What is the best song about Heroin?

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The Only Ones-Another Girl, Another Planet

I always flirt with death
I could kill, but I don't care about it
I can face your threats
Stand up tall and scream and shout about it

I think I'm on another world with you
I'm on another planet with you

You always get under my skin
I don't find it irritating
You always play to win
I don't need rehabilitating

Another girl, another planet
Another girl, another planet

Space travels in my blood
And there ain't nothing I can do about it
Long journeys wear me out
Oh God we won't live without it

Another girl is loving you now
Another planet, forever holding you down
Another planet

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Monday, 17 October 2005 06:22 (eighteen years ago) link

Isn't Perfect day about heroin? Or some other drug? Or about how great the BBC is? I can't remember. Anyway it's a great song (the original not the terrible BBC version with Heather Small...arrrgghhhh).

And what about Golden Brown? That's one of the best things The Stranglers ever did.

― Ned T. Rifle, Monday, 17 October 2005 06:23 (eighteen years ago) link

YES YES YES Perfect Day is an excellent song. I heart Lou Reed. Maybe it was "Heroin" redux but a better song all around.

― salexander / sophie (salexander), Monday, 17 October 2005 06:36 (eighteen years ago) link

"MMbop"

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Monday, 17 October 2005 06:40 (eighteen years ago) link

I always sorta regarded the Cowboy Junkies song "sweet jane" as a heroin song, but don't know... maybe its the junkie in their name.. but it seems pretty high.

You know that song is a VU cover, right?

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Monday, 17 October 2005 07:12 (eighteen years ago) link

Love-signed d.c.

Curtis Mayfield-stone junkie.

― Ellis, Monday, 17 October 2005 09:48 (eighteen years ago) link

"Needle in the Hay" by Elliott Smith.

OTM. I'm not the biggest ES fan in the world but that song is tremendous. The way he sings the last word is a supreme example of how to express incredible rage and bitterness, quietly.

― xero (xero), Monday, 17 October 2005 10:03 (eighteen years ago) link

The last word of the last verse, I mean -- there's another chorus after it.

― xero (xero), Monday, 17 October 2005 10:06 (eighteen years ago) link

dan monaghan, "searching harlem for heroin"

― sibsi (sibsi), Monday, 17 October 2005 10:06 (eighteen years ago) link

the kids from grange hill - "just say no"

― zebedee (zebedee), Monday, 17 October 2005 10:34 (eighteen years ago) link

i never thought of perfect day as a heroin song!?

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 17 October 2005 10:36 (eighteen years ago) link

as Tom said elsewhere the other day, it is 10 trillion times more boring a song if you read it as being about heroin

― zebedee (zebedee), Monday, 17 October 2005 10:38 (eighteen years ago) link

no way! it is perfect as a song about unrequited love.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 17 October 2005 10:43 (eighteen years ago) link

exactly - so we agree

― zebedee (zebedee), Monday, 17 October 2005 10:45 (eighteen years ago) link

Golden Brown seconded.

― when something smacks of something (dave225.3), Monday, 17 October 2005 10:51 (eighteen years ago) link

Agreed, but the "Trainspotting" music dudes certainly interpreted it as a stoner song as it's the music in the *overdose* scene. Songs don't have to have just one meaning; they can be what you want them to be. Sorry that sounds all very postmodern, but it's an old-fashioned concept really. Aren't songs like poetry anyway, the meanings are kind of slippery and abstract.

― salexander / sophie (salexander), Monday, 17 October 2005 10:57 (eighteen years ago) link

Also, to the extent that it can all be read as "about heroin," the entire oeuvre of Spacemen 3.

― xero (xero), Monday, 17 October 2005 11:02 (eighteen years ago) link

xero OTM!

esp.

"Call The Doctor"
"Walkin' With Jesus"

― sleeve (sleeve), Monday, 17 October 2005 14:11 (eighteen years ago) link

Why is it more boring if it's about heroin, more boring than being about unrequited love?

It's also, of course, an ode to sangria...

― Ned, Monday, 17 October 2005 14:28 (eighteen years ago) link

U2--Bad

But it's about a junkie, not the drug itself

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Monday, 17 October 2005 15:52 (eighteen years ago) link

"She's Like A Shot (In The Arm)" - Cop Shoot Cop

― Edward III (edward iii), Monday, 17 October 2005 16:23 (eighteen years ago) link

Gun Club - "She's Like Heroin To Me"
Patti Smith - "We're Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together"

― nickn (nickn), Monday, 17 October 2005 19:01 (eighteen years ago) link

Patti Smith - "We're Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together"

You probably know that's a VU/Lou Reed song -- tere's a version on 1969 and one on Street Hassle, and maybe one or two other places too. None of those have a rap about how "the blackest thing in Harlem is white," though.

