Medication and rock music have an extended historical past, and it goes past the “intercourse, medication, rock ‘n roll” cliche.
One of the widespread, and tragically most damaging, narcotics have been heroin. Many artists have written songs in regards to the powerfully addictive drug. Their tales run the gamut of the junkie expertise.
We have collected the Prime 30 Heroin Songs under. They embrace all the things from sellers to overdoses, euphoric highs to rock bottoms, and all the things in between.
30. (Tie) Little Feat, “China White”
From: Hoy-Hoy! (1981)
Two years after Little Feat broke up after founder Lowell George’s demise, they assembled an album of alternate variations and unreleased materials on Hoy-Hoy! A spotlight, “China White,” was a tune George demoed within the early ’70s. As many different songs have accomplished, “China White” (a heroin nickname) personifies medication as a lady. “My candy China White / She ain’t right here tonight / And love has robbed me blind,” George sings over a blues lilt within the tune’s refrain. As soulful because the observe is, it additionally comes with tragic irony: George’s demise in 1979 was the results of a heroin overdose. (Corey Irwin)
30. (Tie) John Prine, “Sam Stone”
From: John Prine (1971)
“Sam Stone” paints an achingly tragic portrait of a veteran who returned from “the battle abroad.” However life again dwelling isn’t any paradise. John Prine by no means names the Vietnam Struggle in “Sam Stone,” however the tune was written on the flip of the ’70s, so it is secure to imagine which battle he is referring to. Like many vets, the tune’s topic turns to heroin to deal with PTSD, melancholy and different circumstances. “There is a gap in daddy’s arm the place all the cash goes,” Prine sings. “I’d liken it to an individual who has accomplished jail time. All of them communicate of how tough it’s to be again on the road, and the way tough it’s to just accept freedom when you get used to residing incarcerated,” Prine, who served within the Military in Germany throughout the Vietnam Struggle, as soon as informed American Songwriter. (Allison Rapp)
29. Jane’s Dependancy, “Three Days”
From: Ritual de lo Ordinary (1990)
Xiola Blue was a good friend of Perry Farrell’s who visited Los Angeles to attend her father’s funeral. She was additionally an addict, and the three days she stayed with Jane’s Dependancy singer and his girlfriend have been crammed with medication and sexual exploration. The occasions of these 72 hours impressed “Three Days.” Launched because the second single from Jane’s Dependancy’s 1990 album, Ritual de lo Ordinary, the observe turned a fan favourite. Working greater than 10 minutes, the sprawling, psychedelic tune ebbs and flows by way of moments of exuberant vitality and quiet reflection. Its topic by no means obtained to witness the tune’s success: Blue died of a heroin overdose in 1987. (Irwin)
28. Megadeth, “Poison Was the Remedy”
From: Rust in Peace (1990)
Megadeth was all too conversant in the perils of heroin dependancy by 1990, having dropped off the 1988 Monsters of Rock tour so bassist David Ellefson may enter rehab. (Dave Mustaine adopted swimsuit a 12 months later after driving into an off-duty police automotive whereas intoxicated.) They emerged targeted and ferocious on Rust in Peace, a progressive-thrash masterpiece filled with dizzying time signature adjustments and carpal tunnel-inducing solos. Mustaine displays on his dependancy in “Poison Was the Remedy” (a reference to methadone), lamenting heroin’s bygone “heat embrace” and evaluating his mind to “some driftwood in a cesspool.” His rapid-fire lyrics match the livid twin-guitar riffing and evoke the mania that accompanied Mustaine’s darkish night time of the soul. (Bryan Rolli)
27. (Tie) Joni Mitchell, “Chilly Blue and Candy Hearth”
From: For the Roses (1971)
Heroin takes on a seductive kind in Joni Mitchell’s “Chilly Blue Metal and Candy Hearth.” “Include me, I know how,” she says, “It is down, down, down the darkish ladder.” Mitchell had witnessed firsthand how sturdy the maintain of heroin may very well be; her former boyfriend James Taylor’s drug utilization had reached harmful ranges in the beginning of the ’70s. In 1972, Mitchell described “Chilly Blue Metal and Candy Hearth” as “an actual paranoid metropolis tune — stalking the streets in search of a vendor.” The tune’s lyrics mirror the futile feeling of dependancy: “You’ll be able to come now or you may come later.” (Rapp)
27. (Tie) Neil Younger, “Tonight’s the Evening”
From: Tonight’s the Evening (1975)
