Songs about drugs(list)
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In this guide, we are going to discuss the songs about drugs and why their singers decide to write those lyrics.
Songs about drugs
Music is one of the most used means of expression by people around the world. Dozens of artists compose thousands of lyrics every day so that their message can be heard.
Some songs express all kinds of situations such as wars, changes, illnesses and sentimental situations. People enjoy listening to songs with which they can feel identified.
Artists have also used musical lyrics to express the internal struggles they have been dealing with their lives. Death, illness, problems with alcohol and drugs can be heard in their songs. Songs about drugs are usually very common.
It is normal for artists to write songs about drugs. Many have had a tough battle against addictions to different types of substances or have experienced the death of a loved one due to drug addiction. Also in the lyrics, you can hear how they express the suffering that a person goes through when under the influence of drugs.
Songs about drugs also fulfil a social function. They are intended to raise awareness and that people otherwise understand the dangers of using drugs in an excessive manner and without any medical prescription.
Drugs have killed many people. People who listen to these songs can identify with some situation in the past with the drugs they have had.
These songs about drugs represent the pain, the harsh reality and the sadness of those who consume and become addicted to drugs. No person wants to be addicted but once it is submerged in this world, it is difficult by itself that it can leave.
What is a drug?
According to Wikipedia, a drug is a substance that causes a change in the physiology or psychology of an organism that is consumed. Drugs generally distinguish themselves from foods and substances that provide nutritional support. There are various forms of drug use such as inhalation, smoking, injection, absorption through a skin patch or dissolution under the tongue.
Psychoactive drugs are substances that affect the function of the central nervous system, where perception, mood and consciousness are altered. Several studies have proven the efficacy of some of these drugs in the treatment of a wide range of medical diseases, including mental disorders around the world. For a person to receive a drug for treatment for a disease, it must be provided by their doctor. When the person consumes it excessively and if no prescription, it is possible that he is using illegal drugs.
Most famous songs about drugs
I Don’t Like the Drugs (But The Drugs Like Me) – Marilyn Manson
Within this list of songs about drugs is the controversial song by artist Marilyn Manson. This song belongs to many of the controversies that the artist has written for years. The song had good and not so good acceptances since some considered that the song invited drug use while others considered it to be anti-drug.
The artist said that the song is not about the use of drugs, since it has always advocated legalization, but not abusive use. When the artist talks about drugs here he talks about television and religion like those dangerous drugs. In this case, anything that causes addiction can be seen as a drug and a person who is obsessively exposed to watching television or clinging to certain religious norms without any conscience can be under the influence as well as as an opiate. Some of the paragraphs in the song say:
Norm life baby
“We’re quitters and we’re sober
Our confessions will be televised”
You and I are under dosed and we’re ready to fall
Raised to be stupid, taught to be nothing at all
I don’t like the drugs but the drugs like me
I don’t like the drugs, the drugs the drugs
Save Me – Shinedown
Another of the songs that are part of the list of songs about drugs is Save Me by Shinedown. The song expresses in its lyrics when a person reaches the lowest point and is desperate for help. The song expresses the pain of being consumed by addiction, of how a person loses everything due to drug use.
People, when they are addicted, can see themselves at a point where they no longer know what to do with their lives and often contemplate suicide as a solution to end everything. They feel they can’t get out of this addiction. One of the paragraphs of the song says:
How did I get here
And what went wrong
Couldn’t handle forgiveness
Now I’m far beyond gone
And I can hardly remember
The look of my own eyes
How could I love this,
My life so dishonest
It made me compromise
Not An Addict by K’s Choice
This song by K’s, Not An Addict, is another one in the list of songs about drugs. The song speaks of someone who is immersed in the world of drugs and their denial. He is an addict but does not recognize it.
A person who is under the influence of the drug will often deny that this is a problem and will justify it with how good it feels. It is normal for the addict to deny his condition, as expressed in the following paragraph of the song:
It’s not a habit, it’s cool, I feel alive
If you don’t have it you’re on the other side
I’m not an addict, maybe that’s a lie
Walk A Little Straighter – Billy Currington
This is another song about drugs that is part of this list. Walk A Little Straighter tells the story of a boy who saw the daily life of his alcoholic father. In the end, he looks like the child, already an adult tries not to go the same way his father was.
It is a situation for a child to grow up in a home with one of the parents being alcoholics, this may increase the risk that the child can become an alcoholic future. Many people when they grow up in a home where there is alcoholism strive not to repeat the same patterns and that is what this guy does in the video. Some of the paragraphs say the following:
The old man’s still like he always was,
But I love him anyway.
