Tripping

[T&T]

you do enough band practices on LSD, it becomes part of your DNA. same goes for any drug or any repeated activity. When you're practicing/playing 40hours+ a week it becomes muscle memory.

[redbreegull]

In college I was smoking weed 2-4 times a day and it's true that you acquire the ability to do pretty much anything... take a test, write an essay, drive a car in traffic... but I could never get playing guitar down. Too much intense focus or something. I dunno.

I've never done acid but shrooms is kind of ok to play music on. The thing is that whenever I have been on shrooms I have just wanted to roll around in the grass and shit. Playing guitar never seemed too interesting.

[Grox]

i think billy's definitely tripping during this performance https://vimeo.com/48256055

[Shallowed]

Originally Posted by Graveflower

opiates literally do nothing for me, so i dunno. but i imagine if you were hitting them hard you couldn't really play while high.

[slunken]

so - no hard evidence?

[Adult Head]

Originally Posted by T&T

it becomes part of your DNA

Originally Posted by T&T

it becomes muscle memory

this is a whole lot of silliness

[slunken]

Originally Posted by slunken

i hear you say things like this all the time and, i'm being serious, could you provide a definitive list of shows - no matter how short - that you are 100% sure billy is dosed?

i honestly can't be sure about any of them.

Originally Posted by Shallowed

Can we post videos where it is known that the band were on something, or it seems like they're on something? Preferably while performing.

Originally Posted by Grox

i think billy's definitely tripping during this performance https://vimeo.com/48256055

still not seeing/hearing it

[stumpycat]

This. And all the other performances from this 1992 show. He's in outer space.



And this performance set from Rotterdam 1992. By the end he's off the fucking planet.

And oh yeah, the acoustic Reel Time sessions. Jimmy didn't show up, but it doesn't appear to matter - as James and Billy can't even hold it together long enough to play their way through most of the songs anyway.

[T&T]

Originally Posted by Adult Head

this is a whole lot of silliness

I feel sorry for you.

[Shallowed]

Originally Posted by slunken

still not seeing/hearing it

There was a recent thread talking about the Rio show and how they were on shrooms. I don't know if/when/how it was confirmed though.

[slunken]

FIND ME EVIDENCE

[CrabbMan]

Originally Posted by stumpycat

And oh yeah, the acoustic Reel Time sessions. Jimmy didn't show up, but it doesn't appear to matter - as James and Billy can't even hold it together long enough to play their way through most of the songs anyway.

Yeah, I've often thought Billy must have been tripping during that session. That comment about James giving him this ancient Japanese look, I can't imagine why he'd say that sober. And all the laughing of course.

[Shallowed]

Originally Posted by CrabbMan

ancient Japanese look

http://www.roninkatana.com/images/s22.jpg

[stumpycat]

Originally Posted by CrabbMan

Yeah, I've often thought Billy must have been tripping during that session. That comment about James giving him this ancient Japanese look, I can't imagine why he'd say that sober. And all the laughing of course.

They sound SO stereotypically stoned, like they've smoked a few bowls or something (even though I don't think that's what it was.) In any case, I highly recommend that everyone listen to this session because the interactions are hilarious. Billy keeps going off on tangents playing random shit, but yet My Dahlia and Sun just prove way too difficult to play.

[slunken]

idk i'm still not sold

[CrabbMan]

There really isn't any way to know what, if anything, they were on for any particular performance. Whenever I'm tripping I tend to feel it's totally obvious to the rest of the world, yet I've found when talking to people who are tripping you really can't tell anything more than that something is a little off. So with RTS I really can't tell if it's shrooms or dose, or just hella bowls, or *maybe* Billy is just in a weird mood.

It's totally possible to play music on acid, as long as you already know what you're doing. I'm extremely amateur, but I can play songs that I know well, as long as I don't have to think about it much. As soon as I try to think about what I'm doing even the simplest things seem impossible. It seems like it could be really difficult to cooperate with 3 other band members and put on a full show, but I imagine if all your doing most of your days is playing music and dropping acid then it wouldn't be too tough to manage... as long as there is somebody to tell you when it's time to take the stage and orchestrate the details.

[HereIsNoWhy4U]

You can see/hear the LSD during the tours of 1991/1992. I'm also pretty sure Billy only took MDMA during the Adore-era, to overcome the struggle of losing his mother. Especially since MDMA works better than any anti-depressant I've ever tried.

[CrabbMan]

It works great for 4-6 hours, then you feel uber-depressed for another 3 days.

[HereIsNoWhy4U]

Originally Posted by CrabbMan

It works great for 4-6 hours, then you feel uber-depressed for another 3 days.

Well, it still would have been enough for him to last a show. There was a bootleg where he got teary-eyed (at least his eye-liners ran) from 1998 during "For Martha".

[stumpycat]

Maybe this is a stupid question, but why in the hell would you even do LSD on and off with great regularity for at least two years straight? I mean, what's the point. It's worth it a few times for the uniqueness of the experience...but it's not like it makes you super happy, energetic, lovey-dovey, relaxed, numbed, or anything else that one finds pragmatic use for in all these other drugs which are often used to the point of excess and addiction. There are only so many times that you can experience the world in a strange new way before it ceases to be all that strange and novel anymore. Was he doing it for just pure escapism as opposed to the psychological sensation seeking aspect? Did he truly believe he could have some spiritual revelation? (Billy has always seemed motivated by these vaguely spiritual, esoteric things...just the personality type ripe for being sucked in by misplaced or delusional beliefs about achieving spiritual awakening.)

