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Do drugs make better music?

Do drugs make better music?

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The old "legalisation" versus "Criminalisation" has been debated to hangover, so let's look at it from a different point of view.

The title should read: Do people using various drugs create better art than people who don't use drugs?
Which is obviously too long for a proper title.

Let me use modern music as an example.
Nearly every great album was written under influence of at least alcohol and marijuana. And quite a lot of the greatest albums were influenced by LSD, coke or heroin.
From Dylan to Hendrix, from Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds to Love will tear us apart...
If drugs aren't dripping from the titles or the psychedelic artwork, then more often than not you can hear them in lyrics and interviews. From Tom Petty to The Stone Roses, from The 59th bridge street song to The drugs don't work...

And to make the case even stronger, what about bands that don't take drugs? Bands like "The Irish pipe band", "Gaia Epicus" and "New kids on the block"...

It would seem to me that music is inspired by people who use more drugs than an average touring funk band (thanks Bill), are smasheder out than Timothy Leary on a bender and as sober as Lou Reed in 1967.

What do you all think?
And do you think that considering the very obvious conclusions, that there is a case for allowing artists to use drugs, because they're then generally better?

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Originally posted by shavixmir
The old "legalisation" versus "Criminalisation" has been debated to hangover, so let's look at it from a different point of view.

The title should read: Do people using various drugs create better art than people who don't use drugs?
Which is obviously too long for a proper title.

Let me use modern music as an example.
Nearly every great album w ...[text shortened]... a case for allowing artists to use drugs, because they're then generally better?
Do yóu make better music while on drugs ?

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Originally posted by shavixmir
The old "legalisation" versus "Criminalisation" has been debated to hangover, so let's look at it from a different point of view.

The title should read: Do people using various drugs create better art than people who don't use drugs?
Which is obviously too long for a proper title.

Let me use modern music as an example.
Nearly every great album w ...[text shortened]... a case for allowing artists to use drugs, because they're then generally better?
"New Kids on the Block"?

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Originally posted by ivanhoe
Do yóu make better music while on drugs ?
I'm not sure.
I do know I get better ideas for songs and articles when using marijuana though.

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Originally posted by slimjim
"New Kids on the Block"?
Popular band man... Well.. used to be.

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Originally posted by shavixmir
The old "legalisation" versus "Criminalisation" has been debated to hangover, so let's look at it from a different point of view.

The title should read: Do people using various drugs create better art than people who don't use drugs?
Which is obviously too long for a proper title.

Let me use modern music as an example.
Nearly every great album w ...[text shortened]... a case for allowing artists to use drugs, because they're then generally better?
Are you telling me Tom Waites is on drugs?

G.

1 edit
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Originally posted by smw6869
Are you telling me Tom Waites is on drugs?

G.
When it gets too hot for comfort
And you can't get ice cream cones
T'ain't no sin
To take off your skin
And dance around in your bones


Nah.
I'd say he was clean.

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I think its just an illusion... I hate the modern influenced music, but then again I dont do drugs, so Im always up to par with my senses.

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I think it depends on the individual musician/artist. Frank Zappa supposedly never used drugs, and managed to be a very prolific artist. I often think that the role of drugs in art is usually overstated- after all, there an artist behind the creation, not a drug- even if the artist was under the influence of something- it still requires a human being back there pulling all the levers and pushing the buttons.

artists are generally of an experimental temperment, given to lusts for experiences- and drugs are an easy way to look at a mundane situation in a whole new light, so I think it's natural that artists would be drawn to playing fast and loose with brain chemistry- and if that new perspective grants an insight that can be translated into a creation- great- but it's still not necessary- many artists have gotten the same inspiration from staring at a brick wall.

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Originally posted by Darth Sponge
Frank Zappa supposedly never used drugs,
"I'm not going to be Bill Clinton and say I never inhaled. I did inhale. I liked tobacco a lot better."

- Frank Zappa -

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cannabis

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Originally posted by smw6869
Are you telling me Tom Waites is on drugs?

G.
I wouldn't know if he used it or not.
I do know he used to be a heavy drinker.

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Originally posted by shavixmir
"I'm not going to be Bill Clinton and say I never inhaled. I did inhale. I liked tobacco a lot better."

- Frank Zappa -

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cannabis
okay, I saw him on some interview when he said he didn't use drugs- and I wondered if he never even tried them, so this is more palatable to my sense of reality... thanks.

1 edit
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Originally posted by shavixmir
I'm not sure.
I do know I get better ideas for songs and articles when using marijuana though.
Ideas aren't enough ..... you need technique to give them the appropiate shape and thus realise them.

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Originally posted by ivanhoe
Ideas aren't enough ..... you need technique to give them the appropiate shape and thus realise them.
Yes... are you saying Jimi Hendrix's technique was inhibited by his LSD use?

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Originally posted by Darth Sponge
..... many artists have gotten the same inspiration from staring at a brick wall.[/b]
.... and many even bounced their heads against it ...... 😛