“‘Tonight’s the Evening’ is like an OD letter,” Neil Younger as soon as defined to Rolling Stone. “The entire thing is about life, dope and demise.” The 1975 tune, which opened and closed the traditional album of the identical title, was impressed by Bruce Berry, a roadie for Younger who died of a heroin overdose. The lyrics point out Berry by title, chronicling his life and eventual demise “out on the mainline.” (Irwin)
25. James Taylor, “Hearth and Rain”
From: Candy Child James (1970)
James Taylor’s 1970 hit “Hearth and Rain” is a narrative informed in three elements. The opening verse offers with the singer-songwriter’s ache of dropping a childhood good friend to suicide, whereas the third verse finds him analyzing his highway to fame. Within the center of the tune, Taylor addresses his struggles with dependancy and melancholy. He went by way of a interval of heroin use within the late ’60s whereas residing in New York. A stint in rehab obtained him momentarily clear, however he fell again on dangerous habits after transferring to England. He addresses the helplessness he felt in “Hearth and Rain”: “Will not you look down upon me, Jesus? / You have to assist me make a stand / You’ve got simply obtained to see me by way of one other day / My physique’s aching and my time is at hand / And I will not make it another manner.” “Hearth and Rain” peaked at No. 3. (Irwin)
24. James Brown, “King Heroin”
From: There It Is (1972)
“I wanna speak to you about one in all our most threatening killers within the nation as we speak,” James Brown says on the prime of “King Heroin.” A lot of the lyrics have been written in poem kind by Manny Rosen, who labored at New York’s Stage Delicatessen in New York Metropolis. Brown set the phrases to music together with his arranger, David Matthews, and supervisor Charles Bobbit. Regardless of the tune’s relaxed groove, the lyrics emphasize the violence heroin induces, whereas affecting the lives of everybody from “heads of state” to “youngsters at play.” Brown even added a couple of strains. “This can be a revolution of the thoughts,” he says. “Get your thoughts collectively and get away from medication.” (Rapp)
23. Ministry, “Simply One Repair”
From: Psalm 69: The Strategy to Succeed and the Strategy to Suck Eggs (1992)
Members of the economic group Ministry have been deep into substance abuse throughout the making of 1992’s Psalm 69. Frontman Al Jourgensen admitted to Songfacts that the $750,000 they got to make the album went “up our arms and up our noses.” So there was some private expertise constructed into “Simply One Repair,” which was launched because the album’s third single. The heavy-hitting observe’s refrain repeats the titular phrase, whereas sampled audio – together with the opening line “by no means belief a junkie” – is sprinkled all through. (Irwin)
22. The Velvet Underground & Nico, “I am Ready for the Man”
From: The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)
Included on their 1967 debut, The Velvet Underground & Nico, “I am Ready for the Man” particulars a junkie’s uptown journey to satisfy his vendor in Harlem. “Twenty-six {dollars} in my hand,” Lou Reed sings, “Really feel sick and soiled extra lifeless than alive.” “I am Ready for the Man” was one in all a number of songs initially recorded by the band in New York, however later re-recorded in Los Angeles after the Velvet Underground secured an album take care of Verve Data. Atlantic turned them down due to the prevalent drug references on songs like this one and “Heroin.” (Rapp)
21. Lynyrd Skynyrd, “The Needle and the Spoon”
From: Second Serving to (1974)
Second Serving to is finest remembered because the album that contains “Candy House Alabama,” however Lynyrd Skynyrd’s sophomore LP has deeper tracks with a lot depth, like “Needle and the Spoon.” The title refers back to the widespread manner of consuming heroin: utilizing a spoon and lighter to liquefy the drug earlier than injecting it with a needle. Singer Ronnie Van Zant sings in regards to the perils of hardcore drug use with a chilling warning: “Do not mess with the needle or a spoon / Or any journey to the moon / It will take you away.” (Irwin)
20. Skid Row, “Wasted Time”
From: Slave to the Grind (1991)
Following an onslaught of brutality, Skid Row’s Slave to the Grind ends on a heartrending be aware with “Wasted Time.” Written by singer Sebastian Bach about Weapons N’ Roses drummer Steven Adler’s heroin dependancy, the six-minute ballad is a masterclass in dynamics, with clear guitar arpeggios and Bach’s tender croon giving strategy to distorted energy chords and anguished cries. “Wasted Time” climaxes in its closing minute as Bach screams repeatedly, “I by no means thought you’d let it get this far, boy” — essentially the most highly effective efficiency of his profession and a devastating finish to a tune rife with sorrow and remorse. (Rolli)
