Are you ready for some foootballl?

June 26, 2006 10:07 AM

Are there any well-known songs that were (or might have been) recorded while the artist was stoned/wasted/tripping/etc? Not counting concert performances, unless the song charted.

I realize the question's open to speculation, but I do know that a lot of musicians and band members don't hold back much about things like this and it might be common knowledge in the pages of Rolling Stone, etc.

posted by zek to media & arts (47 comments total)

It's so common that the list would take hundreds of pages. Basically, name a popular song from the last 40 years in nearly every genre and it probably fits the description.

I'd say that 80-85% of your favorite songs, regardless of what kind of non-classical music you like, were probably recorded while the artist was stoned/wasted/tripping/etc.
posted by JekPorkins at 10:12 AM on June 26, 2006

Blonde on Blonde is said to have been written in the recording studio while Dylan was high on speed.

Free Your Mind... and Your Ass Will Follow was supposedly written and recorded in a single afternoon tripping on acid.
posted by maxreax at 10:15 AM on June 26, 2006

one of the most notorious is John Sebastian singing "I had a dream" and 'Rainbows All Over Your Blues", after unknowingly taking LSD at Woodstock
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 10:21 AM on June 26, 2006

I'd say that 80-85% of your favorite songs, regardless of what kind of non-classical music you like, were probably recorded while the artist was stoned/wasted/tripping/etc.

How about songs where it's really obvious in the recording that the musicians are out of their heads? Like on Bob Dylan's "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35", the whole band seems like they're winding up a 48-hour drug-fuelled spree of debauchery.
posted by agropyron at 10:27 AM on June 26, 2006

InAGaddaDaVidda recorded by Iron Butterfly.

Originally titled In the Garden of Evil but rumor has it the singer was either so drunk or so stoned that he could not spit out the In the Garden of Eden part.
posted by JigSawMan at 10:29 AM on June 26, 2006

Battleflag by Lo Fidelity All-Stars -- recorded while blitzed on lager.
posted by gsh at 10:29 AM on June 26, 2006

Whoops, meant to type In the Garden of Eden but typed Evil for some reason.
posted by JigSawMan at 10:35 AM on June 26, 2006

Everything the Beatles did after 1966.
posted by wsg at 10:43 AM on June 26, 2006

Make that everything the Beatles ever did.
posted by wsg at 10:45 AM on June 26, 2006

So... you've heard of The Doors, yes?
posted by nathan_teske at 10:48 AM on June 26, 2006

Everything the Beatles did after 1966.

Yes. Some obvious Beatles candidates : "Tomorrow Never Knows", "Across the Universe", "Day in the Life", "Revolution No 9", "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".
posted by zaebiz at 10:50 AM on June 26, 2006

Also, I'd say the lion's share of jamband music was composed (and, usually, performed) under the influence.
posted by danb at 10:51 AM on June 26, 2006

Listen to Leon Redbone's first album closely, the one with the dancing frog on the cover. The guitar parts leave no doubt that he was definitely drunk at the sessions.
posted by wsg at 10:51 AM on June 26, 2006

insert obligitory bill hicks quote about musicians and drugs...
posted by casconed at 10:59 AM on June 26, 2006

Every good Van Halen album
Every Oasis album
Eddie Vedder drinks wine on stage like a fish, so every live Pearl Jam recording
There are just so many. Tool, Miles Davis, Nirvana, the Sex Pistols, Guns n Roses, Metallica up until St. Anger, the obvious ones like Hendrix, the Dead, Pink Floyd, Doors, Beatles, Janis Joplin, Nirvana, every good Stones album, Syd Barrett's solo stuff, Bauhaus (see, e.g. "Departure"), the Afghan Whigs, Ministry,etc . . .
posted by JekPorkins at 11:03 AM on June 26, 2006

Sleep - Jerusalem
posted by sonofsamiam at 11:25 AM on June 26, 2006

Most of Charlie Parker's stuff.
posted by wsg at 11:32 AM on June 26, 2006

Make that everything the Beatles ever did.

No, their earliest stuff was made drug-free. They didn't get into the drug scene until a few months after they were introduced to marijuana by Bob Dylan sometime in '64.
posted by cerebus19 at 11:36 AM on June 26, 2006

And, incidentally, I think the most obvious Beatles song is "I Am the Walrus." Watch the video of Magical Mystery Tour, when John's singing it, and you can tell he's higher than an SST.
posted by cerebus19 at 11:37 AM on June 26, 2006

I read an interview with Neil Young once where he described the recording session for Tonight's the Night as the band starting to drink tequilla and play about midnight and turning on the recording equipment about 4:00 AM.
posted by pasici at 11:40 AM on June 26, 2006

Jefferson Airplane - (not Starship; they were high on delusion)
posted by Kirth Gerson at 11:49 AM on June 26, 2006

In addition to anything already mentioned, anything the Happy Mondays ever did (early stuff mainly weed, middle stuff MDMA, later stuff crack & smack), Non-stop Erotic Cabaret by Soft Cell (MDMA), Technique by New Order (MDMA)...pah...it's easier to list the ones who were recording straight...
posted by i_cola at 12:03 PM on June 26, 2006

Make that everything the Beatles ever did.

