Medication and rock music have an extended historical past, and it goes past the “intercourse, medication, rock ‘n roll” cliche.
One of the frequent, and tragically most harmful, narcotics have been heroin. Many artists have written songs concerning the powerfully addictive drug. Their tales run the gamut of the junkie expertise.
We have collected the Prime 30 Heroin Songs under. They embody all the pieces from sellers to overdoses, euphoric highs to rock bottoms, and all the pieces in between.
30. (Tie) Little Feat, “China White”
From: Hoy-Hoy! (1981)
Two years after Little Feat broke up after founder Lowell George’s dying, they assembled an album of alternate variations and unreleased materials on Hoy-Hoy! A spotlight, “China White,” was a music George demoed within the early ’70s. As many different songs have accomplished, “China White” (a heroin nickname) personifies medication as a girl. “My candy China White / She ain’t right here tonight / And love has robbed me blind,” George sings over a blues lilt within the music’s refrain. As soulful because the observe is, it additionally comes with tragic irony: George’s dying 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 music was written on the flip of the ’70s, so it is secure to imagine which battle he is referring to. Like many vets, the music’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 troublesome it’s to be again on the road, and the way troublesome it’s to simply accept freedom when you get used to residing incarcerated,” Prine, who served within the Military in Germany through the Vietnam Struggle, as soon as advised 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 had been full of 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 grew to become a fan favourite. Working greater than 10 minutes, the sprawling, psychedelic music ebbs and flows by way of moments of exuberant vitality and quiet reflection. Its topic by no means acquired to witness the music’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 accustomed to the perils of heroin habit by 1990, having dropped off the 1988 Monsters of Rock tour so bassist David Ellefson might enter rehab. (Dave Mustaine adopted go well with 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 stuffed with dizzying time signature modifications and carpal tunnel-inducing solos. Mustaine displays on his habit 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 evening 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 robust the maintain of heroin could possibly be; her former boyfriend James Taylor’s drug utilization had reached harmful ranges firstly of the ’70s. In 1972, Mitchell described “Chilly Blue Metal and Candy Hearth” as “an actual paranoid metropolis music — stalking the streets on the lookout for a vendor.” The music’s lyrics mirror the futile feeling of habit: “You may 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 dying.” The 1975 music, which opened and closed the traditional album of the identical identify, was impressed by Bruce Berry, a roadie for Younger who died of a heroin overdose. The lyrics point out Berry by identify, chronicling his life and eventual dying “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 advised 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 inspecting his street to fame. Within the center of the music, Taylor addresses his struggles with habit 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 acquired 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 have simply acquired 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 some other manner.” “Hearth and Rain” peaked at No. 3. (Irwin)
24. James Brown, “King Heroin”
From: There It Is (1972)
“I wanna discuss to you about certainly one of our most threatening killers within the nation immediately,” James Brown says on the high of “King Heroin.” A lot of the lyrics had 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 music’s relaxed groove, the lyrics emphasize the violence heroin induces, whereas affecting the lives of everybody from “heads of state” to “kids at play.” Brown even added just a few strains. “It is 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 commercial group Ministry had been deep into substance abuse through 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 useless than alive.” “I am Ready for the Man” was certainly one of 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 cope with Verve Information. 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 Residence 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 frequent 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 concerning 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’s going to 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 habit, 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 last 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 music rife with sorrow and remorse. (Rolli)
19. 9 Inch Nails, “Damage”
From: The Downward Spiral (1994)
Maybe no music in historical past has so precisely described the internal workings of a junkie as “Damage,” 9 Inch Nails’ 1995 traditional. The music opens with a robust verse: “I harm myself immediately / 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 outdated acquainted sting / Attempt to kill all of it away / However I keep in mind all the pieces.” From there, the observe ventures additional into darkness, with Trent Reznor questioning what he’s develop into. He wrote “Damage” earlier than he grew to become an addict. “It was in my head. I hadn’t really lived it,” he defined to Uncut in 2005. “Then later I lived it. I did not understand the report was a premonition.” (Irwin)
18. Billy Joel, “Captain Jack”
From: Piano Man (1973)
Billy Joel’s 1973 music “Captain Jack” wasn’t impressed by heroin however moderately by a vendor he noticed promoting the drug to teenagers at a housing mission close to his Lengthy Island dwelling. “What’s so horrible about an prosperous younger white teenager’s life that he is acquired to shoot heroin?” the singer contemplated in Billy Joel: The Definitive Biography. “It is actually a music about what I think about to be a pathetic loser form of life-style. I have been accused of, ‘Oh, this music promotes drug use and masturbation.’ No, no, no. Hearken to the music. 