Conference napalm::guitar

    
    I've just re-read my base note and thought I had better say that no I
    am not planning to experiment just to see if it improves my playing!
    Just looking for some lively discussion, also how come the 'new' breed
    of guitar heroes are all together a 'heathier living' bunch than the
    old school?
    
    J. (who has a videotape of a young Dave Gilmour being interviewed....and 
        let me tell you the guy was not on this planet!)
      

    I know what you're trying to say and it's an interesting discussion. 
    Some people like the guys in Aerosmith believe that they are producing
    the best music they ever have now that they're clean.  

    For myself, I know that it really messes up my playing (timing goes
    first) and generally makes me more stupid then I already am.  So, I
    know it doesn't improve *my* music.

    I've heard some people claim that drugs help them to play better, but I
    have yet to actually hear someone that sounded better when they were
    stoned.

    On the other hand, I have a friend who believes that it is pretty much
    mandatory to imbibe in drugs to write certain forms of music (notably
    hardcore punk and very strange alternative music).  He is a musician,
    who enjoys that kind of music, but doesn't write/play it himself.  I
    don't think I agree, but I would have to concede that a lot of music
    which I enjoy immensely has been written under the influence of mind
    altering substances.

    I think that most people I've talked to would tell you that drugs
    impede playing ability (probably one reason all the current guitar hero
    types don't use them!) and some say it may increase creativity.  The
    think I worry about is that it only seems to increase creativity for a
    short period of time and after that the musicians seem to burn out or
    die.  Not a good prospect...
    
    Not sure what I really believe about the creativity enhancing effects,
    but I don't use illegal drugs anymore myself.

    Greg

    
    Re -1
    
    You said your timing goes to pot (no pun intended) ever tried playing
    when you're drunk? (No way, everytime I try I play for maybe 30 secs
    and think....jeez it really does mess up your co-ordination!!)
    
    As for the creativity bit, I feel that to some extent it may help....
    actually I don't think help is the right word....what I mean is that
    some songs wouldn't have been written if the person writing hadn't been
    on some strange substance.
    
    To back me up on that point isn't there a famous (epic) poem written by
    some chap who was on opium? 
    
    Apart from the creativity debate I have to say that I believe that
    being stoned may help your playing to some degree by relaxing you
    so you aren't trying too hard to play awesome licks......although you 
    always end up playing blues!!! But the same effect can be had by having
    a hot bath or a massage!!!!
    
    You mentioned that Aerosmith believe they are writing some of the best
    stuff they ever have now that they are 'straight' do you think that
    they are only writing better now that have been through the horror of
    having a drug problem and now have a wealth of experiences to draw
    from or would they have been writing this well if they had never
    touched any drugs?
    
    J.

    Back to the base note....
    
    The question about "lifestyle" hits it on the head.  I think the bulk
    of drug usage amongst musicians comes from being in an environment
    where other musicians are using drugs.  Miles Davis mentions in his
    autobiography how one of his famous bands was comprised of all junkies
    simply beacuse one junkie would always recommend another for a gig
    since that way when his supply dried up, maybe the other guy could still
    cop.  
    
    Since I started playing music in garage bands up until today, I have
    *never* been in a band where there were no drug users.  It sort of goes
    with the territory, if the guy plays well and doesn't let the drugs
    interfere with his reliability, you live with it.  On the other hand, a
    drummer friend once quit a band after the other members insisted he
    start kicking in to buy the coke after the gig.
    
    Just imagine being out on the road all the time (some of you out there
    have actually done this, I know, but most haven't).  You're away from
    family and friends, living in cheap motels, sleeping in the van, etc.
    It's just plain boring.  No wonder people turn to booze and dope to
    keep going.  Some never learn, like Pete Townshend: first he was
    addicted to pills, then booze, then he got into heroin.  Pete, you may
    recall, was the catalyst in the seventies for getting Clapton to kick
    heroin, and yet ten years later there's Pete himself shooting up....it
    does make you wonder.
    
    The other side of it is that some people actually *like* the lifestyle. 
    I don't want to get into psychology 101 here, but destructive
    lifestyles go hand in hand with low self-esteem.  The old "live fast,
    die young" mentality didn't get invented by rock and rollers, in fact
    C&W singer Faron Young had a hit in the 50s with a song of that title,
    and Hank Williams died of an alcohol OD in the back of a Cadillac in
    the early 50s.
    
