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Example research essay topic: Sixties And Seventies Rock And Roll - 2,633 words

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Drugs in the Music Industry In the fifties, sixties and seventies there was a lot of musicians that were under the influence of drugs. They used drugs as their inspiration. Many songs had themes related to being? high?

or? stoned? . A drug that was frequently found in songs of the sixties was? marijuana? .

The culture of most rock and roll bands was to drink a lot of alcohol and smoke a lot of marijuana. Many bands got their start because of the use of drugs, and drugs became more popular because the musicians used them. This all lead to a generation of? pot? heads and hippies. Jerry Garcia-the background The lead guitarist of the Grateful Dead was Jerry Garcia.

Jerry grew up listening to music, his dad played the guitar and his mom listened to classical music. He took piano lessons when he was young, but he did not advance far because he would not learn how to read music. He would learn music by ear not by reading the music. Jerry lost his middle finger when he was four years old while camping with his family. His brother and him were chopping wood and his brother chopped his finger off. When Jerry got older his family moved to Menlo Park, California.

While living there Jerry attended Denman Junior High. He became a hoodlum and was part of a gang. He was in the hospital at least once a week because he got into so many fights. When he graduated from Denman he went to Balboa High, where he started to drink and smoke marijuana at the young age of fifteen. When Jerry was fifteen he got his first electric guitar which he taught himself to play. ? In high school, I fell in with some other musicians-Beatnik types, the pot-smokers.

My only other option was to join the beer drinkers, but they got into fights. ? (source one, Pg. 15) Jerry? s mom moved them to Russia River, California to get Jerry out of trouble. In Russia River Jerry joined a band that had saxophone, piano, bass and guitar players. This band played easy listening saxophone tunes. Jerry?

s bands first gig was in Analy, California. They played a five piece combo with two saxophones, pianist, bass and Jerry as the guitar player. They won contests and got to record a song. None of the songs that they played were original. Jerry dropped out of High School and went into the Army.

He was only in the army nine months when he was dishonorably discharged, because he treated the Army as if it was school, he never did what he was supposed to do and he always showed up late for everything. After being in the Army Jerry moved to Palo Alto and met his future songwriting partner, Robert Hunter. Robert had also been in the Army and they both lived in their cars. Robert and Jerry played together a little and they got their first gig as?

Bob and Jerry? . They each earned five dollars. In 1964, Jerry and Bob Weir, who were friends in high school joined with a blues harmonica player named Ron? Pigpen? Mc Kernan, they formed a group called Mother Mc Cree? s Uptown Jug Champions.

A year later, Bill Kreutsmann and Phil Lesh helped usher the Jug Champions into electric blues-rock notoriety in the Bay Area as the Warlocks. They decided in mid- 1965 to change their name to the Grateful Dead, which is derived from an Egyptian prayer. Jerry Garcia-the drugs Jerry had been using drugs ever since he was fifteen years old, but when he became famous, that is when he started using them more and more, because he though it would help him relate to the listeners. On January 31, 1970 in New Orleans the Grateful Dead got busted. The members were arrested for possession of marijuana, LSD, barbiturates and amphetamines. They spent eight hours in jail and then they were released on bail.

All of the charges against the band members were eventually dismissed. In 1973 the Grateful Dead was touring the East coast. Jerry was driving a rented car to his next concert and he got pulled over for speeding. Jerry had no license with him, so the police man decided to search the car.

In the trunk, in a suit case the police man found marijuana, cocaine, and LSD. Jerry was in jail for several hours before he was released on bail. Jerry got one year probation with counseling. Jerry? s outlook on society? s opinion of drugs was, ?

Where does it say in the Scriptures you can? t get high or raise your consciousness? ? (Source one, pg. 160) On January 18, 1983 Jerry got busted again for drugs. He was freebasing in the front seat of his BMW in a parking lot. A cop was looking at the car and realized that the cars registration was expired. He was approaching the car when he notice a smell in the air, when he reached the car, he saw a brief case sitting on the passenger side seat. The brief case had twenty-three bindle's in it and several which contained cocaine and heroin.

