is a heroine.
"Music is a beautiful opiate, if you don't take it too seriously."
~ Henry Miller
Would Miles Davis’ jazz have been as soulful without opiates? Would you weep to Jerry Garcia so easily sans black? Would you groove to "Ride the White Horse" by Goldrapp if it were really about a goddamn my little pony? Can the history of rock and roll be rewritten through the eyes (and ears) of heroin?
This whole heroin-and-music charade started with my buddy Dave who has got this theory that he can hear each time Jerry’s on junk in a song. We were driving in his car a few weeks back listening to a long and slow riff of Jerry’s and Dave says "hear that? Jerry taking his time? That’s the junk." Cautiously, I heard the chords gently transitioned, almost chiming and bell-like from half-comatose finger fluttering. I heard something- ethereal- untouched- raw- and almost feminine about his playing. Dave laughed and said "Just try listening to "Help on the way." It’s complex music with total clarity." I did. And I heard the horses.
Grand fucking beautiful. The golden chalice of musical legends was instantly bulldozed by the little white angel known as H. Dave reassured me: "Junk doesn't mess up your head like weed and shit. It brings clarity and inner peace, till it destroys you for life. The entire dead sound was that, but Jerry's solos were the meat of it."
Truth is I’ve not pricked my hands with the stuff (yet); evidently I haven’t succumbed to the William Burroughs/Lester Bangs junkie beat journalism- banging down Lou Reed’s door with research and drugs in hand. So I’d have to take his word on what it feels like. I remember reading Courtney Love saying heroin is "the drug you do if you're in a fuckin' four-star hotel and you can order all the goddamn room service that you want and you can just lay in bed and drool all over yourself because you've got a million bucks in the bank. That's the drug you want to do if you want to be a kid forever." But when Dave started to list some of the greatest albums and artists of all time- I realized heroin could be seen as the steel propeller added to the sailboat of rock and rock riffing, the J in Jazz, the fruit that gave P-funk it’s Funk. Fuck weed. Fuck cocaine. Those get you in the mood or though the tour. But I never conceptualized about (or I suppose did the math on) the countless immaculate melodies I placed on my Hall of Fame pedestal that were spurred and woven by the dust of a white horse- a horse that created the gallant gallop- the dramatic pause- and the added finesse of musical magic. And after some experimenting- (on listening, not injecting), I began to train my ears to hear the heroin. I started to see its white armor blazing in between the power chords- (though it's more like a loose wild cowboy riding bare-back.) The loss of control, the spontaneity, the jam, I started to wonder if I grew up addicted to heroin without even knowing it.
Let me talk you through more examples…………….till you hear it too...
Take Keith Richards. Again taking his time. His drone sound on "Gimme shelter." In comes Dave: "Weirdest riff ever, but we're all just used to it. I'll play it for you with just a guitar. Total junkie shit that was brought back to planet earth via keith. Most people can't capture that." Pretty much the whole album Exhile On Main Street has got that loose recklessness on there....(um, oh and on another tangent- Wild Horses anyone? Couldn't drag me away?)
Next up? Charlie Parker. Big time Junkie. "Meandering, but with total clarity and purpose. Best horn player who ever lived because he created that sound, and WAS bebop. It's deceptive with Charlie because his shit is so straightforward that you'd think he was clean, but that's junk. He's like the perfect housewife in the perfect home, except she's a fucking undercover pill addict. Check out Relaxing at the camarillo or Billy's bounce. Charlie created bebop on his own." Trees wizzed by and I was swept in by the vision of Charlie Parker’s eyes rolling back after a grand inhale.
Miles Davis – Dave bid me to check out Filles de Kilamajaro. "That album says it all. He's in a different place. If you check the most famous jazz album in history, Bitches brew, you'll realize that junk works. The tune "so what" is the first on the album. It has no cord changes, just one modulation. He wrote it on a napkin for the band or something like that. Weird, except for the fact that it's the #1 jazz song ever. He tapped into the collective unconscious. Genius or junk? Your call. Probably both." Junk has ruled the jazz-laced world. Dexter Gordon, Tadd Dameron, Art Blakey, J. J. Johnson, Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean, Sonny Stitt, Bud Powell, Fats Navarro, Gene Ammons, Joe Guy and Billie Holiday. Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, Red Rodney, and Chet Baker—Fuck the 70s, we are talking about the 40s. As Miles Davis said "the idea was going around that to use heroin might make you play as great as Bird." 1940s baby, all those popped collared and juiced dapper dandies and the innocent dolls red-lipsticked and smacked up. Did you ever wonder why Billie Holliday always sung like she was on holiday?
