How Music Provides A Deeper, Powerful Understanding of Drugs By Treating them As Living Agents
A content analysis of Metallica's Master of Puppets; K's Choice's Not an Addict; Ed Sheeran's the A Team
Theoretical Generation of Agency Transfer
Introduction
How people with substance use disorder interact with the substances they are addicted to is captured by lyricists in a way that paints a picture of the substance as having agency, specifically denying agency of the person who is addicted. A theoretical approach to the topic of agency transfer is introduced after a content analysis of different musicians and their approaches to encapsulating substance use disorder. The content of the lyricists work is situated between the scholarly debate, and public perceptions around drug addiction to add to the understanding of the physiological, social, and nuanced and often unique experiences that people have while navigating addiction.
This paper will do an in-depth analysis of the songs, Master of Puppets, Not an Addict, and the A Team. Data, coding, and references are listed after the article.
Methods
Initially the objective of this content analysis was to explore how poverty and substance abuse were interrelated and discussed through music. Throughout the selection process, a recurring theme between the lyrics and the substances themselves rose continually: the substance itself took on a persona, and even in subtle ways the substances were themselves a character in the songs. Irrespective of the song’s message, whether the substance addiction was related to trauma, poverty, or an addiction developed in teenage years, the drug was depicted in a nearly constant, villainous, metaphorical form. The purpose of the analysis of different song lyrics was, then, to explore the agency, character, and effects of the drug itself, how it was in relation to participants, and how this can offer an understanding of how drugs take on a character in people’s lives.
The song, Master of Puppets, by Metallica, offered a starting place for the project. A song long-enjoyed for its powerful, dystopian depiction of substances as powerful, serving as masters of those who become enslaved to their addictions. This song was more explicit in its messaging and thus served as a powerful starting point for the analysis. The music video depicts people as they struggle through their addictions and ends with violent drug overdoses and feelings of loneliness, emptiness, and feelings of despair. The lyrics were transcribed with the help of music videos who added lyrics into the songs, as well as using Google’s AI to find the lyrics. Each song used in this analysis was transcribed this way: word for word before being verified by videos and Google. In other songs, the messaging is frequently more subtle; the metaphorical characterization of the drugs took a central part in coding. Because of this, however, finding the right songs proved challenging. First, several runner-up songs were considered and ultimately ruled out; mentioning them is important, however, because it demonstrates the selection process for this topic. Needles, by System of a Down, is a song about the horrible symptoms of drug withdrawal. It walks listeners through the symptoms, stomach pains, and the return of mental horrors muted by constant euphoria from drugs. This song is ultimately about the fight against addiction, however, which is a theme that comes up in this analysis, but the difference is in the structure. The fight is only one interaction with the substance, as if it is a difficult moment in a relationship. The two songs besides Master of Puppets selected were ultimately chosen through multiple methods.
Not an Addict, by K’s Choice, was melodically opposite Master of Puppets, but also recognizes the overarching power of the drug and its dominance over people; again, as if it had its own personality. This song was discovered during an observation of popular songs about drug addiction; it was introduced for this paper after listening to songs compiled by a rehab center, Arrow Passage Recovery, which provided a list of songs about addiction for patients and the community. Multiple listens, approximately fifteen in different settings, were important for understanding this song; the wonderful vocals, which were as striking in live performances as in the studio recording, conveyed a meaning to the lyrics that would be difficult to capture with text alone. Romance, relief, and polarized highs and lows capture the essence of how drug addiction transports people between euphoric highs, cold, lonely lows, and relief when the cycle of addiction returns; struggle, denial, and ultimately powerlessness were central in this song; ultimately, how powerfully the drug was eluded to and spoken about led to this song being chosen. The lyrics of the song and even repetitive verses provided different meanings to the same phrase; for instance, certain repeated phrases slowed down, signifying helplessness and the struggles that were associated with the addiction
The A Team, by Ed Sheeran, was top of Google’s AI-assisted search engines choice for music relating to the search “popular songs about drug addiction.” At first, however, the song was passed up until its associated music video provided a more explicit set of meanings the song was implying. The music video came up after a relevant video appeared on YouTube, after watching the video for Dope, a song by Lady Gaga. Music videos were ultimately vital to the selection process, as they offered a look into themes of the songs not initially covered by the songs. The A Team is an upbeat song, with numerous metaphors. Without careful listening, or in this case the aid of a more direct music video, the meanings could have been lost. In the video, a girl wakes up on a park bench, filmed in black and white. She is young, with dark circles under her eyes; underneath a sleeping bag, ripped, mesh leggings are seen. The description of her substance of choice as “snowflakes” which was symbolic for crack cocaine. Focal points came up including prostitution, poverty, and struggles with her addiction, however the structure of the song provided the basis for its selection: the drug itself was the overarching theme, and other topics could be considered offsets of her relationship with the drug, which was the dominant theme. After reviewing the music video seven or eight times, it was selected as the third song.
