The cigarette is inexorably tied to the image of the musician. It is a symbol connected to the jaded rock and roll front man, the grizzled blues crooner, the cool jazz player, the disheveled folk singer, the vicious punk rocker and the broken hearted hipster. Smoking is a right of passage for musicians and most have taken the time to pay homage to tobacco in one song or another.
Numerous songs have been written in praise of the cigarette. Some were written before the negative health effects of cigarettes were known, while some celebrate their destructive nature. Smoking is a means of embracing your mortality, a form of youthful rebellion, a symbol for the live-fast-and-die-young lifestyle:
"Smokin' in the Boys Room" by Brownsville Station
"Nick Teen and Al K. Hall" by Rolf Harris
"Smokin'" by Super Furry Animals
"The Hymn for the Cigarettes" by Hefner
"Cigarette Smoke" by Arctic Monkeys
"More Cigarettes" by The Replacements
"Cigarette Dangles" by Pursuit of Happiness
"Smokers in Love" by The Lucksmiths
"Blabber 'n Smoke" by Captain Beefheart
"You Burn Me Up I'm a Cigarette" by Daryl Hall
"Fool for a Cigarette" by Ry Cooder
"Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)" by Tex Williams
Other artists use the cigarette as an expression of sorrow. Smoking epitomizes loneliness, mourning, broken hearts and the inevitability of death:
"Been Smoking Too Long" by Nick Drake
"Smoking 100s Alone" by Bottle Rockets
"Roll Another Number (for the Road)" by Neil Young
"Three Cigarettes in an Ashtray" by Patsy Cline
"Smelling Cigarettes" by The Fiery Furnaces
"Jealous of Your Cigarette" by Hawksley Workman
"Balcony Smoker" by Jenny Wilson
"Pink Cigarette" by Mr. Bungle
Smoking is a pastime often paired with other, equally unhealthy vices, ensuring that one leads to the other:
"Cigarettes and Alcohol" by Oasis
"Cold Beer and Cigarettes" by David Bazan
"Cigarettes, Whiskey and Wild Women" by Sons of the Pioneers
"Cigarettes and Coffee" by Otis Redding
"Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk" by Rufus Wainwright
Some songs specify an artist’s preference for cigars over cigarettes:
"Have a Cigar" by Pink Floyd
"The Cigar Song" by Brad Paisley
"A Small Cigar" by Jethro Tull
"The Man With the Cigar" by Herman’s Hermits
"No Cigar" by Millencolin
"Cohiba" by Mario Vazquez
Some musicians look past their tobacco products to the chemicals responsible for their addiction:
"Nicotine" by Ani DiFranco
"Nicotine Bomb" by Mission of Burma
"Nicotine and Gravy" by Beck
"Nicotine Stain" by Siouxsie and the Banshees
"Caffeine, Nicotine, Benzedrine" by Gary Stewart
It is not only tobacco itself that influences music, some artists have been inspired by smoking paraphernalia:
"My Little Japanese Cigarette Case" by Spoon
"Smoking Room" by Codeine
"I'm a Disposable Lighter (for Your Love)" by Th'Cigaretz
"Ashtray Heart" by Captain Beefheart
Some artists even derive inspiration from a need to quit smoking, though many of these songs are usually a lament about the seeming impossibility of kicking the habit:
"Smoking Cigarettes Will Kill You" by Ben Lee
"Quitting Smoking Song" by Princess Superstar
"Don't Smoke" by The Microphones
"Let's Quit Smoking" by Super Furry Animals
"Dad Blame Anything a Man Can't Quit" by Roger Miller
"Last Cigarette" by Dramarama
"Don't Smoke in Bed" by Willard Robinson
Episode 58 of the Theme Time Radio Hour with Bob Dylan was dedicated to tobacco inspired music. Countless musicians make reference to smoking in their lyrics, if not in their song titles. Cigarettes appeared to be linked with music, in the same way they are linked to coffee, alcohol and love. Much like these other obsessions, with cigarettes and music, one leads to the other.
