10 Rock Music Songs That You Didn't Know Were About Drugs

Inspiration usually comes from all sorts of places, and when you're in a rock band there's a lot to choose from. There has never really been a shortage of songs about rock and roll, with bands like AC/DC and Chuck Berry writing the rulebook on how to sing about making rock and roll music. Then again, it's only a matter of time before you start getting into the really gritty stuff.

The life of the traveling musician is usually raw on your nerves, and having a little bit of chemical assistance to balance things out has really helped some of the greatest bands from time to time. Since these are artists though, you would never have guessed that these were actually about drugs in the first place, with half of them being so hidden in metaphors that it's easy to miss them.

Does that mean that you should take drugs to become a famous songwriter? Hell no. If anything, half of these artists have become outspoken at just how much their substance abuse took away from the creative process and turned them into their own worst enemies. Still, if it's able to trigger this kind of stuff and make you some of the biggest stars in the world, you can see why so many bands want to jump down that rabbit hole.

No one well versed in rock music would ever call a band like Steely Dan dangerous. Given their unique brand of yacht rock and jazzy stylings, this is the kind of music that could impress both the music nerds and your grandparents all at the same time. So nice when you're bringing together people through the virtues of drug peddling.

Yeah, even though the backing track of Kid Charlemagne is smooth as hell, the actual lyrics coming from Donald Fagen are a little more dark than you realize. Being inspired by the drug culture going on in the '60s, this entire song is about a drug dealer who ends up at the top of the food chain before he has the feds on his trail by the end. Even though that would have been enough for a song like this, it actually gets a little more violent at the tail end of the song.

After the guitar solo, you get Donald talking about how the feds are coming to raid his apartment and ordering everyone to clean up any evidence so they won't get caught. And there's no real resolution either, with our hero running from the law and off into the sunset. You can imagine he's heading towards something better, but even the most nefarious drug dealers never learn, do they?