Drugs+music: Off topic?

[Mark Sottilaro <msottila@mailbox.syr.edu>]

For all recorded history there are tales of artists and drugs.  It seems
to be an indelible part of art "lore."  Should the list avoid the
topic?  Some feel uncomfortable with the topic, due to either bad
personal experience or bad press, but how can we avoid this topic.  The
stereotype of the drug addled musician didn't come from nowhere.

Back to the Bulgarians... I was actually tripping the first time I heard
the Bulgarian Woman's Choir.  It made me cry with joy.  If I had not
been tripping, my emotional response would probably not have been that
acute.  Why?  Internal social "noise" imprinted in most male humans
stifles such behavior.  What the LSD did was put my "filter" off-line
for a while and let it all stream out (in?) with out that little mental
traffic cop, I call Mr. Conscious, pointing the way.

Now, should I have been able to "go there" without LSD?  Of course.  But
how can one go to a place that one doesn't know exists?  The reason I
don't do drugs any longer is that they've served their purpose for me.
I can get there on my own.  Bizarre social constructs block most
creative free form thinking.  Face it, true artists are few and far
between.  We should not need to use any substance to access this
integral part of ourselves, but we also should not get scolded for
"coloring outside the lines."  I'm one generation away from a time when
nuns beat my father for writing with his left hand.

So how does one leapfrog over such social hurdles?  I used
psychedelics.  Now I cry like a baby when I see the episode where Snoopy
runs away...has anyone...  Oh, sorry.  I know I could have gotten to
where I am without drugs.  That's tough for a boy raised in the land of
Malls.  But I'm not sorry for wanting to see what inspired I Am The
Walrus.  Or the Giles, Giles and Fripp album, for that matter.  If
Robert Fripp wasn't tripping in those days, I'd be amazed.  And speaking
of our heroes, has anyone listened to Adrian Belew's "1967" on Mr. Music
Head?

Let's face it: a very large proportion of the music that we listen to
was created under the influence of some drug. (I include alcohol in that
list.)  Why is this?  I'd love to hear anyone else's theories.

Mark Sottilaro