Drug that has inspired the best music?

LSD, seriously. 1967-68 was fantastic!

This is a more interesting poll than the first I think (coke is gonna walk that one). I voted Ecstacy but can also see the arguments for cannabis, LSD and speed. Still not sure what mushroom music actually is.

Hawkwind?

there's a good argument to be made that weed is the answer to both polls.

(maybe i'm just biased by this year, when the erykah/mimi/lil wayne albums should all just come with a big "sponsored by cannabis" sticker on the front, though; probably ecstasy more generally)

Cannabis has undeniably inspired the most good music, given that it has been taken by so many more musicians than any of the other mentioned drugs.

I was gonna say heroin (Velvet Underground, Spacemen 3, etc etc etc) but then started kicking myself. argh! What a thing to say!

There she goes.
There she goes again.

.. MEDLEY!

Beetlebum, what you done?

GOLDEN BROWWWNNNN Texture like SUNNNN...

Mark invoking There She Goes makes me want to change my answer to heroin in the other poll.

It's quite a nice little indie pop song, Matt, you nasty brute.

The problem is, I can just as easily argue that Heroin has inspired some of the most RUBBITCH periods of bands I really do like - i.e. latter period BJM and hey, "Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth" ::vomits::

I actually think the "ooh look it's about heroin really" thing might be my least favourite school of lyric writing ever. Blame university.

There is no drug that turns an uninspired writer into an inspired one.

or do I mean untalented? as 'uninspired' can be a temporary condition....

alcohol isn't a drug?

and i'm curious -- what bands were specifically shroomers?

It's not a drug, it's a drink!

The NME had a 'scene' called Shroomadelica, a couple years ago.

who were they, where did they go? dunno.

Unlistenable Velvets tracks such as "Heroin", "Sister Ray" and "Here Comes The Man" are all excellent examples of the needle and the damage done.

Booze would win this hands down I think.

"Here Comes The Man" dunno that one

Some "stoner rock" bands I think are heavy mushroom users along with the weed

I was gonna say "vagina".

Ecstasy inspired a since-unparalleled rush of spontaneous creativity in the UK in the early 90s. LSD and weed did similar things twenty five years earlier, but the later scene is closer to my heart.

Then again, reggae's debt to the erb bears considering...

Ach, I like the "unlistenable" ones so that's my decision made.

I rarely think about the influences of chemical consumption on music anymore, since I just drink coffee now and the occasional beer.

It might be good to note however, that Meat Puppets believe II to be one of the first albums recorded under the influence of ecstacy, which makes A LOT of sense.

(then again, the Meat Puppets are probably some of the biggest bullshitters in rock and roll, so take that with a grain of salt)

Somehow I get the impression that the "jam bands" and Krautrockers were 'shroom bands, although that's just a subjective opinion.

Me, I'm tempted to say acid. But in the end, Geir's and Lex's logic is undeniable. Cannabis it is.

Insight:

"The first one was our LSD record," offered Curt upon the 1999 reissue of the Meat Puppets' catalog ("What Is This?," April 9, 1999). "We were three days in the studio, and we tripped the whole time. And it was really cool, and really trying, too, because we went insane. [Meat Puppets II] was our ecstasy record. That's why people like that record so much, I hate to tell you. Then the weed album, Up on the Sun. That's the pedestrian album. Weed and alcohol. I did that whole thing in 72 hours, straight through – recorded and mixed it."

sigh...what about love?

And "life"

coke = tusk

and station to station

Gaucho

Lot of music I like has been inspired and/or fueled by coke, so I vote that. Sabbath Vol. 4 and BOC's Tyranny and Mutation should have come with razors and mirrors, they were so cocaine-soaked.

I actually don't know what inspired Chrome's music, and I'd be scared to ask.

cannabis and coke are so prevalent, there's no way any other drugs can compare. my favorite artists in metal, rap, dub/reggae, classic country, rock, techno/dance/house/jungle/etc = smokers.

i hate pot culture as much as anyone, and think it's a lame cop-out when bands make songs about pot and wear tacky pot leaf shirts, but the shit is everywhere in music.

Meat Puppets 2 evolved from one drug only. The various deserts of Arizona.

I have it on very good authority that they went out there and drunk water from one of only 3 oasi in the Painted Desert and then started creating

Meat Puppets 1, however was done in an asbestos infested garage, on real bad shit from Mehico

Meat Puppets 12 was done on smack, crunk, wank and arse. It was shit

also cocaine (well, crack) has 'inspired' a shitload of brilliant rap music, mainly as subject matter rather than loads of brilliant rappers being crackheads (ODB excepted)

It might be good to note however, that Meat Puppets believe II to be one of the first albums recorded under the influence of ecstacy

Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret beat them by two years.

Anti-depressants?

Unlistenable Velvets tracks such as "Heroin", "Sister Ray" and "Here Comes The Man" are all excellent examples of the needle and the damage done.

Oh man I'm sorry you dropped the needle wrong onto all your Velvets records to the point where they are now unlistenable. :(

don't forget all the jazz cats and their junk habits - parker miles coltrane and i think pretty much everyone else in the 40's-60's