Have drugs ever enhanced your creativity as a songwriter or player ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter grimtraveller
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Maybe some of you just aren't doing it right. It takes practice, just like any other craft.
 
Whatever our individual opinions about the value/risk of drugs and/or alcohol, I'd like to think we can all agree that we've lost some amazingly talented people to drugs/alcohol at much too young an age. I would love to hear what their body of work would have been had they not crashed and burned.

I personally have known and worked with far too many talented musicians who allowed drugs and alcohol to compromise whatt should have been outstanding musical careers and in the process ruin not only their lives, but cause significant damage to the lives of family, friends and oft times innocent strangers - and to often, ended lives.. I allowed alcohol to compromise my professional musical career and compromise a few semi professional gigs after I came off the road. While I avoided the dance of death with the real hard drugs (I tested the waters often - but never was "hooked") alcohol nearly ruined my life. I smoked pot everyday for close to 3 decades (long after I stopped drinking). It did not improve my life, but at the time at least I didn't care. Many may think drugs/alcohol makes them better, funnier, more creative, etc. but I suspect in most cases, that is simply the magic of the material (it makes us think we are better - or at least allows us to accept when we aren't).

I can't help but wonder why so many who were addicted (Clapton being simply one example) worked hard to get straight - there must be a reason - perhaps because they knew it was negatively impacting their lives and their art.

We all have to draw our own conclusions - but as one who indulged at a level of excess that most would consider pure insanity - and came out the other end only slightly worse for wear - I can conclude drugs/alcohol di not improve my writing, playing or living.
 
Xdrummer said:
....but as one who indulged at a level of excess that most would consider pure insanity - and came out the other end only slightly worse for wear - I can conclude drugs/alcohol di not improve my writing, playing or living.
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The problem isn't the drink or the toke or the snort or whatever.....the problem is the excess, and some people can't help but do those things in excess. You were lucky that you came out of it without a lot of wear, some are not.
Of course, some habits just pull you in and make you lose control until they are done in silly excess.
One drink at a party can loosen you up, and make you enjoy the atmosphere....being stupid drunk on the floor in the corner of the room is something totally different.

AFA those artists who died because of the excess use of their chosen habit....it's hard to say how their art would have turned out had they been totally straight.
Not saying that you need to be way buzzed to make good art, just saying that for some of those people, their art actually was a product of their inner demons, and the drugs/alcohol fueled it.
They may still be alive today without that, but it's hard to say if their art would have automatically flourished more.
 
David Crosby said when he went to prison for drugs, they gave him the harsh treatment, let him figure it out in jail, no hospital mercy etc

And when he got clean, he wrote more songs and wrote a book, while in prison to which he said "so much for the drugs enhance creativity theory"
 
dainbramage said:
You believe those "I was only going to try it once" ads you probably have in the US like we do over here? I know many people who have done meth, coke and heroin and none of them have become junkies. They live healthy lives, full time employed and all that. You don't hear about those people in the news you know. They're not even part of statistics because almost nobody knows about it. How could they? I am sure nobody in their wildest dreams would imagine some of the people who do hard drugs actually do hard drugs from time to time. Addiction is so much more than just the chemical/plant itself.

Bottom line is most people who use hard drugs will never become addicts. If, hypothetically speaking, every person who had used hard drugs suddenly turned blue, people would be shocked.
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This is just as true as how you only hear about problems with software or interface from those who have the problems. Those without the issues, you don't hear about so much. The problem lies with the individual persons wiring. OS or brain, it is not a matter of the shit they upload that is the issue. It is how they are able to use it with what they have.

I have had many an experience with many a male-ware and and used just about every type of drug in my time here. I once did a clean install of my life, and since then, my brain works just fine. My nose runs less and I seem to have a bunch of memory that I did not have access to previously. Is that irony?

:D
 
What about Sir Paul. Professed pot head. I liked a lot of his stuff. (I can't do it, but...)
 
jigfresh said:
Wow guy, did I ever say I was a rock god, or that I thought doing drugs was the road to becoming a great musician? I simply pointed out that there are people in this world who have been heavy drug users and have had their art elevated by the substances they chose to use. No one is advocating drug use. And no one is saying junkies are good at anything. What are you reading?