― xero (xero), Monday, 17 October 2005 19:50 (eighteen years ago) link

shaddap your face by joe dolce

― cake (cake), Monday, 17 October 2005 20:25 (eighteen years ago) link

Spacemen 3 came up, but most of Spiritualized pre-Amazing Grace too, especially "Cop Shoot Cop."

― mike powell (mike powell), Monday, 17 October 2005 20:32 (eighteen years ago) link

xp- Argh, I meant Let it Come Down.

― mike powell (mike powell), Monday, 17 October 2005 20:33 (eighteen years ago) link

Butthole Surfers - Mexican Caravan

― Sweat Loaf (Sweat Loaf), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 04:51 (eighteen years ago) link

The Only Ones, Another Girl, Another Planet

... and about half of their other songs too

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 08:45 (eighteen years ago) link

"We're Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together"

This isn't about heroin.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 08:48 (eighteen years ago) link

Love, Your Friend and Mine (Neil's Song)

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 08:51 (eighteen years ago) link

This isn't about heroin.

True. Patti Smith's cover of it was, though.

― xero (xero), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 09:04 (eighteen years ago) link

Or at least it made reference to heroin. On further consideration I think the mention is too brief, oblique, and incidental to warrant describing her version as being "about heroin," after all.

― xero (xero), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 09:08 (eighteen years ago) link

Laid Back - "White Horse"

― ewmy, Tuesday, 18 October 2005 11:02 (eighteen years ago) link

"Running to Stand Still" - u2
"Mr. Brownstone" - GNR

― Jeff Goodwin (White Dolemite), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 17:36 (eighteen years ago) link

Not a song, but...

Only Stupid Bastards use Heroin - New Model Army

― Niall, Tuesday, 18 October 2005 20:12 (eighteen years ago) link

Mudhoney's "In The Blood" seems to be about a junkie:

You swear you still got the fire
But when I touch you
You feel so cold
Your as hollow as your burned out eyes
Nothing left
Nowhere to go

Nowhere
Nowhere
Nowhere
You got nowhere to go

Desire burns you from the inside out
How does it feel
Not to feel?
I can't stand it when your around
Reminding me how you used to be
Real

You used to be
You used to be
You used to be
You used to be real

In the blood, it gets in the blood
In the blood, it gets in the blood
In the blood, it gets in the blood
In the blood, it gets in the blood

Woh, oh, oh, oh
Woh, oh, oh, oh
Woh, oh, oh, oh
Woh, oh, oh
It gets in the blood

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 20:25 (eighteen years ago) link

maybe some of you aren't aware that "there she goes" by the la's (who???) was originally by sixpence none the richer and is about jesus not some nasty old drug!

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 20:35 (eighteen years ago) link

The worst song about heroin was Eagle-Eye Cherry's "Shooting Up in Vain", which wasn't even as good as its title.

― Erik The Mainer (EZSnappin), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 21:09 (eighteen years ago) link

Yeah, I'd probably say "Things'll Never Be The Same" by Spacemen 3

Never was one of my favourites of theirs though.

― Tokyo Ghost Stories (Tokyo Ghost Stories), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 01:28 (eighteen years ago) link

BERT JANSCH - NEEDLE OF DEATH

― jared, Wednesday, 19 October 2005 01:37 (eighteen years ago) link

four months pass...

"There she goes" was NOT originally by sixpence none the richer... La's made that song before sixpence existed. . .

― Spork, Sunday, 12 March 2006 04:40 (eighteen years ago) link

Black Sabbath - "Hand of Doom" deserves a mention. "Mr Brownstone" is really good too.

― Sundar (sundar), Sunday, 12 March 2006 05:53 (eighteen years ago) link

Is Wilco's "shot in the arm"'s about heroin?!

― sam the man, Sunday, 12 March 2006 06:49 (eighteen years ago) link

"Mutiny in Heaven", der Birfday Party. That song actually scared me the first time I heard it. Can't believe it hasn't made it into this thread.

― bendy (bendy), Sunday, 12 March 2006 07:49 (eighteen years ago) link

steely dan 'time out of mind'

― dave q (listerine), Sunday, 12 March 2006 08:23 (eighteen years ago) link

Not the best but the lyric "Shoot it up and go for a ride" comes to mind after Pink Floyd or Spacemen 3/Spiritualized so.

'I Never Want An Easy Life If Me and He Were Ever to Get There'

― BeeOK (boo radley), Sunday, 12 March 2006 09:49 (eighteen years ago) link

"Mutiny in Heaven", der Birfday Party. That song actually scared me the first time I heard it. Can't believe it hasn't made it into this thread. "

Also "Pleasure avalanche" by the BP, from the same ep.