    What perpetuates all this is that once the musician gets to a
    certain level of success, the business people want to keep the golden
    goose, so will do whatever necessary to keep that person producing,
    even if it entails looking the other way about drug usage.  
    
    							Brian

    
    Louis Armstrong smoked pot from at least 1915 until he died. Would
    not go on stage without it - it was where the character came from.
    
    I think what happens is really just altered perspectives. I keep
    remembering McCartney in 67,68 saying that LSD provided the
    perception of insight - enough to broaden one's view. I have some
    theories on why that occurs from a neurological point of view.
    The problem with LSD though was you could never really member what
    the insight was all about, only this rememberence some strange sort
    of mental image occured. 
    
    However, the tragedy of all the substances is dependence, either
    mental, physical, or both.  The "newness" of experience rapidly
    fades, the burst of creativity fades, yet too often the other chains
    have taken hold.
    
    I suspect that members of Aerosmith truely have experienced a whole
    new round of insight, creativity and musical awareness, just by
    experiencing becoming straight again. I know i've been living a
    very clean life (no beer even) for a year, and many times i feel
    i am experiencing feelings that have long vanished over the last 25
    years or so.
    
    	bob

>    You said your timing goes to pot (no pun intended) ever tried playing
>    when you're drunk?
    
    Yeah I have.  Sometimes it works out ok, sometimes (most times) not.
    
>    As for the creativity bit, I feel that to some extent it may help....
>    actually I don't think help is the right word....what I mean is that
>    some songs wouldn't have been written if the person writing hadn't been
>    on some strange substance.
    
>    To back me up on that point isn't there a famous (epic) poem written by
>    some chap who was on opium? 
    
    There are a great many of these.  Edgar Allen Poe was known to be an
    opium addict and heavily abused alcohol as well.  I'm sure that's part
    of the reason his poems and stories are so dark.
    
    Perhaps the one you're thinking of is "Kubla Khan" by Samuel T.
    Coleredge.  It's a epic style poem and has the subtitle "A Vision in a
    Dream" (or something like that). It begins "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan, a
    pleasure dome erect...". He said the poem came to him in an opium
    induced dream and he started writing it down as soon as he got up.  It
    has no ending because he was interrupted by a knock on the door and
    when he returned, he couldn't remember the rest of the poem.  Rush did
    a song based on the premise of this poem offering an ending.  
    
    Coleredge also wrote the classic epic poem "The Rime of the Ancient
    Mariner", but I don't know if it was supposed to have been drug induced
    as well or not.  Iron Maiden did a song based on this poem.
    
    re: Aerosmith
    
    This is JMO, but I don't think they typically write songs about
    experiences gleaned from their years of drug abuse.
    
    Greg

    
    
    Total agreement on things so far: dependence sucks, but sometimes the
    initial expansion of consciousness is useful (was useful, I can pee in
    a cup any day now).
    
    Remember the Isley Bros. hit "Who's That Lady"?  I heard an interview a
    long time ago with the guitar player; said that they spent all morning
    in the studio trying to get a good solo and nothing was happening.  The
    other guys took him out and he did his first lines of coke - he went
    back into the studio and cut the solo in one take.
    

    Re: coke and guitar solo
    
    I bet the same thing would've happened with a plecebo. But it's still no
    less interesting a phenomenon.

I CANNOT get even the tiniest bit drunk and play.

	Forget it!  It's  commical..  I suck...  

I can't see how anyone can (play drunk.)

    
    
    
    		When I think of drugs within the music business, I
    	can't help but harken back to the mid to late sixties when the
    	drug culture was starting to infiltrate most segments of the
    	American culture in general. (England included) The bands that
    	had a large impact like the Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Cream,
    	Jimi Hendrix, etc, etc, made no bones about drug use/effects and
    	would espouse the wonders of such mind altering sustances. The
    	majority seemed more occupied with the more psychoactive chemicals
    	like herb, mescaline, psilocybin, and LSD and its various
    	derivatives rather than the hard core drugs like heroin or cocain. 
    	I think that the heavy effect that the drug culture had in
    	the sixties is still ingrained in the music business today.
    	Not that there hasn't been alot of drug influence in music before
    	the sixties, (listen to some of Cab Callaway's early works) or
    	after, (the cocain days of the late seventies/early eighties)
    	But as time went by and the music industry had lost some of the 
    	most brillant musical minds of the century to drug abuse and
    	overdoses. I think alot of musicians have learned that drugs are
    	not the creative catalyst that they were once thought to be, and
    	that the unaltered state can be a big advantage in having clear
    	cut goals and working to attain those goals.
    	
