There are a lot of slang colour names related to drugs, which are also widely used by rock musicians. Let’s take a look:
Purple: This colour refers to LSD. The name of the band Deep Purple makes an obvious reference to California Sunshine, another name given to LSD. (Sunshine is, by the way, one of Aerosmith’s major hits) Prince wrote Purple Rain and Jimi Hendrix was talking about “hard stuff” when he wrote Purple Haze!
Purple haze all in my brain
Lately things just don’t seem the same
Actin funny, but I don’t know why
Excuse me while I kiss the sky
Purple haze all around
Don’t know if I’m comin up or down
Am I happy or in misery?I cant go on like this
Purple haze You”re makin me blow my mind…mamabr>Purple haze, n-no, nooo
Purple haze, no, its painful, baby
Brown: It is mainly associated with grainy LSD, which is called “sugar”. The Rolling Stones sang about it in Brown Sugar (“Ah brown sugar how come you taste so good”)
White: The colour of the drug cocaine. Singer Ricky Martin talks about it in the song Maria:
Asi is maria,
White like the day
But it is poison,
If you are enamoured
Photo by crazynd
Yellow: This colour appears in the rather insipid song Yellow Mellow by Donovan. Yellow mellow seems to refer to either LSD or to scraped, dried banana peels which were said to have a psychedelic effect. Although the song was supposed to be about smoking dried banana skins, which was believed to be a hallucinogenic drug in the 1960s, this rumour has since been debunked. The currently accepted truth about the song “Mellow Yellow” is that it is about a sex toy, shaped like a banana, that the girls were crazy about!
Electrical banana
Is gonna be a sudden craze
Electrical banana
Is bound to be the very next phaseThey call it mellow yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me mellow yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me mellow yellow
Silver Silver Lady: (sang by actor and singer David Soul) is the name given to the syringe used for injectable drugs.
But honey you’re my last hope
And who else can I turn to
Photo by ‘SeraphimC
It cannot be denied that COLOUR played an enormous part when naming drugs. Here is a guide to slang drug terms associated with colours.
- Black: Black acid (LSD and PCP) black star / black sunshine (LSD)
- Blue: blue star (a type of blotter LSD) blue tabs / blue acid / blue moon / blue chairs / blue cheers / blue mist / blue heaven / heavenly blue (LSD)
- Brown: brown bombers / brown dots (LSD)
- Green: green double domes / green single domes / green wedge (LSD)
- Grey: grey shields (LSD)
- Orange: orange barrels / orange cubes / orange haze / orange micro (LSD)
- Pink: Pink Panther / pink witches / pink robots / pink blotters (LSD)
- Purple: purple haze / purple hearts / purple flats / purple ozoline (LSD)
- White: white dust / white lightning (LSD)
- Yellow: yellow sunshine (LSD)
Whatever their name, it must be remembered that when listening to rock songs colours are not so innocent as they may seem!
Did you know?
The Famous Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh suffered from the Meniere’s syndrome. It is believed that this illness made him hear constant ringings and that is the reason why he ended up by cutting one of his ears. Van Gogh showed a marked predilection for the colour yellow due to his consumption of a plant named Digitalis purpurea and his drinking of absinthe (a liquor made from artemisia absinthium). This combination damaged his retina and made him prefer the colour yellow.
Spanish painter Pablo Picasso also had two artistic periods entirely dominated by a predominant colour: the Blue Period (full of depressing paintings) and the Rose Period (during which he painted circus performers and clowns)
This guest post was written by speakin_colors.
About the Guest Author:
My favourite colour is green. Green represents nature, rebirth, immaturity, hope, and mainly freedom. It is the also the colour of American dollars, so it also symbolises money. What I really like about green is that it is a colour that has many shades: olive drab, mossy green, emerald green, pea green, lemon green and apple green, to mention just some of them.
What’s your favourite colour and why?