Song Description
Metallica: Master of Puppets
“I’m your source of self destruction.” This song is written from the perspective of the drug itself, as if it were a person, with agency, exerting dominance over the subject—in this case the listener—who is addicted to the drug. The song is written to be taunting, recognizing the harms that are attached to drug addiction, but noting that the compulsion attached to the addiction will overpower the desire to resist the drug, leaving people to crawl back to their master, the source of their addiction, which the song notes will be the source of their destruction. The destruction is both physical, in terms of the damage to the person’s health, as well as to their future; it is Orwellian in the sense that the person is aware of what is going on, but the boot-to-the-face in this case is the drug, which the person is bound to through their addiction. The person who is sung about is deceived by the drug, which invokes a romanticized view of itself, telling users that all they need is more. The climactic moment in the song is when the person realizing that their dreams have been dashed, and that the drug that offered so much happiness had deceived them and offered only suffering. And yet despite this realization, they are continually bound to the drug.
The power in this song is that the main character, the drug, does not try to hide what it is. It knows the harm it causes, and the people who consume it know as well. The taunting in the song is precisely for this reason because the resistance to the drug—the attempts to quit—will be futile. The addiction takes on an ominous, inescapable absolute: the “Master of Puppets” itself points to the fact that the drug will dictate the lives of the people who will be forced, despite their resistance, to continue to succumb to their addiction. This song gave inspiration for the coding of the drug as a character in the songs, rather than a mere substance. The drug has a personality as the chief narrator, and its presence provided a baseline to understand how drugs assume personalities in lyrics. It also drew attention to several other important codes, including helplessness and loss of a person’s dreams while on drugs. Through blatant lyrics, this song serves as a focal point for the destructive potential of drugs, that breathed life into the idea of the drug as a character in the coding.
K’s Choice: Not an Addict
The title of this song is ironic, but categorizes the periods of denial, resistance, helplessness, compulsion, and cyclical struggle that is specific in this case to the “needle,” or heroin. This song influenced the understanding and subsequent coding of romance, polarized emotions (both high and low), and denial. The drug is cool, it feels good, and those who don’t have it are “on the other side.” The person using the drug is not addicted, but they question this statement. This gave rise to the idea of resistance, and the mental struggle that occurs around addiction.
When the high is in effect, the person is in a state of euphoria. They feel creative, alive, like they are in heaven. But when the high wears off, they crash back down to earth, feeling the emotions they have been avoiding, and the low is so terrible that they use again to stave off the withdrawal. This cycle does not go unnoticed, however, and the singer begs to be freed, telling the addiction to leave her, alluding to the personality and her struggle with the drug as if it were alive. While many of the verses replayed, the singing of several verses slows repeatedly toward the end of the song, including a verse of “it’s not a habit it’s cool, I feel alive;” it changes to “it is not a habit it is cool I feel alive,” it slows down, and the tone resembles a surrender. It ends with the singer repeatedly exclaiming that she is not an addict. This song encapsulates the power of drug addiction, but also highlights an important point: drug addiction is not fluid and absolute, there is resistance, people want to be freed from their addiction, but the feelings of withdrawal are powerful enough to create an environment of helplessness and feeling of inescapability. This song inspired the coding of emotions, deep highs and lows, as well as the feeling of helplessness that was seen throughout the songs.
Ed Sheeran: The A Team
The A Team is about a girl, caught up in an addiction, who is falling victim to drug injuries, the need to engage in prostitution, and who struggles with deep poverty. This song furthered the inspiration for the coding of helplessness and resistance to the drug, with the line “’cause we’re just under the upper hand,” referring to people trying to gain the upper hand on their addiction, but each time being defeated; the lyrics slightly change in some of these lines, such as moving to “we’re all under the upper hand,” to recognize that this is something that can happen to anyone. The line “and they scream the worst things in life come free to us,” is important in recognizing that people do not choose to become addicted; the main character of the song has been addicted since they were eighteen—a teenager.
