Cocaine has left a fine, dusty coating all over the record industry for the last thirty years. However, it is not just the musicians who have been overindulging; coke lies at the very centre of the recording business – producers, managers, A&R staff and even executives have all had their fingers in it.
To discover why it reaches such heights of popularity, we have to look at the effects of the drug. Cocaine is a stimulant which excites the brain’s ‘pleasure-zones’ (these are normally stimulated by eating and drinking, or sexual gratification) and this induces a buzz of self-confidence and controlled aggression. Surely then coke is the perfect drug for a business which thrives on aggression, frequent partying, gargantuan egos and sex.
Cocaine started getting really popular amongst musicians in the seventies, it was another upper which was seen as a working drug; it would get a musician onto the stage, keep conversation flowing in an interview, and also help them wile away the hours spent travelling.
Touring and press coverage seemed to be coke’s boundaries – it was not a very creative drug, and due to over-inflated egos it could cause havoc in a confined space such as recording studio. Joni Mitchell once commented that many albums would be entirely different if the substance did not exist. Unfortunately, (and probably due to the excesses of money of rock musicians from the era) many musicians became addicts, and with this came a lifestyle that is surely the embodiment of the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll ethos; falling into a depraved cycle of a sexual desire and need for both human contact and cocaine. After continued heavy use, the user can develop a psychosis and acute paranoia, and we can see this in the cocaine use of the Motown singer, Marvin Gaye. In the months before his death, Gaye’s habit was reaching epic proportions, as was his erratic behaviour – he would get his driver to circle hotels many times before he would have the courage to enter, and became completely obsessed with guns.
Perhaps if these famous musicians were not earning so much money, the drug would not be such an issue, due to its high price. Sting famously once said that “Coke is God’s way of telling you you’ve got too much money”. However, cocaine has always been a rich person’s drug, and perhaps this is why it seems to be so attractive within the business side of popular music; to project an image of success onto the user.
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