10 Rock Music Songs That You Didn't Know Were About Drugs
7. Station to Station - David Bowie
It shouldn't come as a shock to anyone that David Bowie had a pretty strong drug problem in the late '70s. By the time the years of disco starting coming around, you'd be hardpressed to find any rock star who didn't have to kick some nasty habit along the way. In this case, it was cocaine, and it led to possibly one of the greatest moments in Bowie's career.
Which is strange considering how weird a song like Station to Station is. This is by no means the breakout radio single by any stretch, with Bowie taking cues from Kraftwerk and other post punk bands to create his Thin White Duke persona. Spanning 10 full minutes, this is one of the many Bowie songs that feels like an experience to listen to, with him admitting in the lyrics that this energy might be from the side effects of the cocaine.
Don't ask Bowie how it actually came to be though. As amazing as it would be to dissect every piece of this song and see how Bowie wrote it, he was always upfront about not remembering anything about the recording process, considering he was so blitzed out of his mind and living on a diet of milk, peppers, and cocaine every day. Then again, sometimes that chemical dependency can be a short cut to good art.