We Are All on Drugs

From Weezerpedia
Jump to: navigation, search
"We Are All on Drugs"
We Are All on Drugs cover
Single by Weezer
Album Make Believe
Released July 12, 2005[1]
Format CD, 7"
Recorded Summer 2004
Length 3:35
Label Geffen
Writer(s) Rivers Cuomo
COR# 528
Producer(s) Weezer, Rick Rubin, Chad Bamford
Status Officially released
Live debut April 26, 2005
Stream Play on spotify.png Spotify
Play on Apple Music.png Apple Music
Weezer singles chronology
"Beverly Hills"
(2005)
"We Are All on Drugs"
(2005)
"Perfect Situation"
(2005)
Make Believe track listing
"Peace"
(5)
"We Are All On Drugs"
(6)
"The Damage in Your Heart"
(7)

"We Are All on Drugs" is the sixth track and second single from Make Believe.

Appearances

Overview

Rivers: I was living in an apartment above the Sunset Strip, and every Friday and Saturday night I’d hear people cruising and partying, and hooting and hollering. And I went to sleep one night and I heard those sounds all through the night, in my dreams. I had this dream about a kid on the Metro bus, blasting hip hop into his brain through his headphones. And the music sounded so decadent and overstimulating, and I woke up in the midst of that dream, in a haze, and immediately said to myself, “Man, we’re all on drugs!” And I instantly knew that would be a cool song.

Brian: I remember the first time Rivers played it for me, and just felt this, like, ‘can we do this?’ You know, I mean, this is a hit song, without a doubt. Just singing that chorus the first time, when we played these songs acoustically in the office, it was just a riot because it was just so much—it was like I felt like we were doing something illegal by saying that. And there were thoughts like, how are parents going to like this? Or you know, are we going to be banned from kids, you know, listening, whatever, their album collections? I think it’s a great song because it’s not saying anything positive or negative about drugs. It’s one of those ambivalent songs. I’m just glad that my guitar intro got used. [laughs]

Pat: Yeah, I had to fight for that, man! You guys had this other thing going on, where you wanted it to be all mellow, when it was so obvious to me that it should be the big rock track. I love that intro.

Rivers: [to Brian] Yeah, I loved your intro from the first time you brought it in. On this album you’ve come up with so many great intros and musical interludes.

Brian: Well, that’s what great about our music, too, is there’s different ways to interpret it., and I think all of them should be explored, because I actually liked—Rivers had a different version of it that worked equally as well. I think everything should be explored, or else we’re cheating ourselves.

Rivers: And also, it’s interesting that we’ve found that sometimes one of the other guys will start singing a line that I came up with, and it sounds a million times better. Like on this song, when Scott sings “never get enough” in the chorus, it’s just, it’s so right, it’s obvious that he has to sing that.

Scott: Right on! It’s funny, and I remember you talking about - when you were living in that apartment—it’s like, ‘I always hear these people going, ‘WHOOO! WHOO! All night long, a whole car full of girls are like, ‘WHOO!’’ and that’s exactly what we sing in that song. [laughter] It’s really cool. After the first chorus at these shows, even though nobody knows the song yet, people are so into it. Out of all the new songs, that song seems to hit people the fastest, to me.

Pat: Yeah, Kevin and Bean talk about that song all the time, I guess. They’re like, ‘that’s the best title ever!’.

Band commentary[2]

"We Are All on Drugs" is first known to have been demoed acoustically and recorded directly onto Rivers Cuomo's laptop at Weezer's rented office space on June 23, 2003. The song continued to be demoed throughout 2003 and was alternately on Cuomo's "A-List" during pre-production on Make Believe.

In a May 9, 2005 interview with Y100, Weezer lead singer Rivers Cuomo talked about the song: "Don't take it literally...I'm singing more about the fact [of] how addicted we all are to stimulating ourselves, and over-stimulating ourselves with music, or whatever it is in our lives. [It's] not necessarily about drugs."[citation needed]

Initial pressings of Make Believe contained an incorrect mix of "We Are All on Drugs", featuring different lyrics during the bridge ("I want to confiscate your drugs / I don't think I can get enough"). Upon discovering the mistake, the band had the correct version included on later pressings of the album, and released it as the album's second single. There is also a censored version called "We Are All In Love", mainly used for airings of the video on stations that objected to the drug reference. Pat Wilson came up with the censored title and originally wanted to call it "We Are All on Hugs".[citation needed]

When the song was serviced to radio, the band was not free to immediately film a video. In order to get a quick video made to promote the song, a hastily-edited video was constructed using footage from a 1985 video for the song "Fear No Evil" by heavy metal band Grim Reaper.[3] Eventually, a proper video directed by Justin Francis was filmed and distributed.

