11 songs you may not know are actually about drugs

From Blur, Oasis and Metallica to Queens Of The Stone Age, The 1975, Ed Sheeran and more

11:37 27th March 2014

Sex and drugs: arguably the two subjects that have been the main inspirations for music throughout history.

From 'Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds' to 'The Needle and the Damage Done', some of the most notable songs of the last century have been influenced by heroin, LSD, marijuana or all three at the same time.

Artists have drawn inspiration from their love of narcotics to, ultimately, their descension into addiction, detailing hallucinations, paranoia or just feeling really, really good.

We all know about the most famous odes to stimulants and the story behind them, so here are 11 well-known tracks you may not have known are, too, about drugs. Inevitably, most of them are odes to heroin.

Blur - 'Beetlebum': Frontman Damon Albarn's relationship with Elastica's Justine Frischmann and the pair's use of heroin at the height of Britpop was the inspiration behind this 1997 Blur classic. "Chasing the beetle" is an alternative term for "Chasing the dragon", a phrase commonly used to describe smoking heroin. Albarn further touches on his heroin use on a solo track of his new album, 'You And Me'.
The Only Ones - 'Another Girl, Another Planet': You'd be forgiven for thinking this 1978 New Wave classic was a misty-eyed ode to a woman but it's supposedly about heroin. The band have always denied this, but a closer look at the lyrics suggests otherwise: "I always flirt with death/I look ill but I don't care about it", "You always get under my skin/I don't find it irritating", and "Space travels in my blood/There ain't nothing I can do about it".
Ed Sheeran - 'The A Team': The carrot-haired singer's folksy, inoffensive breakout track is a lot darker than it seems. The lyrics chronicle a woman's descent into drug addiction, which Sheeran said was inspired by a visit to a homeless shelter when he was 18. The song's title is also a reference to Class A drugs.
Metallica - 'Master of Puppets': Probably one of the most famous heavy metal songs of all time, 'Master of Puppets' is arguably Metallica's signature songs - and it's actually about a battle with drugs. "['Master of Puppets'] deals pretty much with drugs. How things get switched around, instead of you controlling what you're taking and doing, it's drugs controlling you," said frontman James Hetfield. The "Master", we can assume, is the drugs, whilst the puppets are the addicts.
Fleetwood Mac - 'Gold Dust Woman': Stevie Nicks has always been ambiguous about the meaning behind this 1977 track, taken from the band's classic album Rumours. "I don't really know what 'Gold Dust Woman’ is about. I know there was cocaine there and that I fancied it gold dust, somehow," Stevie told Courtney Love in a SPIN feature in 1997. With lyrics such as "Rock on, gold dust woman/Take your silver spoon/And dig your grave", however we're pretty sure it is about the white stuff.
Queens of the Stone Age, 'First It Giveth': Josh Homme has admitted this classic QOTSA track is about drug addiction and its consequences, with the line "First it giveth/then it taketh away" describing how drugs can give you plenty of good times, until it all goes downhill and they take away from your wellbeing and send your life on a downward spiral. Other references can be found elsewhere in the lyrics ("I'm in you/You're in me/I can't tell", "Loyal to/Only you/Up your sleeve").
Jeff Buckley - 'Mojo Pin': Taken from Buckley's 1994 album Grace (his only completely studio album), the psychedelic track is about Buckley dreaming of a black woman, as he explained at a show in London in 1995. However, there's also references to drugs in the song. 'Mojo Pin' is the term Buckley used for a syringe of heroin. "Plainly speaking, it's a euphemism for a dropper full of smack that you shoot in your arm," he once explained. He also sings "white horses flow" which is another nickname for the drug.
The La's - 'There She Goes': One of the most recognisable songs of the 90s thanks to its breezy feel and super catchy hook, 'There She Goes' is seen by many as an ode to a girl. However, it's full of double entendres - whilst it may be about a woman, there's obvious references to heroin usage in the lyrics. "Here she blows/There she blows again/Pulsing thru' my vein" and "There she goes again/Chasing down my lane" are two clear insinuations of shooting up. However, guitarist John Byrne has since denied the song is about heroin, insisting: "It’s just a love song about a girl that you like but never talk to."
TLC - 'Waterfalls': On the face of it, this super-catchy track from the awesome R&B trio is a sass-filled pop ballad - and one of their signature songs. Look closer, however, and it's actually about the illegal drug trade: "But all the praying just ain't helping at all/Cause he can't seem to keep his self out of trouble/So he goes out and he makes his money the best way he knows how/Another body laying cold in the gutter". Verse two touches on HIV/AIDs. Dark stuff.
The 1975 - 'Chocolate': Matt Healy has confirmed "chocolate" is a slang term for drugs, and explained to Bang Tidy Music in 2013 the track details smoking weed in his hometown with friends which resulted in run ins with the police. "It's just about my relationship with drugs, which is better now, and our relationship with the police within our town," he said. "They are equally as bored as we are. They don't have any criminals to chase so they chase after us; kids smoking weed."
Oasis - 'Morning Glory': NOT actually about an AM erection, 'Morning Glory' was written by Noel Gallagher at the height of his cocaine use, of which there are several references to ("All your dreams are made/when you're chained to the mirror and the razor blade"). There's also references to the devastation caused by drug addiction ("Need a little time to wake up/Need a little time to rest your mind/You know you should so I guess you might as well").