|
TRAD La Cucaracha
"La cucaracha ya no puede caminar, porque no tiene marihuana por fumar" = "The cockroach can't walk anymore, because he doesn't have any marihuana to smoke".
1927 Willie the Weeper - Frankie 'Half Pint' Jaxon
A ribald vaudeville star and female impersonator, Frankie's recordings were wild and laden with innuendo. In the earliest known reefer song - the lyric of which Cab Calloway copied for Minnie the Moocher - Jaxon's accompanied only by piano and washboard, as heard on Viper Mad Blues. Reefer Songs includes a contemporaneous version called Willie, The Chimney Sweeperby Ernest Rodgers, who also performed it as Willie the Street Sweeper. Lyric. Download mp3 of Ernest Rodgers.
1929 Muggles (Instrumental) - Louis Armstrong
Recorded with pianist Earl 'Fatha' Hines in Chicago on December 7, 1928, Satchmo's best known reefer tune is a warm, lilting blues instrumental that passes the melody round like a joint. The piano lights it up with a flame-like ripple, the trombone tokes, hands it to the clarinet, and then to Pops trumpet. There's a pause and Satch hits an upward gliss as the herb kicks in. The tempo takes off and Pops wails. Real Audio @ redhotjazz.com
1932 Reefer Man - Cab Calloway & his Orchestra
Also covered by Don Redman & his Orchestra - as heard on Reefer Songs - and by Baron Lee & the Blue Rhythm Band, which version appears on Viper Mad Blues. Lyric. Download mp3 of Don Redman.
November, 1932 The Man From Harlem - Cab Calloway & his Orchestra
Features on the Reefer Songs collection: "I've got just what you need. Come on, sisters, light up on these weeds and get high and forget about everything". Lyric. Download mp3.
1933 Minnie The Moocher - Cab Calloway & his Cotton Club Orchestra
The flamboyant swinger's theme song features on the Reefer Songs CD, but if you check the lyric, it's almost certainly not about pot, but opium, as is made clearer in a contemporaneous, Minnie-related song that's included on Viper Mad Blues, Kicking the Gong Around. Download mp3.
1933 Texas Tea Party - Benny Goodman & his Orchestra with Charlie & Jack Teagarden
As heard on Reefer Songs. Download mp3.
1933 Gimme a Reefer - Bessie Smith
Entitled Gimme A Pigsfoot when released as OKeh 8949, with only one sly mention of reefer slipped into the final chorus so that slower folks would catch on that Bessie' wasn't wailing 'bout no pork. Lyric.
1934 A Viper's Drag (Instrumental) - Fats Waller
The creation of Fats' Rhythm group and their first recordings for the Victor label on 16 May 1934 marked a swinging new trend in jazz; this tune was recorded in New York on November 16. Real Audio @ redhotjazz.com
1934 Sendin' the Vipers (Instrumental) - Mezz Mezzrow & his Orchestra
With Willie 'the Lion' Smith on piano and Chick Webb on drums.
1934 Song Of The Vipers - Louis Armstrong
Recorded in Paris with a band of French musicians, Pops scats through the first part of the tune, which ends with a wailing horn solo. Pulled from the stores when the record company cottoned on to its meaning, it took decades for this gem to be reissued in the US.
1934 Jerry the Junker - Clarence Williams and His Washboard Band
Features on Reefer Songs. Download mp3
1935 Blue Reefer Blues (Instrumental) - Richard M. Jones & his Jazz Wizards
Included on Viper Mad Blues.
1935 Blue Drag - Freddy Taylor & his Swing Men from Harlem.
Included on Viper Mad Blues.
1935 A Viper's Moan - Willie Bryant & his Orchestra
An instrumental with ad lib crosstalk that's included on Viper Mad Blues.
1935 Anybody Here Want to Buy My Cabbage? - Lil Johnson
"Now, I've got good cabbage, ain't no mustard greens / I raised my sprouts down in New Orleans... Now, I've got good cabbage, smelling mighty sweet / I carry my cabbage to Thirty-fifth Street... Now, my cabbage is mighty good / The best old cabbage in the neighborhood. / Is there anybody here want to buy my cabbage? / Just holler hey-hey!" Lyric.
1936 You'se a Viper - Stuff Smith & his Onyx Club Boys
"Dreamt about a reefer / Five feet long / Mighty Mezz, but not too strong / You'll be high, but not for long / If youse a viper..." Originally recorded by the King of the Swing violin, Stuff Smith, as featured on Viper Mad Blues, the version included on Reefer Songs is by Bob Howard and His Boys, from 1938. Fats Waller recorded a version he called The Reefer Song in 1943 (qv). Most recently, Wayne Kramer of the MC5 gives it loads on NORML's Hempilation 2: Free The Weed. Lyric. Download mp3 of Bob Howard.
1936 Here Comes The Man With Jive - Stuff Smith And His Onyx Club Boys
An early celebration in song of the kindly neighbourhood drug dealer that features on the Reefer Songs collection. Download mp3.
1936 When I Get Low, I Get High - Ella Fitzgerald with Chuck Webb & his Orchestra
Included on Viper Mad Blues, the same team were also responsible for Wacky Dust in 1938, which song features on Reefer Songs even though it's pretty obviously about cocaine. Download mp3 of Wacky Dust
1936 The Weed Smoker's Dream (Why Don't You Do Right?) - The Harlem Hamfats
Included on the Reefer Songs CD. Download mp3.
1936 All The Jive is Gone - Andy Kirk & his Twelve Clouds of Joy
As heard on the Reefer Songs compilation: "All the jive is gone! / All the jive is gone! / What an awful fix, can't get my kicks / 'Cause all the jive is gone!" Lyric. Download mp3.
1937 The Stuff Is Here - Georgia White
Included on Reefer Songs. Download mp3.
1937 The Onyx Hop - Frankie Newton & his Uptown Serenaders
Included on Viper Mad Blues.
March, 1938 That Cat is High - The Ink Spots
This seminal vocal harmony groups' Viper Era classic was covered by Manhattan Transfer and is included on their anthology, Down in Birdland.
1938 Jack,I'm Mellow - Trixie Smith
Included on Reefer Songs. Download mp3.
1938 Light Up - Buster Bailey's Rhythm Busters
Included on Reefer Songs. Download mp3.
1938 Spinach Song - Julia Lee Lyric. Download mp3.
1938 Viper Mad - Sidney Bechet with Noble Sissle's Swingsters
The New Orleans legend who introduced the soprano saxophone as a jazz instrument in the 1920s, Sidney Bechet roped in Sissle's vipers to sing: "Wrap your chops 'round this stick of tea / Blow this gage and get high with me / Good tea is my weakness, I know it's bad / It sends me gate and I can't wait, I'm viper mad." It's included on Reefer Songs and features on the soundtrack to Woody Allen's movie, Sweet & Lowdown. Download mp3.
1938 Reefer Head Woman - Jazz Gillum & his Jazz Boys
Featuring Big Bill Broonzy on guitar and Washboard Sam on - er - washboard: "I got a Reefer Headed Woman / She fell right down from the sky (good Lord) / I got a Reefer Headed Woman / She fell right down from the sky... Lord, I gots to drink me two fifths of whiskey / Just to get half as high." The original's included on Viper Mad Blues; Aerosmith performed a version on their 1979 album, Night In The Ruts. Lyric.
1938 Reefer Hound Blues - Curtis Jones
Included on Viper Mad Blues.
1938 Ol' Man River (Smoke A Little Tea) - Duke Ellington
Sir Duke changed the lyric 'get a little drunk' to 'smoke a little tea' on this version, which is similar to that by Cootie Williams & His Rug Cutters on Viper Mad Blues.
1938 Smoking Reefers - Larry Adler
Adler died in August, 2001, at the age of 87; this tune is included on Viper Mad Blues
1938 I'm Feeling High and Happy - Gene Krupa & his Orchestra
Included on Viper Mad Blues.
1938 Weed - Bea Foote
Included on Reefer Songs. Download mp3.
1939 Killing Jive - The Cats & the Fiddle
Jive = tea = gage = ganja: "you start laughing and you can't stop". Included on Viper Mad Blues.
