Do drugs ever make an artist better?

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Give an example of an artist better off post unhinging

― girl scout heroin (iamamonkey), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 11:54 (twenty-three years ago)

Roky erickson to thread!

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 11:58 (twenty-three years ago)

Bowie.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 11:59 (twenty-three years ago)

Their Satanic Majesties Request to thread!

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 11:59 (twenty-three years ago)

Has Richard Ashcroft definitely been taking less drugs since 1995? If so, him.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 12:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Bowie pre-coke = spoilt hippie warblings

Bowie on coke = a horrid gaze into a void at the heart of rock and soul.

Bowie off coke = non-commital buttrock and quarter-hearted experiments.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 12:01 (twenty-three years ago)

Bowie solves the thread completely!

― girl scout heroin (iamamonkey), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 12:02 (twenty-three years ago)

VU, Stooges... alright, so one stooges got pneumonia and iggy was this close to losing it, but they had their time.

― matthew james (matthew james), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 12:04 (twenty-three years ago)

Tom = correct. Bowie. I genuinely cannot think of anyone else though. There must be someone?

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 12:06 (twenty-three years ago)

Paul McCartney!

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 12:07 (twenty-three years ago)

Brian and Dennis Wilson, obv. The way Mike Love bemoans the influence of acid on Brian's music in the Endless Harmony film is surely testament to that, even if the music isn't. Which I think it is.

― Mr Binturong (Mr Binturong), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 12:12 (twenty-three years ago)

butthole surfers.
and then they burnt out...

― eedd Rooney's Office, Wednesday, 19 March 2003 12:48 (twenty-three years ago)

Spacemen 3

― flowersdie (flowersdie), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 14:07 (twenty-three years ago)

Well Brian Wilson's pre-drug music was also great, just in a different way, so it doesn't really count.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 14:08 (twenty-three years ago)

Bob Dylan.

― James Ball (James Ball), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 14:15 (twenty-three years ago)

Me!

― matt riedl (veal), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 14:20 (twenty-three years ago)

Him!

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 14:20 (twenty-three years ago)

Lynskey!

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 14:30 (twenty-three years ago)

Marianne Faithfull post her 70s binge is far superior to 60's Marianne

― H (Heruy), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 14:31 (twenty-three years ago)

bah. didn't comprehend the q.

can't think of anyone.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 14:32 (twenty-three years ago)

Charlie Parker...recordings he made when he was "straight" were just absurdly flat and lifeless compared to his gigantic-headless-whooping-cranes-on-meth usual sound.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 14:34 (twenty-three years ago)

Dr John was pretty good on drugs... Charlie Parker was great even when strung out but it didn't exactly do him any good... i don't think they make artists better but some can certainly maintain on them... humble opinion, though, acid categorically results is crap music... also worth investigating - has coke ever made an A&R man better at his job?

― Dave Stelfox, Wednesday, 19 March 2003 14:37 (twenty-three years ago)

It might give him a negotiating edge if he deals it too.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 14:38 (twenty-three years ago)

Lady Day

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 14:39 (twenty-three years ago)

'Well Brian Wilson's pre-drug music was also great, just in a different way, so it doesn't really count.'

True, Tom, but Dennis Wilson's wasn't.

― Mr Binturong (Mr Binturong), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 14:41 (twenty-three years ago)

Nick Cave's post-heroin stuff hasn't been up to par, but that could just be old age, and the rigors of raising two sons who were born TEN days to two different mothers.

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 15:11 (twenty-three years ago)

Oops, that should be "ten days APART".

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 15:11 (twenty-three years ago)

Dennis Wilson proves artists should stay away from that dangerous H2O shit

― dave q, Wednesday, 19 March 2003 15:13 (twenty-three years ago)

Love - "Forever Changes" is evidence of this.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 15:14 (twenty-three years ago)

suede! dog man star era. post skag brett's a dull man. probably got a diet called zen.

― matthew james (matthew james), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 17:05 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't know for a fact, but I'm sure that penicillin has made many the rockstar better. Roadies too. Cuz rockstars get the applause, but the roadie gets the clap, or something like that.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 17:55 (twenty-three years ago)

since i don't have much first hand experience with the cocaine, can anyone explain to me what sort of music it would produce?

― JasonD (JasonD), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 18:25 (twenty-three years ago)

anything fast where the singer talks earnestly and non-stop about trivial issues

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 18:28 (twenty-three years ago)

Jerry Garcia TS: acid vs insulin

― dave q, Wednesday, 19 March 2003 19:06 (twenty-three years ago)

Cocaine produced David Werners 2nd album

― girl scout heroin (iamamonkey), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 19:14 (twenty-three years ago)

Early Funkadelic/Parliament...although I guess it didn't ultimately help poor Eddie Hazel any.