No, their earliest stuff was made drug-free. They didn't get into the drug scene until a few months after they were introduced to marijuana by Bob Dylan sometime in '64.
posted by cerebus19 at 1:36 PM CST on June 26

Actually, the Beatles were speed freaks from their earliest days in Hamburg playing ridiculously long hours. The only way to get through the gigs was amphetamines. So, they had a serious affinity for pharmaceuticals long before they got in to psychedelics.
posted by wsg at 12:18 PM on June 26, 2006

Eric Clapton was in the depths of heroin addiction during the 461 Ocean Blvd. sessions, from which came his version of I Shot the Sheriff, which brought Bob Marley to a MUCH wider audience.
posted by wsg at 12:21 PM on June 26, 2006

FWIW, OM by John Coltrane was rumored to be fueled by LSD. I find it hard to believe that someone who was supposedly opposed to drugs after beating his heroin addicition would do so, but the music on the album would lead one to assume it was possible.
posted by beelzbubba at 12:33 PM on June 26, 2006

Thom Yorke was too drunk to stand up when he recorded the vocal line for Radiohead's "Planet Telex," so he did it lying down.
posted by Zozo at 12:34 PM on June 26, 2006

Are we only counting recreational drugs? Because when Barnes & Barnes recorded "Gumby Jaw's Lament," Bill Mumy was suffering from a terrible flu and was seriously doped up on medication. You can hear it in his improvised vocals.
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:48 PM on June 26, 2006

For the recording of Nevermind, Nirvana were completely wasted on codeine cough syrup because Kurt had a bad cold at the time.
posted by dobie at 1:12 PM on June 26, 2006

No one has mentioned a single Rap/Hip Hop song or album?!?!?!?!?!?!

Snoop was known for his blunted rapping (see The Chronic)
Cypress Hill
Total Devastation
--all rapped about how blitzed they were on various drugs and alcohol.

Pretty much 90% of the rap and hip hop album from the early 90's to about '03 has at least one song on it that references either pot or malt liquor. I just always assumed it was part of many popular rappers creative process.
posted by premortem at 1:21 PM on June 26, 2006

(why the "are you ready for some football" title?? Is it widely known that Hank Williams Jr. was drunk while recording?
posted by premortem at 1:24 PM on June 26, 2006

Todd Rundgren's pretty well-known for toking while recording IIRC, to the extent that it has caused a conflict with some of the groups he's produced.
posted by kindall at 1:27 PM on June 26, 2006

Don't fans of the Replacements claim their best stuff was done when they were drunk?
posted by Rash at 1:37 PM on June 26, 2006

the Replacements were always drunk. Their best stuff was done when they stayed home and let Paul Westerberg just record everything himself.
posted by JekPorkins at 1:39 PM on June 26, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Allegedly:
Louie Louie by the Kingsmen
Because I got High by Afroman
posted by fvox13 at 1:47 PM on June 26, 2006

I seem to recall watching on the DVD that Tenacious D wrote all the material for their album while they were high.

Ever hear "one note song"? Yeah.
posted by Drunken_munky at 2:17 PM on June 26, 2006

Effectively everything Syd Barrett ever put on tape.
posted by cortex at 2:20 PM on June 26, 2006

Bob Marley...
posted by ramix at 2:29 PM on June 26, 2006

Most live Phish albums were recorded with at least some of the group on some sort of substance. The most obvious example would be Trey being totally wrecked (and not in a good way) at their final concert, Coventry. Hell, some people say that in the concert's footage, which was simulcast live in movie theatres across the US, he was visibly using some sort of powder--though I haven't seen the footage, so I can't say firsthand.
posted by Asparagirl at 3:09 PM on June 26, 2006

Spacemen 3 were known for being permanently zonked. Although I can't recall any members admitting to being wasted while recording, it's pretty likely. Their album The Perfect Prescription was supposed to be the aural equivalent of trip, and it does kind of sound like it, but band member Sonic Boom denied that, saying something like "I don't know how many trips last 45 minutes." On their live album, Dreamweapon, one member is credited with "joint rolling."
posted by Kronoss at 3:20 PM on June 26, 2006

I'm surprised you forgot the Spacemen 3 album "Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To".
posted by xil at 3:39 PM on June 26, 2006

And let's not forget Queens of the Stone Age, of course (see, e.g., Feel Good Hit of the Summer). And their side project, Desert Sessions, which I understand is basically a drug-fuelled desert brainstorm of rock.
posted by JekPorkins at 4:04 PM on June 26, 2006

Every dub track ever.
posted by pompomtom at 6:59 PM on June 26, 2006

Even if it was later denied by the band:

"In the time this album was completed, we filled up 3.600 hours of tape, and inhaled 5 cans of Scotchguard..."
posted by oats at 8:37 PM on June 26, 2006

Better question was there ever a really cool song composed cold sober?
posted by zackdog at 10:27 PM on June 26, 2006

Kate Bush has been called "the most stoned woman in Britan." (by David Gilmore, I think).
posted by bonehead at 6:30 AM on June 27, 2006

shpongle
posted by premortem at 10:16 AM on June 27, 2006

Lots of later-ish Beach Boys stuff, especially where Brian Wilson was the producer. Smile, anyone?

Also, classically, the Pogues. But I bet you didn't need me to tell you that.
posted by booksandlibretti at 11:08 AM on June 27, 2006