Is all good music made on drugs?

I think the fact that alot of musicians use drugs is separate to good music being a result of that.

I make good music and I only drink and smoke cigarettes.

I don't think there is any connection one way or the other.

The latter wins

I instantly think of Mr Abstinence - Frank Zappa. We're only in it for the money is his best album in my estimation. And its a drug album, regardless of his attitude. gOd knows his band was going up, down and sidways.

All my favourite albums have some kind of enhanced influence.

He should. For most artists though, drugs are dud.

oh yes that sounds WONDERFUL

I never did say what I was so offended by. In hindsight, I doubt I was all that offended, but I probably did think it was a stupid projection, that ALL good music must be made on drugs.

I feel like drugs aren't really a thing in music now, not in the way they seemd to be in the 90s. I have a pretty strong suspicion that most of my favourite current music-makers probably don't take drugs much if at all - Field Music, Grizzly Bear, Four Tet; none of these guys seem like they'd have a big skag problem. I've seen Dan Snaith make reference to not even drinking. I can imagine Grimes guzzling uppers though...

I'm also aware that I don't take drugs and don't really know if anyone I know does - I simply don't move in circles where its discussed even anymore, which feels very different from when I was 15 or 20. Have I gravitated towards drug-free musicians because I'm drug-free?

Are drugs still a big thing in music? Are they big in some scenes and genres but not others?

lol you bring up grizzly bear on EVERY thread now

thread premise is too wrong to even bother arguing with imo

Listening to their music I'd had thought Four Tet and Dan Snaith have been partial to the odd little dab of Mandy here and there.

Dance music genres, especially in Europe, are very open about drug use and it pays a huge part in the scene around it, indeed it would be hard for many nights to keep going past 4am without it, but their American counterparts often disassociate themselves with that side.

most of my favorite albums were made within a cloud of ganja smoke

Of course, King Tubby didn't smoke (ganja or otherwise) and refused to allow anyone else to do so when he was working in the studio

Yeah, I keep telling myself to stfu about GB...

igor stravinsky, huuuge k-addict.

Uh Sick Mouthy if you're interested in dance music, well hate to break it to you...

While Four Tet may not be making music on drugs, that's probably ignoring the consumption side of things slightly.

The answer to this question, as far as I'm concerned, is no.

Both Frank Zappa and Andy Partridge managed to make interesting music without them - assuming we're talking about 'illegal' recreational drugs here. Zappa's vices, iirc, were coffee and cigarettes, and yes, Partridge was addicted to valium that he was prescribed as a child and kicked it post-English Settlement, thus everything from Mummer onwards, which is no less interesting than what went before, was 'drug free'. Nick brings up Field Music; being from roughly the same area as Field Music are from, I have come across them on a couple of occasions, and they as far as I can see they don't seem interested in that sort of thing either.

On the flipside, there's been a lot of shit music been made by people on drugs. Queen's Hot Space, a great deal of Elton John's '80s work, the entire discography of Spandau Ballet, pretty much everything that Pete Doherty has ever been responsible for...

It's clear to me that drugs don't write music, it's people that write music, and if a person doesn't have the talent to write a great song, then there's not a drug in the world that's going to help them achieve that.

the odd little dab of Mandy

the what now?
clicked on this thread out of boredom but now i want to know what this phrase means

what drug was hot space made on?

I thought Mandy was short for Mandrax, which was a popular drug in the 60s.

what drug was hot space made on?

― how's life, Friday, October 26, 2012 7:20 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hot Space is a notorious cocaine album.

I bet Grizzly Bear smoke tons of weed. Their music sucks, though.

In context, maybe he meant Molly (MDMA)?

Isn't Mandrax the subject of 10cc's 'I'm Mandy, Fly Me'?

Mandy: you came and sedated without taking

Did not know about this Mandrax.

crut otm

Did not know about this Mandrax.

