• TDS Moderators: AlphaMethylPhenyl | Eligiu | deficiT

Your favorite songs about addiction.

A few off the top of my head...

Lou Reed - Perfect Day
Placebo - My Sweet Prince (check this out if you haven't heard it)
Sublime - Pool Shark
 
Neil Young - The Needle and the Damage Done.

The line "every junkie's like a setting sun..."
 
Speed Trials-Elliott Smith
"You're such a pinball, yeah, you know it's true,
there's always something you come back running to,
to follow the path of no resistance"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXsHTdUKDGg

Elliott Smith is my favorite. There are a lot of of references to addiction in his songs like "Twilight":

"You don't deserve to be lonely, but those drugs you got won't make you feel better. Pretty soon you'll find it's the only little part of your life you're keeping together."

That is too true. Drugs become your entire world.

"Strung Out Again" is another great one by Elliott about addiction:

"I know my place
Hate my face
I know how I begin
And how I'll end
Strung out again."

I also like the song "Big Decision" when he says:

"Why you want what I cannot be? You know I won't stay sober?.....
I know you're not through with it yet, it's a big decision you can't kick when you're down."

Elliott is brilliant. He really knew how to describe addiction well. There is a sense of relief because someone else understands. You wouldn't understand some of his songs unless you're an addict. He talks about "The white lady loves you more." The white lady is cocaine I'm guessing, though I've never done that. But as an addict you really "get" his music. It hits you too hard.
 
They tried to make me go to rehab
I said, no, no, no
Yes, I been black
But when I come back, you'll know, know, know
I ain't got the time
And if my daddy thinks I'm fine
He's tried to make me go to rehab
I won't go, go, go

I'd rather be at home with a Ray
I ain't got seventy days
'Cause there's nothing, there's nothing you can teach me
That I can't learn from Mr. Hathaway

I didn't get a lot in class
But I know we don't come in a shot glass

They tried to make me go to rehab
I said, "no, no, no"
Yes, I been black
But when I come back, you'll know, know, know
I ain't got the time
And if my daddy thinks I'm fine
He's tried to make me go to rehab
I won't go, go, go

The man said, "why do you think you here?
I said, I got no idea.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna lose my baby
So I always keep a bottle near
He said, I just think you're depressed
This, me, yeah, baby, and the rest

They tried to make me go to rehab
But I said, no, no, no
Yes, I been black
But when I come back, you'll know, know, know

I don't ever want to drink again
I just, oh, I just need a friend
I'm not gonna spend ten weeks
Have everyone think I'm on the mend

And it's not just my pride
It's just till these tears have dried

They tried to make me go to rehab
I said, no, no, no
Yes, I been black
But when I come back, you'll know, know, know
I ain't got the time
And if my daddy thinks I'm fine
He's tried to make me go to rehab
I won't go, go, go


Amy should have went to rehab. </3

Her daddy said she's fine, but wanted her in Rehab. (???)
 
And Anthony Green's "When I'm on pills"


Just when I thought maybe I've done something right,
She goes and falls apart.
All the low moments make life seem unbearable at times.
Its the highs that keep us alive.
I love you,
Oh I love you...

When I'm on pills, when I'm on pills.
I love you, I love you
When I'm on pills.

There are days we go from love to war too fast, you know...
And I know it's not your fault.
There's an ancient curse inside my blood that tricks my brain to say this
It tells me all the biggest fraud
I love you,
I try to...

When I'm on pills, when I'm on pills
I love you, I love you,
When I'm on pills

How much is enough of it?
How much is too much of it?
Oh, I don't wanna end up dead.
How much is too much of it?
I love you, I'll die trying to...

When I'm on pills, when I'm on pills,
When I'm on pills, when I'm on pills.
I love you, I love you.
When I'm on pills, on pills...
 
Mr.brownstone guns n roses was my song when I used to abuse gear I still can't listen without getting cravings
 
Perhaps a very obvious choice but Heroin by The Velvet Underground. It just epitomizes heroin and the love/hate relationship that comes with it. Not just the lyrics, even the sound feels like heroin rushing to your brain.
 