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 report 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 pieces was effective. “Interstate Love Track” grew to become one of the in style 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 through the making of Women, Women, Women, and “Dancing on Glass” particulars his habit 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, acquired smashed with a baseball bat by Hanoi Rocks guitarist Andy McCoy in a failed resuscitation try and was left for useless in a dumpster behind the vendor’s residence. Sixx would fatally overdose once more lower than two years later, main him to lastly get sober and provoking “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 quite a bit to do with his actual life on the time. The music’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 music’s darkish topic – masked in mariachi flavors and a hummable refrain – hasn’t stored it from being a preferred cowl music 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 might write a greater music concerning the drug. The consequence was “Chinese language Rock,” named after a slang time period Ramone and his buddies used for the narcotic. For the music’s lyrics, the Ramones’ bassist mined tales from his day by 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 high of the ’90s, lots of the space’s acts grew to become 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 grew to become irritated that everybody targeted on his dying moderately than his life. “Andy was a hilarious man, vigorous, 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 at all times hate individuals who choose the choices others make. So it was additionally directed in direction of individuals who move judgments.” This viewpoint was echoed in “Would?,” sung by Alice in Chains’ Layne Staley, who was additionally caught within the grips of heroin habit 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 metallic assault because the music’s protagonist barrels by way of the levels of habit, from tepid experimentation to lethal desperation. “Hand of Doom” is each a chilling, dynamic epic concerning the horrors of habit and a full-throated denouncement of struggle, making it a becoming companion to the Paranoid LP opener “Struggle Pigs.” (Rolli)
11. The Beatles, “All people’s Received One thing to Cover Besides Me and My Monkey”
From: The Beatles (1968)
John Lennon’s heroin habit was obvious to only about everybody concerned within the Beatles circle by the late ’60s. Paul McCartney assumed that was the inspiration behind “All people’s Received One thing to Cover Aside from Me and My Monkey.” Lennon mentioned the music was about how no one appeared to love his new associate, Yoko Ono. “All people gave the impression to be paranoid aside from us two, who had been within the glow of affection,” he as soon as famous. “Every part is obvious and open if you’re in love.” (Rapp)
10. Jane’s Dependancy, “Jane Says”
From: Jane’s Dependancy (1987)
Despite the fact that Perry Farrell and his bandmates had been commonly utilizing medication of their early years, it was another person’s heroin behavior that impressed the group’s signature music. Jane Bainter was an Ivy League-educated lady who lived on the band’s commune-like home in Venice Seashore, Calif. Lots 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 identify of Bainter’s vendor; “I’m gonna kick tomorrow” – Bainter commonly tried and didn’t stop medication. Whereas Bainter’s habit impressed the band’s identify and their traditional music, her wildness finally grew to become an excessive amount of for even the group. She was kicked out of the home, although years later she reportedly acquired clear and acquired her life on observe. (Irwin)
9. Pink Sizzling Chili Peppers, “Below the Bridge”
From: Blood Sugar Intercourse Magik (1991)
Not like a lot of Pink Sizzling 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 habit, 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 underneath 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 certainly one of simply tons of of predicaments that I discovered myself in, the type that solely drug habit can result in.” “Below the Bridge” stays the Pink Sizzling Chili Peppers’s greatest hit, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Sizzling 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 acquired 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 report with the phrase “junkie” in it. He additionally needed 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 concerning 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 based mostly on a “goth lady” he knew in Atlanta who was concerned with heroin, however a lot of the music was written by himself and his brother Wealthy to characterize so many younger individuals the Black Crowes knew developing within the scene. “‘She Talks to Angels’ is a humorous music in that so many individuals resonate with it,” Chris advised Songfacts in 2013. “The darkish particulars like medication and issues like that will be part of rising up and being on this world, however once I wrote that music I had no concept – I hadn’t accomplished any of these issues. I hadn’t lived that – all the pieces was in my creativeness.” (Rapp)
5. (Tie) The Velvet Underground & Nico, “Heroin”
From: The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)
Most artists in 1967 had been writing about peace and love and different simply digestible ideas. Lou Reed was composing songs about scoring on avenue corners and the frenzy of capturing up. “Heroin” would not dance across the topic. “Heroin, it is my spouse and it is my life,” he sings. “When the smack begins to circulation, 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” would 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, due to David Bowie and a relocation to Germany, the place that 12 months’s two Pop albums, The Fool and Lust for Life, had been recorded. Each artists had been making an attempt to get clear of their new dwelling base as they made a number of the finest albums of their respective careers. Lust for Life‘s title observe, co-written and produced by Bowie, has develop into certainly one of Pop’s signature songs, shortly recognized by its opening drums and Pop’s informal learn of strains like “In fact, 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 massive 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 will consequence of their 1987 masterwork, The Joshua Tree. “Unhealthy” is certainly one of Hearth‘s key tracks, written about heroin habit 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 wakeful, I am not sleeping” nonetheless supplies meant 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 marvel drug on “Mr. Brownstone.” Even then, the writing was on the wall: “I used to do some however just a little would not do it so the little acquired increasingly,” Axl Rose croons over serpentine riffs and a slinky groove. When Weapons opened for the Rolling Stones in 1989, Rose used the music as a part of his public ultimatum: “Until sure individuals 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 habit 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 cut up up, Lennon acquired 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 acquired so extreme at instances that he wished for dying. Within the final verse, Lennon guarantees to vary: “I will be a great boy / Please make me nicely / I promise you something / Get me out of this hell.” (Rapp)
1. Neil Younger, “The Needle and the Injury Achieved”
From: Harvest (1972)
Neil Younger made a whole album about Loopy Horse bandmate Danny Whitten’s heroin-overdose dying in 1975’s Tonight’s the Evening. However just a few years earlier he touched on the topic within the prophetic “The Needle and the Injury Achieved” from his solely No. 1 LP, Harvest. The music was concerning the basic ravaging impact the drug had on individuals, notably rock artists within the post-Woodstock period. “Each junkie’s like a settin’ solar,” Younger sings of the inevitable risks. A bit of greater than 9 months after the discharge of Harvest, Whitten died, adopted by the dying of Younger’s roadie, Bruce Berry, additionally of a heroin overdose and the shared inspiration for Tonight’s the Evening. (Gallucci)