19. 9 Inch Nails, “Harm”
From: The Downward Spiral (1994)
Maybe no tune in historical past has so precisely described the internal workings of a junkie as “Harm,” 9 Inch Nails’ 1995 traditional. The tune opens with a robust verse: “I damage myself as we speak / To see if I nonetheless really feel / I give attention to the ache / The one factor that is actual / The needle tears a gap / The previous acquainted sting / Attempt to kill all of it away / However I bear in mind all the things.” From there, the observe ventures additional into darkness, with Trent Reznor questioning what he’s turn into. He wrote “Harm” earlier than he turned an addict. “It was in my head. I hadn’t truly lived it,” he defined to Uncut in 2005. “Then later I lived it. I did not notice the document was a premonition.” (Irwin)
18. Billy Joel, “Captain Jack”
From: Piano Man (1973)
Billy Joel’s 1973 tune “Captain Jack” wasn’t impressed by heroin however somewhat by a vendor he noticed promoting the drug to teenagers at a housing challenge close to his Lengthy Island dwelling. “What’s so horrible about an prosperous younger white teenager’s life that he is obtained to shoot heroin?” the singer contemplated in Billy Joel: The Definitive Biography. “It is actually a tune about what I contemplate to be a pathetic loser form of way of life. I have been accused of, ‘Oh, this tune promotes drug use and masturbation.’ No, no, no. Take heed to the tune. This man is a loser.” (Irwin)
17. (Tie) Stone Temple Pilots, “Interstate Love Track”
From: Purple (1994)
Dependancy makes an individual do many issues, together with mendacity to the individuals who care about them. That’s on the core of “Interstate Love Track,” Stone Temple Pilots’ hit single from their sophomore LP, Purple. Earlier than heading to Atlanta to document the album, singer Scott Weiland promised his fiancee he’d keep off medication. He didn’t succeed, however in telephone calls together with his future spouse, he’d lie and say all the things was tremendous. “Interstate Love Track” turned probably the most standard songs of 1994 and spent 15 weeks at No. 1 on the mainstream rock chart. (Irwin)
17. (Tie) Motley Crue, “Dancing on Glass”
From: Women, Women, Women (1987)
Nikki Sixx was on the finish of his rope throughout the making of Women, Women, Women, and “Dancing on Glass” particulars his dependancy spiral with morbid readability. “Valentine’s in London discovered me within the trash,” Vince Neil wails, a reference to Sixx’s near-fatal heroin expertise in London on Valentine’s Day 1986. The bassist turned blue after being shot up by a vendor, obtained smashed with a baseball bat by Hanoi Rocks guitarist Andy McCoy in a failed resuscitation try and was left for lifeless in a dumpster behind the vendor’s condominium. Sixx would fatally overdose once more lower than two years later, main him to lastly get sober and galvanizing “Kickstart My Coronary heart.” It’s a miracle he made it that far. (Rolli)
15. Warren Zevon, “Carmelita”
From: Warren Zevon (1976)
Warren Zevon wrote “Carmelita” when his profession was at a standstill. His first solo album from 1970 had tanked, and he was making a small residing writing songs for different artists and enjoying on classes round Los Angeles. So the character Zevon sings about “sinking down” had so much to do with his actual life on the time. The tune’s key line – “I am all strung out on heroin on the outskirts of city” – wasn’t removed from the reality. Zevon later admitted he dabbled within the drug. Nonetheless, the tune’s darkish topic – masked in mariachi flavors and a hummable refrain – hasn’t stored it from being a well-liked cowl tune with followers and buddies like Linda Ronstadt. (Michael Gallucci)
14. (Tie) The Ramones, “Chinese language Rock”
From: Finish of the Century (1980)
After listening to Lou Reed’s “Heroin,” Dee Dee Ramone insisted he may write a greater tune in regards to the drug. The outcome was “Chinese language Rock,” named after a slang time period Ramone and his buddies used for the narcotic. For the tune’s lyrics, the Ramones’ bassist mined tales from his each day life of scoring heroin and pawning possessions for drug cash. Johnny Ramone reportedly vetoed “Chinese language Rock” due to its overt references to drug use. It was first launched by the punk band the Heartbreakers earlier than the Ramones’ model lastly confirmed up on 1980’s Finish of the Century. (Irwin)
14. (Tie) Alice In Chains, “Would?”