Bill Evans. His sound = peace and tranquility . Outer space. Nirvana on tape. I just keep it playing in the background for the feeling.
Lou Reed. "When I'm rushing on my run And I feel just like Jesus' son."
Nikki Sixx. even wrote "The Heroin Dairies" of recent.
Slash. November rain live cut- "Taking his time. Solo feels like Jerry. Not genius stuff, but a good example of a rocker cooling out and feeling it. Result, one of the only singable solos that everyone knows. The video helped. So did the junk."
James Taylor. "Voice like butter. He's in a happy place on junk. Bring you there. This music speaks to most white collar folk but they have no idea that he was totally warm and junked out while writing and preforming it."
Nirvana, Hole, Smashing Pumpkins, Alice in Chains, and Stone Temple Pilots are some of the better known users who craved that quick burst of intense euphoria, most often compared to sexual orgasm, then the continued aura of warm and pleasant relaxation. Their songs mimic it.
The common thread is that these guys all crafted spectacular music on junk that relates to people on a base, carnal, soulful level. According to my sensei on opiates Dave, "They bring sounds to us that we all instinctively know, but somehow have forgotten. Again, the drug helps connect to a peaceful place and helps tap into the collective unconscious." Listening to a plethora of recommended (mostly live) tracks, I felt it. I felt that weird sensation of relaxation, it’s the equivalent musically to being a light-weight drunk- a bit of slurring, legs a little farther apart, shirt unraveled, lights dimmed. It’s provocative and alluring. Everything's was bit fuzzier but it was ok. I bid you- sit down with some of the records of artists mentioned above and let me know if you feel it too. Take you back somewhere you may never knew or forgot you knew. Somewhere between innocence and abundance. Sweet dreaming- weeding through poppies along the rocky road. It may be the cheapest trip you'll ever take.
PS AFTERWORD: For reference, I am not endorsing the drug. The heroin overdose list is a dramatic list of lost, wasted musical genius: Frankie Lymon, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix - Barbiturate overdose, Danny Whitten (Crazy Horse) - Suicide or accidental heroin overdose, Nick Drake - Suicide or accidental overdoes, Tommy Bolin (Deep Purple, The James Gang, Zephyr), Tim Buckley, Sid Vicious, Timm Hardin, the list goes on. It doesn’t help that in our society, dying young from an overdose inducts you instantly into musical matrydom. Lke being eaten by a lion due to your faith- it almost legitimates and brandishes stars' glory- sadly, morosely, pathetically.
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I once made a similar argument to an ex-musician/ex-junkie. She told me to go fuck myself. I took that to mean that she disagreed.
I read an essay on Charlie Parker several years ago in which the author claimed that things "sound different," or maybe that one "hears things differently," while under the influence of heroin, but I have never found anything to substantiate that claim.
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NOT JT. SAY IT AINT SO!
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what about makes musicians play differently tho? i don't think u need to be on heroin to hear the heroin...
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with that logic then you were on it when you wrote the post...faith don't tell me...
:P
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The author's argument was that the aural enhancement provided by heroin sent musicians in different directions than they would have gone were they sober.
One note leads to another, but if the note sounds a little different, it leads somewhere else. Being sober while hearing such a thing would perhaps be the only way one could notice the difference, if there is any substance to the claim, that is.
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I don't find there's any distinction. Music, written or improvised, comes from all environmental influences, drugs or otherwise. A note is a note and changes to another note because of all types of sense or neurological deductions and/or enhancements. Drugs can play a part in that, but I don't believe that it can bring about so much of a change that it can be distinguished from others.
If your friend can tell me if someone is on junk that he doesn't know is a junkie beforehand, that would be quite the talent of the ears.
btw- "So What" is not on Filles de Kill or Bitches Brew, it's on Kind of Blue.
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i dunno. that's giving heroin an awful lot of credit. sure, i can see how someone would play slower if they were fading off into a drug stupor. but i can't really see it as the "propellor" of rock music or the J in jazz.
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"substance" to the claim brand X? LOL!
