for us to choose from. We could have
easily filled a boxed set with songs about
cigarettes.
All of these singers and songwriters found
something special to write and sing about
cigarettes. Some of them seemed to know
that sucking toxicchemicals intoyour lungs
would do you little good. But back in the
1940s or ’50s suchhealth risksweremostly
played for laughs. Nobody took them
that
seriously. What the hell, we all gotta die
sometime, right?How bad could cigarettes
be if you could smoke them legally in
restaurants, bars, offices and elevators.
Even in hospitals. Just how big could the
danger be?
Today we know the answer to that
question. In fact, as early as 1965, cigarette
packswere required tocarryhealthwarnings
in theUS, anunthinkable change from just
ten years earlier. Radio and TV ads for
cigarettes were banned outright in 1971.
The ultimatewake-up call arrived in1992,
when theMarlboroMan (or at least actor
WayneMcLaren, who had portrayed him)
died of lung cancer. He was 51 years old.
Todaywealsoknowabout co-addictions.
How nicotine and alcohol or nicotine and
caffeine addiction actually feed off each
other. None of the singers and songwriters
on this collection held advanced degrees in
neuroscience, but they sure seemed toknow
that addictions come in pairs or triplets.
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