Time for a bib...

Sorry for not posting yesterday, but I went to the dentist in the morning, and he provided me with, among other things, a nice big bottle of Vicodin, ostensibly to numb the blinding pain that is taking over the left side of my face, but I think in reality to Take Me To A Higher Plane Of Understanding. Or something like that. Needless to say I spent most of the day drooling on myself, and if I did post, it would look something like this:

I like kittens. They’re fuzzy. And rainbows. And corn dogs. Blue!

So luckily I managed to abstain. From the posting, not the Vicodin. I’m currently listening to the track I was working on for the majority of yesterday, and it really isn’t very good. Despite what all the kids are saying, drugs usually don’t help you write better music. I have quite a bit of experience in this matter, so I can speak with a bit of authority here. What they do is enable you to stand (and perhaps even enjoy) music that is, in fact, not very good.

Of course, there are certain things to consider. First, when you’re creating music and using a little substance action to help that process along, they do allow you to get over the tedium of the process and get deep in to the “why” of it. Ministry was (is?) a good example of this. When I started recording my first record for Wax Trax!, they were working on the hi-hat part for Scarecrow in the same studio. When I finished recording my first album for Wax Trax!, they were still working on the hi-hat part for Scarecrow. Listening to the track now, I don’t think that the hi-hat is terribly special, at least not special enough to warrant three weeks of lock-out.

Second, most drugs (at least the ones that don’t make you incredibly paranoid) allow you to get by your normal reticence to do anything that would be unacceptable to your customers, at least in your own mind. Yes, “Strawberry Fields” is the obvious example of this, and that song has been used as the justification for more excessive drug use than probably any other. But there’s one key point to consider. The four guys (five if you count Sir George) that wrote that track were exceptional musicians and songwriters to begin with.

So, whatever. I’m the last person to give any advice in this matter, and I could literally give no fuck whatsoever with what you do with your time. But when I think of all the gear I could have bought, and all the shit songs I’ve written and released… Ugh.