If I’ve learned one thing from him,
It’s my kids will never have to say:
“Walk a little straighter, Daddy,
You’re swayin’, side to side.
Your footsteps make me dizzy,
And no matter how I try,
I keep trippin’ an’ stumblin’.
If you’d look down here, you’d see:
Walk a little straighter, Daddy,
You’re leading me.”
White Rabbit – Jefferson Airplane
A song considered controversial within the songs about drugs is this, White Rabbit. The song describes the parallels between Alice and Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll, with the effects of LSD. The edge expresses that this is a way to show parents that we had to be tolerant of drugs, since they help, among other things to improve the vision we have of the world and reality, making us see things that otherwise do not we would see or not understand. Also, during the 1960s, drug use was a requirement for group membership: for example, one of the rituals with which someone became accepted as a hippie was to experiment with LSD.
While it is true that looking at drugs from this perspective, where the person can see the world from another reality, thoughts should not be formed when a person is under the influence of some kind of substance. Some of the paragraphs in the song say:
One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you, don’t do anything at all
Go ask Alice, when she’s ten feet tall
And if you go chasing rabbits, and you know you’re going to fall
Tell ’em a hookah-smoking caterpillar has given you the call
Purple Pills – D12
This could be considered as one of the most explicit songs about drugs. It is so explicit that to go to the media the title was changed by Purple Hills and modified its music video. The song talks about the different types of drugs and how they were used recreationally. It was considered one of the most listened to songs of a rap group of the decade. Some of the paragraphs in the song say:
Cool, calm, just like my mom
With a couple of Valium inside her palm
It’s Mr. Mischief with a trick up his sleeve
Roll up on you like Christopher Reeves
I can’t describe the vibe I get
When I drive by six people and five I hit (whoops)
Aw shit, I started a mosh pit
Squashed a bitch and stomped her foster kids (ah!)
These shrooms make me hallucinate
Then I sweat ’til I start losin’ weight
‘Til I see dumb shit start happenin’
Dumber than Vanilla Ice tryna rap again (oh)
So bounce, bounce, come on bounce
I said come on, bounce!
Everybody in the house with a half an ounce (me!)
Not weed, I meant coke, dumb-ass sit down
We don’t do rubbish, better ask around
D12 throws the bombest bash in town
Bizarre, your mom is passin’ out
Get her ass on the couch ‘fore she crashes out (come on)
someone help Denaun
He’s upstairs naked with an armament drawn
Hey Von you see me steppin’ on these leprechauns?
It gotta be acid ’cause the X is gone
Yeah, I took ’em all, dog, with some parmesan
And I think my arm is gone
Naw, it’s probably numb
Young, dumb, and full of
And I think he ’bout to swallow his tongue
Scary ass it was a false alarm
You think I’m ’bout to die when I just got on?
Well, stop actin’ stupid
You so high that you might wake up with a guy on some new shit (ew)
Yeah, I think I did too much (uh-huh)
This substance equals cups (uh-huh)
Red pills, blue pills, and green
Big pills (that’s ill), mescaline!
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FAQs about songs about drugs
What are the most common drugs?
Some of the commonly used drugs are cocaine, ecstasy, cannabis, amphetamines, LSD, magic mushrooms and crack cocaine.
What are illegal drugs?
Cocaine, amphetamines and methamphetamines are some of the most commonly used illegal drugs.
What damage can drugs cause to the brain?
Drugs can cause damage at the neurological level. These drugs produce euphoric effects. Some can cause toxic damage that goes directly to the brain.
What are the most addictive drugs?
Some of the most addictive are cocaine, nicotine and barbiturates.
How can a person stop being addicted to drugs?
For a person to quit drug addiction it will need professional help. Psychotherapeutic treatments in combination with pharmacological can help the person to stop addictions.
Conclusion
The songs about drugs mentioned in this article are intended to raise awareness about the problems that illegal and excessive use of certain substances has. Some people can generate addiction to prescribed medications so they should be careful with their consumption. It is known the irreversible and fatal damages that drugs can cause, so it is important to think well before ingesting any substance that is not known or that is known to cause damage to the person’s health.
Recommended links
- Waiting For The Man: The Story of Drugs and Popular Music
- Narcocorrido: A Journey Into the Music of Drugs, Guns and Guerrillas
- Music Love Drugs War
References
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