Drugs In The Music Industry Term paper
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Drugs in the Music Industry
In the fifties, sixties and seventies there was a lot of musicians that were under the influence of drugs. They used drugs as their inspiration. Many songs had themes related to being “high” or “stoned”. A drug that was frequently found in songs of the sixties was “marijuana”. The culture of most rock and roll bands was to drink a lot of alcohol and smoke a lot of marijuana. Many bands got their start because of the use of drugs, and drugs became more popular because the musicians used them. This all lead to a generation of “pot” heads and hippies.
Jerry Garcia-the background
The lead guitarist of the Grateful Dead was Jerry Garcia. Jerry grew up listening to music, his dad played the guitar and his mom listened to classical music. He took piano lessons when he was young, but he did not advance far because he would not learn how to read music. He would learn music by ear not by reading the music. Jerry lost his middle finger when he was four years old while camping with his family. His brother and him were chopping wood and his brother chopped his finger off. When Jerry got older his family moved to Menlo Park, California. While living there Jerry attended Denman Junior High. He became a hoodlum and was part of a gang. He was in the hospital at least once a week because he got into so many fights.
When he graduated from Denman he went to Balboa High, where he started to drink and smoke marijuana at the young age of fifteen. When Jerry was fifteen he got his first electric guitar which he taught himself to play. “In high school, I fell in with some other musicians-Beatnik types, the pot-smokers. My only other option was to join the beer drinkers, but they got into fights.”(source one, Pg. 15) Jerry’s mom moved them to Russia River, California to get Jerry out of trouble. In Russia River Jerry joined a band that had saxophone, piano, bass and guitar players. This band played easy listening saxophone tunes. Jerry’s bands first gig was in Analy, California. They played a five piece combo with two saxophones, pianist, bass and Jerry as the guitar player. They won contests and got to record a song. None of the songs that they played were original.
Jerry dropped out of High School and went into the Army. He was only in the army nine months when he was dishonorably discharged, because he treated the Army as if it was school, he never did what he was supposed to do and he always showed up late for everything. After being in the Army Jerry moved to Palo Alto and met his future songwriting partner, Robert Hunter. Robert had also been in the Army and they both lived in their cars. Robert and Jerry played together a little and they got their first gig as “Bob and Jerry”. They each earned five dollars.
In 1964, Jerry and Bob Weir, who were friends in high school joined with a blues harmonica player named Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, they formed a group called Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions. A year later, Bill Kreutsmann and Phil Lesh helped usher the Jug Champions into electric blues-rock notoriety in the Bay Area as the Warlocks. They decided in mid-1965 to change their name to the Grateful Dead, which is derived from an Egyptian prayer.
Jerry Garcia-the drugs
Jerry had been using drugs ever since he was fifteen years old, but when he became famous, that is when he started using them more and more, because he though it would help him relate to the listeners. On January 31, 1970 in New Orleans the Grateful Dead got busted. The members were arrested for possession of marijuana, LSD, barbiturates and amphetamines. They spent eight hours in jail and then they were released on bail. All of the charges against the band members were eventually dismissed.
In 1973 the Grateful Dead was touring the East coast. Jerry was driving a rented car to his next concert and he got pulled over for speeding. Jerry had no license with him, so the police man decided to search the car. In the trunk, in a suit case the police man found marijuana, cocaine, and LSD. Jerry was in jail for several hours before he was released on bail. Jerry got one year probation with counseling. Jerry’s outlook on society’s opinion of drugs was, “Where does it say in the Scriptures you can’t get high or raise your consciousness?”( Source one, pg.160)
On January 18,1983 Jerry got busted again for drugs. He was freebasing in the front seat of his BMW in a parking lot. A cop was looking at the car and realized that the cars registration was expired. He was approaching the car when he notice a smell in the air, when he reached the car, he saw a brief case sitting on the passenger side seat. The brief case had twenty-three bindles in it and several which contained cocaine and heroin. After Jerry got over his addiction of drugs he said, “There was something I needed or thought I need from drugs… But after a while, it was just the drugs running me, and that’s an intolerable situation…Luckily, my friends pulled me out. With out them, I don’t think I ever would have had the strength to do it myself”(source one, pg.204)
Jerry Garica had been taking drugs ever since the 1960’s and had been using heroin and cocaine for many years. His use of drugs was beginning to affect his health and music. The other members of the band said that Jerry had to pick between his drug addiction and the music industry. The last time that Jerry got busted for possession was in 1983, he was sentenced to drug rehabilitation, which freed Jerry of his bad drug addiction.
Jimi Hendrix-the background
Another musician that became popular in the culture that excepted drugs was Jimi Hendrix. Jimi was born November 27, 1942 in Seattle, Washington. When he was fifteen he began skipping school to go to Blues joints and listen to music. At the same age Jimi began to get high off of codeine cough syrup and Benzedrine. Once he stole two cars in one week, and he got arrested. The judge sentenced him to join the Army. He was assigned to the 101st Airborne outfit in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. In January of 1962 Jimi wrote his dad and asked him to send his guitar down to him. In the Army Jimi met Billy Cox and when they were discharged they both went to Nashville, Tennessee to hang out with other black musicians that played non-country and western music.
Later that year Jimi moved to Canada to join a lounge group. In 1965, Jimi moved to New York City to further his music career. There he met a British bassist, Brian “Chas” Chandler. Brian played for a group called the Animals, and asked Jimi to come with him to London and play in the band.
Jimi agreed to go with Brian to London. In London they formed a band with a bassist, Noel Redding and John “Mitch” Mitchell on the drums. This is when Jimi Hendrix got famous and into crazy drugs.
Jimi Hendrix-the drugs
Once Jimi Hendrix got famous he went all down hill with drugs. He was doing speed, smoking dope, LSD, and snorting methedrine. Jimi kept speed crystals in a little baby bottle in his apartment. Jimi was intrigued by the visions that he had under the influence of LSD. He used LSD as a relaxer rather than inspiration for his music. Drug abuse essay Drugs in the prison system essay drug abuse essay
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