Drugs/partying and Music

[glocke]

Hopefully this topic is allowed..

I've been more or less sober for the better part of 8 months now...I never really had a problem at all to be honest.  Booze was never really my thing but at gigs I'd start drinking during down time out of sheer boredom.  I was always way more into herb and at one point was smoking daily and at gigs.  Roughly eight months ago I got tired of the brain fog and gave that up.  I ended up with a better memory, playing music better, etc..etc..


Recently started smoking again and have noticed diminished abilities in my ability to memorize stuff.  Just yesterday I had a bass lesson that I prepared all week for...memorize a jazz blues progression, play a walking baseline for 5 choruses and on every 2 and 3rd chorus i was supposed to layout on the last four measures of  the 2nd chorus, solo on the 3rd and than repeat the whole thing.  I completely and utterly blanked on this exercise after completing the first full chorus and just couldn't remember where I was at by the time the second chorus came around.  In previous weeks I nailed different versions of this exercise.  The teacher was pissed...I was pissed and felt like an idiot. I had actually went in expecting to nail it because I played it flawlessly the days leading up to it at home.

The previous few days I had probably gone out with friends and smoked up a few different times so Im guessing thats what caused my short term memory lapse and inability to retain what I worked on. They say correlation doesn't equal causation, but I can't think of any other reason for my memory lapse.

Makes me wonder how back in the day bands like the G, Dead could get up and play in front of thousands completely toasted and hold it together. 

Needless to say Im going back to sobriety.


[edited for formatting]

[pauldo]

Gregory,
Don’t be too hard on yourself.  You obviously recognize that what happened was less than desirable and are vowing to do better.  As you noted, the cause and effect thing may or may not be the truth.

Personally I went through a battery of memory tests a few years back to test my memory because of what actually was some cranial nerve thingy....  anyhow - according to those tests I am as sharp as a piece of Japanese cutlery.   Friends and family will tell you otherwise.    


There are many things that can contribute to not retaining thoughts.  Stress is a big one - just turning on the TV these days is enough to short a few circuits. 

Allegedly when getting high I find my focus is sharper and the static in my brain is muted.  At the same time I recall brief moments when an oops may occur, best course of action is to acknowledge the blunder and then let it go - move forward.  Otherwise it is far to easy to get completely derailed and get trapped in a circle of kicking myself in the arse and saying ouch!

[edwardofhuncote]

Sounds like you just needed to get it out somewhere, Greg. 

[cozmik_cowboy]

You need to do what works for you, Greg.

For me, it's a matter of being in practice - and not on the instrument.  For the first 20 years or so I played, I never touched a guitar without toking up first; I still remember most of what I learned then*, and what I can't I get back quickly with a few play-throughs.   Then She quit smoking it, and decided that meant I should too, and at about the same time the Feds decided truckdrivers should be subject to random testing**.  Needless to say, I cut way back - and on the few times I picked it up high, I'd find myself sitting there wondering how long it was since I'd hit a string. 


Come retirement and I started upping my intake, then I got my medical card; now I'm playing as well (or, more correctly, as poorly) stoned as straight, and learning new things high again, as well.  Just had to get my C-legs (C as in cannabis) back under me. 


*Within the limits allowed by my teen-age TBI, which makes anything like that a bit of a struggle.


**Otherwise known as coercing testimony against yourself through a warrantless search & seizure predicated on a presumption of guilt......


Peter

[Deltaphoenix]

I have been clean for over 10 years. There was absolutely no doubt that I had a problem and that getting clean was the only option if I wanted to stay alive or out of prison. I am grateful for the clarity because I have seen people struggle in the in between state for years (I am in NA).

One of my fears when I was getting clean was around creativity - is being high a part of my process? I had been high on something basically for 17 years prior to getting clean. I have come to find that being high isn’t required to be creative or have fun.

It is interesting times with the continuous loosing of laws around cannabis. I don’t judge, people are hopefully doing their best and/or have found relief for pain or illness through cannabis. Admittedly, there is some small part of me that has a reservation and would like to eat an edible or something. What I am very clear on is what is next and it isn’t good. I am hardwired to find something stronger.

Anyways, my take on it is simple. If something is causing consequences or impacting you in a way that you don’t like, then stop.

[gtrguy]

I say good on you for taking these steps. I had so many musician friends get messed up with drugs, and quite a few of them are no longer around.

[bigredbass]

I was lucky:  I just can't drink (I get real drunk real fast and can't function, THEN I have the worst hangovers, bedridden, it just doesn't like me), and I was always terrified of drugs.  So in a life where I've made most every mistake in the book (hell, they had to start a second book . . . . . ), I did manage somehow to skip those two.

I have lived long enough to know that this is an insanely cruel world at times, and human beings will understandably look for something to ease the terror, the anguish, the depressing parts of living every day.  This is to be expected, and I'd think a normal reaction.  And I'm no preacher about these things:  The occasional drink or toke after a hard day, who am I to say anything ?

In my experience (including myself) though, we are not wired to where occasional is a lifelong state.

Drugs and alcohol are the occupational hazards of the music business.  We don't say 'Sex, drugs, and rock & roll' for nothing.  And yet if you look at the many, many musicians who wound up as drunks and addicts, and the resulting damages to their careers, lives, and loved ones from a strictly objective standpoint, the only reasonable choice is 'I Do Not Want To End Up Like That', based on the experiences of all who were lost for parts of their careers or lost completely to the grave.

In my days as strictly a club player, never a musician for a chart act, I can count over a dozen deaths of musicians I played with.  Then there's the other couple dozen on their third rehab or fourth marriage.  Regrettably much more than the few I know who survived to find a program and live to tell about it.