She doesn’t want to engage in prostitution, or be on the street, or struggle with poverty, but the addiction, the “snowflakes” that she succumbs to, compel her to do so. There is a metaphor in this song of an angel, which is interpreted to be her—barely an adult at the time of addiction, who will be killed by her addiction; the purpose is to emphasize that she is not a bad person—pure even—but cannot stand up to the power of her addiction. She can only hope for a better life, the understanding that her addiction will likely kill her, but the defeat from it is recognized, and the only thing for her to do is keep using. While in this song the drug itself takes a lesser role, all of the suffering the main character experiences is a result of it, and it has a presence that is absolute, powerful, and is the driving force behind the main character, as if she was one of the puppets mentioned in Master of Puppets. This song inspired the coding of injuries around drug addiction, reinforced the coding on helplessness, and also had important insights into the fight against drug addiction.
How These Songs Provide Insight Into Literature on Drug Addiction
People who are addicted themselves have important interplay between lyrics, the understanding of addiction, and how people’s understanding of addiction shapes their experiences with it. Interviewing 63 participants in treatment programs about their perceptions on addiction, four important themes arose about people’s perceptions of addiction. The first category examined biological responses of addiction, in which 7 of the 12 people who felt this was significant found solace in understanding the biological side of addiction. Their experiences can be likened to the assertions in The A Team that drug addiction can happen to anybody. Further, normality was incorporated in social themes, with drugs and alcohol being a part of home life for respondents; for them, everybody used substances. The second theme, punctuated equilibrium, is associated with stress, where addiction (or relapse) is triggered by stress-inducing disruptions in their state of social homeostasis, such as disruptions in home-life, or struggles with mental illness. The substance becomes the source of pain-relief, mentioned in Not an Addict, where substances allow people to escape stress. The third theme closely fit the coding from Master of Puppets, the perception of “pedal to the metal,” where addiction quickly arose and took away from addicts everything they had. The addiction for respondents in this category had a blitzkrieg affect, and like the warnings in The A Team, hit people who had not previously been associated drug addiction. The fourth major theme involved the snowball effect. Popular amongst the participants aged 40-70, these people felt that their addictions gradually grew over time—sometimes decades—before they reach a point where it cannot be controlled and then the addiction rapidly increases in strength.
The Cycle
Weiss et al. (2014) provides an important understanding to drug addiction, causes, and continuation of addiction with a mixed-methods approach to better understanding how people stay away from drug addiction long-term, using semi-structured interviews with 20 past heroin users and 11 relapsed heroin users, combined with a quantitative analysis of the participants. They found that the drug use started young, often with children turning to substances such as alcohol or marijuana, frequently in response to an adverse childhood experience such as the death of a parent. Drugs were frequently in the households already; one participant began drinking at the age of nine, another began heroin at the age of 12. Their experiences with drugs early in their addictions were similar to the euphoric feelings and associations with coolness described in the song, Not An Addict. They described the drugs as feeling good, as benefiting their social life, and as something that helped them manage anxiety. When interviewed on reasons for quitting drugs, participants pointed to diminished quality of life, reflections on who they had been before the drug addiction destroyed their lives and futures, or that quitting was a matter of life, death, or another serious circumstance such as contracting HIV. This is helpful in not only understanding the concrete steps people took for long-term abstinence from drug use, but the origins are important in understanding the fun that drug use offers initially, the romanticized side alluded to in the songs.
The climactic moment in Master of Puppets, when the user realized they have been deceived by their addiction, is spelled out in qualitative interviews conducted by Cornford, Umeh, and Manshani (2012), who sought to understand the relationship between depression and heroin use. Again, childhood findings come up in the sample of 17 participants surveyed with semi-structured interviews in the United Kingdom, with notes that sexual assault, abject poverty, and deteriorated family structures shaped their childhoods. The participants described, through the development of their addictions, the loss that came with it: they lost families, money, homes; their mental illnesses expanded, and the participants did not feel methods such as therapy were beneficial for them. Instead, they turned to drugs. Once on drugs, participants were aware of the negative impacts they had on them and struggled to differentiate between depressive and withdrawal symptoms. The drugs pushed them into states of isolation and made them the subjects of stigma, and what participants described as the exacerbation of social problems, including the need to steal and interactions with the criminal justice system, and how they lost years of their life to their addictions. As their addictions progressed their poverty, unkemptness, and physical deterioration expanded, as it did for the woman in The A Team. These qualitative analyses explain a more wide-lensed approach to substance use, from the good feelings to the feelings of deception and loss of future. But to understand how the substances themselves take on such a powerful character across lyrics, it is important to next understand the scientific process of addiction, and why compulsion, helplessness, withdrawal, and cycles of addiction occur.
