Line #20 Main/OdeToSobriety


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4	->''If you see me getting mighty''\
5	''If you see me getting [[{{Pun}} high]]''\
6	''Knock me down''\
7	''I'm not bigger than life''
8	-->-- '''Music/RedHotChiliPeppers''', "Knock Me Down"
9
10	A song that inverts OdeToIntoxication, sometimes softly, sometimes far more harshly. These usually come in one of three forms:
11
12	The "Deconstructed OdeToIntoxication" Ode to Sobriety would be an OdeToIntoxication except the song is about the singer's (or writer's) near-death from an OD, an addiction he or she actually wants to escape or has gone into treatment for, someone's suicide from alcohol and/or other drugs, (on the lighter side) how embarrassing people act while drunk, or about anything else that is on the less fun side of intoxication.
13
14	The "DrugsAreBad" Ode to Sobriety is usually engaged in by UsefulNotes/StraightEdge bands or artists, though others can occasionally do it (a common instance with non-UsefulNotes/StraightEdge artists is generally focused on a specific substance). As opposed to the ambivalent, bitter reflections of the Deconstructed OdeToIntoxication, it is simply DrugsAreBad as a song. It's a condemnation/callout of a specific substance and/or its users, and/or of alcohol or other drug use in general.
15
16	The "Glad to Be Sober" Ode to Sobriety results from an artist successfully overcoming an addiction or quitting an abusive pattern of alcoholism or other drug use -- and writing a song about how good being sober and free of said addiction is. It differs from the bitter Deconstructed OdeToIntoxication in that it's a LighterAndSofter topic (e.g. happiness about a drug-free life) as opposed to a GrimDark one (e.g. about almost dying from an OD) and from the DrugsAreBad song in that it's not a rant about how bad drugs are.
17
18	Given human nature, many an Ode to Sobriety is sung as a DrunkenSong. (The Irish folk song "The Wild Rover"--about a man giving up his wild drinking ways--is very popular in pubs.)
19
20	Compare AddictionSong.
21	----
22	!!Examples:
23
24	[[foldercontrol]]
25
26	[[folder:Deconstructed Ode To Intoxication]]
27	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4382UVl0oc "A Reason to Fight"]] by Music/{{Disturbed}}, complete with [[YouAreNotAlone phone numbers to call for addiction help]].
28	%%* [[http://youtu.be/ohf52vAPszM "I Want to Be Straight"]] by Ian Dury And The Blockheads -- could be this, could be parody.
29	%%* [[http://youtu.be/GpEOmZTYA4A "The High Cost of Living"]] by Jamey Johnson.
30	* [[http://youtu.be/HBWFJ85n_w0 "Sunday Morning Coming Down"]] by Kris Kristofferson and Music/JohnnyCash is about an unglamorous addict observing MundaneLuxury on an ordinary Sunday in the city while suffering after a night of drinking and getting high.
31	* [[http://youtu.be/F8UYGQeavRw "Kickstart My Heart"]] by Music/MotleyCrue. Also a classic example of LyricalDissonance -- it's about Nikki Sixx's near-death via OD.
32	** Speaking of Nikki Sixx, just about every song in the album Heroin Diaries from his side project SixxAM is this. To be expected, however, because it is all about his heroin addiction and recovery during the '80s.
33	* [[http://youtu.be/7yv6_16IxGY "Sold Some Attitude"]] by [[Music/HidetoMatsumoto hide]] [[WordSaladLyrics doesn't seem to make sense at all]] until viewed from the perspective of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stimulant_psychosis#Substituted_amphetamines amphetamine psychosis]]. It then becomes ThroughTheEyesOfMadness.
34	%%* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfetD-kmSZQ "Sober"]] by Music/{{Pink}}.
35	%%* [[http://youtu.be/WSdze_yYeKc "Wine Into Water"]] by T. Graham Brown.
36	* [[https://youtu.be/BPPtrqvHGEg "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me!)"]] by Music/TomWaits from ''Music/SmallChange'' is from the perspective of a drunken pianist giving a show in a dive bar. Tom slurs the lyrics and the melody stumbles over itself to imitate inebriation.