I have alcoholism in my family, and I learned about mean drunks as a kid.  I learned everything else on the bandstand.

This weekend, just down the road in Manchester, TN, is this year's Bonnaroo Festival, where the local authorities have stocked 2,000 ( that's right, TWO THOUSAND ) Narcan pens and sprays to hopefully save lives.  And we'll lose some kids regardless, already one I know of.

That tells me everything I need to know about 'partying'.

So I'd say, Glocke, you have the right idea.  I'd make no apologies or feel less about yourself if you 'can't hang', you've lived to smarten up before it's too late.

Good for You, and All the Best,

Joey

[David Houck]

Each person's journey is unique, and that uniqueness includes our experiences regarding memory, regarding creativity, and regarding the use of psychoactive substances.

On my own journey, the use of those substances was let go when it was time to do so; and while I am thankful for what I learned from them, where I am today is far better than where I was before.  However, it wasn't just letting go of those particular aspects of my life that was so transformative; there was much more going on that just that.  But for me, they did have to fall away when it was time for them to go.

But again, that's just me.  Each person's path through this life is unique.  No other human being will ever walk a path quite like the one you are on.

[edwin]

Drugs and alcohol are the occupational hazards of the music business.  We don't say 'Sex, drugs, and rock & roll' for nothing.  And yet if you look at the many, many musicians who wound up as drunks and addicts, and the resulting damages to their careers, lives, and loved ones from a strictly objective standpoint, the only reasonable choice is 'I Do Not Want To End Up Like That', based on the experiences of all who were lost for parts of their careers or lost completely to the grave.

In my days as strictly a club player, never a musician for a chart act, I can count over a dozen deaths of musicians I played with.  Then there's the other couple dozen on their third rehab or fourth marriage.  Regrettably much more than the few I know who survived to find a program and live to tell about it.

This is one of the reasons I left the full time music world. I am blessed with a personality that is not subjective to addictive behaviors, but I was watching friends drink themselves to death, etc. Stress in the music business is a killer, and the drugs/alcohol don't help.

I suppose I could have gotten much deeper into it, as my wife thinks I'm adorable when I'm wasted, but that's not something I want to abuse or exploit, as it can get very unadorable very quickly and I don't share that opinion of my wasted self.

But, to get to Greg's original question: how could the GD be as competent as they were when high?

First, they practiced and played all the time. When you do that, a lot happens subconsciously and you aren't quite so distracted with trying to remember how to play your instrument. Way back in the day, when I played in a band that rehearsed and gigged constantly, I remember reviewing some shows on tape where psychedelics were involved and discovered that they just didn't sound very different from the shows where they weren't. There are other things that were much more deleterious, such as fatigue or boredom. There are better ways to get inspired.

Second, after a while, they weren't that competent when under the influence and they apparently have been pretty up front about the negative effects (Kreutzmann talks about this in his book, especially the cocaine. And Bird also said that no one ever played a better note because of heroin, after aspiring jazz musicians started emulating their heroes and were getting hooked.).

We all have to decide this for ourselves, and I'm very grateful that I can effectively live moderately. Playing sober gigs is fun!

[sonicus]

At this time in my life when I perform as a musician I have found that I am in full form and at best capacity when when it is just a mater of my mind, my hands and my instrument.  Within the 48 years of playing the bass guitar and 53 years of playing brass instruments that is what it has come to for me for a faithful representation of what my mind and soul can offer as a result of all these decades of exposure of all the collective miid altering experimental processes that I have encountered . I find that I am able to derive both the intellectual and visceral benefits that i have accumulated and incorporate from thus  into standard tangible tools that I can now harvest and direct into any musical interpretation .  A combination of instantaneous recall of musical theory  and mind bending process as a result of my journey in now just a mater of the  flick of the cerebral switch . You ask for it and you got it ;
ALEMBIC !

[gtrguy]

I did a gig once under the influence of this mind altering drug. It was horrible! My timing was off, I was sweating and twitchy and tense.
And all because the girl at Starbucks mistakenly forgot that I ordered decaff...

[edwardofhuncote]

Having successfully quit everything else they said was bad for me, I draw a bold line at caffeine David... anybody tries to pry my Kaffe Magnum Opus away is gonna' get a scrap. Of course, it'll be short, cause y'know I get tired easy... 

[sonicus]

Coffee/ Caffeine is actually a modifying substance that I can ingest currently for live  musical performances .

[glocke]

I did a gig once under the influence of this mind altering drug. It was horrible! My timing was off, I was sweating and twitchy and tense.
And all because the girl at Starbucks mistakenly forgot that I ordered decaff...

I usually bring a thermos of coffee and a couple of 5 hour energies to gigs.  It doesn't sound very rock n rollish, but I've always struggled with late nights even as a kid.  The caffeine helps keep me mentally alert, but there's a fine line between enough to keep me alert and enough to push me over the edge jittery.

[keith_h]

I stopped smoking pot in high school. I found for me it even in small amounts it just makes me tired and sleepy. When I'm tired I can't play so for most of my playing years I would just stay inside while band members went outside to imbibe.

As to drinking as I've aged I do less drinking on any occasion. Where in my 20's I might have drunk 6, 8 or 10 beers in a sitting these days I'll have one or maybe two and frequently don't finish the second. As to performing it was probably 20 years ago, I can't believe I've been in my house that long, that I quit drinking during gsig and waiting until load out.  Again it wasn't any particular event it was just one of those things. Now I just keep water and/or ice tea on stage. I'll say they both go down a lot better than a luke warm beer that's been sitting under the stage lights.

As to the Dead question, don't forget at times the audience was just as toasted as they were. There were also gigs where they didn't hold it together so well but folks tend to forget those shows.