[sniffingchimp]

Originally Posted by HereIsNoWhy4U

Well, it still would have been enough for him to last a show. There was a bootleg where he got teary-eyed (at least his eye-liners ran) from 1998 during "For Martha".

As grim as this is, would be curious to know which show this is.

[reprise85]

Originally Posted by stumpycat

Maybe this is a stupid question, but why in the hell would you even do LSD on and off with great regularity for at least two years straight? I mean, what's the point. It's worth it a few times for the uniqueness of the experience...but it's not like it makes you super happy, energetic, lovey-dovey, relaxed, numbed, or anything else that one finds pragmatic use for in all these other drugs which are often used to the point of excess and addiction. There are only so many times that you can experience the world in a strange new way before it ceases to be all that strange and novel anymore. Was he doing it for just pure escapism as opposed to the psychological sensation seeking aspect? Did he truly believe he could have some spiritual revelation? (Billy has always seemed motivated by these vaguely spiritual, esoteric things...just the personality type ripe for being sucked in by misplaced or delusional beliefs about achieving spiritual awakening.)

There can be a certain hedonistic pleasure to taking LSD in public, dangerous, or exposed situations. I mean, imagining tripping while playing your 8-million-selling double album in front of 20,000 people while they scream at you like you're the messiah. That's some kind of ultimate experience, and one not many people get to have.

I really think it was a case of hedonistic debauchery. That kind of manic mischievousness that LSD puts your head into - I imagine it's very fulfilling to pull off a huge rock show while on it. Knowing you're either going to play crazy well or just lose it all and not remember how to play your guitar at all... in front of all those people... you are the God of the stage.

[Sonic Johnny]

Interesting post, reprise. I never thought about it that way. THAT SAID I've done LSD -plenty- of times and I can barely roll a fucking cigarette without thinking really hard about it, I can't imagine being able to play the guitar solo from Geek USA.

[teh b0lly!!1]

for the record, bill never seemed to be able to play the geek usa solo without fucking it up so we might be on to something here

[stumpycat]

Originally Posted by reprise85

There can be a certain hedonistic pleasure to taking LSD in public, dangerous, or exposed situations. I mean, imagining tripping while playing your 8-million-selling double album in front of 20,000 people while they scream at you like you're the messiah. That's some kind of ultimate experience, and one not many people get to have.

I really think it was a case of hedonistic debauchery. That kind of manic mischievousness that LSD puts your head into - I imagine it's very fulfilling to pull off a huge rock show while on it. Knowing you're either going to play crazy well or just lose it all and not remember how to play your guitar at all... in front of all those people... you are the God of the stage.

It sounds like you are either describing thrill seeking or disinhibition, which are two of the four dimensions of sensation seeking. I just don't really see those too directly anywhere else in his personality though. I would defnitely assume it is more of a boredom susceptibility thing, or a really high need for the experiential to feel more "alive," or just feel things more intensely and meaningfully in general. The song Psychodelic would give us a clue? According to that song, he wants more satisfaction that he can't receive. Probably a number of the same underlying motives were driving that as his alleged habit of cutting himself back then, also probably described autobiographically in another song from that time, Razor. I don't believe that he is being obtuse in those old songs.

[reprise85]

Uh, I don't know how to reply to something like that. I don't know what Billy was feeling at the time. But I doubt he had no urges for thrill seeking. Do you not think it would be personally meaningful to feel like a rock god in the way LSD makes you feeling like a god in its own way already? I can't even imagine how euphoric that would be. You'd really believe it in those hours. We do know he did it, and that it is a high risk situation in and of itself (on stage)... boredom? I dunno, playing concerts isn't boring.

As for those songs, I think those are a very small glimpse into his personality and shouldn't be a basis for psychoanalyzing him. Of course parts of one's self goes into songs, but they aren't necessarily as personally relevant years or even months later.

[z e r o]

some unverified but interesting info here:*http://en.allexperts.com/q/Smashing-...93/f/Billy.htm

I've always found it curious that he's done drugs but hardly ever drunk alcohol.

[soniclovenoize]

Personally, I can barely function musically when I am on something... If I'm on weed, my timing becomes sloppy and I forget the lyrics; on adderall I become too frantic and couldn't focus; on oxys it was the opposite-- I'd get super focused on one particular thing and ignore everything else. I've played many shows intoxicated, so I don't believe that really effects me, but I've always been a careful drinker anyways (I'm a lightweight). Once I had a bad cold the night of this show and I was literally chugging a bottle of cough syrup just to stop coughing, and then I had a few beers and then of course I was really freaking out. I don't remember how I played though... The opening band was freaking me out,giving me this weird soundtrack to a bad robotrip that I accidentally took.

Anyways I've never really had positive experiences with it myself (and I've never taken LSD) but my experience with others is--in the case of weed specifically--is that their recall for previously written parts (when they were sober) is decreased. BUT if the part was originally composed while they were on weed, their recall was better if they were again on weed. Likewise, if they are sober their recall was decreased if it was a part written while on weed. Those musicians simply played better if they were in the same state--either sober or high, not both. Does that make sense?

I can only assume your brain gets used to operating in a certain state, and is best when that state is continued.

[slunken]

this thread is all conjecture

[jczeroman]

I was hoping that this was a thread on tipping. It's been a long time since we had one of those...