After Jerry got over his addiction of drugs he said, ? There was something I needed or thought I need from drugs? But after a while, it was just the drugs running me, and that? s an intolerable situation? Luckily, my friends pulled me out. With out them, I don?

t think I ever would have had the strength to do it myself? (source one, pg. 204) Jerry Garcia had been taking drugs ever since the 1960? s and had been using heroin and cocaine for many years. His use of drugs was beginning to affect his health and music. The other members of the band said that Jerry had to pick between his drug addiction and the music industry. The last time that Jerry got busted for possession was in 1983, he was sentenced to drug rehabilitation, which freed Jerry of his bad drug addiction. Jimi Hendrix-the background Another musician that became popular in the culture that excepted drugs was Jimi Hendrix.

Jimi was born November 27, 1942 in Seattle, Washington. When he was fifteen he began skipping school to go to Blues joints and listen to music. At the same age Jimi began to get high off of codeine cough syrup and Benzedrine. Once he stole two cars in one week, and he got arrested.

The judge sentenced him to join the Army. He was assigned to the 101 st Airborne outfit in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. In January of 1962 Jimi wrote his dad and asked him to send his guitar down to him. In the Army Jimi met Billy Cox and when they were discharged they both went to Nashville, Tennessee to hang out with other black musicians that played non-country and western music.

Later that year Jimi moved to Canada to join a lounge group. In 1965, Jimi moved to New York City to further his music career. There he met a British bassist, Brian? Chas?

Chandler. Brian played for a group called the Animals, and asked Jimi to come with him to London and play in the band. Jimi agreed to go with Brian to London. In London they formed a band with a bassist, Noel Redding and John? Mitch? Mitchell on the drums.

This is when Jimi Hendrix got famous and into crazy drugs. Jimi Hendrix-the drugs Once Jimi Hendrix got famous he went all down hill with drugs. He was doing speed, smoking dope, LSD, and snorting methedrine. Jimi kept speed crystals in a little baby bottle in his apartment. Jimi was intrigued by the visions that he had under the influence of LSD. He used LSD as a relaxer rather than inspiration for his music.

In the mid-sixties Jimi Hendrix wrote a song called? Purple Haze? it was also known as an archetypal psychedelic drug song of the sixties. Jimi was questioned about this song, and he said that the song was only about a dream that he had, had. The song was really about drugs, but if he admitted that, it would have been banned from the radio, and that would have been a major down fall for him. Jimi took a lot of drugs, he took some so that he could stay awake, some to fall asleep, some so that he would not be bored, some to wind him down, there was a variety of drugs that were taken in the sixties for different purposes.

Jimi felt that he had to be stoned to keep in touch with the audience. The thing about Jimi buying drugs was that everyone knew that he had a lot of money so he would pay twice as much for dope that the average drug user would have to pay. Jimi did not get drugs that were better, he just had to pay more. In 1968 everyone was smoking dope, tripping on LSD, and snorting hallucinogenic drugs like DMT. All of these drugs effect you depending on the mood of the user. If you are feeling badly, the user might get a bad trip and have horrors.

All of the drugs that were used by the band members increased the moodiness of the band, causing a lot of fights. Jimi Hendrix died at 11: 25 A. M on September 18, 1970, at St. Mary? s Abbot Hospital in London. Jimi had been spending the night at a friends apartment, when he could not be woken up, and vomit had been found coming from his mouth and nose.

His friend called 911 and an ambulance came. He was put in a sitting position, which made Jimi suffocate on his own vomit. There was an autopsy done on Jimi after his death, which showed that he had taken nine tablets of a prescription drug called Vesparax, this prescription was Jimi? s friends and the normal dosage was one-half a tablet a day. At the time of death there were many substances in Jimi?

s body. There were tranquilizers, amphetamines, depressants, and alcohol. No one is sure if Jimi? s point was to commit suicide or he just over did himself with drugs. Mick Jagger-the background Mick Jagger is another musician that is known to have had a drug addiction.

