70's Celebrity Anti-Drug PSA's pt 1

With 'celebrities' of sorts on the mind, and perhaps muddled somewhat by extreme Heartland-style heat, I'll present the first seven of many Anti-Drug PSAs that I enjoy. There are 29 more of these mainly music-industry celebs that I'll get to later on, as well as the Mel Blanc ones, which I've been saving for some special occasion. Whatever that'll be. These files are from a cassette I made of the lp of radio-only PSAs, one of many interesting albums lying around KZSC in 1982. Upon basking in many of these at a time, one is always impressed at how carefully the 'bad/troublesome' drugs are segregated by the various personalities involved, as well as the ones recorded while apparently high, which kinda dulls the message a bit. I think actually many of these folks sounded loaded whether they were or not. The Peter Yarrow psa in particular is an old favorite. His seething anger and the final death threat are such a treat. Jon Anderson also steps up in this set with a nice little rambling and almost incoherent 'warning'.

Paul Williams     Jackie Wilson     Johhny Winter     Bill Withers     Peter Yarrow     Jon Anderson     Jesse Colin Young

Comments

[Matt]

I think I heard a PSA of Ron Wood about drunk driving. I would love to hear that one again.

[Alistair]

Jon Anderson: "Leave the hard drugs alone." lmao! Nice mixed message there.

I think the Peter Yarrow is actually the best anti-drugs PSA that I've heard, though. It seems really honest, and somehow not lame.

[Alistair]

The Bill Withers is practically a pro-drugs advertisement. Damn, these are good. Thanks!

[Ray Brazen]

The Peter Yarrow one is HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!!

[K.]

Puff the magic dragon, lived by the sea.
And Johnny Winter saw him, whenever he took LSD.

[SillyWilly]

Alastair: Do you really think that, or is your tongue glued firmly to your cheek?

The Yarrow PSA was FILLED with lameness. Epic,EPIC fail!

[Alistair]

I do think that. What's lame about it? They got the guy who wrote the song, he says it's not about drugs, and he sounds pretty serious about it too. If you wrote something that was a sweet, sentimental ballad and it got taken over by people as a drugs anthem you would probably be peeved off about it as well.

But I don't know anything about Peter Yarrow, so I just take it at face value, there may be some ironic context I'm not aware of.

On wikipedia it says the guy was a convicted pedophile and got pardoned by Carter. LOL. What a great president that Carter was! A real classy guy!

[Mindwrecker]

Well, it looks like this first salvo of PSAs went over well..! I look forward to posting the rest of them through this summer. If you liked the seven teasers, there are lots more laffs and thrills ahead. Also: Ditto on the Bill Withers; and go easy folks, on the Peter Yarrow, he's packing heat and he knows where you live. Perhaps "Puff" is a veiled ode to underage sex. Weirder song messages have been hidden before...

[King Daevid MacKenzie]

...interestingly, one of the last things Phil Ochs recorded was an anti-drug PSA circa '74. Perhaps a little drop of acid would have improved his outlook :-( ...

[Mike Flugennock]

Johnny Winter?

You mean, that Johnny Winter -- Texas metal bluesman, one of the all-time champion junkies of rock'n'roll?

Interesting that Jon Anderson did one; ever since my high school days, Yes was (and still is) one of the top-ten favorite stoner bands. I still have my well-worn LP copy of Close To The Edge from back in college, and I'll bet that the crease on the inside of the fold-out album jacket still has particles of weed lodged inside it from four years' worth of using it to sift bong hits at dorm parties (try that with the CD version).

So, look, do you have the one with Phyllis Diller, from around 1971 -- the one where she babbles about "uppers" and "downers" and ends by admonishing us to "stay away from yo-yo drugs"? I'll never forget that one.