10 Best Drug Songs

Ganga. Mary Jane. Weed. Chronic. Grass -- You probably heard these marijuana nicknames used in songs before you even knew what they meant. The following best drug songs, about reefer and other illicit narcotics, cover the 'highs' of this particular music theme, as they were the highest rated by AOL Radio listeners.

'Purple Haze'

Jimi Hendrix

The lyric "Excuse me while I kiss the sky" has been misinterpreted by many as "Excuse me while I kiss this guy." Supposedly Hendrix perpetuated this rumor himself by singing the changed lyric in concert in 1967.

iTunes | Lyrics

'Pusherman'

Curtis Mayfield

'Pusherman' is featured on Mayfield's soundtrack for the movie 'Super Fly'. While the movie leans towards accepting drugs, Mayfield's lyrics counter this attitude and criticize the drug's abuse.

iTunes | Lyrics

'Hits From the Bong'

Cypress Hill

Along with their stoner anthem 'I Wanna Get High,' this Cypress Hill track appeared in the cult classic 'How High.' How appropriate.

iTunes | Lyrics

'Sweet Leaf'

Black Sabbath

Bassist Geezer Butler drew the name for this song from a pack of cigarettes he had bought in Dublin that claimed their tobacco was "the sweet leaf."

iTunes | Lyrics

'The Pusher'

Steppenwolf

The song was made popular in the opening drug trafficking scenes of the movie 'Easy Rider.' The lyrics establish the difference between a marijuana dealer and a drug pusher. The dealer "will sell you lots of sweet dreams," but the pusher (of hard drugs like heroin) is a "monster" who doesn't care "if you live or if you die."

iTunes | Lyrics

'Mary Jane'

Rick James

'Mary Jane' is about Rick James' use of marijuana during an encounter with a woman who "takes [him] to [a] paradise." James -- who wasn't exactly the poster boy for sobriety -- shows his fondness of the drug and its effects in the line "Mary plays no games."

iTunes | Lyrics

'Weed With Willie'

Toby Keith

Keith co-wrote this song with Willie Nelson the same week Nelson appeared in the movie 'Beerfest' looking for teammates to join him in the world-championship cannabis-smoking contest in Amsterdam. Needless to say, the Willie in the song is Willie Nelson himself.

iTunes | Lyrics

'The Joker'

Steve Miller Band

The mention of "Space Cowboy," "Gangster of Love" and "Maurice" all refer to earlier Steve Miller Band songs of similar titles. The song also includes the nonsensical word "pompatus," which Miller claims he created.

iTunes | Lyrics

'Mary Jane's Last Dance'

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

Tom Petty has never verified if 'Mary Jane' refers to marijuana or not. Heartbreaker guitarist Mike Campbell said, "It can be whatever you want it to be. A lot of people think it's a drug reference, and if that's what you think, it very well could be."

iTunes | Lyrics

tom petty the heartbreakers last dance with mary jane

'Smoke Two Joints'

Sublime

The song is originally written by Chris and Michael Kay of The Toyes. They conceived the song when they were lounging on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, "tokin' on some sweet kona bud & jammin' on a rootsy reggae groove." 'Smoke Two Joints' was only the second Sublime song to be played on the radio.

iTunes | Lyrics

What Are Your Favorite Drug Songs?

Make your own list of drug songs and post it in the comments! Or if you feel like getting your drink on, do it to our list of the Best Drinking Songs.

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Filed under: Best Songs, Top 10 Lists

Reader Comments

(Page 1)

1. The first song that came to my mind was Neil Young's "The Needle and the Damage Done."

Posted at 12:46AM on Aug 19th 2009 by whelans3

2. cocaine? Clapton at his best!

Posted at 1:57AM on Aug 19th 2009 by angela

3. Summer wine!

Posted at 7:19AM on Aug 19th 2009 by cw3le

4. whoever made this list is an idiot! they left out Needle and the Damage Done, Cocaine, Master of Puppets, Snowblind etc. etc. the list goes on.

Posted at 12:31PM on Aug 19th 2009 by Adam Gillis

5. Maybe the list was meant to keep peoples minds around marijuana and steer clear of the harder drugs? Damn mind control blogs.

Posted at 1:42PM on Aug 19th 2009 by str8gme99

6. how can you have a list like this and not include any jambands?...idiots.

phish's "twist", the grateful dead's "casey jones", even the used to be jamband now mainstream friendly dave matthews band's "rhyme and reason" I thought for sure would be on this list...

leave the music collections to Rolling Stone, they put more than ten seconds of effort into the ones they compile and make an attempt to properly represent the music they discuss.

Posted at 5:28PM on Aug 19th 2009 by Rich

7. phish sucks

Posted at 1:01PM on Aug 20th 2009 by Jans

8. phish sucks

Posted at 12:57PM on Aug 20th 2009 by Jans

9. what about head east,never been any reason,buckcherry ,all lit up again,junkhead by alice in chains

Posted at 10:23AM on Sep 26th 2009 by lilly

10. never been any reason by head east ,junkhead by alice in chains,godsmack alice in chains ,all lit up again /buckcherry,voodoo by godsmack.

