#082
Triple bill: 02 – Drogas
Esta seria sempre a sequencia lógica: love is the drug cantava Ferry, abalroado por um frenesi glam que faria suspirar toda a gente na “sala de chuto” onde até o Tintin tinha acabado num delirio opiáceo, “lótus azul / nada de novo”.
Junkies e dealers, mocados e reabilitados, agulhas e cachimbos à mistura numa reefer madness em que o perú é servido frio, as drogas até podem ser mote de inspiração para rendições de tristeza ou saudade, longing ou not belonging, pequenas distancias para enormes instancias de prazer que algumas canções nos ofereceram sem percebermos o inner turmoil do artista quando da gravação.
Senão ouça-se o clássico Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In), escrita por Mickey Newbury e préviamente gravada por Jerry Lee Lewis no album Soul My Way de 1967, no entanto a versão que escolhi é de longe a que ganhou maior notoriedade, pelos The First Edition de Kenny Rogers, perfeita banda sonora para a sequencia Gutterballs que os irmãos Coen fariam 30 anos mais tarde no filme The Big Lebowski. Ou a doce e perdida Esther Phillips com o tema Home is Where the Hatred is, escrito por outro poeta de garrote em riste, Gil Scott-Heron que no seu segundo LP contava a junkie walking through the twilight / I’m on my way home / I left three days ago, but no one seems to know I’m gone, num lamento que parecia ter ecos uns anos mais tarde em A Junkie’s Lament onde James Taylor descreve a sua própria dependência:
It’s halfway sick
And it’s halfway stoned
He’d sure like to kick
But it’s too far gone
They wind him down with the methadone
He’s all on his own
Ou então as quase cómicas e desbregadas alucinações de Un Éléphant Me Regarde onde o francês nascido em Madagascar Pierre Antoine Muraccioli diz-nos que La fumée dans les yeux, un éléphant me regarde / J’ai la tête qui part / Les couleurs ne sentent plus rien. Depois de duas décadas como cantor Antoine encerrou para sempre essas funções artísticas para se dedicar a viajar pelo mundo. Esperto o rapaz. Ou então foi atrás dos conselhos de um certo paquiderme…
Poderia ter arrumado tudo por tipo de estupefacientes mas decidi não o fazer, não é fixe nem digno tentar neste caso dourar a pílula, isto é afinal um assunto “sujo”, não tem direito a grandes arrumações. Mesmo assim denote-se uma sequencia de três canções dedicadas ao tema da maldita cocaína: Grandmaster Flash com os seus Cinco Furiosos a invocar White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It); Hold Back the Rain que mostra a preocupação de Simon Lebon por John Taylor, seu colega baixista nos Duran Duran e finalizada em Cocaine Blues por Johnny Cash num famoso concerto gravado na Folsom State Prison.
Disseminada pelas quarenta escolhas umas quantas sementes de boa maconha: os Cypress Hill com Hits from the Bong; Rick James e Mary Jane; Because I Got High de Afroman e Legalize It por Peter Tosh ou ainda Devin the Dude que em Doobie Ashtray levanta a pertinente questão:
What you gonna do when the people go home
And you want to smoke weed but the reefer’s all gone
And somebody had the nerve to take the herb up out the doobie ashtray
Deixei de lado algumas coisas óbvias, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds dos Beatles ou Mother’s Little Helper dos Stones (esta já entrou numa outra m4we) mas em contrapartida escolhi outras tão stoners que até causam munchies. Lou Reed numa versão embriónica do seu Waiting for my Man, editada recentemente numa soberba edição que compila demos gravados por ele e John Cale e que ficaram guardados numa fita de 5” guardada durante 52 anos nos escritórios da Sister Ray Enterprises Inc e que em 2017 foi comprada pela New York Public Library e rapidamente enviada para masterização. Ou os mexicanos Los Cuates De Sinaloa com Negro Y Azul, tornado famoso pela sua utilização no sétimo episódio da segunda temporada de Breaking Bad e que enverga o titulo da canção:
Dicen que es color azul
Y que es pura calidad
Esa droga poderosa
que circula en la ciudad
Y los dueños de la plaza
no la pudieron parar
Principio e fim são esta semana como causa e consequência. Começo com o clássico Pusherman da banda sonora do filme Super Fly, onde Curtis Mayfield descreve o traficante de drogas como um empresário, almejando uma melhor vida para si mesmo. Ain’t I clean, bad machine, super cool, super mean, canta o autor para mostrar o exterior de durão do personagem, mas sugere que o dealer é tanto vítima quanto vilão, “um homem de estranha circunstância, uma vítima das exigências do gueto.”
