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Friday, July 27, 2012

Song / Zzzzzzzzzzzzz Tobacco's Greatest Hits

Posted by on Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 9:47 AM

Fuck cigarettes and their carcinogenic payload (please quit now if you’re a smoker; thanks), but there have been some killer cuts featuring cancer sticks in their lyrics. Vital songs with ruinous habits in 'em—it’s a venerable tradition in rock and soul and funk and blues and jazz and klezmer. My highly unscientific survey has yielded two classics that stand above all the rest: the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” (1965 single that later appeared on Out of Our Heads) and Al Green’s “Take Me to the River” (off 1974's Al Green Explores Your Mind)—although I confess I heard Talking Heads’ 1978 version first, and that one is amazing, too.

But there’s a good chance you disagree with these opinions on this volatile subject. Use the comments section to yammer about your own fave tunes that use cigs as lyrical props. Come on, cough 'em up.

 

Comments (7) RSS

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1
Uh, "Cigarettes and Coffee" by Otis Redding?
Posted by carnivorous chicken on July 27, 2012 at 10:15 AM
Jackson Hathorn 2
"Time takes a cigarette/ puts it in your mouth/ You pull on your finger/ then another finger/ then your cigarette"
Posted by Jackson Hathorn on July 27, 2012 at 11:37 AM
Kathy Fennessy 3
"Little doll I can't forget..."
Posted by Kathy Fennessy http://kathleencfennessy.blogspot.com/ on July 27, 2012 at 11:38 AM
4
Yeah, that Stooges songs is unfuckwithable. And how could I forget the "haiku cigarette" in Can's "Mary, Mary So Contrary" and yet another cigarette in the same band's "Turtles Have Short Legs"?
Posted by Dave Segal on July 27, 2012 at 12:54 PM
5
Stooges song, damn it.
Posted by Dave Segal on July 27, 2012 at 12:55 PM
Estey 6
Did you know that K.D. Lang did a whole album related to the topic? A carcinogen concept album, if you will? "Constant Craving" indeed. (No I've never heard it -- I am allergic to smoke and also to mainstream artists doing concept albums.)

http://www.amazon.com/Drag-k-d-lang/dp/B…
Posted by Estey on July 27, 2012 at 3:55 PM
pinksoda 7
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction is also an Otis Redding song ....
Posted by pinksoda on July 28, 2012 at 7:44 PM

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