1940 Junker's Blues - Champion Jack Dupree
Possibly not about pot, but junk? It's included on Viper Mad Blues
1941 Knocking Myself Out - Lil Green
Featuring Big Bill Broonzy on guitar, this song appears on both the Reefer Songs collection and Viper Mad Blues: "Listen girls and boys I got one stick / Give me a match and let me take a whiff quick / I'm gonna knock myself out, I'm gonna kill myself / I'm gonna knock myself out, gradually, by degrees." Lyric. Download mp3.
1943 The Reefer Song - Fats Waller
This version of If You'se A Viper, with slightly altered lyric, ad lib cross talk and hissing viper sounds, was among the last recordings Fats made, months before his death. It's included on both Reefer Songs and Viper Mad Blues and also on an album called Last Testament (Drive Archive), along with a song called This Is So Nice It Must Be Illegal. Download mp3.
1944 Save the Roach For Me - Buck Washington
Included on Reefer Songs. Download mp3
1944 Santa's Secret - Johnny Guarnieri with Slam Stewart
The parting song on the legendary Savoy Jazz Christmas Album, Christmas Blues (SV-0241) is this tribute to the recently deceased Fats Waller, in which Santa's a viper!
1945 Sweet Marijuana Brown - Barney Bigard Sextet
Included in the Reefer Songs collection. Download mp3.
1944 Who Put The Benzedrine In Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine - Harry 'The Hipster' Gibson
Though it's obviously about speed, not pot, this song is included in the Reefer Songs collection. Download mp3.
1945 The G Man Got the T Man - Cee Pee Johnson and His Band
As heard on Reefer Songs: "Cats can't buy their jive at night / So now they hurry home / since the G man got the T man and gone / They have to drink their lush and stagger / Even though they know its wrong / Cause the G man got the T man and gone / They've arrested my connection / And I can't find any more / Cause the G man got the T man and gone." Download mp3.
1947 Lotus Blossom - Julie Lee & her Boy Friends
As heard on Reefer Songs. Download mp3.
1955 Ling Ting Tong - The Five Keys
An R & B vocal group that helped shape the rhythm and blues revolution of the 50's, The Five Keys' first hit for Capitol was this novelty pop jump with a nonsense lyric, allegedly influenced by marijuana: "'Taisk ko mo bom da yay', or something like that..."
1965 Mary Jane - Janis Joplin
Written by Janis and recorded in sessions held between January and April with the Dick Oxtot Oakland Athletics Jazz Band, this early song appears on the soundtrack to the film, Janis: "Now when I go to work, I work all day / Always turns out the same / When I bring home my hard-earned pay / I spend my money all on Mary Jane / Mary Jane, Mary Jane, Lord, my Mary Jane." Sigh. Lyric.
1965 Mr. Tambourine Man - Bob Dylan
Breezily rendered by The Byrds and bathetically by William Shatner, this song about a drugs come down is implicitly infused with pot consciousness: the answer that's blowing in the wind is that everybody must get stoned.
April, 1966 Rainy Day Women#12 & 35 by Bob Dylan
The opening track from Blonde On Blonde was an instant success when released as a single in the US, despite or because of being banned from the radio, reaching no 2 in May '66. The lyric reefers (sic) to marijuana, but the song is about persecution and its message straightforward: "I would not feel so alone / Everybody must get stoned". Covered by A Subtle Plague on Marijuana's Greatest Hits Revisited (Re-Hash Records, 1992) and by the Black Crowes on the first NORML Hempilation, in recent years the Zimmerman himself has taken to closing his set with 'Women which, his Bobness is quoted as saying in Absolutely Dylan (1991), 'happens to deal with a minority of cripples and orientals and the whole world in which we live'.
August 1966 Got to Get You Into My Life - The Beatles
Recorded in April, 1966, for inclusion on Revolver, Paul McCartney has described this Motown pastiche as "an ode to pot", albeit one disguised as a regular love song. Released as a single in the States in 1976, it reached #7 on Billboard chart and has been covered by artists including Johnny Halliday (Je Veux Te Graver Dans), The Four Tops on their 1969 album, Soul Spin and, in 1978, by Earth Wind & Fire in the Beatles movie tribute, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
April, 1967 Bass Strings by Country Joe & The Fish
Ominously recorded on 6.6.66 and released the following Spring on an EP of three songs as Country Joe & the Fish, this archetypal hippy ballad is better know in its more amped-up, psychedelic version from the first CJFish LP, Electric Music for the Mind and Body (Vanguard VSD 79244). Lyric.
May, 1967 Night Of The Long Grass - The Troggs
Trippy love song from the perpetrators of Wild Thing and the lead track from a hit EP early in the Summer of '67: "I walk alone in dreams / I cannot feel, I cannot see / The only thing I know is that / You're only real to me / I see your hair hang down around your shoulders and your collar / I lean your head upon a pillow made of leaves and straw / Night of the Long Grass / Night of the Long Grass / Night of the Long Grass." Lyric.
1967 Baby, You're a Rich Man by The Beatles
1968 I Like Marijuana - David Peel & the Lower East Side
"First I sang about smoking bananas," says Peel. "That was a craze like the hula hoop. Then I started singing about marijuana. That was more permanent." Peel's contemporaneous pot-related song titles include, Legalize Marijuana, I've Got Some Grass, I Want To Get High, and Show Me The Way To Get Stoned. I like Marihuana was a highlight of his first Elektra album, Have a Marijuana, and was re-recorded with a band called the 360's in 1995 for the second NORML Hempilation.
1968 Talkin' Vietnam Pot Luck Blues - Tom Paxton
From folkie Tom's Elektra album, Morning Again, this is the tale of a fresh conscript on patrol in Vietnam, who detects a familiar smell when his platoon stop for the night: " Well I may be crazy, but I think not / I swear to God that I smell pot! / But who'd have pot in Vietnam?" / He said, "Whaddaya think you been sittin' on?" / These funny little plants..../ Thousands of them. / Good God Almighty! / Pastures of plenty!" To cut the story short, the platoon hook up with a squad of Vietcong, whose stash is "Straight from Uncle Ho's victory garden / We call it Hanoi Gold", they all get wasted, but "All too soon it was time to go / Captain got on the radio. / Said hello headquarters, headquarters/ We have met the enemy and they have been smashed." Lyric.
1968 Legend of the USS Titanic - Jaime Brockett
A couple of Boston folkies, Brockett and Chris Smithers, updated and extended an old Leadbelly talking blues to fill out 26 minutes on one side of Brockett's Captiol LP, Remember the Wind & the Rain. The Leadbelly song, dating back to around 1912, concerned Jack Johnson, a champion prizefighter of the time who was barred from travelling on the Titanic because he was black. In Brockett's version, the story begins with a guy working in a Mexican 'rope' factory, which one day burns down . He runs back inside to save his lunch and gets high on the fumes, and hungry, so that he then sits down (in the fire) to eat. Leaving the rope factory with a 'coil of rope' over his shoulder, our hero signs on as First Mate of the U.S.S. Titantic as, meanwhile, Jack Johnson is denied passage because of his race. Eventually, the First Mate turns the Captain on to smoking his rope and the two of them, stoned, miss a radio warning about an ice-berg... The ship sinks with all hands, leaving Jack Johnson safely on shore.
1968 Don't Step on the Grass, Sam - Steppenwolf
Written by John Kay for Steppenwolf's second Dunhill album, The Second, from the point of view of a guy watching a TV debate about marijuana, this song accuses self-righteous politicians - such as Sam - of "telling lies so long, some believe they're true." To Sam, grass is "evil, wicked, mean and nasty." The chorus responds, "Don't be such an ass, Sam." One of the highlights of the NORML Hempilation is a version cooked by Govt. Mule, the jammin' band led by guitarist Warren Haynes and bassist Allen Woody of the Allman Bros.
Lyric.
Just how little the situation regarding pot has changed in thirty years was made clear to John Kay in August, 1999, when he tried to cross the border into Canada while on tour. He'd recently been a guest on 'Politically Incorrect', with Bill Maher and after the broadcast, Todd McCormick, a friend of Maher's and a hemp advocate, gave him a copy of the Emperor of Hemp video and a copy of Hemp Life magazine. Kay says he took what McCormick gave him back to the East Coast and inadvertently left the material on the back of Steppenwolf's tour bus, where the book and video were discovered by Canadian customs officials when the band attempted to cross the border for a date in Ottawa. The "discovery resulted in a four-hour delay," says Kay, "complete with drug-dog inspection and dismemberment of both truck and bus interiors."