The Agency of the drug, in conjunction with the helplessness of the person, is a common theme in the songs. In Master of Puppets, the drug itself is the lead character, speaking to and taunting its puppets—the listeners. This is important in setting the scene for the power of substance addiction, but the message—that the drug is in charge—is commonly held and correlated with lower success in abstaining from addictive drugs. Vonasch et al. (2017) address this in their research, Ordinary People Associate Addiction with Loss of Free Will. They draw attention to a widely accepted phenomena in the public, that addiction can overpower free will, which is more widely contested in academic research. Their methods included 192 participants who were surveyed about their belief in free will and their substance use. Their findings consistently found correlation between lower levels of free will and higher levels of continuous, daily use of substances including drugs, alcohol, and also gambling and smoking. They ran a second test, with 200 participants, that found that free will was lower on the subject of drug use than it was in obtaining food. Their survey consisted of two vignettes of identical, dangerous actions (speeding, almost getting into a car accident); the only difference was the purpose changed from obtaining food, to obtaining drugs. Participants consistently felt the person had less control over their actions regarding addictive substances, pointing to the perception that addiction is associated with less free will. Their findings suggest that the association with the loss of free will and addiction can hamper people’s ability to exercise agency and contest their addiction. This is central to the theme within the songs, where the addiction is depicted as an absolute. However, there is more at work than simply a misunderstanding of agency, which would not address the actual physiological changes that occur during addiction. Drug addiction does cause changes in the brain, and a physiological understanding of this process is vital to understanding why people become increasingly addicted to drugs, in order to get to the bottom of the higher-power persona they assume in the lyrics.
The Scientific Understanding of Addiction
The central tenant of Master of Puppets, and a guiding theme in Not an Addict and The A Team is the living persona of the drug. The source of the highs and lows of addiction as described in Not an Addict: the feelings of euphoria, of feeling like being in heaven, followed by the deep lows have a physiological explanation; the long periods of withdrawal that overpower the urges to resist addiction too, have a physiological explanation. The songs provide a useful beginning to the understanding of the power of this physiology, but it is vital to understand what exactly is going on, so that feelings of helplessness can be replaced by an understanding of the scope of the problem.
The body has a natural desire to be in a state of homeostasis, and a physiological procedure occurs when the body exits this state, known as allostasis, which is the process of the body quickly responding to changes in the environment (George et al. 2012). An Allostatic state is considered a chronic deviation from homeostasis and is the body’s way of trying to rapidly create new states of cognitive equilibrium. There is a two-part process to this, where the body moves from a state of hedonic responses to a stimulus (drugs) which in this case would be a positive hedonic response. From here, a second process begins to appear to counteract the first process, theorized to be a counterbalance; in addiction this process would be known as building tolerance. These two processes compete with one another. Dopamine is vital to the process of allostasis, and minutes after using nearly all addictive drugs (minus opioids), the threshold to experience brain rewards is lowered, within minutes of using a drug. However, for days after using the drug, the threshold is elevated, and it takes days to return to a base-level. Without returning to baseline between uses, as is the case with repetitive uses, the expansion threshold will continue to rise causing a rapid response, or an increase in the allostatic load. The raised threshold for the brain’s reward system is associated in humans with symptoms associated with withdrawal (such as physical ailments and fatigue). Koob (2001) describes the process as a spiral, where the body is driven by positive rewards, like the release of dopamine, to pursue the repeated use of a substance, or negative rewards which would be the symptoms of withdrawal after a temporary cessation of substance use, and the objective of staving off those symptoms with perpetual use. Allostasis is the body’s attempt to manage the sudden changes that are occurring from this break from homeostasis; for drug addiction, the allostatic state is one where the body has chronically skewed brain-reward thresholds, and the thresholds continue to grow, leading to a more severe addiction. The futility of quitting addiction, specifically the feelings of helplessness discussed in the songs are a by-product of these physiological processes; the feelings from the drug lead to physiological changes in brain reward circuitry, which leads to the spiral seen in the cycle of addiction. Stress, development under stress, and availability of substances can all lead to the beginning of addiction; stress, even in those who are past the point of physical withdrawal, is associated with a high degree of relapse. For example, in Not an Addict, the line ”the deeper you stick it in your veins, there’s no more thoughts, there’s no more pain,” paints a picture of the desire to escape the stress that is attributed to pushing the cycle of addiction further. What characterizes all three songs is the struggle with addiction; in some senses, the resistance is futile, in others, people are just below the point where they can resist their addictions. The line from The A Team, “‘cause we’re just under the upper hand,” speaks to how people are at the point continuously where they are able to take a stand against their addiction, but it keeps gaining the upper hand on them.