    
    	So don't Bogart that joint, my friend,
    	DonH
    
    

    So, will shooting smack like, make me play like Dave Navarro (Jane's
    Addiction)?
    
    ;^)

    Some of the other replies had some good ideas;
    
    Away from the support of freinds and family (except for fellow
    players). Low self-esteem, in some cases. The stuff is around
    a lot (including alcohol). 
    
    Also, in some cases (Billie Holliday, Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin
    come to mind immediately), the performers are scared S***less of being
    vulnerable in front of an audience, of any size (remember the "Playing
    Out and Puking" note, right here in this conference?)
    
    I remember reading in at least one of the Beatles biographical books
    that sitting cloistered in a hotel room, running to planes, running to
    limos, etc., really gets boring and repetitive not to mention
    stressful. How does any person relieve stress? Excercise? Drinking? 
    Speedballing? Trashing hotel rooms? The list go on....
    
    Bill
    

    
    the famous poem goes something like this...
    
    In Xanadu did Kublai Khan a stately pleasure dome decree
    Where Alf, the sacred river, ran
    Through caverns measureless to man
    Down to a sunless sea...
    
    >Knock Knock!<
    
    "Oh hi, come on in, wanna drink?"
    "Yeah sure - whaddya doing Sam?"
    "Oh nothing, just writing a stupid poem, or was it a letter....dunno,
    I'll finish it later.........fancy a snort?"
    

    re: .-1
    
    Hahaha!  ;^)
    
    Yeah, I had that first line a little whacked.  What I quoted was
    someone's massacre of it from a song, it's been used in several.  I
    don't remember exactly which one I'm thinking of, but I don't think
    it's the Rush one.
    
    Greg

     maybe "Frankie goes to Hollywood"???
    -Wicked bass part on that one!
    -Bill

>     maybe "Frankie goes to Hollywood"???
 
    Yeah, that's it!
    
    Greg

	I can't drug and play at the same time. The only thing drugs
	and booze does for me is make me want more drugs and booze.

	I think there is a link between low-self-esteem and the desire
	to perform. Let me get up and show you all that I really deserve
	to be loved. Some performers are perhaps driven to perform to
	cover for some deep seated irrational shame. This same stuff
	inside is painful enough that they also get into self-medication.

	I also agree with the bit about stress. Living in a fishbowl
	is difficult for well adjusted people. For folks that have
	doubts about their own self worth it's probably maddening.

	As for creativity - I'm glad for the insights that I've had but
	as Edison said "Creativity is 1% inspiration". I've no
	shortage of inspiration, it's the ability to set goals and
	work toward them that I need. And there's no drug that'll do
	that for me.

    
    	Interesting note...
    
    	Most drugs, especially the king of them all alcohol, are known
    to be an "emotional anestetic". That is, as was exemplified by the
    Isley bros "Who's that lady" story before (if it's true), you can
    be *feeling* one way, do some drug, and have your feelings change.
    By the sound of that particular solo, I think I have an idea of
    what that guitarists's feelings changed *to* ;') I have no idea of
    what he was feeling beforehand.
    
    	Unfortunately, messing around with chemicals that are capable
    of changing essentially *how you feel* at any given moment, is
    dangerous business. It's dangerous first off because it can kill
    you - I think we all know that. It's also dangerous because when
    one does drugs in lieu of feeling their feelings, one is starting
    a process which leads directly to addiction. I'm not sure that I
    could concisely explain how this happens, but I can cite and an
    example that it's waaaayyy better (in the long run) to go through 
    your "stage fright" *straight* than it is to have a few pops beforehand.
    
    	If you dont go through this feeling initially, you might find 
    5 years later that you still cant get on stage without - You also
    might find yourself smack in middle of the old "one's too many and a 
    thousand never enough" dilemmma. Maybe kicked out of your band because
    now you're just a drunk - addicted to alcohol - who cant play in
    front of people without half his pint of JD down - or whatever. 
    
