John & Yoko / Plastic Ono Band – John Sinclair

John Sinclair oli runoilija ja kirjailija, joka tuomittiin kymmeneksi vuodeksi vankilaan kahden marihuana-sätkän vuoksi. John Lennon kirjoitti hänestä laulun ja vaati hänen vapauttamistaan. Mikä pian tapahtuikin.

”It ain’t fair, John Sinclair
In the stir for breathing air
Won’t you care for John Sinclair?
In the stir for breathing air
Let him be, set him free
Let him be like you and me

They gave him ten for two
What else can the judges do?
Gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta,
Gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta,
Gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta,
Gotta, gotta, gotta set him free

If he’d been a soldier man
Shooting gooks in Vietnam
If he was the CIA
Selling dope and making hay
He’d be free, they’d let him be
Breathing air, like you and me

They gave him ten for two
What else can the judges do?
Gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta,
Gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta,
Gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta,
Gotta, gotta, gotta set him free

They gave him ten for two
They got Ali Otis too.
Gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta,
Gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta,
Gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta,
Gotta, gotta, gotta set him free

Was he jailed for what he done?
Or representing everyone
Free John now, if we can
From the clutches of the man
Let him be, lift the lid
Bring him to his wife and kids

They gave him ten for two
What else can the bastards do?
Gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta,
Gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta,
Gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta,
Gotta, gotta, gotta set him free”

Thin Lizzy – Johnny

Johnny parka vilahtelee useammassakin Thin Lizzyn biisissä. Kaverilla tuntuu olevan taipumusta huumeriippuvuuteen. Tässä Johnny the Fox -levyn avaavassa rallissa hän keikkaa apteekin, ampuu vartijan ja jää kiinni.

”Somewhere on the waterfront
Johnny’s hiding with a gun
Swears he’ll kill any man that tells his story
He’s ain’t sorry for what he’s done

He broke into a drugstore
Just to cure his daily need
Didn’t mean to shoot the guard
But he was blinded by the greed

Oh, Johnny

See that nun, she’s his sister
She doesn’t know that he’s gone bad
When they told it to his papa
It drove the old man mad

Just as his mother warned him
From her dying bed
It’s alright to lose your heart
But never lose your head

Oh, Johnny

Now the cops have got him surrounded
And he doesn’t stand a hope
He wonders how he could be in so much trouble
Over just a little dope

Five to one he gets away
That’s the odds I’m going to give
Five to four they blast him away
Three to one he’s going to live

Oh, Johnny
Oh, Johnny, you better run

Back in the alley where he was slain
Thought I heard something move
Beside the trash can lay a heart and chain
The picture had been removed

Just another junkyard piece
Looking for a bed
It’s alright to lose your heart
But never lose your head

Oh, Johnny

Lookout!”

Thin Lizzy – It’s Getting Dangerous

80-luvun alussa Thin Lizzyn leiri oli melko sekaisin. Edellisvuosikymmenen menestys oli enää haamu ja Phil Lynott oli osittain keskittynyt soololevyjen tekoon sekä suonensisäisten käyttämiseen. Keskellä tuota soppaa syntynyttä Renegades levyä pidetäänkin yhtenä Thin Lizzyn huonoimmista. Levyn päättävä It’s Getting Dangerous onkin kuvaava titteli aikakaudelle.

”The man finds himself alone for the first time in his life
He’s always got a problem, he’s got to work it out wrong or right
He’s got to work it out, he’s so lonely in the night
He’s got to work it all alone

Now who in the world would believe that he’s got another trick up his sleeve
And who in the world wants to know which way should he go
Which way should he turn? which way should he learn?
Which day should he stop? which way to the top?

I remember him when we were friends, when we were young, way back then
I still can recall when we were small how he tried his best to warn us all

This living on his own has turned his heart to stone and it’s all pain
He sits out on his own and eats his heart out alone in the pouring rain
Now who in the world would have know
That just a few years ago his love could have grown and grown

Through the rain, the sleet and snow
But the rain, the sleet and snow chills the heart and kills the soul
So the let the cold winds blow
What he doesn’t see he doesn’t know

I remember him when we were friends, when we were young, way back then
I recall it all when we were small how he tried his best to warn us all

I remember it still, I always will when we were friends way back then
I recall it all when we were small how he tried his best to warn us all
He said, watch out for the danger
He said, watch out

The man is a winner for the first time in his life
He looks a little thinner but he says hey that doesn’t matter
But if you look closely
You’ll see a cold smug self-satisfactory smile behind

And now that he has won it doesn’t matter how or which way it was done
Now that he’s in control, revenge is in his heart and soul
The power is at his fingertips, vengeance is on his lips
But the power he fought to control now has got him in it’s grips

I remember him when we were friends, when we were young, way back then
I recall it all when we were small how he tried his best to warn us all

I remember it still, I always will when we were friends way back then
I recall it all when we were small how he tried his best to warn us all

I remember him when we were friends, when we were young, way back then
But now we’re all grown up and we’re strangers
You see, bit by bit, part by part, we slipped and slipped
Till we’d grown apart and now we’re strangers”

The Only Ones – Another Girl, Another Planet

The Only Onesien pikkuhitti kertoo heroiinin käytöstä.

