Ode to Sobriety

If you see me getting mighty
If you see me getting high
Knock me down

I'm not bigger than life

—Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Knock Me Down"

A song that averts Ode to Intoxication, sometimes softly, sometimes far more harshly. These usually come in one of three forms:

The Deconstructed Ode to Intoxication Ode to Sobriety would be an Ode to Intoxication except the song is about the singer's (or writer's) near-death from an OD, an addiction he or she actually wants to escape or has gone into treatment for, about someone's suicide from alcohol and/or drugs, or about anything else that is about the less fun side of intoxication.

The Drugs Are Bad Ode to Sobriety is usually engaged in by Straight Edge bands or artists, though others can occasionally do it (a common instance with non Straight Edge artists is generally focused on a specific substance). As opposed to the ambivalent, bitter reflections of the Deconstructed Ode to Intoxication, it is simply Drugs Are Bad as a song. It's a condemnation/callout of a specific substance and/or its users, and/or of alcohol or drug use in general.

The Glad To Be Sober Ode to Sobriety results from an artist successfully overcoming an addiction or quitting an abusive pattern of alcohol or drug use—and writing a song about how good being sober and free of said addiction is. It differs from the bitter Deconstructed Ode to Intoxication in that it's a Lighter and Softer topic (e.g. happiness about a drug-free life) as opposed to a Grimdark one (e.g. about almost dying from an OD) and from the Drugs Are Bad song in that it's not a rant about how bad drugs are.

Examples of Ode to Sobriety include:

Deconstructed Ode to Intoxication Ode to Sobriety

• "I Want To Be Straight" by Ian Dury And The Blockheads—could be this, could be parody.
• "The High Cost Of Living" by Jamey Johnson.
• "Sunday Morning Coming Down" by Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash.
• "Kickstart My Heart" by Motley Crue. Also a classic example of Lyrical Dissonance—it's about Nikki Sixx's near-death via OD.
  • Speaking of Nikki Sixx, just about every song in the album Heroin Diaries from his side project SIXX: AM is this. To be expected, however, because it is all about his heroine addiction and recovery during the 80's.
• "Sober" by P!nk.
• "Wine Into Water" by T. Graham Brown.
• "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me!)" by Tom Waits.
• "Wasted" by Carrie Underwood.
• "For The Love Of A daughter" by Demi Lovato, about her biological fathers alcoholism pleading with him to "put the bottle down, for the love of a daughter"
• "Drinking Song" by Moxy Früvous. It actually starts out seeming like the exact opposite, describing fond memories of hanging around the house and getting drunk with a close friend. Then the tone of the lyrics gradually starts getting darker, and it turns out the friend in question drank himself to death one day, which caused the narrator to quit.
• "Alcohol" by Barenaked Ladies. It similarly starts sounding like an Ode to Intoxication, until the POV character's intense self-loathing takes the forefront.

Drugs Are Bad Ode to Sobriety

• "Impact is Imminent" and "Dethamphetamine" by Exodus.
• "Cocaine Blues" by Johnny Cash.
• "Cold Turkey" by John Lennon (could fit Deconstructed Ode to Intoxication variant, but it's better here as he's suffering through the song).
• "Straight Edge" by Minor Threat. Inspired the entire straight edge movement - though Ian Mac Kaye didn't intend to.
• "The Needle And The Damage Done" by Neil Young.
• "Methamphetamine" by The Old Crow Medicine Show, although this might be a parody (they also did "Tell It To Me" and "Cocaine Habit", which are rather more clearly tongue-in-cheek).
• "Say I Love You" by ToshI was written for an anti-methamphetamine campaign. It is also possibly referencing the now-known drug problems of at least two late bandmates.
• "Bad" and "Running to Stand Still" by U2.

Glad To Be Sober Ode to Sobriety

• "Sober" by Kelly Clarkson.
• "Snow" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. "Knock Me Down" might also count (they wrote it after guitarist Hillel Slovak OD'd and died).
• "Not Afraid" by Eminem.

Parodies

• "Because I Got High" by Afroman.
• "The No No Song" by Hoyt Axton and Ringo Starr.
• "Checking In" from The Simpsons.