    	Music itself is an emotional *kinestetic*. Kinestetic because
    the motion of doing allows you to get emotional or get to (vs away
    from) how you are feeling. Not that I'd need to prove this here, but 
    I like to think of the "Southern Baptist Church" sequence in the
    "Blues Brothers" movie. That stuff is real; the Southern Baptist
    ministers knew well of the power of music to stir up feelings and
    emotions in his congregation. Sort of, "So what'd you think of Church
    yesterday?" "Whow! - It was *Great*!" The kind of response that, er,
    keeps 'em coming back next Sunday.
    	
    	Personally, I dont buy the "creativity" argument. I believe
    you only "think" that you couldnt have done such 'n such without,
    mostly because one can change how they feel by changing what they
    believe about themselves anyway. The drug is just a shortcut "there".
    I've heard lots of storys about how something sounded so good or
    something looked so good - and then you listen to the tape or get
    the picture printed afterward and you find it was all one note or
    it's a picture of dirt on the ground or something. Like, Wow_man!
    
    	Joe

    i had a few pints prior to my 1st gig ever, it helped nervousness,
    but i should have been more sensable, (couldn't wait for the set
    to end).
    
    i think that it's important to note that everyone deals with "altered"
    experiences differently (prior to self abuse).  to some, they may
    enhance, to others, detract.
                                                                  
    anyone head of straight-edge (hard core)....here's a case where
    where what you don't do don't matter//
    
    new topic // sex and music ??? do the women in videos make the bands
    sound better? arent' the Cramps (Ivy) the biggest live rock and
    roll turn on?  you see when folks buy into that rhythmic, pounding,
    hip hip house disco top 40, their in it for the sex not the music.
    turn on the radio and have sex. sex while jogging, biking, . no
    wonder the lyrics seem the same.
    
    gosh i' m on a roll //s

    
    Re -1
    
    
    As I tell my woman when she asks me if I am going to put down the
    guitar and come to bed...............sex is OK, but it is no substitute
    for the real thing............(playing my geetar)
    
    J
    

    
    Re: .1
    
    Gee, send me a tape, your music must be pretty good  8^)  8^)  8^)

    re: sex and music
    
    I know I always play guitar better when I'm having sex...

    
    
    
    
    	Hmmmmm... sex.... Oh yeah, I remember that!....  [;^)
    

    Greg, remind me never to touch your guitar!!  ARGH!!  He has sex with
    his guitar!!  :^)
    
    I knew a guy who payed VERY well.  When people were watching him, he'd
    get nervous.  You could actually see his hands shake.  Well, it came
    time for us to play out as a band for the first time.  To quell his
    nervousness, he drank before coming to the place.  Well, his playing
    was bad enough that the bass player and I packed up our stuff at the
    end of the show and never went back to the band again.  He THOUGHT he
    played great, and he kept saying that, until he heard the tape
    recording that was made during the show, then he never mentioned it
    again (we had a friend that new the other guys in the band and kept us
    informed after we quit).
    
    Chris D. who_NEVER_EVER_drank_or_did_drugs_before_playing......or
    after, for that matter!

    re: 2229.22   <re: sex and music>
    
    Doesn't the guitar get in the way?   ;^)
    
    
    		Fred (who'll_only_go_so_far...   _with_a_guitar)
                                           

    
>>    		Fred (who'll_only_go_so_far...   _with_a_guitar)
    
     How far's that, the A fret??   :^) :^) :^)
    
    Couldn't resist.
    Chris D.            