1969 Don't Bogart Me by Fraternity of Man
Written by Elliot Ingber and performed by his group, Fraternity of Man, on the soundtrack to Easy Rider, this song became better known as Don't Bogart That Joint, a rousing live favourite at Little Feat shows through the Seventies: "Roll another one / Just like the other one / This one's burnt to the end / Come on and be a friend...etc." It was originally included on the live double album, Waiting For Columbus in 1978, but there wasn't enough space to fit it on the CD reissue, so Warner Bros tacked it on to the end of the The Last Record Album CD from 1975 along with another 'bonus' live track, Apolitical Blues. Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise perform a version on Hempilation 2
1969 Indian Rope Man (African Herbsman) - Ritchie Havens
A track from his double album, Richard P. Havens 1983 that came out in the same year as Woodstock, where Havens' career received a tremendous fillip, Indian Rope Man was also released on a single in the US by Verve, on the flip side of a version of Strawberry Fields Forever. However, the song achieved immortality in 1970 when reworked by Lee 'Scratch' Perry and recorded by Bob Marley & The Wailers as African Herbsman, in which version it's also been covered by Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers on their 1993 album, Joy and Blues. Lyric to African Herbsman.
1969 I Want To Take You Higher - Sly & The Family Stone
Written by Sylvester Stewart in 1968 for his fourth Epic album, Stand!, probably the most memorable performance of this song is preserved on the Woodstock movie and soundtrack album. It charted twice in the US, reaching #60 as the B-side of Stand! in 1969 and #38 when released as a single in its own right in June the following year. It's given a typically jammed-out treatment by Bobby Sheehan's Blues Traveller on the first NORML Hempilation.
1969 Coming Into Los Angeles - Arlo Guthrie
From folkie Arlo's album, Running Down The Road, this song became a live favourite for the group, America, and is included on a collection of their live recordings, Heard. It's about a smuggler flying into LA: "Coming into Los Angeles / Bringing in a couple of keys / Don't touch my bags if you please, Mister Customs Man..." Lyric.
1969 Okie From Muskogee - Merle Haggard
Assisted by band member Eddie Burris, the Hag. ventured into the arena of social commentary in this #1 song, released during the height of national conflict over the Vietnam war: "We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee / We don't take our trips on LSD / We don't our burn draft cards down on Main Street / We like living right and being free." Lyric
1969 Stoned Woman - Ten Years After
Alvin Lee's band broke through in '69 with their first album of all original material, Stonedhenge and followed it up in the same year with perhaps their greatest statement, Shhh an album of psychedelic blues that includes this song, built around a monstrous, distorted bass riff: "She gonna love him, stoned out of mind all the time / She gonna keep him, stoned out of his mind all the time / She don't see nothing / She just has loving and she keeps on puffing all the time." Lyric
c.1970 Herbsman Shuffle - King Stitt
Winston Sparkles, the Ugly One, was a pioneering deejay with Coxsone's Downbeat system who recorded this version of the Skatalite's classic Beardman Feast rhythm, updated in reggae style by Clancy Eccles' studio band, the Dynamites, while the King salutes the herb over the rhythm. It's included on a UK compilation, Legalize De Erb and on a crucial King Stitt collection, Reggae Fire Beat.
1971 Kaya - Bob Marley & The Wailers
Among the fruits of the legendary Soul Rebel sessions that were to direct the future course of reggae, this is the first song about the herb to be recorded by either the Wailers' or Lee 'Scratch' Perry. A Jamaican hit in '71, it first appeared in the UK on the Trojan album, African Herbsman, (q.v.) in 1973, and subsequently on innumerable poor quality compilations. Controversy over Lee Perry's right to sell the songs from this period has been as intense as speculation over their authorship, but in People Funny Boy (by David Katz, Payback Press, 2000, ISBN: 0862418542) Scratch's younger brother, Milton, tells how the song was written during a visit to the home of the producer's mother, Miss Ina, in Hanover: "My bigger brother, Sonny, the Rasta one, he always keep a long locks. They was smoking herbs in the house, herbs run out and they get some money to buy some herbs and the rain set up to fall at the same time, so they tell him he must ride a bicycle to go and buy the herb. The rain was falling and they said he must go and buy the herb before the rain fall and so the lyrics come up. They said they want kaya because the rain is falling and then now they start to rehearse it the same place, because Bob have him guitar. I would say it's between Scratch and Bob came up with lyrics, but I remember as a little youth, by saying the word to my bigger brother, he just come up with the idea, put it in lyrics, and they just start from right there." Scratch obsessives must check the Skank version included on what many regard as the first ever dub album, Blackboard Jungle Dub in 1973; Marley fans may know the song, Turn Me Loose, that Bob cut on the Kaya rhythm. Of course, Bob Marley also recycled Kaya as the title track of his 1978 album.
1971 Sweet Leaf - Black Sabbath
A paean to pot written by Tony Iommi, Bill Ward, Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler and performed by the Sabs on their third Warner Bros. album, Masters of Reality: "Straight people don't know what you're about / They put you down and shut you out / You gave me a new belief / And soon the world will love you, sweet leaf". Every other metal band across America covers this song, but Sacred Reich, out of Phoenix, got to cut their version for inclusion on the NORML Hempilation
1971 One Toke Over The Line - Brewer & Shipley
Michael Brewer who, along with Tom Shipley, joined the Rainmakers to remake their hit for the NORML Hempilation 2 recalls: "It was controversial. The Vice President of the United States, Spiro Agnew, named us personally as a subversive to American youth, but at exactly the same time Lawrence Welk performed the crazy thing and introduced it as a gospel song. That shows how absurd it really is. Of course, we got more publicity than we could have paid for."
June 1971 High Time We Went - Joe Cocker
Written by Joe Cocker and Chris Stainton, this song never appeared on an album, but hit #22 in the US single charts, despite its spaced-out vocals: "Well, it's 12 o'clock and I got there / Didn't think I'd make it on time / Somebody's been shouting / 'Don't forget the lemon and lime' / Ain't it high time we went?" I should cocoa. Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies perform a version on the NORML Hempilation.
1971 And It Stoned Me - Van Morrison
From Moondance, his second Warner Bros. album, Morrison seems to be referring to wine ("There were bottles, two / One for me and one for you"), rather than weed, but the chorus is a classic, regardless: "And it stoned me to my soul / Stoned me just like jelly roll". At least that was the rationale for including it on the NORML Hempilation in an estimable version by Widespread Panic.
1971 Illegal Smile - John Prine
Lead track on the prolific American singer/songwriter's eponymous debut LP: "Fortunately I have the key to escape reality / And you may see me tonight with an illegal smile / It don't cost very much, but it lasts a long while / Won't you please tell the man I didn't kill anyone / No I'm just tryin' to have me some fun." Lyric
1972 30 Days In The Hole - Humble Pie
Stevie Marriott was busted for smoking a joint on a park bench in 1971, the year of Rockin' The Fillmore, after which Peter Frampton quit the band and Dave 'Clem' Clempson joined for the Smokin' album, from which this was a hit single: "Chicago Green, talkin' 'bout Black Lebanese / A dirty room and a silver coke spoon / Give me my release, come on / Black Nepalese, it's got you weak in your knees..." Warren Haynes' power trio, Gov't Mule, were joined by Ex-Black Crowes guitarist Marc Ford for a version that appears on the NORML/High Times Hempilation 2. Lyric
1972 I Got Stoned & I Missed It - Shel Silverstein
This raucous singalong from Shel's classic album, Freakin' At The Freakers' Ball became a hit for Dr Hook, from their 1975 album, Bankrupt and, apparently, also for Jim 'Spiders & Snakes' Stafford. Lyric. Real Audio @ Morgo's Media Menu.
1972 The Pope Smokes Dope - David Peel & the Lower East Side
Title track from the Original Punk's third album, produced by John Lennon: "The Pope smokes dope, God gave him the grass / The Pope smokes dope, he likes to smoke in mass / The Pope smokes dope, he's a groovy head / The Pope smokes dope, the Pope smokes dope..." Lyric
1973 Acapulco Goldie - Doctor Hook & The Medicine Show
A Shel Silverstein song from Dr. Hook's 3rd album, Belly Up: "Just like Acapulco Goldie, por que did you go. / You said you'd always hold me. / But you vamos away with me Acapulco gold. / Ya ya, you run away with me Acapulco gold." Lyric
1973 (Down To) Seed and Stems (Again) - Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen
George Frayne got a shambolic group of hippies together at the University of Michigan in 1967, naming the entity after a 1950 movie starring Kristen Coffen as Kommando Kody, and co-wrote the band's first songs, including Seeds'n'Stems with Billy C. Farlow, in a library during a break in finals. In San Francisco for the Altamont summer of 1969, the band caught the tail end of the Psychedelic scene where they "jammed, hung out, got high and generally Lived The Life", blagging a recording deal in the process.