He was born on July 26, 1943 in Dartford. England. Mick grew up with Keith Richards living down the street from him. Keith moved away when he was nine. In 1960 Keith and Mick reunited and realized that they both had a common interest.

They both loved American Rhythm and Blues. Mick and Keith had a mutual friend, Dick Taylor that played the guitar with Mick in their own little band called Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys. Keith was invited to join the band and accepted. Their band had a gig and met a guy named Brian Jones. Brian told them to form their own group and name it the Rolling Stones.

The group consisted of: Dick Taylor as the guitarist, Ian Stewart as the pianist, and Tony Chapman as the drummer. Brian, Mick and Keith all shared an apartment and had a Sunday afternoon spot at a local club called the Crawdaddy Club. The first time that they played at the club, sixty-six people attended. Two weeks later a nineteen year old hustler named Andrew Look Oldham signed the Stones to a management contract.

The Stones got a deal with the Decca label soon later. In April of 1964 the Rolling Stones had an album out in the United Kingdom and in the United States. Mick Jagger-the drugs Marijuana, LSD, cocaine, heroin, and morphine were not as accessible in the United Kingdom as in the United States. When the Rolling Stones were on the road to becoming famous Mick Jagger was not very into drugs. Mick would have an occasional joint, but after about a year Mick graduated into harder drugs a lot more often. By mid 1965 Mick was a heavy pot smoker.

One time Keith and Mick barricaded themselves in Mick? s hotel room and would not let anyone in, because they did not want to share their pot stash. The door was knocked down later that night and their stash was taken by the other band members. In February of 1967 there was a newspaper like the tabloids that printed an article about Mick Jagger. The article said that Mick attended an LSD party at the house of one of the members of the Moody Blues. The paper said that they interview Mick and he confessed to being there, but there was no such interview.

The paper also said that during the middle of the interview Mick popped six Benzedrine tablets and then later asked two girls to go with him back to his apartment to smoke some hash. Mick was outraged. He did attend a LSD party, but there was no interview that took place, he was getting ready to sue the newspaper. After the paper was published there was a van waiting outside of Mick? s apartment and his phones had been tapped. Keith then asked Mick if he wanted to go to the country with him and a few friends.

Keith invited a guy called the Acid King David to come up and dispense orange tablets laced with premium quality LSD. The police got a tip that there was drug use at Keith? s country house, so they showed up. The cops had a warrant to search the house for drugs. Keith said, ?

It just so happened that we had all taken acid and were in a completely freaked-out state when the police arrived? Everybody was just sort of gliding down from the whole day of freaking about. ? (source 3, pg. 134) A lot of drugs were found at Keith? s house. The police were paid $ 12, 000 to keep their mouths shut about this. The story hit the papers two weeks later, but never mentioned any names. On May 28, 1969 the police showed up at Mick?

s door. They found a small box with a fourth of an ounce of pot. Mick claimed that the police had planted the box there. The police ended up taking a 1, 000 pound bribe. Before any show that Mick performed he would swig a little Jack Daniel? s and snort a little cocaine, smoke pot, or amyl nitrite, but Jagger did not believe in going on stage stoned and out of control.

He said, ? I think it? s completely wrong to get totally censored up and go out and play. ? (source 3, pg. 270) But during the shows as pick-me-ups there would be lines of cocaine, backstage for whomever needed it. How Drugs Really Affected the Music Industry In the fifties, sixties and seventies, there was a lot of drug use. Many musicians used drugs to get inspirations to write their songs. Almost every rock and roll band in the sixties and seventies used drugs, unfortunately the amount of drug use was much more profound than anyone could have ever imagined.

The music industry had started a national trend, making it seem like the use of drugs was executable, because the people that the fans looked up to were the ones that were actually abusing them. Many musicians died of drug overdoses, or depression, because they used so many different types of drugs. These musicians became dependant on the drugs and they acted as their inspiration for the music they were writing. Whether the music would have been better is hard to say, but this is the way that history was written therefore no one will ever know.


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Research essay sample on Sixties And Seventies Rock And Roll

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