”I always flirt with death
I could kill, but I don’t care about it
I can face your threats
Stand up tall and scream and shout about it

I think I’m on another world with you
I’m on another planet with you

You always get under my skin
I don’t find it irritating
You always play to win
I don’t need rehabilitating

Another girl, another planet
Another girl, another planet

Space travels in my blood
And there ain’t nothing I can do about it
Long journeys wear me out
Oh God we won’t live without it

Another girl is loving you now
Another planet, forever holding you down
Another planet”

Primal Scream – Loaded

Primal Screamin läpimurtobiisin sanotaan kertovan ekstaasista tai mistä tahansa partyhuumeesta.

”Just what is it that you want to do?
We wanna get loaded and have a good time.
We wanna have a party (Yeah!)
That’s what we wanna do

I don’t wanna lose your love
I don’t wanna lose your love
I don’t wanna lose your love
I don’t wanna lose your love

Just what is it that you wanna do?

I’m gonna get deep down, deep down I said
I’m gonna get deep down, deep down woo hey!

We wanna be free to do what we wanna do
But way baby, lets go

I don’t wanna lose your love
I don’t wanna lose your love

We wanna be free to do what we wanna do

Oh yeah

We wanna be free to do what we wanna do”

Rory Yates – In This House

Rory ”Rowdy” Yates soitti rockia jo 60-luvulla, mutta sukelsi sitten sen verran syvälle heroiiniriippuvuuteen, että musiikki sai jäädä vuosikymmeniksi. Toivuttuaan Rowdy on tehnyt jo vuosia töitä huumeiden käyttäjien parissa ja julkaisi 2012 ep:n Wrestling with Demons – Four Songs of Addiction and Recovery, jolla hän kuvaa toipuvan huumeidenkäyttäjän elämää. In This House kuvaa hoitoyhteisöä.

Run-D.M.C. – Pause

Run-D.M.C.:n Back from Hell -levyltä löytyvä Pause taitaa olla sanomaltaan aika huumevastainen biisi.

”Afros…. yeahhh
Afros! Yeahhh
Brothers be out there doin crack… Nooooooo!
They be doin dope… Nooooooo!
They be gangbangin! Nooooooo!
All them brothers need to just
pause

Yeah I’m with that
Here comes the Afros, and the forty ounce crew
Who say slowly but surely, we gonna turn the mother out
We got more, in store, young ladies on the floor, so cool out
pause

Intro, which means I start it
In other words, herbs departed
Pause, stop for the cause
Get up, get down, you get yours
Chill, no time to get ill
Word to herb — yeah it’s the will of God
So whassup Hobbes?
Just jock, clock, rock, and don’t stop but
Pause

Pause, pause for the cause, get yours
But don’t break laws
Quit, quit it, forget it
Pause, say your way with it
Pause, if you did it, admit it
Cause, you shouldn’ta did it
Next time, you think of doin a crime
Pause, and remember this rhyme

Pause for the cause, cause broken laws
Are just like broken jaws
They take a long time to heal
I’m for real, and I know the deal
Look it over, investigate
Evaluate, think!
Life is wrong, and full of flaws
Before you break laws just pause!

I think that worked man

Pause
Yeah pause, this beat is dope D
I’m tellin you, this beat is dope, just slammin, it’s dope

Well if it’s dope, I hope it’s not crack
Or coke, or nuttin like somethin you EVER smoke
And if they offer you some say NO
Or pause
The reason I wrote this rhyme, is not to climb
But just to tell all mankind
That the use and abuse of drugs — will what?
Will, blow, your, mind

Like dough makes bread, it goes straight to your head
You’re misled and then you’re dead
Now that’s not fly, when you die
On a high
Like a trip, oooh, you make me sick
Ill, lookin like doo doo on a stick
You don’t have to be a vic
Life is like a flick, so pause

Pause, p-pause, pause, p-p-pause

Alright y’all, now that you understand
My man Run never ran
I’m gonna take this mic yo my hand
And hand this to the one man band

Now pause, now pause

I’m Jay, I make up the trey
Now check out the dance that I display
It’s called the pause
A new thing, on the dancefloor
First you move, then you stop
Combine the hustle, foxtrot, pop and lock
Put em all together why because
It’s called the pause

Slammin, the dance is slammin
Pause, the people are jammin
Stop again, back to the groove
I show you how to move
pause
It’s simple, just like stop and go
You can pause on the fast or slow
Participate, won’t you all get down
Here’s a solo from my homeboy Stanley Brown

Ahh yeah, I like this R&B shit…
Pause, pause, one more time!
Yeah, do that, do that…
Now pause!”