From: Singles Soundtrack (1992)
Because the grunge revolution stirred on the prime of the ’90s, lots of the space’s acts turned buddies, together with Mom Love Bone singer Andrew Wooden and Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell. After Wooden died of a heroin overdose in 1990, Cantrell turned irritated that everybody targeted on his demise somewhat than his life. “Andy was a hilarious man, energetic, and it was actually unhappy to lose him,” the guitarist recalled within the liner notes to the 1999 field set Music Financial institution. “However I all the time hate individuals who decide the choices others make. So it was additionally directed in the direction of individuals who go judgments.” This viewpoint was echoed in “Would?,” sung by Alice in Chains’ Layne Staley, who was additionally caught within the grips of heroin dependancy and died of an overdose in 2002. (Irwin)
12. Black Sabbath, “Hand of Doom”
From: Paranoid (1970)
Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler wrote “Hand of Doom” after the band performed an American military base in Germany and found that veterans had turned to medication to deal with the atrocities of the Vietnam Struggle. The music escalates from a haunting dirge to a full-blown steel assault because the tune’s protagonist barrels by way of the phases of dependancy, from tepid experimentation to lethal desperation. “Hand of Doom” is each a chilling, dynamic epic in regards to the horrors of dependancy and a full-throated denouncement of battle, making it a becoming companion to the Paranoid LP opener “Struggle Pigs.” (Rolli)
11. The Beatles, “All people’s Bought One thing to Conceal Besides Me and My Monkey”
From: The Beatles (1968)
John Lennon’s heroin dependancy was obvious to simply about everybody concerned within the Beatles circle by the late ’60s. Paul McCartney assumed that was the inspiration behind “All people’s Bought One thing to Conceal Aside from Me and My Monkey.” Lennon mentioned the tune was about how no person appeared to love his new companion, Yoko Ono. “All people gave the impression to be paranoid apart from us two, who have been within the glow of affection,” he as soon as famous. “Every part is obvious and open once you’re in love.” (Rapp)
10. Jane’s Dependancy, “Jane Says”
From: Jane’s Dependancy (1987)
Regardless that Perry Farrell and his bandmates have been commonly utilizing medication of their early years, it was another person’s heroin behavior that impressed the group’s signature tune. Jane Bainter was an Ivy League-educated girl who lived on the band’s commune-like home in Venice Seashore, Calif. A lot of Banister’s real-life struggles discovered their manner into the lyrics of “Jane Says”: “Jane says, “I am accomplished with Sergio” – Sergio was the title of Bainter’s vendor; “I’m gonna kick tomorrow” – Bainter commonly tried and did not give up medication. Whereas Bainter’s dependancy impressed the band’s title and their traditional tune, her wildness finally turned an excessive amount of for even the group. She was kicked out of the home, although years later she reportedly obtained clear and obtained her life on observe. (Irwin)
9. Crimson Scorching Chili Peppers, “Below the Bridge”
From: Blood Sugar Intercourse Magik (1991)
Not like a lot of Crimson Scorching Chili Peppers’ upbeat, funked-out songs, the 1992 hit “Below the Bridge” is a somber ballad that originated as a poem. It finds singer Anthony Kiedis reflecting on a rock-bottom second when, within the throes of heroin dependancy, he went to a seedy downtown Los Angeles location to attain. “I ended up going there with this gang member, and the one manner that I used to be allowed to go below this bridge was for him to inform all people else that I used to be getting married to his sister,” he defined to Rolling Stone. “You needed to be household to go there. That was one in all simply lots of of predicaments that I discovered myself in, the sort that solely drug dependancy can result in.” “Below the Bridge” stays the Crimson Scorching Chili Peppers’s greatest hit, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Scorching 100 and spurring the album Blood Sugar Intercourse Magik to greater than 7 million gross sales within the U.S. (Irwin)
8. David Bowie, “Ashes to Ashes”
From: Scary Monsters (and Tremendous Creeps) (1980)
Greater than a decade after David Bowie launched Main Tom into orbit with 1969’s “Area Oddity,” a message obtained beamed again to Floor Management. Bowie would clarify to NME in 1980 that “Ashes to Ashes” served a few functions, together with getting the BBC to play a document with the phrase “junkie” in it. He additionally wished to circle again to the optimism of “Area Oddity.” “I used to be a really pragmatic and self-opinionated lad that thought I knew all in regards to the nice American dream and the place it began and the place it ought to cease,” he mentioned. That dream did not come true for Main Tom: “Strung out in heaven’s excessive / Hitting an all-time low.” (Rapp)
7. The Black Crowes, “She Talks to Angels”
From: Shake Your Cash Maker (1990)