      While living in NY I worked in some very colorful bands. The lead
    singer would do this and that, the bassist would do uppers to get wired
    and then downers to fall asleep when he'd go home, the other guitarist
    would drink and drink and drink. The story is the same no matter where
    you go. The excuses are the same too, I play better when I'm st*ned
    man.... Well? The fact of the matter is that "YOU'RE BLOWING THE ACT!!!"
    What do you do about it? Sometimes you can't do anything, but if the
    band is worth it...  you try and make them see that they're messing up
    the show and all your practice was for nothing. I remember going to a
    rehersal at this drummers house only to find a VERY dense fog. What's a
    guy to do? Don't waste my time! How can they really be serious? They
    can't because they couldn't remember what they rehersed the week
    before! YIKES! 
    	I was the guy who always drank coffee, or tea in the band. Why? 
    Simple, when the others got wasted, someone had to call the shots. 
    When the 1st lead guitarist was wiped...  who had to fill-in for him? 
    You got it...  me! And for what? Well...  it was an experience, one I 
    don't feel a need to relive, but non-the-less an experience. 
    	How about them big beer drinkers? Sure...  lots of them on the
    "southern rock" circuit and *I* have "no problem" with it either... 
    UNTIL THE BAR BILL IS SO HIGH THAT I DON'T GET PAID FOR THE EVENING!
    That's when I have a problem with it, especially when the band owes the 
    bar to boot. What's wrong with this picture? Maybe I was just too serious?
    Naw... I just wanted to have a good time and get paid for it, not have
    the owner inform me that he's not paying our set amount because the bar 
    tab was $100+. I'll just deduct the bill from your earnings. YO! WAKE
    UP! This can't go on like this...  find yourself another guitarist
    bunky!
    	How about this one (I love this one), I was doing a "fill-in" job
    for a guitarist friend of mine on eastern Long Island (NY) and during
    the break the rest of the band disappeared. Hey, I'm a street wise kid
    from NY, so I get a cup of coffee and take it outside where I find the 
    rest of the band in the truck (welcome to the FOG ZONE) and they invite 
    me into the van. Thanks guys, but I'd rather wait outside if you don't 
    mind. Then they started giving me a hard time and getting all over my 
    case! Peer pressure? At 27? I simply informed them that I was hired by 
    them to be their guitarist and if they didn't like the way I was doing 
    my job to please let me know and I'll pack up and go home now and that
    they don't have to pay me a cent! With that they said; "oh no man...
    it's cool...  no problem". I didn't fill in with them after that night.
    
    	My "bottom line"? What someone does is *their* problem as long as it
    doesn't effect me. It's their life not mine and I have no right to tell
    them how to live it. When I'm playing or working, I need to be in control 
    of myself. I can't play any other way.
     
    Stories on "sex, drugs and music"? I have a few war stories from the road,
    or was it from the "side of the road"?  ;^)
    
    				Rock on,
    					Fred

    I've got scores of tapes, which were recorded during live shows.  You
    may think you're cookin' on stage, but the tapes don't lie.  When I was
    in a metal band, the drummer and bass player (brothers) would always
    fire up a doob before each set - said it made 'em sharper (yeah, sharp
    as a bowl of jello ...).  Even when we'd listen to the tapes, they
    still wouldn't admit that herb made their timing off, not to mention
    making them miss bridges, etc.  'Course, they were usually toasted when
    we listened to the tapes too.  I know I've listened to enough tapes
    where *I* was brain_bent to know I play better sober.  You also want to
    stay sober until you get your car loaded with gear AND until you get
    safely to your point of destination.   8^)
    
    Scary (who's had an angel looking over his shoulder on too many
    occasions ....)

>    Stories on "sex, drugs and music"? I have a few war stories from the road,
>    or was it from the "side of the road"?  ;^)

    Well, if there was ever a note that I could relate to, I think -1 is it.
    Hey Fred, maybe it was the "FAR SIDE of the road".

    --Ron

     RE:.22.......DO YOU PLAY ONE HANDED ALOT????????
    =:^P X 10000
    -BILL

        I know  I  get nervous (only gigged with the Bass three times
        now other than  jams) when I'm in front of people.  The first
        half hour of play  is  usually the worst and then I calm down
        and get into a groove.   (I just kinda' forget that there are
        people there.) But I don't drink  or  do  drugs  to calm down
        either.  (Beer is  my  only vice anyway.) But beer has always
        dried my throat too much and it  doesn't help the vocals when
        singing, so I stick to water.  (And yes, you can visually see
        my hands shake during that time.)
        
        Lord know's though, I could never play in front  of  a  crowd
        from  in  here  though  !    Too  many people who'd  hear  my
        mistakes.  :^) (Believe me, being a musician, I know how easy
        it is to be critical of other bands/musicians.)
        
        Matt

    I get more nervous in a small crowd of friends than I do on a stage in
    front of 500 people.  Can't let the alter_ego kick in while in an
    up_close situation ....  8^)
    
    Scary

    I feel that 1 or at most 2 beers over the course of a set definately
    helps me relax a little (especially after leaving this place!) and
    play better. But we're not doing any Cacophony :-). I guess if I was
    trying real hard to play real hard-to-play music I'd have to take a
    different approach. But I'm having fun, and the crowd likes it.
    