Overcoming Addiction
In a survey of participants who had found success with long term abstinence of drug use, participants had a median sobriety of 12 years, and discussed their strategies to long-term abstinence. Rising costs associated with drug addiction, particularly the consequences associated with their habit, were associated with a desire to quit; it was labeled as the strongest desire to quit by 46 percent of participants. A second response that was high was support from friends, family, and their peers at 30 percent. In The A Team, a line about the main character’s family is mentioned, “dry house, wet clothes,” indicating that she has a house to return to, alluding to a family and support, but she is currently unable to get to that household because the addiction is getting in her way. Similarly, the harms associated with drug use were listed frequently across the songs; through the feelings of helplessness, there was a struggle against the substances that must not be ignored.
In The A Team and Not an Addict, the drugs provide an escape, to “the motherland” in The A Team, and to lessen the pain in Not an Addict. Both songs point to the idea that drug addiction provides an escape from something—and that breaking free from the addiction will require facing other challenges as well. Further, particularly with The A Team, it is noted that anybody could experience drug addiction, and that quitting will be deeply challenging. Kelly et al. (2019) offers a nuanced challenge to this perspective, through a quantitative analysis of the amount of attempts it takes somebody to quit an alcohol or drug addiction. In a representative sample of all adults in the United States, their research sought to point to how many serious attempts it took for somebody to be able to beat their drug addiction. What they found is that the data was skewed and did not match societal expectations about many attempts to quit addiction for success. Of their sample of 39,809 and a response rate of 25,229, 2,002 reported having alcohol or drug dependency. People with anxiety and depression, for instance, reported higher numbers of attempts to abstain, pointing to the influence of confounding factors to exacerbate drug addiction. Psychological distress, specifically, as well as certain racial and demographic factors (black, single, and male for instance) were suggested, but with a call for further research. What this research does, however, is push back on what Kelley et al. (2019) describe as a stereotype that drug addictions are hopeless to overcome without major support from treatment and support groups; instead, they note that treatment needs to be individualized, and for many people, relatively few serious attempts are required to quit substances for good. This is important, because it points to a starting point to treat those who need more specialized treatment, and hope for those who may not.
Theory Generation and Conclusion
Public and academic literature are split three ways. Between the lyrics analyzed about the power of the addiction and the agency that is placed in the hands of the substance and not the person, the first theme is apparent. The loss of agency people experience is a common perception held by the public (Vonasch, 2017), and this can shape the popular theme in song lyrics that the drug itself has agency, in place of the individual. A physiological approach to the subject (George et al. 2012; Koob, 2001) explains what is going on that creates the brain changes that invite withdrawal and that deepen cycles of addiction, through the introduction of the concept of allostasis. This, the second theme, helps explain the spirals downward of declining health, loss of dreams, and the struggles over withdrawal and in fighting back against addiction. Third, A mix of social (Hamer et al. 2012), difference in circumstances (Kelly et al. 2019), and factors such as stress and mental illness (Cornford et al. 2012) exacerbate the problems of addiction for certain populations, which can create particularly vulnerable groups susceptible to drug addiction. These three themes can be used to analyze the themes and codes that emerged from the songs. Drug use was associated in music with deeper meanings, often referred to as a more powerful, living entity. This theme is echoed across all three songs, most vividly in Master of Puppets, where the drug was the narrator. The denial of agency that followed has a socially constructed element to it, with perceptions that addiction is more difficult to overcome than other disadvantages; this is apparent in the songs where those with drug addiction are helpless to overcome their circumstances. The struggle of addiction, depicted in the lyrics as a destitute struggle, is impacted by both the short-term effects of withdrawal and the long-term effects of stress (Koob, 2001). From the emergent themes in the lyrics and their relationship to the literature on drug addiction, a theoretical explanation, agency transfer, is theorized: the process of agency transfer occurs as a means of breathing life into addictive substances, such as drugs and alcohol, in an artistic setting, and is used to express the power of addiction (its physiological hold), that is given the agency perceived to be taken away from the addicted person (its social hold). It is artistic because it conveys the significance of a problem that has physiological and social roots, and the drug, not the science of addiction, becomes the focal point of the analysis. Agency transfer is useful to understand because it points to the significance the substance has in a person’s life, particularly those who are unaware of the scientific significance of what they are going through, and how their pasts and current situations may make them increasingly at risk of addiction. It paints the picture of the relationship between the person and substance in a way that encapsulates what a withdrawal feels like, and how users engage across time and space with their addiction. The puppet in Master of Puppets, the character in Not an Addict, and A Team, however, have the opportunity to be understood as exceptions, rather than rules for addiction, as depicted in the songs. Kelly et al. (2019) alludes to this, when they mention many addicts recover from addictions with surprisingly fewer attempts than the public would think. By recognizing that confounding factors meet the physiological realities of addiction and seeing the lyrics in popular songs as warnings rather than absolutes, people who suffer from substance use disorders can be empowered to reclaim their agency over their addiction, and work on healing from the harms associated with it.