37	%%* [[http://youtu.be/paMzF1lnwGg "Wasted"]] by Creator/CarrieUnderwood.
38	* [[http://youtu.be/ejV8eGY_emA "For the Love of a Daughter"]] by Demi Lovato, about her biological father's alcoholism pleading with him to "put the bottle down, for the love of a daughter"
39	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqt8Z1k0oWQ "Can't Feel My Face"]] by The Weeknd is a sarcastic ode to cocaine with the line "I know she'll be the death of me, at least we'll both be numb," with "she" being a metaphor for cocaine.
40	* "Drinking Song" by Moxy Früvous. It actually starts out seeming like [[OdeToIntoxication the exact opposite]], describing fond memories of hanging around the house and getting drunk with a close friend. Then the tone of the lyrics gradually starts getting darker, and it turns out the friend in question drank himself to death one day, which caused the narrator to quit.
41	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kAJOSCyTB0 "Alcohol"]] by Music/BarenakedLadies. It similarly starts sounding like an OdeToIntoxication, until the POV character's intense self-loathing takes the forefront.
42	%%* Fellow Canadians Spirit Of The West, after drinking themselves through a tour of England, want to go [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPJD3qcIL7s "Home for a Rest"]]
43	%%* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7TWLxCIgwE "Too Drunk to Fuck"]] by Music/DeadKennedys is a slightly more comical example.
44	%%* Music/EricClapton's [[CoverChangesTheMeaning cover]] of JJ Cale's song ''Cocaine''.
45	* Music/TheBeautifulSouth's "Liars' Bar" which serves "rum by the kettledrum, whisky by the jar" and has the sort of clientele which encourage sobriety - even if you don't take them as a horrible warning, then certainly so you don't have to hang out with them.
46	%%* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgtDu2s-4w0#t=1m59s "Mr. Booze"]] by Music/BingCrosby and others.
47	* Music/FosterThePeople's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABzh6hTYpb8 Helena Beat]]" is pretty easy to miss as one of these at first, but it's about the denial addicts tend to exhibit; the refrain implies the narrator is so drunk and/or high that he has to tie his hands to a chair to keep from falling over, completely ignoring that his inability to stay upright indicates a much deeper problem.
48	* Beartooth's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTUCGRu_DL4 I Have a Problem]]" has the vocalists admitting that he has a drinking problem, and screaming to God for help.
49	* Music/GreenDay's "Geek Stink Breath", about a meth addict whose life is going down.
50	* Music/{{Sia}}'s "Chandelier" starts off with a party girl bragging about her hard-drinking ways. But halfway through the chorus, it turns dark and the party girl sings about how she's just "holding on". The second verse has her hungover.
51	* Melle Mel's "White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)" was originally written as a sarcastic OdeToIntoxication about cocaine, but ultimately the anti-drug message was made more blatant due to commercial considerations. This is probably why it alternates lyrics about how good the drug can make you feel ("white lines, visions dreams of passion") with ones about how dangerous it is ("Either up your nose or through your vein /With nothin' to gain, except killin' your brain")
52	* "Angel" by Music/SarahMcLachlan, an elegy written after the heroin overdose death of Music/TheSmashingPumpkins' keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin.
53	* "Honey, I'm Good." by Music/AndyGrammer, with the singer saying he could have a drink, but he'd rather not or else he might cheat on his partner, but that it won't be hard for the girl at the bar to find some other drunk fool to take home.
54	%%* "Heroin" by The Lurkers. Probably. [[SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein Does anyone have the exact lyrics?]]
55	* "Alkohol" by Herbert Grönemeyer. Describes the kick, but the message at the end ("Alcohol is the ship you are going down with") is rather obvious.
56	* "Saufen" by Music/DieArzte. General Health Surgeon's Warning! It sounds like your usual Fun Punk OdeToIntoxication if you don't read in between the lines.