Singer Chris Robinson as soon as mentioned that “She Talks to Angels” was loosely primarily based on a “goth woman” he knew in Atlanta who was concerned with heroin, however many of the tune was written by himself and his brother Wealthy to signify so many younger folks the Black Crowes knew arising within the scene. “‘She Talks to Angels’ is a humorous tune in that so many individuals resonate with it,” Chris informed Songfacts in 2013. “The darkish particulars like medication and issues like that may be part of rising up and being on this world, however once I wrote that tune I had no concept – I hadn’t accomplished any of these issues. I hadn’t lived that – all the things was in my creativeness.” (Rapp)
5. (Tie) The Velvet Underground & Nico, “Heroin”
From: The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)
Most artists in 1967 have been writing about peace and love and different simply digestible ideas. Lou Reed was composing songs about scoring on avenue corners and the push of capturing up. “Heroin” does not dance across the topic. “Heroin, it is my spouse and it is my life,” he sings. “When the smack begins to movement, I actually do not care anymore.” It is scary, messy and actual. For greater than seven minutes, the Velvet Underground builds a wall of noise that comes crashing down by the observe’s finish. “Heroin” does not take a stance; it neither condones nor condemns. It simply presents. Brilliantly. (Gallucci)
5. (Tie) Iggy Pop, “Lust for Life”
From: Lust for Life (1977)
Iggy Pop was having fun with a artistic rebirth in 1977, because of David Bowie and a relocation to Germany, the place that 12 months’s two Pop albums, The Fool and Lust for Life, have been recorded. Each artists have been attempting to get clear of their new dwelling base as they made a few of the finest albums of their respective careers. Lust for Life‘s title observe, co-written and produced by Bowie, has turn into one in all Pop’s signature songs, shortly recognized by its opening drums and Pop’s informal learn of strains like “After all, I’ve had it in my ear earlier than,” a reference to capturing heroin. “Lust for Life”‘s topic has been diluted a bit over time from movie and TV use, however the darkish inspiration is obvious. (Gallucci)
4. U2, “Unhealthy”
From: The Unforgettable Hearth (1984)
U2’s fourth album, The Unforgettable Hearth, marks the primary large change within the band’s lifelong evolution cycle as they labored with producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois for the primary time, increasing into sonic landscapes that may outcome of their 1987 masterwork, The Joshua Tree. “Unhealthy” is one in all Hearth‘s key tracks, written about heroin dependancy and, relying on Bono’s various accounts, a good friend who died from an overdose or the drug’s prevalence in Dublin on the time. Both manner, the sluggish construct to the road “I am awake, I am not sleeping” nonetheless gives supposed catharsis. That is the place U2 first confirmed indicators of greatness. (Gallucci)
3. Weapons N’ Roses, “Mr. Brownstone”
From: Urge for food for Destruction (1987)
Heroin was the monkey on Weapons N’ Roses’ again from the band’s early days, finally resulting in drummer Steven Adler’s firing and Slash’s briefly deadly overdose. However earlier than they succumbed to their addictions, GNR made heroin sound like a harmful, decadent surprise drug on “Mr. Brownstone.” Even then, the writing was on the wall: “I used to do some however a bit of would not do it so the little obtained increasingly more,” Axl Rose croons over serpentine riffs and a slinky groove. When Weapons opened for the Rolling Stones in 1989, Rose used the tune as a part of his public ultimatum: “Until sure folks on this band get their shit collectively, these would be the final Weapons N’ Roses reveals you’ll fucking ever see — ‘trigger I’m bored with too many individuals on this group dancing with Mr. Goddamn Brownstone.” (Rolli)
2. John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band, “Chilly Turkey”
From: Single (1969)
John Lennon’s dependancy to heroin reached its peak in 1969, as he and Yoko Ono battled the drug. In the midst of that 12 months, not lengthy earlier than the Beatles break up up, Lennon obtained briefly clear, which he detailed in his 1969 single “Chilly Turkey.” Because the signs of withdrawal took their toll on him, Lennon wrote about his experiences, which obtained so extreme at occasions that he wished for demise. Within the final verse, Lennon guarantees to alter: “I will be a superb boy / Please make me properly / I promise you something / Get me out of this hell.” (Rapp)
1. Neil Younger, “The Needle and the Injury Executed”
From: Harvest (1972)
Neil Younger made a complete album about Loopy Horse bandmate Danny Whitten’s heroin-overdose demise in 1975’s Tonight’s the Evening. However a couple of years earlier he touched on the topic within the prophetic “The Needle and the Injury Executed” from his solely No. 1 LP, Harvest. The tune was in regards to the basic ravaging impact the drug had on folks, significantly rock artists within the post-Woodstock period. “Each junkie’s like a settin’ solar,” Younger sings of the inevitable risks. Just a little greater than 9 months after the discharge of Harvest, Whitten died, adopted by the demise of Younger’s roadie, Bruce Berry, additionally of a heroin overdose and the shared inspiration for Tonight’s the Evening. (Gallucci)