Section Two: List of Codes
[1] Drug injuries
[2] Denial
[3] Withdrawal
[4] Struggle against addiction
[5] Drug’s character/persona
[6] Loss of dreams/future
[7] Polarized emotion (high)
[8] Polarized emotion (low)
[9] Romanticizing drug
[10] Helplessness
[11] Addiction supporting habit
[12] Drug consumption
[13] Relief from getting high
[14] Poverty
[15] Compulsion
[16] declining health
Section Three, Coded Lyrics
Not an Addict
Breathe it in and breathe it out [5] [12]
And pass it on it’s almost out [5] [12]
We’re so creative, so much more we’re [7] [9]
High above, but on the floor [9] [12]
It’s not a habit its cool, I feel alive [2] [5] [7] [9] [10] [13]
If you don’t have it your on the other side [5] [9] [15]
The deeper you stick it in your vein [5] [12]
The deeper the thoughts, there’s no more pain [9] [10] [13]
I’m in heaven, I’m a god [7] [9]
I’m everywhere, I feel so hot [7] [9]
It’s not a habit it’s cool, I feel alive [2] [5] [7] [9] [10] [13]
If you don’t have it your on the other side [5] [9] [15]
I’m not an addict, maybe that’s a lie [2] [4]
It’s over now, I’m cold, alone, [3] [4] [5] [6] [8] [10] [16]
I’m just a person on my own [3] [4] [8] [10]
Nothing means a thing to me [3] [4] [8] [10]
Oh, nothing means a thing to me [3] [4] [6] [8] [10]
It’s not a habit it’s cool, I feel alive [2] [5] [7] [9] [10] [13]
If you don’t have it, your on the other side [5] [9] [15]
I’m not an addict, maybe that’s a lie [2] [4]
Free me, leave me [4] [5]
Watch me as I’m goin’ down [3] [4] [8] [10] [16]
And free me, see me [4]
Look at me, I’m fallin’ and I’m fallin’ [3] [4] [8] [16]
It is not a habit it is cool I feel alive, I feel [2] [5] [7] [9] [10] [13]
It is not a habit it is cool I feel alive [2] [5] [7] [9] [10] [13]
It’s not a habit it’s cool, I feel alive [2] [5] [7] [9] [10] [13]
If you don’t have it you’re on the other side [5] [9] [15]
I’m not an addict, maybe that’s a lie [2] [4]
I’m not an addict [2] [10]
I’m not an addict [2] [10]
I’m not an addict [2] [10]
The A Team
White lips, pale face [1] [16]
Breathing in snow flakes [5] [9] [12]
Burnt lungs, sour taste [1] [16]
Light’s gone, day’s end, struggling to pay rent [6] [10] [14]
Long nights, strange men [11]
And they say she’s in the class A team [5] [12]
Stuck in her day dream [4] [7] [9] [10] [12] [13] [15]
Been this way since eighteen [4] [6] [10] [12]
But lately her face seems [1] [16]
Slowly sinking, wasting [1] [16]
Crumbling like pastries [1] [16]
And they scream the worst things in life come free to us [5] [4] [10]
‘Cause we’re just under the upper hand [4] [10]
And go mad for a couple grams [3] [4] [5] [12] [15]
And she don’t want to go outside, tonight [4] [10] [11] [15]
And in the pipe she flies to the motherland [5] [7] [9] [13]
Or sells love to another man [3] [10] [11] [14]
It’s too cold outside [6] [10]
For angels to fly [6] [10]
Angels to fly [6] [10]
Ripped gloves, raincoat [10] [14] [16]
Tried to swim to stay afloat [10] [16]
Dry house, wet clothes [6] [14]
Loose change, bank notes [14]
Weary-eyed, dry throat [1] [16]
Call girl, no phone [11] [14]
And they say she’s in the class A team [5] [12]
Stuck in her day dream [4] [7] [9] [12] [13]
Been this way since eighteen [4] [6] [12]
But lately her face seems [1] [16]
Slowly sinking, wasting [1] [16]
Crumbling like pastries [1] [16]
And they scream the worst things in life come free to us [5] [4] [10]
Cause we’re just under the upper hand [4] [10]
And go mad for a couple grams [3] [4] [5] [12] [15]
And she don’t want to go outside, tonight [4] [10] [11] [15]
And in the pipe she flies to the motherland [5] [7] [9] [12] [13]
Or sells love to another man [3] [10] [11] [14]
It’s too cold outside [6] [10]
For angels to fly [10]