57	* "Greg's Drinking Song" from ''Series/CrazyExGirlfriend'' is sung in the style of an Irish drinking song, but the lyrics are about all about the terrible things Greg used to do when he'd get drunk, from puking on his cat to crashing his friend's cars to trying to get into the cockpit so he could fly a plane (and getting banned from North West as a result).
58	* "One Drink Too Many" by Sailor ([[OneHitWonder better known for "A Glass of Champagne"]]) loses the singer his date. (The song strongly implies he loves alcohol more anyway.)
59	* "Purple Pills" by [[Music/{{Eminem}} D12]] details the surreal, horrible things the members of the band get up to on a night out after binging the entire medicine cabinet. Slim Shady drives while high on Valium, runs over five people and fires a gun at the crowd at one of his gigs while high on coke; Kon Artis eats a bunch of acid and ends up running around naked with a gun drawn before nearly dying of an overdose; Bizarre [[FanDisservice attempts to hit on girls while smelling of vomit]]; Proof chokes on chalk-filled cocaine; and Swift has to rap because he can't get a job because of his track marks.
60	* Music/NeilDiamond's "The Pot Smoker's Song": As Neil sings a cheery, jingle-like chorus extolling the virtues of marijuana ("pot, pot, gimme some pot / forget who you are, you can be who you're not"), patients of a rehab center give SpokenWordInMusic testimonials about how pot was their gateway to stronger drugs.
61	* The Bicycle Thief's "Cereal Song" is about the narrator working as a restaurant dishwasher and having bad teeth at 35 because cocaine and heroin fucked up his life.
62	* Surprisingly, considering how famous he is for his massive drug usage, Music/OzzyOsbourne has such a song. "Suicide Solution" was inspired by the alcohol-related death of Music/{{ACDC}}'s Bon Scott, and describes alcoholism as basically a slow suicide method (hence the title, which uses "solution" in the sense of "a fluid in which another substance is dissolved", referring to liquor).
63	* "Ricky's Hand" by Fad Gadget starts out just describing a man named Ricky going out for a night of drinking; there's a strange focus on what his hand is doing throughout, almost as though the hand was a separate entity of its own. Then Ricky drives while intoxicated - the DarkComedy punchline is that while we don't learn what happened to the rest of him, Ricky's severed hand is found by the side of the road.
64	[[/folder]]
65
66	[[folder:Drugs Are Bad]]
67	%%* [[http://youtu.be/aAuWETNkVkA "Impact Is Imminent"]] and [[http://youtu.be/M6NeDXTvbls "Dethamphetamine"]] by Exodus.
68	* [[http://youtu.be/Aq344ks1ieg "Cocaine Blues"]] by Music/JohnnyCash. A MurderBallad about a man who kills his woman because she was cheating on him after taking cocaine. The song ends urging the listener to stay away from cocaine and whiskey.
69	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtcUEP6goZ0 "Cold Turkey"]] by Music/JohnLennon (could fit Deconstructed OdeToIntoxication variant, but it's better here as he's [[GoingColdTurkey suffering through the song]]).
70	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn7549lL90M "Straight Edge"]] by Music/MinorThreat. Inspired the entire straight edge movement - though Ian MacKaye didn't intend to.
71	%%* [[http://youtu.be/_uBjpyOLjsc "The Needle and the Damage Done"]] by Music/NeilYoung.
72	* [[http://youtu.be/C4Bp-68W-2c "Methamphetamine"]] by The Old Crow Medicine Show, although this might be a parody (they also did "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqRazTve7Io Tell It to Me]]" and "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZWckoOcOhA Cocaine Habit]]", which are rather more clearly tongue-in-cheek).
73	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6-Kry3DDw0 "Say I Love You"]] by [[Music/ToshimitsuDeyama ToshI]] was written for an anti-methamphetamine campaign. It is also possibly referencing the now-known drug problems of at least two [[Music/HidetoMatsumoto late]] [[Music/TaijiSawada bandmates]].