Posted at 9:41PM on Sep 25th 2009 by lilly

11. also godsmack by alice in chains and voodoo by godsmack?

Posted at 9:43PM on Sep 25th 2009 by lilly

12. if you or anyone you know is addicted to drugscall narconon today

Posted at 5:23PM on Sep 29th 2009 by amyn

13. what's with songs like:

Ministry - Just One Fix
Shock Therapy - Lucky To Be Alive
Sixto Rodriguez - Sugar Man
Placebo - My Sweet Prince & Commercial For Levi
Bush - Come Down
Wolfsheim - Heroin, She Said
... for example...

?!?!?!????

sucks.

Posted at 3:50AM on Oct 26th 2009 by Zeeta

14. what's with songs like:

Ministry - Just One Fix
Shock Therapy - Lucky To Be Alive
Sixto Rodriguez - Sugar Man
Placebo - My Sweet Prince & Commercial For Levi
Bush - Come Down
Wolfsheim - Heroin, She Said

Posted at 3:54AM on Oct 26th 2009 by Zeeta

15. Waiting for my man REED Heroin REED Momma told me not to come.

Posted at 10:55AM on Nov 15th 2009 by davehp

16. man i think this list is only for very oldies music about drug music i am from

MACHU PICCHO PERU

Posted at 12:51PM on Nov 19th 2009 by DINO

17. HEROINE! Velvet Underground... enough said

Posted at 10:42AM on Dec 8th 2009 by Carl

18. sucky list
bone thugs n harmony "weed song" shoulda been #1

Posted at 10:01AM on Jan 2nd 2010 by mynameiskdizzle3

19. bone thugs n harmony's new song "HEY TWEEKERS!" Is funnier than hell.

Posted at 12:31PM on Jan 20th 2010 by Amy

20. What about DR Feelgood by Motley Crue or Gin And Juice by Snoop Dog And DR Dre

Posted at 12:07AM on Feb 19th 2010 by kevin ramsey

21.
I am thinking, Neil Young's The Needle and The Damage Done"
And,
GNR's Mr Brownstone

Can you say heroine?

Posted at 9:25PM on Feb 24th 2010 by mac

22. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds - Beatles
Sister Morphine - Rolling Stone
The Other One - Grateful Dead

Posted at 9:58PM on Feb 24th 2010 by david

23. "Panama Red" from the New Riders of the Purple Sage
"Henry" from the New Riders of the Purple Sage
"White Punks on Dope" from the Tubes
"Casey Jones" Grateful Dead
"Long Haired Country Boy" Charlie Daniels
"Hotel California" Eagles
"That Smell' and "Needle and the Spoon" Lynyrd Skynyrd

"Everybodys got to get stoned!"

Posted at 10:13PM on Feb 24th 2010 by Mike

24. Jimi Hendrix also had a b-side of a 45 vinyl called, "Stars That Play With Laughing Sam's Dice".

Posted at 11:30PM on Feb 24th 2010 by Daryl

25. I think you all got any I can think of, except one... and I am not really sure that it qualifies, but we all grew up with this piece....
"Puff The Magic Dragon" by Peter, Paul and the late Mary Traverse.
To add one more, let's not forget the master of music and lyrics, that would be of course Jackson Browne. "Running all 'round my brain".
A trivia note... Jackson has since changed the lyrics when he does it live, and now he sings about the friends and people he has lost from the evil drug.It is now a VERY Anti-drug tune.
Though the man can do no wrong in my eyes, I am not quite sure how I feel about going back and rewriting the words. That was then babe, we have all changed. It's all O.K.
Great blogs my new friends be cheking back often.
Peace
JC Nadel

Posted at 8:41PM on Feb 27th 2010 by JC Nadel

26. Stoned or Brown suger by Rolling S.,
you are all probably too young to remember those ...

Posted at 1:58PM on Mar 11th 2010 by banicab

27. "Stoned " , "Brown suger " by Rolling S.

You are probably too young to remember those...

Posted at 12:06PM on Mar 11th 2010 by pete 56

28. "Brown Sugar" was dedicated to Claudia Lennear, a talented and gorgeous black back-up singer who toured with the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, the Stones, Joe Cocker,and a few other seminal rock bands in the '70's. Sister Morphine was Marianne Faithfull, who may have been a source for Keith and sure got herself messed up on skag,a '60's term for junk taken from surfboarding. A skag was the underwater stabilizer at the back of the board. Wipe out and you could get hooked. My all-time fave "Needle and the Damage Done" by Neil Young, and no, kids, it's NOT about Curt Cobain, but Danny Whitten. "Those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it". How did I ever get out of Alphabet City alive?

