drugs

[Erik]

Does anyone have knowledge of what Robert has used for inspirationterms of drug use?  I have found the later lyrics to be comparatively less imaginative/wierd - does anyone know hif he is using less substances?

Just something I've wondered about... I think he has used acid, LSD for the Top - which explains the lyrics!

[heixiao]

"When work started in january of 1982, falling over on the floor was entirely in the cards, as the band's drug consumption was almost out of control" (...) that's what i've just read in the book included in the new edition of Pornography, but they don't mention specific drugs. I don't know either for the other albums but it looks like the band has found a kind of stability around it today...  :roll:

[lostflower4]

It's true. Robert has always been very vague about his drug use. I know he used acid during the recording of Pornography, and probably on The Top too. Again, he was vague about this.

I remember in Ten Imaginary Years he mentioned him and Simon taking some heavy downers (quaaludes?) before the Allston '80 gig, and barely being able to stand. My friend has the book now, so I can't check the exact details.

Of course they did their fair share of drinking, but just not much in the way of specifics.

On the "Robert Smith Interviews - Vol. 2" CD, he told the interviewer that he had cut back on his "vices" a lot when she asked him if any of his songs were inspired by anything psychedelic. He also mentioned one time that he was too old to do stuff like he used to.

In the Loveline '92 interview (available on my page), there is a very interesting segment where he has a debate about drugs with Dr. Drew. It's one of the best interview bits I've heard. Robert really gets fired up on this one. It seems he knows quite a bit about the subject!

I also heard that the real reason that Boris left the band (although I cannot confirm this), is that the band agreed to all stop using drugs after the Wish tour, but Boris was caught continuing to do it behind their backs.

I'm pretty sure Robert doesn't do much now, if anything.

[rdruiz8]

Robert mention about the composition of the "The Top" album that it was fueled by magic mushroom tea.
Don't know what he meant specifically but certantly some kind of drug

[lostflower4]

Robert mention about the composition of the "The Top" album that it was fueled by magic mushroom tea.
Don't know what he meant specifically but certantly some kind of drug

Magic mushroom tea is just another way of taking psychedelic mushrooms. It involves boiling the mushrooms in hot water to extract the psilocybin (the drug part) so that you can drink it in a liquid rather than consuming the mushrooms whole.

Don't ask how I know this!  

[rdruiz8]

Wow, now it's clear to me why "The Top" has that unique sound, hahaha
Anyway it's a great album 8)

[Beesley Wytchboy]

"drugs have dont good things for us.....If you don't believe go home and burn all your records, tapes and cds cause the artists who made the music that has enhanced your life are.................REAL f*cking high on drugs" - Bill Hicks


Never a truer word spoken lol............
Though it can have the opposite effect....... See oasis!


Luke x

[Poe]

"drugs have dont good things for us.....If you don't believe go home and burn all your records, tapes and cds cause the artists who made the music that has enhanced your life are.................REAL f*cking high on drugs" - Bill Hicks

Never a truer word spoken lol............

Maybe I know nothing about using drugs, but I think this person expressed himself pretty well on the subject on a youtube forum for a Cure video:

-------------------
God I get so sick of people thinking you gotta be stoned to do interesting creative things. Zappa was one of the most original musical artists of all time. People swore he was an LSD crazed freak. Zappa was always very anti drug, in fact , before the Mothers made it his own band tried to get rid of him because he wouldn't drop acid with them. There is no way Smith could do what he does if he was a big drug user.

I read an interview with Smith "if it's in Rolling Stone it's just gotta be true" where he stated he had used drugs recreationally but was not a regular drug user. Straight from the weirdo's mouth. Smith's creative triumphs are the result of hard work and an unfettered imagination. Good for Bob.

one last drug comment. All of this business about drugs will make you creative goes back to the 40's when Charlie Parker - one of the great musical innovators of the last century - was a junkie who was playing alto sax like no one else had before. He was an amazing musician and other guys were shootin' up because they thought it would make 'em play like Bird (Parker). Parker died at 36 and the attending Dr thought he was in his mid-sixties. that's what drug's will do for you.
-------------------

So, is Robert still pro-drugs? I'm assuming he was during that interview in 92. What arguments did he use?