74	%%* [[http://youtu.be/sHnXOSxka1Q "Bad"]] and [[http://youtu.be/kioyUGaABjA "Running to Stand Still"]] by Music/{{U2}}.
75	* "It's Only Alcohol" by HardcorePunk group The Freeze, though there's a little bit of "Deconstructed OdeToIntoxication" in there too: The lyrics chronicle a friend's descent into alcoholism, but the vocals are a spoken-word imitation of a drunk, complete with stammering and slurring that makes some lyrics completely unintelligible.
76	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnKhsTXoKCI "Master of Puppets"]] by Music/{{Metallica}} is more subtle than some, but the line, "Chop your breakfast on a mirror" is a clear reference to cocaine use.
77	%%* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtwT492YDvg "White Lines"]] by [[Music/GrandmasterFlashAndTheFuriousFive Grandmaster Flash]] ([[CoverVersion and also by]] Music/DuranDuran.)
78	* "Lightning Man" by Nitzer Ebb is about alcoholism, and the title is a reference to alcohol.
79	%%* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDB-yswOrzc That Smell]]" and "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmM7_z1cFA8 The Needle and the Spoon]]" by Music/LynyrdSkynyrd.
80	* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSgNOlZhK4E Hand of Doom]]" by Music/BlackSabbath is an anti-heroin song. "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODLK9HLsvFw Methademic]]" is mostly about methamphetamine, but the mention of "hypodermic pistol" can serve as a mention of heroin too.
81	* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIBy3NON1ck Thunderhead]]" By Music/WASP, another anti-heroin song.
82	* The Music/{{Styx}} song "Snowblind" is all about the "glorious" life of being a big name rock star who is spending most of his cash on cocaine, and how much the singer hates it.
83	* "Demon Alcohol", an ode to Music/OzzyOsbourne's own struggle with alcoholism.
84	%%* "[[https://youtu.be/kY7jSesdxl0 Lacquer Head]]" by Music/{{Primus}}.
85	* "[[https://youtu.be/CMThz7eQ6K0 Ashes to Ashes]]" by Music/DavidBowie:
86	--> Ashes to ashes, funk to funky, we know Major Tom's a junkie\
87	Strung out in heaven's high, hitting an all-time low\
88	Time and time I tell myself I'll stay clean tonight\
89	But the little green wheels are following me -- oh no, not again\
90	I'm stuck with a valuable friend -- "I'm happy, hope you're happy too"\
91	One flash of light, but no smoking pistol
92	* "[[https://youtu.be/tQeae9z6gSk Everyone's at It]]" by Music/LilyAllen is about the dangers of abusing prescription drugs:
93	-->I get involved, but I'm not advocating\
94	Got an opinion, yeah, you're well up for slating\
95	So you've got a prescription and that makes it legal\
96	Now I find the excuses overwhelmingly feeble\
97	So you go to the doctor, you need pills for sleeping\
98	Well, if you can convince him, then I guess that's not cheating\
99	So your daughter's depressed, well, get her straight on the Prozac\
100	But little do you know she already takes crack\
101	Why can't we all, all just be honest\
102	Admit to ourselves that everyone's on it\
103	From grown politicians to young adolescents\
104	Prescribing themselves antidepressants\
105	But how can we start to tackle the problem\
106	If you don't put your hands up and admit that you're on them\
107	The kids are in danger, they're all getting habits\
108	'Cause from what I can see, everyone's at it
109	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfEtO-zswdI "Kicks"]] by Music/PaulRevereAndTheRaiders is about how, after coming down from a high, the world will generally be exactly as it was before, and that it starts requiring stronger hits to reach the same high.
110	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doDBApOv2oM "Fight Like a Brave"]] by Music/RedHotChiliPeppers, the band's first Ode To Sobriety song. It was written by singer Anthony Kiedis after getting sober for the first time since the age of eleven.
111	* "That's Why I'm Here" by Music/KennyChesney, set an AA meeting, where a long-time attendee explains to newcomers what his alcoholism has cost him, including his family.