Wiz Khalifa – Medicated

Kappale kertoo Wiz Khalifan juurista, hänen musiikkiurastaan ja minkälainen rooli kannabiksella on Wizin elämässään ollut.

”Out selling P’s and smoking weed avoiding police right up the street
Way back in the day before I had all of this paper
Before I had all of these diamonds, before I had all of these haters”

Kappaleessa on myös mukana Juicy J ja Chevy Woods, jotka mainitsevat ekstaasin käytön ja kokaiinin myymisen.

”Pop molly in the after hours
A member of no sleep team”

”8 balls I was in the hall
Ain’t have time to fuck with y’all”

Janis Joplin – Cod’ine

Janis Joplin teki kokonaan uudet sanoitukset Buffy Sainte-Marien folk-klassikkoon Cod’ine. Joplinin versio julkaistiin vasta 1995 levyllä This is Janis Jolin.

”On the day I was born the Grim Reaper smiled
He said I’ll get you yet now you demonized child
But I’s younger than all my brothers, You know it’s all that’s left of mine
Honey but I caught ’em, yeah I passed ’em, hon I left ’em, left with codine
and it’s real, lord it’s real yeah, one more time

Now I seem to recall when I’s a young girl
How my joys and my happiness you know all seemed to whirl
but then somethings, honey sometimes, somehow it seems
Oh codine became so liked, it took my dreams
Hon and it’s real, lord it’s real yeah, one more time

It’s the reason I breath honey, It’s the reason I walk
It’s the reason I sleep and the reason I talk
Yeah but soon my devotion will all be repaid
For codine will kill me honey, thats the bargin that we’ve made
and it’s real, lord it’s real yeah, one more time

And after I’m gone and this sad race is run
Guess I’ll go down to hell where my life was begun
But there’ll be somebody with me child that won’t leave me alone
Oh codine’ll be waitin’ to punish my role
Hon it’s real, lord it’s real, one more time

Yeah and after I’m gone and the mornin’ sets in
Don’t you morn what I was girl nor’n what might have been
Morn my sad heart, honey my tear filled eyes
Morn the codeine that I need, that I crave, and I despise
Hon it’s real, lord it’s real, one more time
Yeah it’s real, lord it’s real, one more time”

Tampa Red – I’m Gonna Get High

Blueskitaristi Tampa Red ei juurikään jätä epäselväksi, että mistä on kysymys tässä 30-luvun biisissään.

”I’m gonna get high
And it ain’t no lie
And swing alone and have a ball
I’m gonna get high

Oh me, oh my
Nobody know why
Oh my baby don’t you cry
I’m gonna get high

It ain’t no need of no one
Tryin’ to shame me
But what a state I’ve got in
Who could blame me? Oh, yes

I’m gonna get high
I’ll do it or die
And swing alone and have a ball
I’m gonna get high, yeah, yeah

Beat it out for me, then
Ah ha
I hear you Mr. Sax Player
Yes, yes

Get that trumpet here
I hear you Mr. Ivory Man
C’mon, do it again, please
Ah ha

I’m gonna get high
And it ain’t no lie
And swing alone and have a ball
I’m gonna get high

Oh me, oh my
Nobody know why
Oh my baby, don’t you cry
I’m gonna get high

It ain’t no need of no one
Tryin’ to shame me, yeah-yeah
But what a state I’ve got in
Who could blame me? Oh, yeah

Oh, I’m gonna get high
I’ll do it or die
And swing alone and have a ball
I’m gonna get high

Zip it now
Yes, yes, yes
Ah ha
Ah yeah

I hear you
Ah ha

Yes, yes, yes
Goin’ out boys

Well, I’m gonna get high
I’ll do it or die
Swing alone and have a ball
I’m gonna get high, yeah”

Barney Bigard Sextet – Sweet Marijuana Brown

Barney Bigard oli amerikkalainen jazzmuusikko, soittimaan saxofoni ja klarinetti. Hän soitti muuan muassa Duke Ellingtonin orkesteriaa kunnes toisen maailmansodan jälkeen perusti omaa nimeään kantavia kokoonpanoja. Tällöin hän nauhoitti mm. Sweet Marijuana Brown kipaleen.

”Boy, shes really frantic, the wildest chick in town
She blows her gauge, flies in a rage, Sweet Marijuana Brown
In her victory garden, seeds grow all around
She plants, ya dig, she’s flipped her wig, Sweet Marijuana Brown
She don’t know where she’s going, She don’t care where she’s been
And every time you take her out, she bound to take you in
Boy, that gal means trouble, you oughta put her down
Get hip, take care, look out, beware of Sweet Marijuana Brown”