Acabo com Rehab (The Reflex Booty Revision) de Amy Winehouse, poster girl do desnorteio e infelicidade. A 14 de agosto de 2007, Winehouse deu entrada no The Causeway Retreat, um centro de reabilitação em Essex com seu novo marido (também ele junkie), Blake Fielder, numa ideia muito pouco deontológica, qualquer especialista na matéria admitirá que um casal reabilitar-se junto no mesmo local é uma má ideia, mas The Causeway não era uma instituição ética e foi fechada uns anos mais tarde.
O documentário Amy mostra a dado momento Fielder atormentando Winehouse, colando uma câmera de vídeo ao seu rosto e pedindo que ela cante “a nova versão atualizada de ‘Rehab'”, numa obvia piada de mau gosto. Ela, claro, recusa-se.
Nos Grammy do ano seguinte Rehab ganhou nas categorias de Song Of The Year, Female Pop Vocal Performance e Record Of The Year, sendo Winehouse ainda galardoada com o prêmio de Best New Artist. A cantora ainda fez mais algumas passagens por clinicas de reabilitação mas não teve lá grande sucesso, sendo encontrada morta na sua casa em Londres a 23 de julho de 2011.
A história da pop está profundamente entrelaçada com narcóticos de todos os tipos: musicos opinando sobre as alegrias e os perigos de erva, coca, de quando se vai atrás do dragão ou quando se sente o conforto de uma luz branca num calor alvo, numa série de aparatos e peripécias narcóticas. Muitas dessas músicas abordam temas sombrios, populares entre as gerações mais jovens que muitas vezes ouvem musica à procura de respostas às suas dúvidas. Embora muitas dessas músicas se baseiem em temas de depressão e alienação, desespero ou sofrimento isso não significa que não tenham um inerente sentido de esperança. Embora algumas pessoas considerem algumas dessas letras como sendo um tanto ou quanto controversas são vozes que falam abertamente sobre a dor causada pelo abuso de qualquer tipo de substância e podem ajudar quem as ouve a lidar com uma situação semelhante. E isso, meus amigos, é afinal o reluzir da pílula.
#staysafe #musicfortheweekend
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This would always be the logical sequence: love is the drug sang Ferry, slammed into a glam frenzy that would make everyone sigh in the “kick room” where even Tintin had ended up in an opiate delirium, it was just like Reininho used to say “lotus azul / nada de novo”.
Junkies and dealers, stoned and rehabilitated, needles and pipes mixed in a reefer madness in which the turkey is served cold, drugs can even be a dictum of inspiration for surrendering to sadness or nostalgia, longing or not belonging, small distances for huge instances of pleasure that some songs offered us without realising the artist’s inner turmoil when recording such pop statements.
Otherwise, listen to the classic Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In), written by Mickey Newbury and previously recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis on the 1967 album Soul My Way, however the version I chose is by far the one that gained greater notoriety, played by Kenny Rogers’ The First Edition, the most perfect soundtrack for the Gutterballs sequence that the Coen brothers would make 30 years later in the movie The Big Lebowski. Or the sweet and lost Esther Phillips with the song Home is Where the Hatred is, written by another poet with a “golden arm”, Gil Scott-Heron who in his second LP sung junkie walking through the twilight / I’m on my way home / I left three days ago, but no one seems to know I’m gone, in a lament that seemed to be echoed a few years later in A Junkie’s Lament where James Taylor describes his own addiction:
It’s halfway sick
And it’s halfway stoned
He’d sure like to kick
But it’s too far gone
They wind him down with the methadone
He’s all on his own
Or the almost comical and unbridled hallucinations of Un Éléphant Me Regarde where the Frenchman born in Madagascar Pierre Antoine Muraccioli tells us that la fumée dans les yeux, un éléphant me regarde / J’ai la tête qui part / Les couleurs ne sentent plus rien. After two decades as a singer, Antoine ended his artistic duties forever to dedicate himself on traveling the world. Smart boy. Or maybe he took advice from a certain pachyderm…
I could have arranged everything by type of narcotics but I decided not to, it’s not cool or worthy to try to gild the pill in this case, this is after all a “dirty” matter, it doesn’t have the space for big desires of tidiness. Even so, there is a sequence of three songs dedicated to the maldita cocaina theme: it starts with Grandmaster Flash with his Furious Five invoking White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It); goes to Hold Back the Rain showing Simon Lebon’s concern for John Taylor, his fellow bassist in Duran Duran and ends in Cocaine Blues by Johnny Cash in one of his most famous concert recorded at Folsom State Prison.