Their fourth album on Paramount Records, Live from Deep in the Heart of Texas (PAS-1017), recorded live at the infamous Armadillo World Headquarters in 1973, was voted one of the best of all time by Rolling Stone Magazine. Seeds'n'Stems is a highlight of the set and also features on The Tour From Hell LP that documents other performances during 1973, in which year the band were literally booed off the stage at a C&W Convention in Nashville with cries like 'Get A Haircut!' According to the Commander, "the term 'Commie butt fucker' was heard for the first time from the crowd. Of course that year, 1973, we were the headliners at the International Communist Party festival in Paris, (the 'Fete Du Humanitie') so they weren't exactly wrong. On the other hand, the Vietnam veterans came back, mostly Cody fans who heard Hot Rod Lincoln in the foxholes. That year the Indian Movement took control of Alcatraz Island, and Russell Means invited us to visit them there, when Fidel Castro invited us to come and play in Cuba. We didn't of course, but we were protesting this unrighteous war, and wanted to bring everybody home before anybody else got killed.
1973 Catch A Fire (LP) - Bob Marley & The Wailers
The Wailers first Island LP, somewhat sanitised for international audiences, introduced reggae music to a global audience. If the lyrics to tunes like Stir It Up and Kinky Reggae don't refer explicitly to marijuana, their groove is implicitly informed by the herb and, if that isn't obvious to the casual listener, the point is made graphically clear on the cover, where Bob is pictured blazing a huge spliff. A remastered deluxe 2-CD set that includes the original Jamaican version of the album has recently been released.
1973 The Joker - Steve Miller Band
Miller's entire Band had been busted and deported from England while recording their first album for The Beatles' label, Apple, in 1968. Five years later, the title track to The Joker album cast the singer in the role of a laid-back player, a 'space cowboy', a 'gangster of love': "I'm a joker, I'm a smoker, I'm a midnight toker", croons Steve, "I sure don't want to hurt no one..." It's covered by Spearhead, with Michael Franti in fine form as the amoral lover man, on Hempilation 2.
1973 Panama Red - New Riders of the Purple Sage
First track on the 'Riders fourth album, The Adventures of Panama Red which was re-released in Europe with Gypsy Cowboy as part of a two-into-one CD by Beat Goes On Records, 2000, no: BGOCD 509.
1973 The Pot Head Pixie - Gong
Written by Daevid Allen and performed by Gong on their debut for Virgin Records, Flying Teapot, an album-length story that features Lawrence the Alien, the great yogi Banana Ananada, Zero the Hero and the Witch Yoni: "Somebody somewhere has got to be high";-) Raging Slab essayed their own version of this whimsy from gong's album in 1995 for the NORML Hempilation.
August, 1973 Stoned Out Of My Mind - The Chi Lites
A wistful lament in their classic style, this was the Chi Lites last hit with the original line-up. While the lyric is about being deceived by a girlfriend and really has nothing to do with pot, the refrain, "You got me goin' (Stoned out of my mind)" is irresistible. Lyric.
1973 Too High - Stevie Wonder
The first track on Innervisions (Motown): "She's a girl in a dream / She sees a four-eyed cartoon monster / On the TV screen / She takes another puff and says / It's a crazy scene' / That red is green / And she's a tangerine." Far out!
December, 1973 Let Me Roll It - Paul McCartney & Wings
McCartney's second band was down to just him, his missus, and Denny Laine by the time they flew out to Lagos, Nigeria, in August, 1973, to record Band On The Run at Fela Kuti's studio. This song, which was released as the flipside of the UK single, Jet, in February, 1974, exemplifies the deceptively light feel of the album, with it's opening organ solo and unforgettable guitar riff. The lyric, widely interpreted as a riposte to John Lennon's How Do You Sleep? may not be about skinning up, but it sure sounds like it: "You gave me something, I understand / You gave me loving in the palm of my hand". It's covered by Canadian rockers, Big Sugar, on Hempilation 2. Lyric
1974 Herb Vendor - Horse Mouth
An appreciative rap voiced by drummer, Leroy 'Horsemouth' Wallace, over the rhythm of Delroy Denton's Give Thanks, with The Upsetter at the controls of an early Black Ark production that appeared on the Public Jestering album.
1974 Judge Natty / Ganja Crop - Jah Lloyd.
Pat Francis began as a vocalist with the Studio One group, the Meditators, coached the Mighty Diamonds in their formative days, and found local fame as a deejay, Jah Lloyd. Working with Lee 'Scratch Perry in the early days of the Black Ark, he voiced several versions of the To Be A Lover rhythm, including Soldier Round The Corner and these two weed conscious toasts for the Teem label. Judge Natty - included on the UK compilation, Legalize De Erb - is a hilarious variation on the Judge Dread scenario, in which the dread Judge gives the defendant (possibly played by Lee Perry) a lecture on the divine origin of ganja.
July 1974 I Shot the Sheriff - Eric Clapton
Slowhand's version, a hit single from his 461 Ocean Boulevard album, introduced Bob Marley's music to a worldwide audience, though not all may have fully understood the tale, told by a marijuana grower hunted by a fanatical law enforcement officer: "Sheriff John Brown always hate I / For what, I never know. / Everytime I plant a seed / He say, kill it before it grow. / He said, kill them before they grow." Lyric
1974 Too Rolling Stoned - Robin Trower
Trower got his start with Procol Harum in the '60s and was a stadium axe hero and regular contender on The Old Grey Whistle Test riff of the month competition in the mid 70s, from which era comes this tune from his second Chrysalis solo album, Bridge of Sighs, as well as on his Live! album the following year. "It's a nice relaxing jam that works well with pot," says Kevin Kinney of Athens-based band, Drivin' N' Cryin', who perform a version on the NORML Hempilation: "It's the epitome of a concert pot-smoking song."
1975 Roll Another Number (For The Road) - Neil Young
From Tonight's The Night: "I think I'll roll another number for the road / I feel able to get under any load / Though my feet aren't on the ground / I've been standing on the sound / Of some open-hearted people going down." Lyric
1975 Chalice In The Palace - U Roy
Ewart Beckford pioneered the modern DJ style in Jamaica in the late 60s, toasting on King Tubby's system, and remains an inimitable practitioner. On this gem, produced by 'Prince' Tony Robinson, riding the Mighty Diamonds' Queen Majesty rhythm, U-Roy fantasises about sharing the pipe of peace with Her Royal Highness and reasoning over the problems of the people in the ghetto. Released by Virgin in the UK on the flip side of another classic, Runaway Girl, and on the mighty Dread Inna Babylon set, it's included on the Big Blunts compilation (Tommy Boy, 1994) and in a live version on Natty Rebel - Extra Version (Virgin CDFL 9017; 1991). Weed conscious rapper, Canibus, performed a hip hop version, Buckingham Palace, on his 1998 debut album, Can-I-Bus.
1975 Quarter Pound of I'Cense - Max Romeo
A track from Revelation Time, a classic from the Black Ark that's known as the first Jamaican concept album: "The songs may not necessarily sound alike, but if you listen to the words, it's like reading the Bible and just turning the pages," claims its creator. 'I'Cense' is the holy herb that's burned for its meditative incense, but the word 'incense' also has the negative connotation of anger, so the Rastas adapt it to sound more appropriately like a sensitizer. The words is also rendered as 'I'Shence', or 'I'Shen', as in the deejay version by Lone Ranger, 1/4lb. of Ishen (q.v.). Revelation Time was lovingly re-packaged and re-issued in 1999 by Blood & Fire as Open The Iron Gate.
1975 Brushweed Corntrash - Bunny & Ricky
William 'Bunny' Clarke and Ricky Grant address the difficulty of locating decent weed over a Black Ark rhythm, produced by Lee 'Scratch' Perry and included on The Upsetter's contemporaneous Revolution Dub album in a version titled Bush Weed, in which the Upsetter hums the absent melody line.