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You know, the other day I was drinking with a writer and the topic of, go figure, the relationship between writing and alcohol came up. My companion was of the Faulkner school, believing that alcohol not only didn't help one to write, but that it often had a negative impact on the quality of the writing. After a little back and forth we eventually settled on the idea that alcohol might work as a shortcut to accessing the same parts of your brain that you naturally tap into when while writing, but the alcohol will likely be evident in whatever you write. Maybe this whole music and herion thing is sort of a similar thing. Who knows? Interesting post, though (you must have been drunk when you wrote it).
mollifire: :-)
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as the great Bill Hicks said, “If you don't think drugs have done good things for us, then take all of your records, tapes and CDs and burn them. Cause you know what? The musicians that made all that great music that's enhanced your lives throughout the years? Real fucking high on drugs."
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brandx: Understood... I tease indiepixie a lot - perhaps too much.
My experience with artists that did drugs is that they would often come up with something different in the studio than they might have had they not done them, but they all said the same thing - they enjoyed music more and felt their music was much better, and their playing was much better when they were sober. Once however, we had a very technical Japanese guitar player in the studio for an act you would know, and he just wasn't getting the feel of the solo. "Too technical and perfect," they said. So the lead singer decided to get him really really drunk, and the guy played the solo flawlessly, in one take, and the lead singer was also kind enough to also hold his head over the toilet in the lounge while the guy puked his guts out when it was over.
The things we do for rock n' roll...
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ha i just woke up. Brand x- was i caught writing a drunk post :)
Van- I think that is more of the moment I am trying to portray- the idea that you could hear a distinction between when Jerry was on junk or not.....by the way that he played. To be honest, I haven't as religiously studied the works of the Greatful Dead. And I do know we have a lot of musical purists who hail musicians talents souly (which I do not discredit)- but I do think there's songs that were written from it, songs played differrently from it, and artists who have made history off of it. And I think that list- of some of the best- reflects that there's something about the drug that at one point aids the process of coming up with a song and performing a song.
My next post though should be on the wicked, innevitable crash and burn that comes from doing too much junk :)
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Your drunk posts are good - they have something that the others don't.
<very big wink>
I hear you ... and as I mentioned above, I do agree (with all kidding aside) something is definitely added. I will dig through some things and we can do a side by side comparison - listening to things (unsigned and unknown) and see if we an pick things out. Like all science, we're pointing to what is already known and finding the nodal points - and associations - these guys were all famous and messed up... and quite possibly at the top of their respective games in their respective styles ... or are we imposing the right criteria on the entire field of musicians. I would say that we don't have enough data - per se ... but with some unsigned stuff, this could be a way to go - we may have to publish the results off line though to protect the innocent (or at least - not mention any names or something) Let me know if you're interested.
Additionally, don't worry about not having religously studied the Grateful Dead, there are a lot of people that can't pray in that church.
Van
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Iteresting you should write this, as I just watched Dig, and boy let me tell you, watching or dealing with junkies sure is fun for everyone who isn't a junkie or caught in their own self absortion! (insert obvious sarcasm). Post forth coming on this one.
It is a very compelling thesis, though. I would ad to your Drone/nod arguement Chet Bakers vocals. The very embodiment of that warm enveloping high that you describe. Chet - big time junkie. Supposedly shot up and nodded off and fell out of a hotel window.
"That's the drug you want to do if you want to be a kid forever." Anton Newcombe is the living embodiment of this.
A. Heroin is a bitch goddess - she giveth but taketh away more than she ever gave. I look at it as an uneven equation 5 years of creativity to 30 years of mediocrity. Just look at some of the artists
B. Lester Bangs was not a junkie, per se. His drug of choice was the cough syrup Romilar. Romilar did contain codeine though.
C. Nick Drake, I believe took a mixture of sleeping pills and alchohol. I don't know if he was a junkie, but his generally cheery outlook couldn't convince me that he wasn't.
Great Post!
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I saw Dig again recently too - and couldn't agree more with contra.
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Strangely enough, like being attracted to someone who you know is bad for you, I found myself really getting drawn into it. I still think Anton Newcombe is a pompous asshole with a god complex, but I might have to agree with the people who loved his music but couldn't bare to work with or be around him.
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I was drawn in to it too... and I have always been of the mindset (when it comes to artists) that I really don't care about their personal lives, and even prefer not to hear about them - and just want to enjoy their artistic output - however they achieve their results. I really do think that it's a separate issue.
