Bad Things, Man

01. Johnny Cash, “Cocaine Blues”
Rick James said it best: “Cocaine is a hell of a drug!” This really is the sound of someone holding on to life with his teeth and fingernails, the white devil on one shoulder being drowned out by the even bigger white devil on the other shoulder. Gotta say, it doesn’t sound like a lot of fun.

02. Debbie Harry, “Rush Rush”
When this subject came up, I originally noodled with the idea of coming up with a list of “hey, drugs really aren’t that bad” songs. Songs that support Renton’s rationale in “Trainspotting”; that they wouldn’t do drugs if they didn’t feel good - I mean they’re stupid but they’re not that stupid… But my heart really wasn’t in it. I’ve had a bit too much personal experience with young people having fun turning into older people bound by liquid handcuffs. So this song from the “Scarface” soundtrack is the only “drugs are fun” song to survive. Ah the 1980s…

03. Jeffrey Lewis, “No LSD Tonight”
This is a lighthearted version of the kind of problem people like The Sex Pistols and Sublime used to have: they’d built up such a public image of “hey we love getting high” that it was impossible to get the “hey we’re dying, stop giving us drugs” memo through to their fans. Part of the problem of course is keeping up that image, not wanting to “disappoint” their fans by saying “y’know, you think you’re doing us a favor, but if you’re really a fan maybe you might consider not trying to kill us!”

04. Travesty, Ltd., “Rock & Roll Doctor”
A hilarious bit from the Doctor Demento show, harkening back to the Cheech & Chong / Led Zeppelin late-70s sex-and-drugs-and-rock-n-roll scene.

05. Frick & Frack, “You Shouldn’t Have Done It”
Right from hip-hop’s genesis, rappers wrote songs dealing with the real-life drug problems they saw around them every day. At the beginning you had stuff like “White Lines” or “King Heroin”, but soon came the urban plague of crack. Suddenly you just couldn’t write a rap song without commenting on how crack was destroying lives left and right. There are better known anti-crack songs, such as MC Shan’s “Another One To Get Jealous Of” or Shinehead’s “Gimme No Crack”, but I’ve chosen a lesser-known slice of vinyl, another cautionary tale from the hip-hop stable of producer Marley Marl.

06. Unified Theory, “Wither”
One of the most poignant songs about the fallout from drug abuse, this is the surviving members of Blind Melon eulogizing Shannon Hoon, while also commenting on the frustration they felt watching it happen.

07. The Durutti Column (featuring Eley Rudge), “The Drinking Song”
“Why do you do this, there’s easier ways to die”. Though about alcohol abuse, this unfortunately applies equally well to those afflicted by addictions of any kind.

08. The Onion Radio News, “Ritalin”
Okay well I guess there still is a lighter side to drugs…

Download: Johnny Cash, “Cocaine Blues” (mp3)
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Download: Debbie Harry, “Rush Rush” (mp3)
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Download: Jeffrey Lewis, “No LSD Tonight” (mp3)
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Download: Travesty, Ltd., “Rock & Roll Doctor” (mp3)
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Download: Frick & Frack, “You Shouldn’t Have Done It” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: Unified Theory, “Wither” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: The Durutti Column (featuring Eley Rudge), “The Drinking Song” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: The Onion Radio News, “Ritalin” (mp3)
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Download a handy ZIP of all of the songs:

Download: Bad Things, Man (ZIP)
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