[japanesebaby]

i mean it.

[Poe]

i mean it.

Oh my god you just made my day! Mmmkay? 

[crowbi_wan]

i mean it.

but w/o drugs some great Cure tunes might not be so great...or even exist!  A Short Term Effect, one of your favorites, comes to mind.   

[japanesebaby]

but w/o drugs some great Cure tunes might not be so great...or even exist!  A Short Term Effect, one of your favorites, comes to mind.   

yes the song might be good but that doesn't mean drugs are great.
similarly, i think microwave oven was invented due to some radar technology invented for/during the world war II but the fact that i can easily cook my fast meals at work does not make WW II cool.

see what i mean? so what comes to some artists being able to produce good art while on drugs, i consider it more like a lucky coincidence or something. i like to think that these artists managed to create the art despite the drugs, not because of the drugs. drugs were something that played a part in their lives at that point but it's not like the artists "owe" everything to it. people glorify artists who took drugs in order to be creative, but in the end there's nothing great in it as such. so when we observe a piece of art like this, we should look at it without thinking that it's somehow "drug-related", without linking it to drugs, without thinking like it "owes" something to drugs. we shouldn't let that distract us.

so, let's just listen to mr. mackay, he knows what he's talking about - mmmmkay??

[crowbi_wan]

so what comes to some artists being able to produce good art while on drugs, i consider it more like a lucky coincidence or something. i like to think that these artists managed to create the art despite the drugs, not because of the drugs.

Certainly the idea for a song is already the artists mind, but the end result has a lot to do with what they were experiencing while under the influence.  I've tried just about everything out there and can tell you first hand that some images I saw, feelings I had, or thoughts that popped into my mind occurred only because I was tripping. 

Some lucky coincidence?  Nah, I don't believe that.  Robert was doing a shitload of blow while recording Pornography.  That album wouldn't be the same had he been sober.  Hell, half the songs are about drugs!  So, where would the inspiration come from?   

But yes, drugs are bad...except for pot           

[japanesebaby]

but what i mean by "lucky coincidence": i mean that he was lucky that he was able to produce such a song, while in drugs. because honestly, even if you see unbelievable/never-thought-of-before kind of things while tripping, it's not the same as being able to produce art from it. a lot of people take drugs and see things but how many manage to make art out of it? most drug-addicts are either too happy with their trippy state (so they don't feel the need to produce anything, they just want to be tripping and that's it), or they are actually too deep in all that shit so they are simply too messed up to produce anything, even if they could.
so whereas drugs maybe can guarantee tippy vibes and funny images in your head, they never guarantee that you can make something creative out of it. those trippy images don't turn into pieces of art just by themselves, but turning them into art is a completely different and completely separate process and it craves something else than just "taking drugs".

and besides, whereas drugs are often mentioned as enhacing people's creativity, they are just as often known to induce it too. there are many artists who used to be good but then got into drugs and actually lost their ability to create anything.
so that's what i mean by "lucky coincidence" - or maybe coincidence is a wrong word there. let's just say that he was lucky. he was lucky that the drugs didn't ruin him or make him lose his ability to say something through music. because honestly, he could have just as well ended up being just another of these drug-ruined wrecks out there.
that's what i mean.


about inspiration: as a musician myself i think i can say with confidence/experience that nothing is more overrated  than 'inspiration'. inspiration is nothing yet. again, inspiration doesn't guarantee anything. anyone can get an ispiration but who can put it down and really turn it into something? that takes skill. and work. 

[crowbi_wan]

Okay, I understand and actually do agree with you now.  Yes, I know...it's amazing!   

Drugs have inspired me to the point of trying to do something creative, yet nothing has come from it.  Talent, hard work, and the want to create something are key.