10 Druggiest Rolling Stones Songs
The Rolling Stones
know their drugs. Whether we’re talking pills, powders or plants, it’s
safe to say the Stones have tried it all — and that’s especially true
for the songwriting team of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
In honor of their fondness for substances — a key influence on some of
their strongest (and strangest) material — we’ve put together this list
of the 10 druggiest Rolling Stones
songs. We probably could have just listed all 10 tracks on ‘Sticky
Fingers,’ but hey, we thought we’d make it more interesting for you.
Decca/London
‘Let It Bleed’
From 'Let It Bleed'
The title track on 1969’s
‘Let It Bleed’ is down-tempo Stones at their absolute finest, with Mick
Jagger’s vocals drenched in sleazy desire. One of the most obviously
druggy lines in the song is “And there will always be a space in my parking lot / when you need a little coke and sympathy.” Something tells us Jagger’s not talking about Coke Classic.
Rolling Stones Records
‘Can’t You Hear Me Knocking’
From 'Sticky Fingers'
‘Can’t You Hear Me
Knocking’ is one of the longer, sleazier songs in the Rolling Stones
catalog. It starts off as a regular sort of bluesy rock number and then
diverts into this Curtis Mayfield-playing-the-Playboy Mansion-type jam,
with a hot sax and outro guitar solo. It’s definitely a druggy number in
that the first verse includes “ya’ll got cocaine eyes” and “you got
speed-freak jive.” Also, the narrator says, “I’ve been kickin’, help me please,” which sounds like a junkie trying to quit heroin cold turkey.
Decca/London
‘2000 Light Years From Home’
From 'Their Satanic Majesties Request'
In 1967, Jagger and
Richards found themselves in the slammer after their homes were raided
and drugs were found. According to BBC.com, Jagger’s turned up “four
tablets containing amphetamine sulphate and methylamphetamine
hydrochloride,” while Richards was charged with “allowing his house to
be used for the purpose of smoking cannabis.” The bust inspired Jagger to write this song. Apparently, there's nothing like a little jail time to get your creative juices flowing.
Decca/London
‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’
From the 1968 Single
It might surprise you that ‘Jumpin’
Jack Flash,’ a major hit featuring one of Keith Richards' most
memorable guitar riffs, is about taking drugs. We like to imagine some
British guy named Jack jumpin’ around, high as a kite, sneaking up on unsuspecting old people and shouting, "Gas, Gas, GAS!" in their ear.
Rolling Stones Records
‘Brown Sugar’
From 1971 Single
‘Brown Sugar’ appears on our list of the Stones "most sexist"
tunes, thanks to its allusions to the African-American female sexual
prowess, but the song can also be read as an ode to brown-sugar-like
heroin, which makes one “feel so good” until it makes all your teeth
fall out, leaves track marks up and down your arms and eventually, kills
you.
ABKCO
‘Stoned’
From 'Singles Collection: The London Years'
The only real lyrics on this early
blues number -- rife with piano, harmonica, bass and guitars -- are the
spoken-word “stoned … out of my mind.” If this isn’t a druggy song, we
don’t know what is.
Decca/London
‘Mother’s Little Helper’
From 1966 Single
“What a drag it is
getting old,” sneers young buck Jagger in this classic Stones tune. The
"helper" in the song’s title is not of the hamburger or tuna sort,
though. It refers to Valium, which had become a pretty popular drug
among the family set in the ’60s. It seems like a sort of a soulless
song, considering Jagger is neither a mother nor an expert in
child-rearing,
Virgin
‘Rocks Off’
From 'Exile On Main St.'
This album-opening
classic from the Stones’ 1972 masterpiece ‘Exile on Main St.’ features a
heroin-addicted Keith Richards on guitar. At times, Richards and Jagger
get very explicit about the drug taking that was occurring at the villa
in France where they were recording -- “kick me like you’ve kicked
before / I can’t even feel the pain no more" -- and all you have to do
is look at pictures of Richards during this era to realize that the
drugs were literally killing him from the inside out.
Rolling Stones Records
‘Sister Morphine’
From 'Sticky Fingers'
‘Sister Morphine’ was
penned by Mick Jagger’s girlfriend Marianne Faithfull, who would later
take the band to court for co-songwriting credit (she won). It tells the
tale of someone laying in a hospital bed, waiting to get hooked up with
some morphine -- a highly addictive pain-killing drug. The
less-than-happy feel of the song should tell you that the narrator has
got a pretty bad problem, too.
Rolling Stones Records
‘Dead Flowers’
From 'Sticky Fingers'
“I’ll be in my basement
room / with a needle and a spoon.” This song is neither about sewing,
nor soup utensils -- it’s about heroin, a favorite drug of the Rolling
Stones in the 1970s, when the song surfaced on the ‘Sticky Fingers’
album. This may have been right around the time Richards was hanging
around with the Flying Burrito Brothers’ Gram Parsons, who would later
succumb to an addiction to drugs and alcohol.