1975 Expensive Shit - Fela Ransome-Kuti and The Africa 70
Fela's true genius has been reassessed in the short years since his death in '97, via various compilations; MCA re-issues of Fela's old albums on CD; and the imminent Red Hot + Riot AIDS tribute album. Worth seeking out is the Masters At Work Tribute to Fela from '99, for which Vega'n'Gonzalez brought in the Latin percussion legend, Luisito Quintero, to let rip on their version of 'Shit, which was inspired by an incident in which the Nigerian authorities failed to catch Fela in possession of cannabis because he swallowed the joint. So the goons collected Fela's faeces and had it tested for cannabis residues... No shit!
1976 Legalise It - Peter Tosh
From the Bushdoctor's first solo album on Columbia, this song has become a rallying cry for the pro-pot movement: "Legalize it, don't criticize it / Legalize it, and I'll advertise it." Tosh, who was gunned down in Jamaica on September 19, 1987, explained: "Only de small man go to bloodclot jail for herb. Man must get herb cause man keep de earth runnin' till today." It's been widely covered, by UB40 on Labour of Love 3 in 1998; Rasta Surf Punks, Sublime, who own first album was 40 Ounces to Freedom on Skunk Records, gave Legalize It the dub treatment on the NORML Hempilation. Lyric.
1976 Smokin' Cheeba Cheeba - Harlem Underground Band
Written by Paul and Ann Winley, this rare groove appears on the Harlem Underground's only album on Paul Winley Records. It features jazz-guitar great, George Benson, a lengthy harmonica solo by Buddy 'Pop' Lewis and the recurring 'cheeba cheeba' theme, sung by Ann Winley. Tone Loc famoulsy sampled it for his own Cheeba Cheeba (q.v.) and a group called High Fidelity did a cover on the first NORML Hempilation.
1976 Colombia Collie - Jah Lion
As was his wont, Lee 'Scratch' Perry chose to rename Jah Lloyd, aka Pat Francis, for a wicked deejay album of which this is the title track, celebrating the Colombian weed that was the draw of choice among well-heeled American potheads of the time. As Francis recollected: "Him say, 'You move strong.' Might be physically or musically strong, but Jah Lion different from Jah Lloyd... We do great works at the Upsetter studio." Reissued in 1994.
1977 Bad Weed - Junior Murvin
Reel Two of Arkology, the indispensible 3-CD set of Lee 'Scratch' Perry productions, 1976 - 1979 features an incredible rhythm shower based on Police & Thieves, showing how Perry was able to build many songs on the same foundation: after the Junior Murvin hit from the summer of 1976, sax man Glen DaCosta's instrumental Magic Touch is followed by the terrific Soldier & Police War by Jah Lion and The Upsetters' echoing Grumblin' Dub. Just when you thought the rhythm has been stretched out enough, Junior's ominous Bad Weed takes it further. "It was only four tracks on the machine, but I was picking up twenty from the extra terrestrial squad", Scratch says and Junior confirms: "Lee Perry's 4 tracks sound like 8 track, some time it sound like 100 track (laughs)... Scratch used to say him nah change, cause it's four generations y'know".
1977 Macka Spliff - Steel Pulse
First recorded on the predominantly punk compilation, Live At The Hope And Anchor, this track appeared on their first album, Handsworth Revolution, in 1978, as Macka Splaff. Whatever the spelling, the meaning it clear: "Mister collie, collie collie man / Me want some herbs to smoke tonight/ Mister collie, collie collie man / Marijuana smoke tonight / Mister collie man/ Want some herbs to smoke tonight / Mister collie man / Ganja smoke tonight...". A live anthem and theme tune for Steel Pulse, it features on their Reggae Greats (Island) compilation and is included on Big Blunts Vol.3 (Tommy Boy):
1977 Reefer Madness - Hawkwind
"One of my fingers fell from my hand, onto the carpet / Crawled across the floor, Up to my shelf / Inside my piggy bank and stole my stash. / STOLE MY STASH!" Lyric
1977 Homegrown - Neil Young
An agricultural anthem, performed by Crazy Horse around the same time as Roll Another Number but not recorded until the ninth Reprise album, American Stars 'n' Bars: "Homegrown is all right with me / Homegrown is the way it should be / Homegrown is a good thing / Plant that bell and let it ring." Gus, a left-handed songwriter who believes that "hemp is a very powerful plant," provided a fair rendition for the NORML Hempilation.
1977 Two Hits & the Joint Turned Brown - John Hartford with The Dillards
Funky Bluegrass from Hartford, in trio with Doug & Rodney Dillard, collected on an album entitled Glitter Grass From The Nashwood Hollyville Strings
1978 Easy Skanking - Bob Marley & The Wailers
The first track from the Kaya album (Island ILPS 9517) and a solid stone classic: "Excuse me while I light my spliff / Oh, God, I gotta take a lift / From reality I just can't drift / That's why I am staying with this riff..." It's also included on the Natural Mystic compilation (1997). Lyric.
1978 Bustin' Out - Rick James
"Alright you squares, it's time to smoke / Fire up this funk and let's have a toke / It can make you dance or some of everything / Everybody get high..." The album sleeve depicted a guitar wielding Rick leading the escape from a prison marked 'Serious Joint'.
1978 Smoking My Ganja - Capital Letters
The first UK-based reggae group to be signed to Greensleeves Records enjoyed a big hit with their debut single, which is included on the compilation, Legalize De Erb (Kickin' Records, 1997).
1978 The Smoke Off - Shel Silverstein
The epic tale of the showdown between Pearly Sweetcake of sunny San Rafael and The Calistoga Kid, a beatnik from the past, at Yankee Stadium, in the World Series of pot smoking: "'Nothin' left to roll!', screams Pearl, 'Is this some twisted joke? / I didn't come here to fuck around, man, I come here to SMOKE!'" and so on...Lyric. Real Audio @ Morgo's Media Menu
1978 Jamaican Weed - Lone Ranger
A joyous celebration of ganga over a bubbling bassline from the influential Studio One deejay, who is perhaps best remembered for his hit, Barnabus Collins, this gem was rescued from oblivion for inclusion on Tommy Boy's original Big Blunts compilation in 1994. Big Blunts Vol.2 (Tommy Boy, 1996) includes 1/4lb. of Ishen, riding the Royals' Pick Up The Pieces rhythm with the Ranger, aka Anthony Waldron, giving a nod to U-Roy while adapting lyrics made famous by Ranking Joe. Included on the excellent album, On The Other Side Of Dub in 1981, it probably dates from around the same period as Jamaican Weed.
1979 Billy Bardo - Johnny Paycheck
The country character best remembered for telling his boss in song to Take This Job And Shove It included this pro-pot song on his 1979 album, which kicks off with a ditty advising listeners to (Stay Away From) The Cocaine Train .
1979 African Reggae - Nina Hagen
"Haschisch, feinstes kaschmir / edelster türke, afghanisches gras / ein plätzchen für mein schplätzchen / cannabis im schwarzwald / Bob Marley auf der venus". Or words to that effect. Lyric.
1979 Spliff Tale - Triston Palma
The perpetrator of dancehall anthem, Entertainment, Triston had a string of hits in 79/80 on Black Solidarity, a label he ran with producer Ossie Thomas, including this all too familiar tale, told in militant rockers style. It's collected on Bamboo Fence & Curry Goat and on a UK compilation, Legalize De Erb (Kickin' Records, 1997). Interview with Triston.
1980 Sinsemilla - Black Uhuru
The vocal trio of Duckie Simpson, Mykal Rose and Sandra 'Puma' Jones were the first reggae group to win a Grammy and a powerful live draw (sic) in their day, backed by Sly 'n' Robbie, who produced the classic album of which this is the title track: "I've got a stalk of sinsemilla growing in my back yard..."
1981 Champagne and Reefer - Muddy Waters
From Muddy's King Bee album on Blue Sky Records: "Bring me champagne when I'm thirsty / Bring me reefer when I'm gonna get high". "I'm gonna stick with my reefer" affirms the blues legend, who died of a heart attack in 1983, "Ain't gonna be messing around with no cocaine." Texan blues belter, Ian Moore, performed the song in tribute to Muddy on the NORML Hempilation and The Black Crowes have also been known to do it up live. Lyric.
1981 Nederwiet - Doe Maar
Joost Belinfante tested the tolerance of his native Dutch authorities on this track from the album, Skunk, in which the singer patiently explains how to grow your own weed at home and the best way to enjoy it. It's also included on Doe Maar's Greatest Hits, De Beste. Lyric
1981 Reefer Madness (Instrumental) - UB40
Closing track from their debut album, Signing Off.