Spread throughout the forty songs a few seeds of good marijuana: Cypress Hill with Hits from the Bong; Rick James and Mary Jane; Because I Got High by Afroman and Legalize It by Peter Tosh or even Devin the Dude who in Doobie Ashtray raises quite a pertinent question:
What you gonna do when the people go home
And you want to smoke weed but the reefer’s all gone
And somebody had the nerve to take the herb up out the doobie ashtray
I left out loads of obvious stuff, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds by the Beatles or Mother’s Little Helper by the Stones (this one has already appeared in another m4we) but on the other hand I chose others so heavily for stoners that they may even bring you the munchies. Lou Reed in an embryonic version of his Waiting for my Man, recently put out in a superb edition that compiles demos recorded by him and John Cale and which were kept on a 5” tape locked for 52 years in the offices of Sister Ray Enterprises Inc and that in 2017 were purchased by the New York Public Library and quickly sent for mastering. Or the Mexican Los Cuates De Sinaloa with Negro Y Azul, made famous by its use in the seventh episode of the second season of Breaking Bad which bears the title of the song:
Dicen que es color azul
Y que es pura calidad
Esa droga poderosa
que circula en la ciudad
Y los dueños de la plaza
no la pudieron parar
Beginning and end are this week as cause and effect. I start with the classic Pusherman from the soundtrack to the movie Super Fly, where Curtis Mayfield describes the drug dealer as a businessman, aiming for a better life for himself. Ain’t I clean, bad machine, super cool, super mean, sings the author to show the character’s tough exterior, while suggesting that the dealer is both victim and villain, “a man of strange circumstance, a victim of the demands of the ghetto”.
I end up with Rehab (The Reflex Booty Revision) by Amy Winehouse, poster girl of bewilderment and unhappiness. On August 14, 2007, Winehouse entered The Causeway Retreat, a rehabilitation center in Essex with her new husband (also a junkie), Blake Fielder, not a very deontological idea, any expert in this matter would tell you that a rehabilitating couple getting together in the same place is a very bad idea, but The Causeway was not an ethical institution and it was shut a few years later.
The documentary Amy at one point shows Fielder tormenting Winehouse, taping a video camera to her face and asking her to sing “the new updated version of ‘Rehab'”, in an obvious bad joke. She, of course, refuses.
At the Grammys the following year, Rehab won in the categories of Song Of The Year, Female Pop Vocal Performance and Record Of The Year, and Winehouse was also awarded the award for Best New Artist. The singer still made a few more stints in rehab clinics but didn’t have much success there, being found dead at her home in London on July 23, 2011.
Pop history is deeply intertwined with narcotics of all kinds: musicians opining about the joys and dangers of weed, coke, chasing the dragon or feeling the comfort of white light in white heat, in a series of episodic narco-shenanigans. Many of these songs tackle dark themes, popular among younger generations who often listen to music looking for answers to their questions. While many of these songs are based around themes of depression and alienation, despair or suffering that doesn’t mean they don’t have an inherent sense of hope. Although some people find some of these lyrics to be somewhat controversial, they are voices that speak openly about the pain caused by substance abuse of any kind and can help those who hear them deal with a similar situation. And that, my friends, is after all the glittery “goldening” of the pill.
#staysafe #musicfortheweekend
Curtis Mayfield – Pusherman
The First Edition – Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)
Cypress Hill – Hits from the Bong
Esther Phillips – Home is Where the Hatred is
Lou Reed – I’m Waiting for the Man (May 1965 Demo)
MGMT – Time to Pretend
Blur – Beetlebum
Rick James – Mary Jane
De La Soul – My Brother’s A Basehead
Steely Dan – Kid Charlemagne
Afroman – Because I Got High
John Holt – Police In Helicopter
The Dandy Warhols – Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five ft. Melle Mel & Duke Bootee – White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It)
Duran Duran – Hold Back the Rain
Johnny Cash – Cocaine Blues (Live at Folsom State Prison, Folsom, CA – January 1968)
Os Fabulosos Irmãos Catita – Drogado
Juliane Werding – Am Tag als Conny Kramer starb
Fleetwood Mac – Gold Dust Woman
Ringo Starr – No No Song
Laid Back – White Horse (U.S. Edit)
Antoine – Un Éléphant Me Regarde
Peter Tosh – Legalize It
Lana Del Rey – High By The Beach
Los Cuates De Sinaloa – Negro Y Azul
Style Council – A Man of Great Promise
Talking Heads – And She Was
Allah-Las – Stoned
Elliott Smith – Needle In The Hay
The La’s – There She Goes
Small Faces – Here Comes the Nice
Paul Revere & The Raiders – Kicks
Devin the Dude – Doobie Ashtray
Primal Scream – Higher Than the Sun
James Taylor – A Junkie’s Lament
The Black Crowes – She Talks To Angels
Bob Dylan – Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
Humble Pie – 30 Days In The Hole
Jefferson Airplane – White Rabbit
Amy Winehouse – Rehab (The Reflex Booty Revision)