Musicians who never take drugs

[danny la rouge]

I've been known to snap at people who listen to my music and say, 'you're really gifted' or words to that effect. No, I'm not fucking gifted. I started out ham-fisted and tone deaf and I put in a shitload of work over many years. What talent I may have, I fucking well earned

Exactly.

Fortunately for Louis Armstrong, there are no recordings from before he'd put in the work. Unfortunately for John Coltrane, there are. There's some stuff he recorded in 1945 when he was in the navy. And it turns out he wasn't "born with it". Like everyone else, he started off unable to play, then learned.

Similarly, Robert Johnson didn't make a deal with the Devil; he went off and practised a lot.

 

[Belushi]

Similarly, Robert Johnson didn't make a deal with the Devil; he went off and practised a lot.

Well, that's one 'theory'

 

[rutabowa]

drugs make bands and musicians boring (except speed).

 

[rutabowa]

There is no Beatles music made before they got into drugs. They were into speed when they first hit the charts.

ah just read this, more confirmation.

 

[Belushi]

drugs make bands and musicians boring (except speed).

and speed makes you mental after a bit

 

[rutabowa]

and speed makes you mental after a bit

NO IT DOESNT

 

[rutabowa]

no it doesn't

 

[Belushi]

NO IT DOESNT

WHY HAVE MY HANDS TURNED BLUE!

 

[rutabowa]

I can't remember last time I had speed actualy but I know it was GREAT

 

[Belushi]

It's the comedown that forced me to stop the amphetamines, top of the world when I was on it..

 

[Kaka Tim]

Theres a definite relationship between certain music genres and drugs.

Speed cleary suited the early brit pop bands mantain their energy and often gruelling live schedule - the beatles developed their early sound by playing marathon sets in the reeperbahn feuled by speed, and the early who are a compelling sonic advert for copious amphetamine consumption. See also - punk. with nobs on.

Smack, LSD, MDMA have all helped shaped some great music.

Coacine has also heavily influence a lot of music - unfortunately in the shape of rumours era fleetwoood mac and the eagles.

This doesn't mean you have to take drugs to make good music - or even good druggy music. And there plenty of examples of easy access to the strong stuff fucking up promising careers (sometimes fatally) or
leading artists to disappear up their own arse.

And nobody plays well whilst off their tits. Or pissed.

 

[Belushi]

I'd like that apart from this line

unfortunately in the shape of rumours era fleetwoood mac

 

[peterkro]

And nobody plays well whilst off their tits. Or pissed.

He may be the exception the proves the rule but I saw Davy Graham playing in London yonks ago he was so out of it he actually thought he was doing a concert in Paris.He may not have been in top form but it was still amazingly good.

 

[porno thieving gypsy]

Amazingly Mark Archer of Altern 8 fame wasn't popping any pills during those rave heydays! http://www.theransomnote.co.uk/music/gone-rave/gone-to-a-rave-mark-archer-altern-8

"I got offered it loads of times, but never did it"

 

[isvicthere?]

And nobody plays well whilst off their tits. Or pissed.

On a documentary about the '60s, a musician (I think it was from Country Joe and the Fish) said he was playing bass while on acid, and it proved difficult to manipulate strings which appeared to him three inches thick.

 

[Kaka Tim]

He may be the exception the proves the rule but I saw Davy Graham playing in London yonks ago he was so out of it he actually thought he was doing a concert in Paris.He may not have been in top form but it was still amazingly good.

was that drugs though? I understood he'd always suffered from quite severe mental health problems.

 

[peterkro]

was that drugs though? I understood he'd always suffered from quite severe mental health problems.

Possibly however he was a big heroin user at least up to the late seventies (when I saw him) he was a registered addict in the sixties when heroin was thin on the ground in the UK.It appears he deliberately set out to become a user as that's what lots of his heroes did.By all accounts a very odd man but an unsurpassed guitarist.(if he wasn't on H when I saw him he was doing a master performance of someone who was)

 

[billy_bob]

Hicks makes a fair point though, which is all the beatles groundbreaking material was a direct result of their drug taking - up to that point they were the Westlife of their day

And from that point on, they were Westlife but thought they were William Burroughs. Even worse.

 

[billy_bob]

Similarly, Robert Johnson didn't make a deal with the Devil; he went off and practised a lot.

He may not have made a deal with the Devil, but you're going to have to put forward some more convincing evidence for it than that. Rush probably practise a lot - it's not enough.

 

[rutabowa]

I like robert johnson as much as the next person but the idea that he was some superhuman guitarist who could only have made a pact with the devil to be that good is kind of silly... there were other guitarists at the same time who did much more technically difficult stuff.

 

[rutabowa]

beating robert johnson aged 70 and on a 12 string

 

[Idaho]

There is a great book about the whole 1960s blues man myth.

 

[danny la rouge]

He may not have made a deal with the Devil, but you're going to have to put forward some more convincing evidence for it than that. Rush probably practise a lot - it's not enough.

We're talking about two different types of "it" here. Being a proficient musician or being an interesting musician. Johnson is both, in my opinion, whereas Rush are only the former.

This goes back to the initial topic. I have no idea whether Rush took drugs. But whether they did or not, I find their music dull.

 

[danny la rouge]

I like robert johnson as much as the next person but the idea that he was some superhuman guitarist who could only have made a pact with the devil to be that good is kind of silly... there were other guitarists at the same time who did much more technically difficult stuff.

Yeah, but I think the Johnson story came from the fact that he was known around the juke joints by folk like Son House and was just OK. Then the next time they saw him (18 months later) he was a great deal better. Wow. What could possibly have happened for him to improve so much?

That and once the legend started it was a cool one to keep going, so your gigs would be packed.

 

[Idaho]

Yeah, but I think the Johnson story came from the fact that he was known around the juke joints by folk like Son House and was just OK. Then the next time they saw him (18 months later) he was a great deal better. Wow. What could possibly have happened for him to improve so much?

That and once the legend started it was a cool one to keep going, so your gigs would be packed.

He was virtually unheard of during his lifetime. His career was manufactured in the 60s.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Escaping-Delta-Robert-Johnson-Invention/dp/0060524278

 

[killer b]

Wasn't even the sold his soul to the devil bit manufactured? I'm sure I remember someone saying that was robbed from another less famous bluesman...

 

[killer b]

He was virtually unheard of during his lifetime. His career was manufactured in the 60s.

Isn't this true of loads of the blues canon? I think the shape of the recorded music market - especially the recorded music market aimed at african americans - was much more localised in the 1920s: most artists only had local success first time around.

 

[danny la rouge]

He was virtually unheard of during his lifetime. His career was manufactured in the 60s.

Indeed. I'm not sure if you think you're contradicting me or not, it's hard to tell.

But I'm aware that in his lifetime he, as with most Delta blues players, was known only in a small number of very local and makeshift venues in the plantations, and his records sold in very small numbers. Had he lived, the white college boys who collected the very rare 78s would have tracked him down and put him on in coffee shops just like Mississippi John Hurt and Son House. That would have been his first taste of fame in the sense we now know it.

 

[rutabowa]

I think i remember reading somewhere that if you got to put out records in those days then it pretty much meant you were relatively popular... not miley cyrus popular but you were doing alright.

 

[rutabowa]

Like there were lots and lots of juke players who never put out records, so those the few that did were pretty much stars.