Drug songs in disguise

[Charlie]

The Lee Hazlewood thread in the obituary has uncovered his song for Nancy Sinatra, Sugar Town, as a coded drug song, about LSD.

Others in the list:

Golden Brown, the Stranglers (heroin)
Up on the Roof, Goffin & King for the Drifters (marijuana)
Cloud Nice, Whitfield & Strong for the Temptations (ditto)
Walk on Gilded Splinters, Dr John (your guess is as good as mine)

setting songs about alcohol to one side for the moment, give us some more

[c hristian]

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds? i keep foregetting where they last stand on that. the lucy in the sky title was not originally about drugs, but then the whole thing later became about drugs. i don remember. they keep going back and forth on that one, I think, depending on what order I read reports on it, maybe. Gets to be that I´ seeing things!

Puff the Magic Dragon ... (i clearly an amature when it comes remembering drug references. )

[Dayna]

Go Ask Alice--Jefferson Airplane

[c hristian]

that's white rabbit. great song.

[Dayna]

OK Thanks. White Rabbit

[NormanD]

Harry "The Hipster" Gibson: "Who Put The Benzedrine In Mrs Murphy's Ovaltine?" OK, it's not at all coded, but it gives me a laugh.

There were a lot of earlier songs that were not at all hidden in their meaning or intent, but just celebratory. "Muggles" by Louis Armstrong is a jazz instrumental, and has absolutely nothing to do with Harry Potter, who never, of course, went near the demon weed.

A few other coded ones, from the top of my head (ho ho):
"Dream Tobacco" by Max Wall (marijuana)
"Sugar Man" by Bob (as he was for five minutes) Darin (heroin?)
"Eight Miles High" by The Byrds (whatever)
"Euphoria" by The Holy Modal Rounders (whatever)
"Minnie The Moocher" by Cab Calloway (opium)
"Red Balloon" by Tim Hardin ("Bought myself a red balloon/Got a blue surprise/Hidden in the red balloon/Was a pinning of my eyes") (heroin)
"The Teddy Bears' Picnic" by Henry Hall & His Dance Orchestra (C'mon - it must be!)

Any song that includes the name Mary Jane (marijuana)

Norman

[Hugh Weldon]

Lindisfarne's 'Meet Me on the Corner' (about a drug dealer)
Merle Haggard's 'White Line Fever' was a truck driver song, but I'm not so sure about Tom Robinson Band's 'Motorway' ("3 5 7 9 on a double white line")
Almost any song with 'candy','honey','sugar' in the lyrics or title - when it's not about sex - is suspect in this regard.

[nikki akinjinmi]

Wacky Dust - is this a contender? I have a version by the Manhattan Transfer. I am sure others have recorded it too.

They call it wacky dust
It's from a hot cornet
It gives your feet a feeling so breezy
And oh, it's so easy to get

They call it wacky dust
It brings a dancing jag
And once it starts, then only a
Sap'll refuse to Big Apple or Shag

Oh I don't know just why
It gets you so high
Putting a buzz in you heart
You'll do a marathon
You'll wanna go on
Kickin' the ceilin' apart

They call it wacky dust
It's something you can't trust
And in the end the rhythm will stop
When it does, then you'll drop
From happy wacky dust...

[Des]

Stones: Mother's Little Helper -

Mother needs something today to calm her down
And though she's not really ill
There's a little yellow pill
She goes running for the shelter of a mother's little helper
And it helps her on her way, gets her through her busy day

[NormanD]

Wacky Dust - is this a contender? I have a version by the Manhattan Transfer. I am sure others have recorded it too.

I've got this in a version by The Chick Webb Orch, with Ella Fitzgerald sweetly "singing Madame Cocaine's praises", as the sleeve notes put it. Funnily enough, it's the track before the Harry The Hipster Gibson track, on the same LP, I mentioned above. Album is on the Stash label, no less.

norman

[nikki akinjinmi]

Wacky Dust - is this a contender? I have a version by the Manhattan Transfer. I am sure others have recorded it too.

I've got this in a version by The Chick Webb Orch, with Ella Fitzgerald sweetly "singing Madame Cocaine's praises", as the sleeve notes put it. Funnily enough, it's the track before the Harry The Hipster Gibson track, on the same LP, I mentioned above. Album is on the Stash label, no less.

norman

...the Stash label? If I didn't know you any better I would've said you're making this part up, Norman.

[garth cartwright]

Heroin: Johnny thunders and Alice In Chains spent a lot of their oeuvre celebrating/condmening addiciton. Appropriately, both Johnny and the singer from AIC died from their addictions. Best tunes - Chinese Rocks (Heatbreakers), Junkhead (AIC). James Brown's King Heroin remains a masterpiece. Wonder if JB ever thought of penning an ode to Angel Dust?

Marijuana: there's so many reggae songs where do you start? Peter Tosh's Legalise It rides a huge rolling rhythm and remains an entertaining polemic. I love PT's voice and the way he drawls "judges smoke it". Cypress Hill dominated their albums with weed songs - Hits From The Bong being a classic of sorts.

Cocaine: White Lines (Don't Do It) by Melle Mel was an early rap classic with a lyric that admonished while the rhythm featured snorts on the beat! The recent Clipse album Hell Hath No Fury details crack dealing as do rhymes by Ghostface Killah, 50 Cent and many others.

[garth cartwright]

Doh! I just realised this is supposed to be "drug songs in disguise"! Sorry! wipe my very undisguised post.

[Adam Blake]

Makes me chuckle to think that while people were earnestly arguing over whether or not "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" was about LSD, it's author John Lennon was writing lines like:
"I need a fix cos I'm going down
Down to the bits that I left uptown"
To say nothing of "Cold Turkey" which is one of the nastiest singles to ever get in the charts. About as subtle as a flying mallet. In America it was banned for glorifying drugs. Yeah, right on, Uncle Sam! Must have been the same guy who chose "Space Oddity" as a soundtrack for the Moon launch...

[Dayna]

Artist: Guess Who



She's come undone
She didn't know what she was headed for
And when I found what she was headed for
It was too late

She's come undone
She found a mountain that was far too high
And when she found out she couldn't fly
It was too late

It's too late
She's gone too far
She's lost herself

She's come undone
She wanted truth but all she got was lies
Came the time to realize
And it was too late

She's come undone
She didn't know what she was headed for
And when I found what she was headed for
Mama, it was too late

It's too late
She's gone too far
She's lost herself

She's come undone
Na, na na na na na na
Too many mountains
And not enough stairs to climb
Too many churches
And not enough truth
Too many people
And not enough eyes to see
Too many lives to lead
And not enough time

It's too late
She's gone too far
She's lost herself

She's come undone
Doh doh doh doh ....
It's too late
She's gone too far
She's lost herself

She's come undone
She didn't know what she was headed for
And when I found what she was headed for
It was too late

She's come undone
She found a mountain that was far too high
And when she found out she couldn't fly
Mama, it was too late
It's too late
She's gone too far
She's lost herself

She's come undone
Doh doh doh doh doh doh doh doh
Doh doh doh

I think this is about drugs, isn't it?
I think this is a great 60s drug song.