Hey they make sense to me

1.Bon Iver-Skinny Love (when I'm depressed of course) (i.e. no remedies available)
My interpretation of skinny love is as follows:the song was written about himself, in his addiction, and his girlfriend being desperate to have him be well and balanced. He is hanging on to this woman because she is his security. I view it as though she may be the only thing that has kept him from over dosing or killing himself in his lowest moments. She loves him very deeply and is torn because it is pure torture to be with him while having to constantly take care and watch over him. Never having a worry free moment. Always begging him to get better. He says to just let him go. She knows maybe she should let him go, but loves him so much that the fear of leaving will only speed up his slow suicide. So she lives in pain and terror, worrying about him every second and begging him to hold on and be well. I believe that by skinny he means that he has done so much damage, to the relationship, that there is next to nothing left, as far as ever having a trusting partnership with the correct kind of love. She has taken on more of a parenting role or a caretaker and his love for her is more of a selfish one .. As if she were one of his drugs, that he has to have. Since the drugs have numbed him to being fully aware of how much he's hurt her .. He won't know until he's better, how much he put her through. But she is there and says she will be there still to clean up all the messes, if he'll recover. I'm sure in recovery he learned that he needed to let her go. The passionate love was so "skinny" that it could probably never be recovered.
She loved him unselfishly and he loved her very selfishly.

2. Diana Ross- Love Hangover (In my mind she isn't talking about a man-its a drug!)
If there's a cure for this
I don't want it
Don't want it
If there's a remedy
I'll run from it
From it

Think about it all the time
Never let it out of my mind
'cause I love you

I've got the sweetest hangover
I don't want to get over
Sweetest hangover

Yeah, I don't want to get over
I don't want to get
I don't want to get, over

Ooh, I don't need no cure
I don't need no cure
I don't need no cure


3. Lil Wayne- I feel like dying (well.. we all know how we feel after..)
 

I know it was posted by op, but i remeber the tears comming down the first time I heard this.. was so up against it at the time.. but i was such a dark time for addicts as well... Im mean we were being treated so fkn awful at that time.. not saying we got it rosie now, but we are making progress.

Look who ended up winning :p

Sarah McLachlan - Angel (HQ)
 
Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd (just a little pinprick, there will be no more ahhhh but you may feel a little sick or the hook "there is no pain, you are receeding...")
Outside by Staind (All the times that I tried, my intentions full of pride)
its been a while by Staind (Its been a while, since I've gone and fucked things up just like I always do)
Under the Bridge by RHCP (whole song especially the ending verse)
She looks to me by RHCP (clearly about heroin even mentioned in lyrics love the line "it looks to me like heaven send this for roughest nights")
Not an Addict by K's Choice ("The deeper I stick it in my vein, the deeper the thoughts - theres no more pain)
Perfect Day - Lou Reed (I love the scene in trainspotting after he sees mother superior and says something along the lines no thanks I'll proceed to the iv adminstration of hard drugs please haha. Ever since then I can't help but picture that scene when hearing this song)
Hotel California by the Eagles (I absolutely love the line -"They stab it with their steely knives, but they just can't kill the beast')
Hurt by NiN or covered by Johnny Cash ("The needle tears a hole, that old familiar sting")

or for some rap fans
Baltimore Love Thang by 50 cent - (whole song is convo between heroin and a custy- "I'm not a genie in a bottle, I'm in a bag/take one hit and its off to the land of H man)
Sober Up by Joe Budden ft Crooked I (whole song is about the mental problems of an addict and changing)

**or by far my favorite**- Runaway by Joe Budden ("I lost weight, I lost faith, I got caught up in the vaccuum/my eyes burned and my stomach turned and I became best friends with the bathroom/now it takes all the strength I have inside of me to avoid the rush/face pokered over the toilet all you hear is a royal flush..." or lines like "how come they can roll? ya'll tell me how come they can smoke, they can drink?/They get to do whatever they want and it don't interrupt the way they think...")
 
Ryan Adams "Strawberry Wine":

Don't spend too much time on the other side
Let the daylight in
Before you get old and you can't break out of it
My old friend
'Cause its getting winter, and if you want any flowers
You gotta get your seeds in to the ground
And I worry about you
Why? Because you want me to.
------------------------------------------------

That's the chorus, I feel tremendous guilt every time I hear that song because I've been spending way too much time on "the other side" and haven't been letting the daylight in. I think I've grown too comfortable being in the darkness. The light hurts my eyes, but what hurts the most is how I let myself stay stuck in a rut with my demons.

This song is worth listening to. It's all about breaking out of your bad habits before it's too late. Ryan Adams has a lot of incredible songs, mostly written while high on drugs: heroin, coke, the works. He cleaned himself up and got his shit together though.
 
Needle and the Spoon - Lynyrd Skynyrd and OxyContin - Lil Whyte
 
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