    Everything in moderation I say. A little beer or even something else
    won't hurt you once in a while. It's when you have to have 6 beers 
    before you go on stage that it becomes a problem. I get real aggravated
    with the "you smoke one J a month, you have a drug problem" crowd.

    Scary, I was just talking to a singer about that yesterday.  When I
    used to play at a place where the band was "ground level", there were
    no ego kick-ins.  I just stood there, played my stuff, and that was
    that.  On stage, I was a whole different person.  The only thing that
    limited my movement was my guitar chord.  If I was wireless then, I
    would have been deadly.  
    We were discussing this because she was saying she sang at floor level
    the other day and had a hard time with it.
    
    Chris D.

    re: Bill Kron
    
    Sheesh, no respect at all!
    
    ;^)

    >play better. But we're not doing any Cacophony :-). I guess if I was
                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    
    But you SHOULD be!!!

How bout the time one of our bass players waltzed out of the mens room
in a beer hall, pretty freaking high on Angel Dust. He fell twice during the
second set...  Couldn't even remember a 1-4-5- blues tune...
when ask 'what the f---k got inta ya', he claimed he had no idea he
was token on a laced J...  --- right.....

Oh, it was a wonderful set...

Then there was the time I went to see a friends band, and the drummer,
who probably could have been a good drummer, but first, he was a bad drunk,
stands up to do 'a wicked-totally-awesome roll out at the end of a tune,
falls down on his face, takes his kit with him, while a symbol cracks
the guitar plyer in the hand, and puts a nice gash in his guitars neck...

	'Ya guy, that was an awesome finish!'


But I really say, if a person can carry his booze, or his smoke up on stage
with him, I've got no problem with it.  When the excess thing starts to happen,
there's no doubt, you're gonna be in trouble.

oh wait, one other thing..

	''' music is better then sex '''

Ahem, are u sure 'bout this... Sometimes, close, but never better,,,

    I've found that keeping a tape rolling is a good way to counter the
    "It makes me more creative" argument...
    
    Edd

    Agreed - making an ass out of yourself (or the entire band ...) doesn't
    constitute `creativity'.  
    
    On a side note ... ain't NOTHIN' better than sex ...  8^)
    
    Scary

    
    
    I've played with guys who used to get stoned or drunk during our
    breaks.  By the 4th set they were real sloppy, made mucho mistakes,
    etc.  I hated it because I was there to have fun and it wasn't fun when
    I thought the band sounded terrible.
    
    I also played with a bass player who got high at *every* gig we played
    over a three year period.  But then, he spent his life slightly high! 
    Didn't affect his playing so we learned to live with it.  He always
    came back from breaks on time, never made a "Hey, man, let's get
    stoned" scene, and was a fine player to boot.
    
    Getting him to rehearsal was another story. 8-)
    
    Personally, I rarely even have a beer when I play.  I like to hit that
    groove when the entire band plays as a unit, and for me that just isn't
    possible unless I'm sharp. 
    
    Kevin                      
    
    

    >On a side note ... ain't NOTHIN' better than sex ...  8^)
    
    ROLLER COASTERS are!!!!!!!!
    
    Buck, firmly believing Coasters are better than sex.

    
    
    Yeh sorry Scary, my guitar never bitches at me, asks where I've been
    etc,etc. I prefer it to sex.
    
    
    As an aside I had a thought last night, ever notice how when something
    goes wrong or you can't do something you tend to blame the tools (at
    least I do) how come I *never* blame the guitar when something doesn't
    go right!
    
    J

    
    
    This is interesting, because my lead vocalist/bass player and I were
    just discussing this.  
    
    Regarding why 'rock stars' seem to fall into drugs/booze, etc.
    
    What happens to *you* on a gig?  For me, I spend approximately 2-3
    hours getting dressed & getting my stuff packed up.  Lots of energy,
    really 'up', just normal pre-gig mode.  Then, we load the
    car.  We get to the gig, unload the stuff, and set up our respective
    instruments and the p.a.  Sound check, if we're lucky.  At 9:30-10:00,
    we start, and do 4 45-min. sets, or 3 1-hr. sets, with maybe 15-20
    minutes of break to go to the restroom, greet friends/fans, push the mailing
    list, and maybe even sit down.  At 2:00 am, I *immediately* begin to
    break down (keys & guitar, takes me twice as long as everybody else). 
    Then comes handling the business.  After everyone has been paid, we
    load up the car, go home, and then UNLOAD all the gear.  By now, it's
    3:00-4:00am.  We're exhausted (but energized), and half the time,
    hungry, so we may even get breakfast in.  
    
