Re: Peter Gabriel and Drugs

[jsd@gaffa.MIT.EDU (Jon Drukman)]

>My personal opinion is that you can't really tell whether a musician
>uses drugs or not solely on the basis of their work.  Heck, Kate's "9th Wave"
>could be interpreted as a series of drug-induced flashbacks and visions
>(that is, if you wanted to die a slow lingering death at the hands of various
>Love-Hounds!).

Any love-hounds who would deal out slow lingering death to you for
making a pretty valid interpretation like that deserves it themselves.
It's quite obvious that Kate intended The Ninth Wave as a drug
allegory and just because she said something else in some stupid
interview is flimsy evidence at best.  (THAT WAS HUMOUR.  IF YOU
DIDN'T FIND IT FUNNY, HIT 'N' NOW.  YOU WON'T ENJOY THE REST OF THE
ARTICLE, I PROMISE YOU.)

Let's take a peek at "the Ninth Wave," a classic in the annals of drug
(induced | related) literature...  First we have the "sound of
engines" in "And Dream Of Sheep" - this sensation of engines or gears
is often reported by people being choloroformed.  Then we have the
poppies in the last verse of course.  Let's face it: the heroin(e) of
the piece is a total smack head.  Next up is "Under Ice" which
features references to "snow" and "cutting out little lines" --
clearly Our Heroine is indulging in the latest New York street fad
known as "chasing the dragon."  (this is for real - I saw it on ABC
WORLD NEWS TONIGHT - Peter Jennings is incapable of lying to me.  I
trust him.  So should you.)

The rest of the side is fairly littered with images that come straight
from drug trips.  The meeting-your-future-self phenomenon is well
documented, and a friend of mine had a similar thing happen to him on
a weird drug trip.  Unfortunately, he didn't meet his 10 years future
self, he met his future self on his/their deathbed, and it kinda
unnerved him a bit.  He even ripped the plugs to the CD player out of
the wall, just because the music was freaking him out.  (I knew I
liked The Tear Garden for a reason!)

The out of body experience is quite easy to achieve on drugs (and may
be simple even for those not on drugs, but drugs can certainly give
you a little push, heh heh...)  I, for one, once shot straight out of
my brain and stared at my now-vacant body from across the room.  I
would've explored a little, but I noticed that I had this really
vacuous expression on my face (even more vacuous than normal) and I
wanted to do something about it, so I zipped straight back into my
skull again.  A stupid move, to be sure...

Next we get "The light begin to bleed" which is a classic acid
experience.  In fact, I'd venture to say that a larger percentage of
acid trippers have experienced this phenomenon than people who drown
at sea.  But then again, the ones who drown at sea usually don't have
much to tell us once they wash up on the shore.  Generally this is
attributed to their death.  (YES, SHE DIES FOLKS!  YOU READ IT HERE
FIRST!)

Well, that's all the yellow journalism I can deal out without laughing
myself to death right here and now.

"I'm meditating on the FORMALDEHYDE and the ASBESTOS leaking into my
PERSONAL SPACE!!"


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