― sam the man, Sunday, 12 March 2006 09:52 (eighteen years ago) link

My vote for "The Needle And The Damage Done" mainly because of the message of the lyrics.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 12 March 2006 11:13 (eighteen years ago) link

NINA HAGEN Y'ALL

"Smack Jack" rules my world, one of the scariest drug songs ever.

― sleeve (sleeve), Sunday, 12 March 2006 18:03 (eighteen years ago) link

four months pass...

All of LAMF
One Track Mind
Chinese Rocks
Pirate love
It's not Enough
Get off the Phone...
everyone a love song to heroin

― sonofstan (sonofstan), Friday, 14 July 2006 22:33 (seventeen years ago) link

"No X-Mas for John Quays"

also, whenever i hear the psyfurs' talk talk talk anymore, kinda seems like a cocaine concept album ... lyrically and energy-arc-wise, anyhow

― literalisp (literalisp), Friday, 14 July 2006 23:15 (seventeen years ago) link

and also, whether or not it is, you can pretty much read "china girl" as a heroin song.

― literalisp (literalisp), Friday, 14 July 2006 23:21 (seventeen years ago) link

also Ray Charles' 'you don't know me' seems to reek of heroin, though its not easy top pin down why

― sonofstan (sonofstan), Friday, 14 July 2006 23:30 (seventeen years ago) link

"I Think I'm In Love" by Spiritualized all the way.

― less-than three's Christiane F. (drowned in milk), Friday, 14 July 2006 23:58 (seventeen years ago) link

"fuck me in the ass" by I Wish I Was Dead

― nicky lo-fi (nicky lo-fi), Saturday, 15 July 2006 04:05 (seventeen years ago) link

Slow Death

― shieldforyoureyes (shieldforyoureyes), Saturday, 15 July 2006 05:33 (seventeen years ago) link

Talk Talk 'I Believe In You'

probably the most tender song about herion i've ever heard..

― Jack Battery-Pack (Jack Battery-Pack), Saturday, 15 July 2006 05:39 (seventeen years ago) link

Velvet Underground's "Sister Ray" played lound made me feel like I was in that dizzy room of death

'Im searching for my mainline
I said I couldnt hit it sideways'

― nicky lo-fi (nicky lo-fi), Saturday, 15 July 2006 06:23 (seventeen years ago) link

This thread needs a mention of the funeralSam Stone by John Prine, more of a depiction of the descent into addiction, than the drug itself.

― Ben Dot (1977), Saturday, 15 July 2006 09:59 (seventeen years ago) link

"Givin' Up" by The Darkness is the greatest smack party anthem of all time.

― More Tongue Feldman (noodle vague), Saturday, 15 July 2006 10:14 (seventeen years ago) link

> This thread needs a mention of the funeralSam Stone by John Prine, more of a depiction of the descent into addiction, than the drug itself.

Read header plzkthxbye.

― 100% CHAMPS with a Yes! Attitude. (Austin, Still), Saturday, 15 July 2006 14:44 (seventeen years ago) link

But uh...hey! Thanks for the video!

― 100% CHAMPS with a Yes! Attitude. (Austin, Still), Saturday, 15 July 2006 14:49 (seventeen years ago) link

"When it Hits My Blood" by John Vanderslice

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Saturday, 15 July 2006 15:22 (seventeen years ago) link

They're called the Velvet Underground, and this case has been closed for nearly 40 years. Shame on you all!

― I Don't Believe in Bacteria (Bimble...), Sunday, 16 July 2006 00:47 (seventeen years ago) link

Keith Don't Go by Nils Lofgren

― vacasmagras (vacasmagras), Sunday, 16 July 2006 01:48 (seventeen years ago) link

"Keith Don't Go" Seconded
"golden brown" thirded
"White Lightning" by Silkworm? Probably about LSD, but a great song nonetheless..."watch the lightning for all your cues"

― J. Grizzle (trainsmoke), Sunday, 16 July 2006 02:19 (seventeen years ago) link

Now and forever - "Golden Brown" by The Stranglers

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 17 July 2006 02:53 (seventeen years ago) link

"They're called the Velvet Underground, and this case has been closed for nearly 40 years. Shame on you all!"

OTM. This thread is useless.

― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Monday, 17 July 2006 02:59 (seventeen years ago) link

Nothing quite like people who closed their ears nearly 40 years ago posting on a music board.

― 100% CHAMPS with a Yes! Attitude. (Austin, Still), Monday, 17 July 2006 03:13 (seventeen years ago) link

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