Nearly everyone would agree that drugs are in varying levels harmful to ones body. But why all the morality associated with this question? I guess to some drugs are from the devil. Just like foosball. :)

And I don't understand all the hostility and name calling. Halfassed fucking hippies? Frat pussies?
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There's no morality. My post wasn't really directed at you specifically, I just used yours to quote and to make my points. I don't like drug users. I don't like being around them. I don't like playing with them. I don't like it when people use them as a crutch. I don't like it when people use music as an excuse to get fucked up. Having been around that type of behavior for way too long in my kind of music scene, that shit gets old. Really old. I know I'm the odd man out, but hat's just how I feel about it. If you don't like it, I don't care.

dainbramage said:
You believe those "I was only going to try it once" ads you probably have in the US like we do over here? I know many people who have done meth, coke and heroin and none of them have become junkies. They live healthy lives, full time employed and all that. You don't hear about those people in the news you know. They're not even part of statistics because almost nobody knows about it. How could they? I am sure nobody in their wildest dreams would imagine some of the people who do hard drugs actually do hard drugs from time to time. Addiction is so much more than just the chemical/plant itself.

Bottom line is most people who use hard drugs will never become addicts. If, hypothetically speaking, every person who had used hard drugs suddenly turned blue, people would be shocked.
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Don't assume that I'm some puritan living under a rock. Don't say stupid things like I must believe TV ads. I know not every drug user turns into a useless junkie and not every drunk driver kills a family of 4. No shit. But you're wrong about one thing - the real hard drugs aren't recreational drugs. People that do stuff like coke and heroin and meth don't just do it once every third saturday. They do it regularly. No one shoots up heroin every now and then because it's fun. I'm not trying to stop you from doing whatever you want to do, so don't try to stop me from thinking you're a dumbass when you do it. You go get fucked up, I'll think you're a fuck up, and we'll both be happy.
 
If you listen to Dark Side of the Moon backwards on mescaline, a UFO will land on the roof of your house.
 
Greg_L said:
Don't assume that I'm some puritan living under a rock. Don't say stupid things like I must believe TV ads. I know not every drug user turns into a useless junkie and not every drunk driver kills a family of 4. No shit. But you're wrong about one thing - the real hard drugs aren't recreational drugs. People that do stuff like coke and heroin and meth don't just do it once every third saturday. They do it regularly. No one shoots up heroin every now and then because it's fun. I'm not trying to stop you from doing whatever you want to do, so don't try to stop me from thinking you're a dumbass when you do it. You go get fucked up, I'll think you're a fuck up, and we'll both be happy.
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You're wrong. There are a lot of people who use heroin, coke and meth for recreation. I know this from first hand experience. I don't ever do drugs anymore, haven't done any in years, so you will not see me get fucked up. But you just gotta take my word for it, a lot of people use those real hard drugs for fun every once in a while. You just don't see them lying around in the streets because they do it in their homes.
 
dainbramage said:
You're wrong. There are a lot of people who use heroin, coke and meth for recreation. I know this from first hand experience. I don't ever do drugs anymore, haven't done any in years, so you will not see me get fucked up. But you just gotta take my word for it, a lot of people use those real hard drugs for fun every once in a while. You just don't see them lying around in the streets because they do it in their homes.
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I'm not wrong, and I'm calling you a liar. There are not a lot of people that use those drugs for recreation. You're just trying to argue with me. Save it. I simply don't believe anything you say and don't know you well enough to give you the benefit of the doubt. sorry, that's just how it is. Now go smoke a bowl and save the whales.
 
Greg_L said:
I'm not wrong, and I'm calling you a liar. There are not a lot of people that use those drugs for recreation. You're just trying to argue with me. Save it. I simply don't believe anything you say and don't know you well enough to give you the benefit of the doubt. sorry, that's just how it is. Now go smoke a bowl and save the whales.
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Lol. Whatever man. There is nothing I can do to convince you if you don't believe me. Right, I'm off to butcher some whales now.
 
I do want all drugs legalized though in the US. I think it's stupid that alcohol is legal but other drugs aren't. While I don't like being around pot heads or tweakers, they're more tolerable than drunks. I'll take a room full of junkies nodding off any day over a room full of drunks.
 
Greg_L said:
I do want all drugs legalized though in the US. I think it's stupid that alcohol is legal but other drugs aren't. While I don't like being around pot heads or tweakers, they're more tolerable than drunks. I'll take a room full of junkies nodding off any day over a room full of drunks.
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Amen to that!!!!
 
Back in the day (70's) we took drugs for one reason and one reason only ..... we enjoyed them.
No one was trying to self medicate themselves nor would anyone have even conceived of such a concept.
It's hard to grasp nowadays but back then there was a certain innocence about the whole thing.
And drinking was a part of Louisiana culture .... you almost had to drink.

Now, I'm drawing the line at needles ....... even then we thought of injecting as getting a bit too hardcore but everything else was just a part of the social scene at the time and it was indeed fun.
And you might get a gram every few weeks for a 'big' weekend and not get anymore for a while.

It was only later that we noticed friends dying and that we had gone to a gram a day habit and were having a hard time quitting.

I don't really rank 'erb alongside drugs like coke though, which is an insidious drug that will suck up your money and leave you with little except memories of a lot of great sex!
:laughings:
 
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