For example, there was a +lot of talk about Woody Allen hooking up with his adopted daughter ... just terrible from the human perspective, but I still was a fan of his movies... and would have preferred not hearing that news... some of the personal information can even taint the artistic experience. (so to speak)
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so i need to see Dig is that what you are telling me.
contraband- why did i have a feeling you would get in on this ? :) I think your " Heroin is a bitch goddess - she giveth but taketh away more than she ever gave. I look at it as an uneven equation 5 years of creativity to 30 years of mediocrity. Just look at some of the artists" comment is priceless and one for the history books
chet baker- what a sad story. have you ever heard of winning the darwin award? awarded from removing themselves from the Gene Pool? (like Terry Kath of Chicago).....anyway, it is mean but that sort of death seems to merit a darwin award for sure....
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Yes, see it. I had to just for the hype BJM was always getting. I didn't know if I could take all of Anton's posturing and talk of a "scene" at first, but the story becomes compelling evough to suck you in. Anton's a train wreck of creativity. Like many of the most creative people I know, he just spills out the music and songs, but can barely take care of himself. Why we are fascinated by people like this, a sometimes wonder, but I'm guilty of it as well.
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because there is an alluring flicker of genius, of epheremerality, of other-worthly-ness - that they know something we don't or don't want to admit about this plastic-glazed donut of a world- the critical element being the big whole inside- its the trainwrecks who almost combust in order to create. I feel like at least these ones are honest...
Lest I give Steve Jobs too much credit, I dig this quote
"Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do."
Or ofcourse Kerouac (this one is overquoted to the point of being rendered totally hypocritically morubund).
“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!”
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It also covers the Dandy Warhol's rise simultaneously and how Courtney Taylor and Anton are practically twins (in a lot of ways) and also bitter rivals. There's more train wreck than you can shake a stick at.
:)
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p.s. - those quotes are _awesome!
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What gets me though is that Anton and Courtney really don't seem like the brightest bulbs in the bunch. They are definitely the most creative, they just have a vision of the way things are supposed to be seen and heard. Outside of that they are the whiniest babies you've ever seen. My 2 year old doesn't throw temper tantrums as bad as Anton does.
I think it's that we are all in awe of this connection they have to the creative flow of things, and how they can make it seem like they create so effortlessly, but at the same time everything with them is right there, on the surface and exposed, you wanna be like Cher in Moonstruck
"Snap out of it!"
(smack)
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LOL!!! So true...
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dude i need to check this out. how have i lasted so out of the loop? as a Dandy fan to boot.
any other films to put on the summer reading list?
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Gotta dig out some tunes for comparison, but I will say I really loved the early JT stuff...nada after he came clean. Not sure what that says.
I love the way you put your post together Faith, highlighting your friend's viewpoint, expounding on it in such glorius detail, yet keeping at journalist armlength. Are you saving stuff like this in project files, or is this a new step for you? Very nicely written and fun to read! Thanks!!
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IP - this is one of those theories that have infested my toxic brain for some time. beautiful, poetic post -- and IMO, spot on.
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I'm not sure Garcia is a good choice for analyzing this theory. While he certainly ended-up a junkie, he and the band really started out with LSD aiding (?) their creativity, not H. (Interesting web site here advocating the same kind of position being speculated here about heroin for LSD).
As for hearing whether an artist is high or not, I think someone well versed in a player's nuances could tell if the player were under the influence or not in a lot of cases and situations.
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and yes, must agree with Scotfree; this was a fun read.
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thanks dutchie- hey i didn't pick the subject for the record- but my friend is a huge fan- but true- mixing drugs doesn't help the theory :) Just wait till my full thesis/book on the matter is out. Van said he'd help after all. :)
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I think you have to add lesser known artists to that list like Shannon Hoon and Bradley Nowell. Both artists used the drug to help with their song writing, and both artists died way before their time.
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Nick Drake was not on heroin. I believe he o.d.'d on prescription anti-depressants - accidentally or otherwise. By the way, if those slow, noodly solos by Garcia - during his downward death spiral - were a product of his heroin use, they're another example of why smack is bad for you. I'm no big fan, but (as waydutch says) it's common knowledge that drug use (specifically, psychedelics) informed Jerry's nimble, idiosyncratic style since the Dead's early days. When things became leaden with a change in the drug cocktail, his (and the band's) music became less interesting to me. Just 'cause you can hear the junk don't make it good...