    After that, sleep is no problem, except maybe for the ringing in your
    ears.
    
    **WHO HAS TIME/ENERGY TO PARTY??  ESPECIALLY INVOLVING SOMETHING LIKE
    COKE OR MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF BOOZE?**
    
    (I don't drink during gigs often, never drink a lot anymore.  The first
    things to go are my timing, precision, and voice control.  Not good for
    vocal intensive stuff.)
    
    Now, compare that to someone "making it".  Roadies handle the
    equipment--loading, transportation, set-up, sound check.  Management
    handles the business.  The sound crew worries about the mix. NOBODY
    tells you to 'turn down or leave.'  You just have to show up, perform, 
    and as soon as you've sung/played the last note, you can leave.
    
    What happens to all that pre- post-gig energy?  You've still got to get
    yourself psyched to perform, but now you have lots of time to kill and
    a whole lot less detail to worry about.  It is NO WONDER that many
    performers turn to drugs/booze to cope.  Add to that management that is
    interested in keeping the performer happy, and you've got a real
    opportunity for trouble.
    
    So, I guess  the moral is, we're lucky we don't have roadies...
    
    Anita
    
    
    

While we're all throwing in out $.02, I might as well also......

Its interesting that some of my all-time favorite albums were recorded by 
people who were herion addicts at the time:

Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs - Derek and the Dominoes (Clapton)
Exile on Main Street/Sticky Fingers - Rolling Stones
Rocks - Aerosmith
Appetite For Destruction - Guns and Roses
Electric Ladyland - Jimi Hendrix

Don't ask what it means, I'm just pointing it out........

alan

    Re .45

    Maybe people become inspired (and creative?) as they approach the brink.
    Drug addiction may put their existance in perspective. I'm not saying
    that this is why some musicians take drugs, only that its a result of
    the experience. Why did Hemingway drink? Is it because when one puts
    one's own mortality at risk one develops an sense of what mortality is?

    I get high when I play.
    
    That is, just playing with my band really does get me high (w/o drugs)
    so I've never felt the need to get high to do gigs.

    So THAT'S what Ringo was trying to say!

    
    I prefer nervous shakes to substances and vomiting anyday.
    
    I just try to shake in the right *rhythm*!!
    
    guy

    I was reading the latest issue of Option the other day and they had
    interviews with a couple of "Seattle" bands (Screaming Trees, Love
    Battery) and was quite surprised that both espoused this "I need
    alcohol to create" philosophy.  One guy mentioned that he did
    sometimes play sober and he played better that way but it was
    *uncomfortable*!!!  
    
    Welcome to the new sobriety NOT.
    
    						Bud Man

    The new genre of metal, I guess.
    
    jc

    Looks like smack is trendy again.  Both Kurt Cobain of Nirvana and Evan
    Dando of the Lemonheads have admitted in print to having kicked heroin
    habits recently.
    
    						China White  

    -1
    
    Ridin the Horse has been a trend in the LA metal scene since 1987.
    Nothing LA Guns, Motley Crue, and Guns n Roses haven't already been
    through (and admitted in print...)...
    
    						China Beach
    

    
    
    Damn stuff must be good to catch so many people who don't have any
    excuse for not knowing better...never done it myself, probably never
    will...
    
    						Fine China
    
    

    Most of those recreational substances are God's way of telling the
    spoiled_brat_looking_for_kix_user that they make too much money...
    
    my $.02
    
    Mark Lindsay

    "Play that junky music white boy..."
    
    Signed,
    Keep_diggin'_til_I_get_to CHINA

Me and my buddies were recording "brother" by ALice n chains in the
school studio (for kicks) Three of us two on guitar one on tamborine. The
first take (we were lit) we thought sounded great. (the muscles in your
ears relax often leading to this misconception) WE did four more
takes after the first one, and when we played them all back I almost
lost it. The first take sounded like a dying llama and went from
98 BPM to 105 BPM!! Yeah we were really "smokin" On the reverse it
is pretty cool to do for fun sometimes. The last take was our best and
the final master wasn't to shabby!!  my 2 cents anyway!! 8)
[Posted by WWW Notes gateway]

Chris, is that YOU ????

What's a nice kid like you doing in a conference like this ?

-r pelkey.