The song was covered by the Los Angeles pop metal/rock band Baba Yaga (formerly Skinmask) and released as the band's debut single on July 2, 2020. Weezer members Scott Shriner and Brian Bell made guest appearences in the video.[4]

Reception

"We Are All on Drugs" received moderate commercial success, peaking at #10 on the US Modern Rock radio charts and number 35 on the main US charts. Reception from critics was more mixed. Ryan Schreiber of Pitchfork included "We Are All on Drugs" on his list of "The 15 Worst Releases of 2005",[5] adding only the word "OBVIOUSLY!!!" as an explanation.

Known recordings

Performer(s) Title Filename Date of recording Recording location Length Appeared on Notes
Weezer We Are All on Drugs June 23, 2003 8295 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA[6] Acoustic demo
Weezer We Are All on Drugs June 24, 2003 8295 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA[6] Acoustic demo
Weezer We Are All on Drugs August 3, 2003 Rod Cervera's studio[6] Acoustic demo
Weezer We Are All on Drugs November 6, 2003 Swing House Studios, Los Angeles, CA[6] Take 1
Weezer We Are All on Drugs November 6, 2003 Swing House Studios, Los Angeles, CA[6] Take 2 (selected as best take)
Weezer We Are All on Drugs November 6, 2003 Swing House Studios, Los Angeles, CA[6] Take 3
Weezer We Are All on Drugs November 6, 2003 Swing House Studios, Los Angeles, CA[6] Take 4
Weezer We Are All on Drugs November 11, 2003 Swing House Studios, Los Angeles, CA[6] Rehearsal
Weezer We Are All on Drugs December 1December 19, 2003 Cello Studios, Los Angeles, CA[2]
Weezer We Are All on Drugs December 1December 19, 2003 Cello Studios, Los Angeles, CA[2] Rough mix made on January 30, 2004
Rivers Cuomo We Are All on Drugs February 27, 2004 S.I.R. Studios, Los Angeles, CA[2] Demo
Rivers Cuomo We Are All on Drugs July 3, 2004 S.I.R. Studios, Los Angeles, CA[2] Demo
Weezer We Are All on Drugs December 1December 19, 2003 Cello Studios, Los Angeles, CA[2] Rough mix made on October 5, 2004
Weezer We Are All on Drugs July 22October 22, 2004 Grandmaster Recorders, Los Angeles, CA[2] New "rock" version
Weezer We Are All on Drugs July 22 2004—February 2005 Rick Rubin's home studio, Los Angeles, CA[2] Rough mix of "rock" version without vocals made in February 2005
Weezer We Are All on Drugs July 22 2004—February 2005 Rick Rubin's home studio, Los Angeles, CA[2] 3:35 Make Believe first pressing Near-final mix with alternate bridge lyrics
Weezer We Are All on Drugs July 22 2004—February 2005 Rick Rubin's home studio, Los Angeles, CA[2] 3:35 Make Believe Final mix
Weezer We Are All In Love July 22 20042005 3:35 MTV Censored lyrics for television stations
about this table

Personnel

Music video

The music video was directed by Justin Francis.

Lyrics

When you're out with your friends
In your new Mercedes-Benz
And you're on drugs
And you show up late for school
'Cause you think you're really cool
When you're on drugs
And you put on your headphones
And you step into the zone
When you're on drugs
But the world don't care
If you are or are not there
'Cause you're on drugs

Give it to me

We are all on drugs, yeah
Never getting enough (never get enough)
We are all on drugs, yeah
Give me some of that stuff

And you twitch in your seat
'Cause you wanna hit the street
When you're on drugs
And you cause such a fuss
'Cause there's no one you can trust
When you're on drugs
And the best of your days
Will all vanish in the haze
When you're on drugs
And you wish you could quit
'Cause you're really sick of it
But you're on drugs

Give it to me

We are all on drugs, yeah
Never getting enough (never get enough)
We are all on drugs, yeah
Give me some of that stuff

I want to reach a higher plane
Where things will never be the same, uh

Give it to me

We are all on drugs, yeah
Never getting enough (never get enough)
We are all on drugs, yeah
Give me some of that stuff
We are all on drugs
We are all on drugs
We are all on drugs
We are all on drugs

Alternate bridge

I want to confiscate your drugs
I don't think I can get enough

See also

References

  1. "Available for Airplay Archive" FMQB. Archived by Wayback Machine, 28 October 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161028021808/http://www.fmqb.com/Article.asp?id=16771
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 Weezer Recording History - Page 15. Original source archived by Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20091229113823/http://www.weezer.com/info/recording/WeezRecHist15.htm
  3. Karl's Corner - 07/08/2005
  4. BabaYagaMetal "BABA YAGA "We are all on drugs"" YouTube. 2 July 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98_cCDGqK7M
  5. Schreiber, Ryan. "2005 Comments & Lists: The 15 Worst Releases of 2005" Pitchfork. 14 December 2005. https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/6219-2005-comments-lists-the-15-worst-releases-of-2005/
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 Weezer Recording History - Page 14