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Garcia outlived several of his contemporaries maybe because he never lost interest in the stuff he loved, even though he did lose interest in actualizing his dreams.
Bob Dylan and Keith Richard keep on ticking, and Bill Burroughs lived a long life...
Iggy's doing ok, right?
Eric Clapton?
Not for everybody, but not everybody crashes and burns.
Dion did some great rock and roll singing on h, and Johnny Cash had his pills, Ray Charles of course...
Disney dabbled in psilopsybin or his staff did, while researching Los Tres Cabballeros (watch that toon if you've a mind to!)
Lewis Carroll, Conan Doyle, Freud, Robert Stevenson, Clark Ashton Smith, and the eternal Poe... what was he on?
Judy Garland had soul too.
Bela Lugosi's dead!
But if you can bend your mind just by listening to the heavies, kudos...
that beats banana peels and poppy seed muffins any day.
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The rock and roll lifestyle is said to be sex, drugs and rock and roll, right? It think drugs play a big part in a lot of artist’s music, but unless you are the artist and know when you on something, I don’t think you can unequivocally say, “that’s the part of the song where the drugs kicked in”. And because the drugs kicked in, that makes it a great song or performance?
Unless artists are high on something all the time, how do you explain any part of these great artist’s catalog’s of work where they weren’t under any influence while writing?
I personally would have rather have most of these artists here still making music today rather than have them gone so early. I can only think of one example right now of that being case- and that is Aerosmith.
When they were really heavy into the drugs and booze and just about to kill themselves from the use, their music was at it’s worst. Who knows what songs they did or didn’t write while on something at that time or before they got that bad, but the period known to be their worst time, was when they were heaviest into drugs and alcohol.
They caught themselves before it was too late, did something about their use and their output, sans a movie track or 2 not written by the group members, has not suffered, in my humble opinion. I’m glad to still have them around today. I’m hoping that Scott Weiland can follow their lead before we lose him way too early. I know he’s been trying- I pray he makes it. Next to go will probably be Amy Winehouse, sadly enough if she doesn't get back to rehab- she better start saying yes, yes, yes.
I think there’s an argument to made as to whether an artist is great, just because they poses that ability to be great. Most of these artists probably started playing or singing way before they got on any junk. They were probably destine for greatness by way of their natural talent- not any drugs or alcohol.
Do we think Eddie Van Halen only became a great guitarist once he started using and boozing? I’ll bet he was a natural talent way before that and that the drugs and booze actually helped lead to the demise of a very promising rock band.
There’s something else to look at. What about all the great bands that are no more, because of the riffs and problems dugs and booze caused? In total, I think the cons far outweigh the pros.
Great debate starter, Indie. My son just turned 21 and now he can drink. His fiends took him out to indoctrinate him in the art of drinking. And now, because he apparently can hold a lot of liquor, he has been given the nickname “The Tank” Just what a parent wants to hear, right?
He has a good head on his shoulders, so the one caution I gave him, was this: Whatever we put in our bodies, either does us good or does us harm. We may not think so at the time, but if we ingest or absorb substances that are not intended to be there, we risk the chance of paying for it one way or the other. I think he got the message- time will tell.
Sorry for such a long comment.
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All I have to say is this... Aerosmith was way better on drugs than off.
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In some interview a coupla decades back Keith made the comment that he would never have come up with those riffs if he wasn't on smack. On the downside, the '76 tour - when half the band was very smacked up - was one of the worst things I've ever suffered through. I think a key point is that you have to be talented to start with - a mediocre talent on smack is still mediocre. And we should probably recognise that there's inevitably a few other drugs in the bloodstream as well. Coming back to the human riff that is Mr. Richards, add pot and alcohol as a given, and probably some coke as well.
I like your out of balance equation - but the good part too soon gets overtaken. A woman I once knew said that the "game" is to dabble on the edge of addiction; the problem is you're past the edge before you realise that you're addicted. Personally, I think it's a cancer of a drug and cocaine is even worse. Just listen to the number of records from the early 70s and early 80s that sound over-bright and trebly because everyone concerned is totally numbed out.
Personally, the best drug record ever is Sly & The Family Stone 'There's A Riot Going On'. It's not just from another planet, it's from another universe. The amazing thing is that through the impenetrable fog of drugs Sly had a vision he was working to.
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