― Neudonym, Wednesday, 19 March 2003 19:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Ingesting drugs did Hazel no harm, but ingesting the flesh of an air stewardess sure did!

― dave q, Wednesday, 19 March 2003 19:22 (twenty-three years ago)

Julian Cope -- Fried, etc, etc.

― christoff (christoff), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 19:23 (twenty-three years ago)

Cocaine itself may not actually PRODUCE any music, either good or bad (though it lends itself well to flailing and repitition - false energy, uselessly increased attention span). What it DOES is impairs one's judgement regarding whether or not you're playing it well (i.e. you're bad when you think you're good, or vice versa). It's a very poor insight drug.

― matt riedl (veal), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 20:57 (twenty-three years ago)

isn't that its whole attraction, it completely distorts yr sense of self?

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 20:59 (twenty-three years ago)

Depeche Mode?

― dog latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 21:05 (twenty-three years ago)

matt, could the same thing be said re:ganja? I've heard many times people say "you gotta be stoned when you listen to that" or some such thing...that must mean the music is only 'good' when seen through a ganja haze and therefore isn't really good at all...right?

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 21:07 (twenty-three years ago)

not entirely true oops, since it is "good music to listen to while stoned" and no music is good in every situation

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 21:31 (twenty-three years ago)

good point, oops

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 21:32 (twenty-three years ago)

oops, you having your one personal three-way? ...and do you got music for it?

― christoff (christoff), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 21:39 (twenty-three years ago)

that's own personal three-way.

― christoff (christoff), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 22:03 (twenty-three years ago)

whew! for a minute, I thought I was only entitled to one personal three way.

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 22:10 (twenty-three years ago)

Stone temple pilots were almost tolerable when all the junk turned the singer into Bowie

― girl scout heroin (iamamonkey), Thursday, 20 March 2003 05:27 (twenty-three years ago)

since i don't have much first hand experience with the cocaine, can anyone explain to me what sort of music it would produce?

The Eagles' The Long Run

― Chris Barrus (xibalba), Thursday, 20 March 2003 06:30 (twenty-three years ago)

My own music, sober = shit.

My own musis, stoned = wow, did I do that?

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 20 March 2003 06:30 (twenty-three years ago)

I second whoever said Dylan. Speed is a dirty, dirty drug that will wear you down faster than any other, but for those few years in the mid-sixties that he was doing it, he was (predictably) prolific, but even more impressively, not exhausted by it. It's as if the speed helped him to get out the massive amounts of material he had in him. Five albums in seven years is one thing, but for every one of those albums to be unbelievably good -- that's something else entirely. Dylan on speed was a God.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Thursday, 20 March 2003 07:53 (twenty-three years ago)

Correction -- seven albums in five years.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Thursday, 20 March 2003 08:40 (twenty-three years ago)

Pot and LSD are classic music drugs, refreshing,
creative and safe -
uppers are good for output but I don't think they
increase quality, and they're far more dangerous to boot
the ill effects of cocaine and heroin are well documented,
I don't think they have any real musical benefit.

― skwir plise (Squirrel_Police), Thursday, 20 March 2003 09:04 (twenty-three years ago)

Lou Reed owns this thread.

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Thursday, 20 March 2003 09:11 (twenty-three years ago)

so i'm not slagging them or anything, but this sounds very much like NEU! and i would have to say the lack of insight was seen in their second album's "remixes"

― JasonD (JasonD), Thursday, 20 March 2003 09:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Skwir Plise has it about right, in my opinion. Oops, those people who say "You gotta be stoned when you listen to that"...that's just a phrase! What they're getting at is that you may get more OUT of it if you hear it stoned. The timeshifting effects of ganja are well documented, and what seems endless straight may gain depth or meaning if your attention span's longer (or shorter), or if you're more relaxed while hearing it. The music's ALWAYS good, it's YOU that needs fixing (not "you"..."One").

― matt riedl (veal), Thursday, 20 March 2003 19:29 (twenty-three years ago)

In my opinion pot never makes bad music sound good -
only more tolerable, because you're feeling great
anyway.

Still, there's no way to describe how incredible
music can be when you're up. Just like highness
itself, it has to be experienced to be understood,
but for me it's a closeness, like being in the recording
booth with them, and if I close your eyes I can
almost feel them breathe and smell their sweat.

― squirel polise (Squirrel_Police), Thursday, 20 March 2003 19:52 (twenty-three years ago)

Arab on Radar or the Locust

― A Nairn (moretap), Thursday, 20 March 2003 19:59 (twenty-three years ago)

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