1981 Mary Jane - Rick James
Best remembered for the hook to Superfreak - sampled by 80s one-hit-wonder, MC Hammer, on You Can't Touch This, - Rick not only wrote this love song to pot, but also launched The Mary Jane Girls, whose eponymous album on Motown (1983) is remarkable primarily for its novelty or kitsch value. The Medusa-headed rapper, Coolio, performed a version, I'm In Love With Mary Jane on the soundtrack to the cultish 1998 stoner movie, Half Baked. The original MJ is collected along with the sometime Superfreak's other greatest hits on Bustin' Out (Island, 1994).
1981 One Draw - Rita Marley
A Bob Marley song from Rita's album, Who Feels It Knows It (Shanachie, 1980), One Draw was released as a single after Bob's funeral, at which Rita symbolically placed a stalk of sensimilla in the coffin. Cleary indicating an end to the mourning, this infectious, pro-ganja delight which was banned in Jamaica on release, but made musical history as the first reggae single to top the Billboard Disco Charts, the chorus inspired and was sampled by Cyprus Hill for I Wanna Get High (q.v.). A version of the original features on the Legalize De Erb compilation.
1981 Pass the Kouchie - The Mighty Diamonds
Donald 'Tabby' Shaw, Fitzroy 'Bunny' Simpson, and Lloyd 'Judge' Ferguson enjoyed a Jamaican hit with this sublime version of the classic Studio One rhythm, Full Up, produced by Gussie Clarke, which appeared on their Indestructible album in '82. Musical Youth famously covered the song the following year, but changed the title to 'Dutchie', which makes no sense at all since a Dutch oven cannot easily be passed from the left hand side, unlike a ceremonious pipe, chalice, or 'Kouchie' (or 'Kutchie', as in Lee Perry's Kutchie Skank; or 'Cutchie' as in Dillinger's Bring The Cutchie Come; or indeed, 'Couchie', as in the song of that name by Triston Palma). The original is included on Big Blunts Vol.1 (Tommy Boy, 1994).
1983 Police in Helicopter - John Holt
Title track of the veteran reggae star's album, in which the singer balanced his lover's persona, borrowed from Gregory Isaacs, with that of the rootsman who here righteously complains about the aerial ganja interdiction squads. Name-checked by Top Cat on Love Me Sess (q.v.), it's included on Big Blunts Vol.2 (Tommy Boy, 1996)
1983 Smoke Two Joints - The Toyes
Mawg and Sky of The Toyes were living in Honolulu in 1983, escaping from L.A., where Mawg was playing in 'a horrible Top 40 band' when he wrote this tune, taught it to his brother, and the pair borrowed $1000 from their mom to record it: "I smoke two joints in the morning, I smoke two joints at night / I smoke two joints in the afternoon, it makes me feel alright / I smoke two joints in time of peace, and two in time of war / I smoke two joints before I smoke two joints, and then I smoke two more". It features on The Toyes CD from 1996, along with songs called (Hey, Uncle Sam) Leave Us Pot Smokers Alone and Monster Hash (a parody of Monster Mash). Various cover versions exist in foreign languages, plus Sublime did a version on their album, 40oz to Freedom.
Lyric
1984 Sensi Addict - Horace Ferguson
Early digital reggae, pre-Sleng Teng (q.v.), sparsely produced on what sounds like a rinky dink Casio keyboard by Prince Jazzbo for his Ujama label, with the singer declaring his addiction: "Wisdom, knowledge and understanding / Are what the sensimilla really bring", while scorning harder drugs: "Me don't want no coke, 'cause that's a joke"; "Me no drink white rum / Me will tumble down". It features on a 1993 album of the same name and is included on Big Blunts Vol.3 (Tommy Boy, 1996).
1985 (Under Mi) Sleng Teng - Wayne Smith
Widely credited with kick-starting the digital revolution in Jamaican studios, the Sleng Teng rhythm was built by King Jammy upon a pre-programmed Casio backbeat and spawned numerous versions. The original lyrics are more concerned with that other hardy perennial, sex, than with weed, although the 'sensi' from Westmoreland is promoted as the ultimate aphrodisiac. The tune is the centre piece of Big Blunts (Tommy Boy, 1994), which also includes a funk/hip-hop remix by DJ Muggs of Cypress Hill, and appears on a UK compilation, Legalise De 'Erb (Kickin Records, 1997).
1985 Under Mi Sensi - Barrington Levy
Paul Love, aka Jah Screw, had been the selector for U-Roy's sound-system before teaming up with deejay Ranking Joe to make records. For their first production, they recruitied broader-than-Broadway Barrington Levy to yodel over this wicked tune, castigating official hypocrisy over the weed trade: "Babylon, you na like ganja man / But we bring the foreign currency 'pon the island." An enduring anthem, it appears on numerous collections, including Tommy Boy's Big Blunts and in a re-recording with the Long Beach Dub All-Stars (formerly known as Sublime) on Hempilation 2. There's also a 'triple bass' mix featuring Rebel MC, from 1992, and Beenie Man's Jungle Dub X Project Remix, a UK club hit in 1994 that features on Big Blunts Vol.2 (Tommy Boy, 1996). Real Audio Sample @ www.turntablelab.com
1985 Real Thing - Barrington Levy
Another track from Barrington's breakthrough album, Here I Come which, through dwarfed by Under Me Sensi is a classic in its own right, with the singer begging, "Gimme the grass, won't you gimme the grass" and declaring that cocaine will mess up his brain, "because when you smoke the cocaine, you can get jumpy. When you smoke up the cocaine, you don't what you're thinking about. When you smoke up the cocaine, you're going to ruin your brain..." Big Blunts Vol.3 (Tommy Boy) features a funky workout of the tune with a phat bass line, Gimme The Grass.
1986 Herbsman Hustling - Sugar Minott
A version of Don Drummond's Heavenless rhythm reworked by Sly and Robbie, over which Sugar sings this paean to nickel and dime street salesmen in his classic roots style. Although it's the humble herbsman who risks his risking his neck to make his daily living, all levels of Jamaican society are implicated in the ganja trade: "Wrap up a draw for the lawyer / Wrap up a draw fe' commissioner..." A Jamaican hit on the Black Roots label, it features on Sugar's RAS Portraits album (RAS 3319), appears on Sly & Robbies' Taxi collection (1986) and is included on Big Blunts Vol.1 (Tommy Boy, 1994).
1988 Love Mi Sess - Top Cat
UK-based DJ scored a mighty hit for Joe G's records with this unambiguous paean of praise to top-quality draw, which came again in the mid-90s when recreated in a Junglist mode - the Herbsman 2 Remix - by Michael West, aka Rebel MC in his guise as Congo Natty. The original is included on Leglize De Erb (Kickin' Records, 1997). Lyric (to the Congo Natty mix.
1989 Urb-an Music - Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers
A sly comment on both radio formatting and the felicitous combination of music and herb from the album, One Bright Day (Virgin): "Lord they fight it so / And I bet they don't even know / What it can do for all of you / Urb-an music, urb-an music, urb-an music..." Lyric.
1989 Cheeba Cheeba - Tone Loc
The rasping rapper first had a hit with a re-make of Wild Thing and this proto-typical pot head rap is a highlight of his debut album, Loc'ed After Dark: "...it seems a lot of times I'm at my best / After some methical or a bowl of sens. / I'm creatin', multiplyin', big time supplyin' / Enuff bud to keep tha whole party high on / I might get ill and roll an 8th in one hooter / Park my Benz, or cold jet it on my scooter..." It's included on Phat Blunts: Rap Unda Tha Influence (Priority, 1996). Lyric.
1989 Paul's Boutique (LP) - The Beastie Boys
The beer-swilling brats of Fight For Your Right To Party switched to cheeba for their massively influential second album, produced by the Dust Bros. The entire record is littered with mad rhymes and weed references and we all have our favourites. Mine include: "Space cake cookies, I discover who I am / I'm a dusted old bummy Hurdy Gurdy Man" (Car Thief); "I smoke cheeba, it helps me with my brain / I might be a little dusted, but I'm not insane" (3 Minute Rule) and "I'm so high that they call me Your Highness / If you don't know me then pardon my shyness." (Mike On The Mic.) Lyrics.