112	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjFyX2sSTGs "Mr. Booze"]] from the Rat Pack movie ''Film/RobinAndTheSevenHoods'' (and later covered/semi-spoofed on Family Guy like all things Sinatra) is a tongue-in-cheek version of this used to hide an illegal casino.
113	* The Greenwoods' "Please Don't Sell My Daddy No More Wine".
114	-->My daddy used to buy me pretty dresses\
115	Now it's only hand-me-downs and worn-out shoes\
116	It's because of you, I know that I wear these ragged clothes\
117	For you're the man who sells my daddy booze
118	* "I Hate You When You're Drunk" by Music/OllyMurs.
119	* "Madman (Vocal Mix)" by {{Music/Silverchair}} - the version that appears on their album ''Frogstomp'' is instrumental, but a demo with lyrics, personifying the influence of alcohol as a "madman", surfaced as a bonus track on ''[[GreatestHitsAlbum Greatest Hits Vol. 1]]''
120	[[/folder]]
121
122	[[folder:Glad To Be Sober]]
123	%%* [[http://youtu.be/me7GYlaliRE "Sober"]] by Music/KellyClarkson.
124	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuFI5KSPAt4 "Snow"]] by the Music/RedHotChiliPeppers. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU9vToZ8ti4 "Knock Me Down"]] might also count (they wrote it after guitarist Hillel Slovak OD'd and died).
125	%%* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5-yKhDd64s "Not Afraid"]] by Music/{{Eminem}}.
126	* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wild_Rover "The Wild Rover"]] by pretty much every Irish folk band ever. Ironically it's also often used as a DrunkenSong, but [[LyricalDissonance the lyrics are actually about]] the singer resolving to give up his wild drinking ways.
127	%%* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrAAK9GLZ1g Cheap Whiskey]]" by Music/MartinaMcBride.
128	* Music/DreamTheater's Twelve-Step Suite is somewhere between this and "Drugs Are Bad", except it's more a case of EarnYourHappyEnding than "Glad to Be Sober" since it explicitly details the often excruciating process of recovery.
129	* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kynobz0vq0 Little Rock]]" by Music/CollinRaye is about a recovering alcoholic who hasn't had a drink in 19 days. He's happy that he's finally sober, but also heartbroken because his alcoholism drove him away from his lover.
130	* "xanny", by Music/BillieEilish, where she complains about her friends spending all their time under the influence of alcohol and other drugs while she abstains:
131	-->I'm in their second-hand smoke\
132	Still just drinking [[TheTeetotaler canned coke]]\
133	I don't need a xanny to feel better
134	* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT4jR8FYAZY&list=RDbT4jR8FYAZY&start_radio=1 Happiness]]" by Deaf Havana aserts that it "isn't worth a single drop or glass of anything, and I don't want anything"
135	[[/folder]]
136
137	[[folder:Parodies]]
138	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeYsTmIzjkw "Because I Got High"]] by Music/{{Afroman}} is a tongue-in-cheek song about a man whose excessive usage of marijuana ruins his life, starting with him having a messy room and failing his classes, up to getting into a car crash that leaves him paralyzed, and he ends up alone after he's alienated all his loved ones. What makes this a parody rather than a straight example is that Afroman himself is a huge stoner and an advocate for marijuana legalization. In fact, the song's intro has Afroman rolling a blunt. Afroman would later release a "Positive Remix", which inverts the song into saying DrugsAreGood.
139	* "The No No Song," written by Hoyt Axton for Music/RingoStarr, tells of people who approach the singer and offer him marijuana first, then cocaine, then moonshine. He refuses them all, as per the refrain:
140	-->''I said "No no no no, I don't smoke/sniff/drink it no more,''\
141	''I'm tired of waking up on the floor.''\
142	''No thank you please, it only makes me sneeze,''\
143	''Then it makes it hard to find the door."''
144	%%* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlUOBt5VXGE "Checking In"]] from ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''.
145	[[/folder]]

Context Main / OdeToSobriety