Posted at 6:34PM on Mar 13th 2010 by Rick

29. Eminem - "Drug Ballad" from Marshall Mathers LP
Gun & Roses "Mr Brownstone"

Posted at 8:49PM on Mar 13th 2010 by Marc Brown

30. Go way back - "One Toke Over the Line" - Brewer and Shipley, "Higher" - Sly and the Family Stone, "Light My Fire" - the Doors, "Mother's Little Helper" - the Rolling Stones, "White Rabbit" - Jefferson Airplane

Posted at 9:19PM on Mar 13th 2010 by Daisy4535

31. 10 - purple haze - jimi hendrix
9 - sweet leaf - black sabbath
8 - willin - little feat
7 - the needle n the damage done - neal young
6 - mr brownstone - guns n f--kin roses
5 - panama red - new riders of the purple sage
4 - needle n the spoon - lynyard skynard
3 - dont bogart that joint - little feat
2 - lets go get stoned - ray charles n many others
1 - cocaine - eric clapton and many others

Posted at 10:41PM on Mar 13th 2010 by ed

32. SNORTIN'WHISKEY DRINKIN' COCAINE--Pat Travers; DOUBLE VISION--Foreigner

Posted at 1:48PM on Mar 17th 2010 by Pegasus

33. Them Bones/ Alice In Chains
Can't Put You Down/ Alice in Chains
White Rabbit/ Jefferson Airplane
Happiness is a Warm Gun/ Beatles ( at least that's my interpretation of the song)

The list goes on and on and on.......

Posted at 5:13AM on Mar 19th 2010 by MikeG063

34. How can "Cocaine" not be THE number one "drug" song? Or, at the very least, on the list? I know it's not the criteria, but, it's probably even sold more than most of the songs on this list combined!

Posted at 4:08PM on Apr 1st 2010 by ktkate06

35. What you get is what you see, things that don't come easily...
Feeling happy in my pain, icicles within my brain...COCAINE!
Ozzy,Tony,Bill and Gezzer
Vol.4, BLACK SABBATH

Posted at 6:36AM on Apr 30th 2010 by miguel

36. when i think of drug songs, i think of the ones that warn you of all of it like; until it sleeps - metallica. stinkfist - tool. the outsiders- perfect circle. down in it- nine inch nails. these songs are all so awesome and i feel and have lived every lyric

Posted at 11:16AM on May 17th 2010 by jennifer

37. Rush, "A passage to Bangkok"

Posted at 5:37AM on Jun 21st 2010 by PD

38. dude guys. come on. lucy in the sky with diamond. what the hells with all the cocaine. are you guys forgetting woodstock and the era of music inspired by lsd, E, and pot. common son. lets stay calssy now.

"Picture yourself in a boat on a river.
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies.
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly.
A girl with kaleidoscope eyesssss.
...

Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain.
Where rocking horse people, eat marshmellow pies.
Everyone smiles as you drift by the flowers.
That grow so incredibly highhhhh.
...
Picture yourself in a train at the station.
With plasticine portersm with looking glass ties.
Suddenly someone is there at the turn-stile.
The girl with kaleidoscope eyessssss."

Posted at 12:35AM on Jul 13th 2010 by Dylan

39. Go Ask Alice - Jefferson Starship
Castle Walls - Styx
A Passage to Bangkok - Rush

Posted at 11:34PM on Jul 30th 2010 by mark

40. This can't be a serious list without Clapton's "Cocaine". And what about the first song about marijuana "La Cucaracha"?

Posted at 9:53AM on Aug 4th 2010 by David Normand

41. You can't be serious with this list without Clapton's "Cocaine"! And what about the first song about marijuana--"La Cucaracha"?

Posted at 10:02AM on Aug 4th 2010 by David Normand

42. these are some good ones

Rollin: Three 6 Mafia
Substance Abuse: Esham
T9X: Tech N9ne

Posted at 3:37PM on Aug 5th 2010 by John Stone

43. The Doors, When The Music's Over

Posted at 11:24PM on Aug 6th 2010 by Jolting Joe

44. OMG. I must be old. How 'bout Bob Dylan, "Everybody must get stoned".

Posted at 9:11PM on Aug 8th 2010 by GT

45. Anything but Jefferson Airplane
White Rabbit
Brewer and Shipley's One toke over the line
Dr. Hook's get my rocks off
Beatles-Sgt Pepper Album
Joe Crocker and Bealtes--can't get high without a little help from my friend
Dave Peel and the Fifth Street Band

Posted at 4:16PM on Aug 21st 2010 by kent

46. Care to taste-test these beauties?

"Bulletproof"--Accept
"Dead Men Tell No Tales"--Motorhead
"That Smell"--Lynrd Skynrd
"Monkey On Your Back"--Aldo Nova
"Joey"--The Pretenders
"Dr. Feelgood"--Motley Crue
"Cocaine"--Eric Clapton
"Who Needs You?"--Steppenwolf
"Master of Puppets"--Metallica
"Twilight Zone"--Golden Earring
"My Michelle"--Guns 'N Roses

Harder than it sounds, don't you think?

--RKJ

Posted at 11:01PM on Aug 27th 2010 by Robert Johnston

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