1989 Express Yourself by Niggas With Attitude
The first hit single from Straight Outta Compton re-worked an old groove written by Eazy-E's Dad. Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd St Rhythm Bands' original was updated by Ice Cube, who declared: "Even if Yella Makes it a-cappella I still express, yo, I don't smoke weed or sens. / Cause its known to give a brother brain damage / And brain damage on the mic don't manage / Nuthin' but makin' a sucker and you equal / Don't be another sequel..." Dr Dre, the producer, obviously didn't share these sentiments, as he was to demonstrate with The Chronic (q.v.).
1990 Green Day - Green Day
According to the Green Day Online FAQ, the phrase 'green day' is Bay-area slang for a day with lots of green bud where you just sit around taking bong hits and hanging out. Billie Joe wrote the song Green Day about his first pot experience and his punk rock group changed its name from Sweet Children to Green Day in 1990, recording the song on their debut album, 39/Smooth, which has been re-released as 1,039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours. Lyric.
1991 Stoned Immaculate - Dub Syndicate
The title track of perhaps the finest recorded statement by Adrian Sherwood's dub collective - the CD with the extraordinary four-spoked spliff on its cover - takes its theme from Jim Morrison: "Out here in the perimeter there are no stars. Out here we are stoned, immaculate" and moves into an easy skank, coloured by the sweet vocal harmonies of Akabu and well-charged with all sorts of sampled interjections and funny noises.
1991 Mean Green - Cool Hand Loc
Written by A.Smith/J.Fortson/G.Duke/L.Chanclear/ B.Millar/C.Johnson (whew) for Loc's second album on Delicious Vinyl: "When a believer gets the fever for the flavour of the cheeba / Don't you sweat it, I can get it, I got my home boy's beeper number / If you wanna get some of the chronic, supersonic / Yo, my man's got that high-powered hydroponic...Don't mention cocaine, heroin or speed / In the same breath as weed, because nobody ever ODed / Puffing reefer, cannabis sativa, hemp or the cheeba and I'm a believer."
1991 Herbs an' Spices - Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers
With their Jahmekya album, the Melody Makers produced a tougher sound than previously and David marley's lyrics got more militant, too: "Herbs an' herb an', herb an' spices an' herbs / Give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me / Spices an' herb, whoa, revolution / Yes man a revolution / Yes mi say this a revolution". Lyric.
1991 The Herb - Tony Rebel
Leading the lyrical reaction to the slackness in Jamaican dancehall music and one of the most popular deejays in JA today, Patrick George Anthony Barrett, aka Tony Rebel, here produced by Donovan Germain, delivers one of the most erudite pro-ganja raps of recent times: "And this is something, me a come here to tell everyone / Good sinsemilla, it used to run this land (land) / But since the other day, them a deal with substitution (shun) / Now the crop called cocaine bring pure destruction (shun) / That's why this morning, me get up and me write three letter / Come, me a seh, one addressed to the Prime Minister / Me say, the next one addressed to the Security Minister/ Me never done the one to the Commissioner/ Because them, them're hypocrites and counfounder / 'Cause how the hell them a going to fight against sinsemilla ? / And it put a poor people plot 'pon fire / Now, we used to plant it enough in Jamaica / And they burn it down with 'nuff police and soldier / And them import the coke fe mash up we future/ But, you see the Herb / It just me brain it preserve / You see, the Herb / It make I-man observe / You see, the Herb / It just a-strengthen me nerve..." A Jamaican hit for Penthouse Records, it's included on Big Blunts Vol.1 (Tommy Boy, 1994).
1991 Who's Got the Herb - Human Rights
Written by HR (Paul Hudson), lead singer of the influential hardcore band, Bad Brains, and performed by HR with his bro', Earl, on drums and David Byers on guitar and keys as Human Rights on their 1991 EP, I Luv: "When we smoke it in our bong it feels so nice". It was covered for the NORML Hempilation by a band called 311, whose debut album in 1993 boasted the compositions, Hydroponic and My Stoney Baby.
November, 1991 Cypress Hill (LP) - Cypress Hill
Stone classic album, featuring (among others) Something for the Blunted, Light Another and Stoned Is The Way Of The Walk: "I hit they ass like the Buddha that's stinky / They wanna scruff but they just so rinky-dinky / I'm the freaka, the one who freaks the funk / Sen got the Phillie an' he's gonna light the blunt..." Lyrics
June, 1992 The Chronic (LP) - Dr Dre
Lyrical references to chronic - another generic name for skunk weed - are pretty much confined to the between song skits (such as The $20 Sack Pyramid; a game show in which the prize is a bag of pot) that's but one innovative feature of this hip hop landmark. If the subject matter of The Chronic covers much the same violent territory as charted by NWA, at least Dre found some exciting new voices to verbalise it, Snoop Doggy Dogg first among them. The real revelation, however, is in the grooves. Dre's 'G-Funk' blends jazz, funk and soul elements into its hip hop stew, sampling Donny Hathaway, Isaac Hayes, but most of all, Parliament. The Roach is the end of the album and, like it says to the tune of "make my funk the P-Funk": "Make my butt the chronic / I wants to get fucked up".
Asked, 'Do you think herb has helped to mellow out a lot of the thug mentality in hip-hop?', Snoop Dogg replied: "On the real, when me and Dre put chronic on the map, we took crack out of the black community. It's erasing the crack that was killing a lot of our people and sending homies to the jailhouse. Now it's more controlled, civilized and more about money and bitches and just smoking. That's the cool shit. Before that, the crackhead niggas was just running wild out there." Lyrics.
1992 How To Roll A Blunt - Red Man
Someone had to explain and Redman, a.k.a. Reggie Noble, out of Newark, New Jersey, was happy to oblige on this rhyme from Whut? Thee Album: "Lick the blunt and then the Philly blunt middle you split / Don't have a razor blade, use ya fuckin fingertips / Crack the bag and then you pour the whole bag in / Spread the ism around until the ism reach each end / Take your finger and your thumb from tip to tip / Roll it in a motion then the top piece you lick / Seal it, dry it wit ya lighter if ya gotta / The results, mmmmmmmm....proper." The song also features on The Best Of Redman (1995) with the otherwise unreleased I'm Getting Blunted. Lyric
1992 Take Two and Pass - Gang Starr
From the album, Daily Operation "For that fat fat blunt you know I got this thing / So hand it over cause I wanna get charred / I'm in love with Mary Jane she keeps me large / So don't hog it let's get it moving real fast / Everybody just chill and take like two pulls and pass..." Lyric
1992 California Über Alles - Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy
The Dead Kennedy's punk classic updated by Michael Franti on a key track from Hypocrisy Is The Greatest Luxury: "Now its 1992 / Knock knock at your front door, hey guess who? / Its the suede demin secret police / They've come to your house for your long haired niece / Gonna take her off to a camp / 'Cause she's been accused of growing hemp."
1993 Black Sunday (LP) - Cypress Hill
The Hill's masterpiece and one of the biggest-selling rap albums of all time includes the hit single, Insane in the Brain, Hits From the Bong and the anthem, I Wanna Get High, based on Bob Marley's One Draw (q.v.): "Yes I smoke shit, straight off the roach clip/ I roach it, roll the blunt at once to approach it / Forward motion make you sway like the ocean / The herb is more than just a powerful potion / What's the commotion, yo I'm not joking around/ People learning about what they're smoking / My oven is on high, when I roast the quail/ Tell Bill Clinton to go and inhale." The version that appears on the first NORML Hempilation was recorded live in 1995 and ends with the chant, "If ya wanna legalize the herb, let me hear you say: pom, pom, pom." Lyrics
1993 I Love You Mary Jane - Cypress Hill & Sonic Youth
Proof of Cypress Hill's versatility and mainstream success came with their two collaborations on the hit Judgment Night soundtrack with Pearl Jam (Real Thing) and alternative rock gods, Sonic Youth: "Look who's back on the program / Hookin' up another fly joint / When I flow on the slow jam / When I shift, I kick to go / Like a fat drunk and I light up a fat spliff / Take a whiff / Can you smell that in the air? / When the smoke come out the building from every where."
1994 Smokin' Stix - Coolio
The breakthrough album by artist formerly known as Artis Ivey, Jr., It Takes A Thief (Tommy Boy) includes this track about the dubious practice of dunking joints in 'some kind of embalming fluid' which, as the lyric makes clear, is not recommended.
