[travisbrown]

So are we assuming that "classic albums made with drugs" means everyone involved was high throughout the process?

This is something that I find hard to believe. Usually the anecdotal stories of drug use during production are superficial (and hyperbolized), and usually belie the probability that the supporting crew like session players, engineers, producers, A&R reps, exec. producers, other bandmates, etc. carried the project through despite any individual's excesses.

Then you'd have to quantify the elements that made that classic album and how much of it's "classicness" can be attributed to performances mitigated/enhanced by inebriation. What about the writing process? And who knows how much and even if the artists were inebriated during the actual performances? When you actually get down to it, turns out the people who were there often attest that the artists were actually reasonably sober when they showed up for work. By Buckingham's own admission, there was a lot of coke during the Rumours sessions, but was that a gumfreeze or line or two as a pick-me-up to get through long sessions, or full out partymode where people get really wasted?

What I think is easier to talk about is the stylistic or technical proficiency of an artist during periods of drug use. Take Stevie Ray Vaughan, for example. I think that the albums and performances he did while an alcoholic and coke addict are much better albums than after he quit altogether. I think he just lost his edge. But what probably made those early albums so great was not that alcohol or coke enhanced his playing, but those drugs probably were symptomatic of while concurrently attributing to his psychic space at the time.

I have no idea if SRV was actually inebriated during the recording sessions. I don't suspect that excessive use while performing ever made him play better. But the raw style of that era was probably a result of a creative outlet for an otherwise manic and excessive life. It's a bit of a chicken/egg thing, I think. We are the sum total of our addictions.

Alchoholism and drug abuse leads to messy lives. Messy lives can make for good blues. It's a bit conflicting that we benefit from someone's turmoil, but...

A friend once commented about Amy Winehouse, "Well, maybe we'll get one more great album out of her before she cleans up or dies."