― these albatrosses have no fear of man (La Lechera), Friday, October 26, 2012 7:26 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It was Syd Barrett's drug of choice, circa 'The Madcap Laughs', if I recall!

andrew weatherall made the best music of his life after he laid of drugs and was public about that, i hear narratives like that all the time in dance music journalism too

No. I find this thread offensive in the extreme.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Thursday, February 10, 2005 9:25 AM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

*****************

TS: John Coltrane on smack vs. John Coltrane off smack

The latter wins

― Oh Dadaismus, Poor Dadaismus, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' (Dad, Thursday, February 10, 2005 12:33 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

either way we lose

― Alienus Quam Reproba (blueski), Thursday, February 10, 2005 12:44 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"Meditations" almost made me come once

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, February 10, 2005 12:45 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Aha! I didn't know that. Now I do. I never really cared what drugs people were taking when they made music tbh.

uh xp

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SztM55CjC-I/T6LTay0TkaI/AAAAAAAAAL4/tZuw3A1nzd4/s400/tapa.jpg

Miles made great music on or off smack. The idea that smack addiction/suffering = great art has always been bullshit. Anyone who has ever had a friend or member of their family with a long term smack problem knows they didn't magically turn into Burroughs when they swap the tinfoil for a needle, they just turn into manipulative thieves and zombies. I always imagine coke and amphetamines have both probably had a bigger influence on music for the better or the worse. Any music you listen to going back a century, there is a good chance at least one of players is either coked or speeding.

Yeah, I actually heard someone who I figured would know better say that "heroin is an artist's drug" just the other day.
It is very ugly.

The idea that you need them drugs to fully appreciate the music seems a little simplistic and ridiculous to me. That rethoric seems to go hand in hand with the 'drug has a premium creative process' idea.

Miles made great music on or off smack

You don't have to be "on" drugs to have the music you create be influenced by them. Would he have been as creative musically if he never did drugs? Or if he had never heard the music of others whose brains had been altered (at the time of use, but also permanently in some manner) by drugs? Maybe. Would his creativity have taken the same paths and forms? Highly doubt it.

Maybe it is related to the fact a lot of musical genius types like Miles are more susceptible to drug abuse? I can't imagine how heroin would have made him better. Having a habit would have definitely caused more problems than it solved.

Miles' best music was made on coke let's be real here

48% of good music is made on drugs.

Miles' best music was made on coke let's be real here

Probably correct ;)

are drugs made on good music?

I can't imagine how heroin would have made him better.

I don't have 1st hand experience with heroin but it alters your perception of time, prompts you to think about familiar things in novel ways, no?

things like "man where am I gonna get some more heroin"

Handsome Snaith is drug-free and life-long straightedge fwiw

he sure benefitted from second-hand psychedelics though. if other musicians didn't take drugs he probably couldn't have made the music he does.

and how many young musicians who maybe "don't do drugs" grew up taking ritalin or adderall?

That is a really good point about Ritalin. That is one drug that's influence on music is rarely mentioned.

xxxxp mandy = mdma, for all you squares out there

psychedelics and mdma are p useful but you basically only have to do them once and idk what you're gonna get out of heroin besides a series of decreasingly good times

^^^

psychedelics and mdma are p useful but you basically only have to do them once

yeah, that's why I think people like Zappa who tried acid but then became anti-drug don't really count.

Ritalin and super-bubbly, super-happy speed metal /Kpop / anime theme song music go together frighteningly well. And there's also prescription sedatives and music.

You have to be pretty disciplined to maintain a serious drug habit and make music. And smart enough so's you can spare some brain cells and still function.

How much pop music is made by people who are bipolar, and does that count as taking drugs, when there's no mood stabilizer involved?

xxxxp mandy = mdma, for all you squares out there

― give me back my 200 dollars (NotEnough), Saturday, October 27, 2012 9:01 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Maybe I'm like the old hippie who calls an ounce of weed a "lid", but in my day mdma was molly.

Ritalin and super-bubbly, super-happy speed metal /Kpop / anime theme song

Never tried Ritalin but this sounds like something I want to do.

all good music is made on drugs, fact

Definitely not a fact.

sry, fact

all good facts are made on drugs.

all drugs are facts

all good drugs are in fact made

drugs = creativity is the ultimate lie. What you need to look at is a correlation between people who have extraordinary music talent and drug abuse. If anything it has historically made them worse.

my fav drug is facts

Good for you!

damo sazukis parrot is def on drugs, u hear that thing squawk