An angel will die [1] [6] [10] [16]
Covered in white [5] [6] [9] [10] [12]
Closed eye [12]
And hoping for a better life [6] [8] [10]
This time, we’ll fade out tonight [6] [8] [10]
Straight down the line [10]
And they say she’s in the class A team [5] [12]
Stuck in her day dream [4] [7] [9] [12] [13]
Been this way since eighteen [4] [6] [12]
But lately her face seems [1] [16]
Slowly sinking, wasting [1] [16]
Crumbling like pastries [1] [16]
They scream, the worst things in life come free to us [5] [4] [10]
And we’re all under the upper hand [4] [10]
Go mad for a couple grams [3] [4] [5] [10] [12] [15]
And we don’t want to go outside tonight [4] [10] [11] [15]
And in a pipe we fly to the Motherland [5] [7] [9] [12] [13]
Or sell love to another man [3] [10] [11] [14]
It’s too cold outside [6] [10]
For angels to fly [10]
Angels to fly [10]
To fly, fly [10]
For angels to fly, to fly, to fly [10]
For angels to die [1] [4] [10] [16]
Master of Puppets
End of passion play, crumbling away [1] [6] [10] [16]
I’m your source of self-destruction [5] [10]
Veins that pump with fear, sucking darkest clear [12]
Leading on your death’s construction [1] [6] [10] [16]
Taste me you will see [5] [9]
More is all you need [5] [9]
Dedicated to how I’m killing you [1] [5] [9] [16]
Come crawling faster [3] [5] [10] [15]
Obey your master [5] [10]
Your life burns faster [1] [10] [16]
Obey your master, master [5] [10]
Master of puppets, I’m pulling your strings [5] [10]
Twisting your mind and smashing your dreams [5] [6]
Blinded by me, you can’t see a thing [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [9] [10] [12]
Just call my name, ‘cause I’ll hear you scream [3] [4] [5] [10] [15]
Master, master [5]
Needlework the way, never you betray [4] [9] [12]
Life of death becoming clearer [1] [9] [10] [16]
Pain monopoly, ritual misery [1] [3] [10]
Chop your breakfast on a mirror [12] [15]
Taste me you will see [5] [9]
More is all you need [5] [9]
Dedicated to how I’m killing you [1] [5] [9] [16]
Come crawling faster [3] [5] [10] [15]
Obey your master [5] [10]
Your life burns faster [1] [10] [16]
Obey your master, master [5] [10]
Master of puppets, I’m pulling your strings [5] [10]
Twisting your mind and smashing your dreams [5] [6]
Blinded by me, you can’t see a thing [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [10] [12]
Just call my name, ‘cause I’ll hear you scream [3] [4] [5] [10] [15]
Master, master, master, master [5] [10]
Master, master, Where’s the dreams that I’ve been after? [4] [5] [6] [10]
Master master [5]
You promised only lies [4] [5] [6] [8] [10]
Laughter, laughter [5] [10]
All I hear or see is laughter [5] [10]
Laughter, laughter [5] [10]
Laughing at my cries [5] [10]
Fix me [4] [10]
Hell is worth all that, natural habitat [2] [3] [9]
Just a rhyme without a reason [10]
Never ending maze, drift on numbered days [1] [4] [10] [16]
Now your life is out of season [10] [16]
I will occupy [5]
I will help you die [1] [5] [10] [16]
I will run through you [1] [5] [10] [16]
Now I rule you too [5] [10] [15]
Come crawling faster [3] [5] [10] [15]
Obey your master [5] [10]
Your life burns faster [1] [10] [16]
Obey your master, master [5] [10]
Master of puppets I’m pulling your strings [5] [10]
Twisting your mind and smashing your dreams [5] [6]
Blinded by me, you can’t see a thing [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [10] [12]
Just call my name, ‘cause I’ll hear you scream [3] [4] [5] [10] [15]
Master, master [5]
Just call my name, ‘cause I’ll hear you scream [3] [4] [5] [10] [15]
Master, master [5]
Section Four: Thematic Memos: Codes are [4], [5] and [10]
Code [4]: Master of Puppets
Needlework the way, never you betray
Master, master, where’s the dreams that I’ve been after?
You promised only lies
Fix me
Never ending maze, drifting on numbered days
Blinded by me you, can’t see a thing (x3)
Just call my name ‘cause I’ll hear you scream (x4)
Code [4]: Not an Addict
I’m not an addict, maybe that’s a lie (x3)
It’s over now, I’m cold, alone
I’m just a person on my own
Nothing means a thing to me
Oh, nothing means a thing to me
Free me, leave me
Watch me as I’m goin’ down
And free me, see me
Look at me, I’m fallin’ and I’m fallin’
Code [4]: The A Team
Stuck in her daydream (x3)
Been this way since eighteen (x3)
And they scream the worst things in life come free to us (x3)
‘Cause we're just under the upper hand (x3)
And go mad for a couple grams (x3)
And she don’t want to go outside tonight (x3)
For angels to die
Theme
the power of the addiction has such a firm hold over the users that despite numerous attempts to quit or take a stand against their addiction, they will return to their addiction when the withdrawal symptoms overpower them. In the struggle, they want to break free, and recognize that the drug has them held in bondage. There is a cycle in this pattern, where the drug starts as a positive force, such as an escape, but then when attempts to quit unveil how powerfully the drug has a grip over them, causing withdrawal symptoms and floods of old memories, they begin the cycle again and experience temporary relief from being reconnected with the drug.
Code [5]: Master of Puppets
I’m your source of self destruction
Taste me you will see (x2)
More is all you need (x2)
Dedicated to how I’m killing you (x2)
Come crawling faster (x3)
Obey your master (x3)
Obey your master, master (x3)
Master of puppets, I’m pulling your strings (x3)
Twisting your mind and smashing your dreams (x3)
Blinded by me, you can’t see a thing (x3)
Just call my name, ‘cause I’ll hear you scream (x4)
Master, master (x4)
Master, master, master, master (x1)
You promised only lies
Laughter, laughter (x2)
All I hear or see is laughter
Laughing at my cries
I will occupy
I will help you die
I will run you through
Now I rule you too
Code [5]: Not an addict
Breathe it in and breathe it out
And pass it on it’s almost out
The deeper you stick it in your vein
It’s over now, I’m cold, alone
Free me, leave me
If you don’t have it your on the other side (x4)
It’s not a habit it’s cool I feel alive (x5)
It’s not a habit it’s cool, I feel
Code [5]: The A Team
Breathing in snow flakes
And they say she’s in the class A team (x3)
And go mad for a couple grams (x2)
Go mad for a couple grams
And in the pipe she flies to the motherland (x2)
And in the pipe we fly to the motherland
Covered in white
And they scream the worst things in life come free to us (x2)
They scream the worst things in life come free to us
Theme
Drugs encapsulate a deeper meaning and character than mere substances. They are not referred to by name, taking on deeper, metaphorical meanings, and are associated with emotions including control, power, and have living identities that make them appear like a focal character.
Code [10]: Master of Puppets
End of passion play, crumbling away
I’m your source of self destruction
Leading on your death’s construction
Come crawling faster (x3)
Obey your master (x3)
Your life burns faster (x3)
Obey your master, master (x3)
Master of puppets I’m pulling your strings (x3)
Blinded by me you can’t see a thing (x3)
Just call my name ‘cause I’ll hear you scream (x4)
Life of death becoming clearer
Pain monopoly, ritual misery
Master, master, master, master
Master, master, where’s the dreams that I’ve been after?
You promised only lies
Laughter, laughter (x2)
All I hear or see is laughter
Laughing at my cries
Fix me
Just a rhyme without a reason
Never ending maze, drift on numbered days
Now your life is out of season
I will help you die
I will run through you
Now I rule you too
Code [10]: Not an Addict
The deeper the thoughts, there’s no more pain
It’s not a habit it’s cool I feel alive (x5)
It’s not a habit it's cool, I feel
It’s over now, I’m cold, alone
I’m just a person on my own
Nothing means a thing to me
Oh, nothing means a thing to me
Watch me as I’m goin’ down
I’m not an addict (x3)
Code [10]: The A Team
Light’s gone, day’s end, struggling to pay rent
Stuck in her daydream (x3)
Been this way since eighteen (x3)
And they scream the worst things in life come free to us (x3)
‘Cause we're just under the upper hand (x3)
And go mad for a couple grams (x2)
And she don’t want to go outside, tonight (x3)
Or sells love to another man (x3)
It’s too cold outside (x3)
For angels to fly (x3)
Angels to fly (x3)
Ripped gloves, raincoat
Tried to swim to stay afloat
An angel will die
Covered in white
And hoping for a better life
This time, we’ll fade out tonight
Straight down the line
Go mad for a couple grams
To fly, fly
For angels to fly, to fly, to fly
For angels to die
Theme
addiction to the drug denies people their agency by trapping them in habits that are self-harming, create conditions for poverty and declining health, and creates an environment where these behaviors are perpetuated in cycles due to the inability to resist the power of the drug; the declining health, life conditions, and pain of fighting the addiction are all central to the agency denial.
References
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Metallica (1986). Master of Puppets. Master of Puppets. Asylum Records
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An innovative approach with the benefit of me loving the first two songs. Many health problems are the consequence of mental trauma.