1994 Tical - Method Man
"In every part of New
York there is someone who makes up different slang words that just happen to catch on," explains Clifford Smith, a.k.a. Method Man, sometimes also known as Johnny Blaze. "In Staten Island we used to call weed 'method'. Then my man Lounger cut it down to metical. And then, over the course of time it got cut down to tical." Stepping from the ranks of the Wu Tang Clan, the title track from the Meth's influential debut album on DefJam, produced by RZA, sets the tone with a chorus that goes: "What's that shit that they be smokin? / Tical... tical, tical / Pass it over here... tical... tical, tical / What's that shit the niggaz smokin? Tical... tical, tical / Pass it over here... tical... tical, tical." Method Man's more recent followup solo album is Tical 2000: Judgement Day. Lyric.
1994 I Got That Dank - Master P
From the Southern hip hop soldier's first, independent album, The Ghetto's Trying to Kill Me and not to be confused with Half On A Bag Of Dank from Ice Cream Man (1996): "I'm out of dank, my 40's halfway gone / I called my boy King up on the mobile phone / Get a bag, get a bag, of that ziggety zag / Careful don't twerk, cause them niggas smoke that giggety grass / And 5 0 run up on a nigga G / They ain't catching niggas like the fucking piggety P..." Lyric.
1994 Caught By The Fuzz - Supergrass
The British trio's first single, initially on Backbeat Records, just missed the UK top 40 when released by Parlophone later in the year. Included on their first album, I Should Cocao, the song tells the true story of singer Gaz Coombes getting busted at the age of 15: "I talked to a man who says 'better to tell' / Who sold you the blow? / Well it was no one I know. / If only you'd tell us, we'd let you go..."
October, 1994 Homegrown (LP) -w Dodgy
British popsters from Birmingham, who promoted their second album, Homegrown - which contains a track called Grassman - by distributing hemp seeds and grow manuals to journalists.
November, 1994 Baby Come Back - Pato Banton featuring Ali & Robin Campbell
A version of the old Equal's hit that reached #1 in the UK for the UB40 crew, complete with Pato advertising a "bag of sensi", the better to enjoy his "CD collection of Bob Marley," among the delights with which he's trying to woo his lover to return.
1995 Convicted - Hater
Written by Ben Shepherd and performed by Hater, which includes Soundgarden members Shepherd and Matt Cameron, especially for the NORML Hempilation. Thrash-punk drums, bass and guitars set the pace as Shepherd, playing guitar, sings: "Angry and confused, that's what I'm accused of /I t's my contradiction, I am convicted."
1995 Dope Dogs (LP) - George Clinton & The P-Funk All Stars
A sample-heavy concept album about narco dogs! According to George, "We're talking seven dogs in total: U.S. Customs and Coast Guard dogs; one from the DEA, the FBI, the police and from laboratories where drugs are tested. Dogs into dope beats and dopey rhymes, and those dogs who are simply dope on dope, plus dogs who sniff out dope. All these dogs are working undercover. And if you replace people with dogs, you can say anything." Perhaps his most accomplished post-Parliament recording, this album includes Clinton's cover of Follow The Leader by Eric B & Rakim; a collaboration with Primal Scream, Lost Dog; and, on the US version, the definitive mix of the P-Funk live favourite, Dope Dog. The track, US Custom Coast Guard Dope Dog also appears on NORML's Hempilation 2 and on the Sex, Drugs & Democracy CD.
1995 In the Flow - Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers
Written by David 'Ziggy' Marley and recorded by the Melody Makers on the day after the Bob Marley 50th birthday celebration in February, 1995, for their eighth album, Free Like We Want 2 B and for inclusion on the first NORML Hempilation: "Politicians fighting to stop I from lighting / But in harmony, we'll smoke the tree." Lyric
1995 Sensimilla Persecution - Buju Banton
A Donovan Germain production of the Swing Easy rhythm for Penthouse records that appeared in the UK on the flipside of the Champion 12" and one of the tracks that charted the dancehall hero's transformation from the ruff neck perpetrator of tracks like Boom Bye Bye and the ultra controversial Batty Riderto the conscious Rastafarianism of today. Naturally, it's included on Buju Banton's recent Ultimate Collection.
1995 Wanna Be A Hippie - Technohead
This ravey Summer hit sampled I Like Marijuana by David Peel and the Lower East Side (q.v.): "I wanna be a hippie and I wanna smoke pot / I wanna be a hippy and I wanna smoke a lot." Don't we all?
1996 Eyes a Bleed - Bounty Killer
Vol.2 of Tommy Boy's Big Blunts series of reggae weed anthems features three versions of this dancehall rave: the original; a terrific remix by RZA of the Wu Tang Clan featuring Master Killer (which also appears on Wu Chronicles II); plus a remix by Tom LaRoc. Bounty Killer's also responsible for Smoke The Herb, from his 1997 album, Ghetto Gramma.
1996 Super Sharp Shooter - Ganja Kru
The DJ crew of Hype, Zinc and Pascal, united by their enthusiasm for potent pot and breakbeat music, pooled their talents on this influential EP, which features the classic Jungle track, Super Sharp Shooter, by DJ Zinc, plus Hype's True Playaz Anthem.
1996 Blunt Time - RBX
Unmistakably a Dr. Dre production, from The Aftermath, the chorus unfortunately equates smoking blunts with drinking brandy and toying with 9mm firearms: "Blunt time - pull out your Philly / Sip a glass of 'gnac, reload your nine milli. / Dancin', puffin', sippin' or set trippin' / Dimes keep on flippin', flippin'..." Lyric.
1996 Hemp Museum - B-Legit
As envisioned in the title track of the West Coast rapper's debut album - where he celebates the gangsta life in such titles as Gotta Buy Your Dope From Us and Rollin' Wit Hustlers - the Hemp Museum is a hydroponic growing facility: "No square be allowed in the house of hemp / We campaigns like the President / I got four or five dank rooms / Big screens with Play Stations / Wet bar, perculation / A vacation? / No, more like the Mardi Gras / With hurricanes and thangs that you ain't ever saw..." Lyric.
May 1996 Fuzzy Logic (LP) - The Super Furry Animals
The sleeve of the enduring Welsh eccentrics' first album on Creation featured multiple portraits of the celebrated Welsh hash smuggler, Howard Marks, showing the various disguises he adopted while on the run. The album contains a track called Hangin' Out With Howard Marks and Mr Nice evidently hung out with the boyos long enough to get a production credit for a mix of their single, The Man Don't Give A Fuck (Creation 247).
September, 1996 The Day We Caught The Train - Ocean Colour Scene
The band's breakthrough hit from their Moseley Shoals album contains the line, "Roll a number, write another song like Jimmy heard the day he caught the train." Lyric
1997 The Battle Of Who Could Care Less - Ben Folds Five
From their album, Whatever and Ever Amen: "Watch the Rockford Files / Call to see if Paul can score some weed / Do you never rest / Fighting the battle of who could care less". Lyric
1997 Everybody's Smoking Cheeba - The Donnas
Track from the feisty rock chicks' first album. Lyric Real Audio Sample
1997 Weed & Money - Master P feat. Silkk The Shocker
Master P's lyrical explorations of this theme include Dope, Pussy & Money from Mama's Bad Boy (1993) and this from the Ghetto D album, which album also includes Pass Me Da Green: "I stack greens like cheese / Smoke weed with g's / Sell cream to fiends / And roll with beams..." Lyric.
1998 Dub Mentality - Asian Dub Foundation
From Rafi's Revenge (London Records): "Dub is the place we come to argue and debate / It isn't just a backdrop for our herbal intake... Dub is the teacher / Jungle is the preacher."
November, 1998 Sidemousin' The Bong - Mike Watt
Especially written by the pioneering punk bassist for Hempilation 2 and recorded with his old sparring partner from fIREHOSE and The Minutemen, George Hurley, on drums, along with violinist Petra Haden, who also sang, plus Stephen Perkins - the drummer of Porno for Pyros and Jane's Addiction renown - on steel drum, percussion, extra high-hat, and bong hits - nine in a row!
1999 One Good Spliff - Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers
From the Spirit of Music (Elektra) album, the cover of which shows a young Rasta - possibly Ziggy - obscured by wreathes of smoke, the words to this song were written by Stephen Marley: "Said I don't drink coffee / For they say / It's just not right for me / But what makes me irie / Is if I could get a little piece of tree / And build one good spliff..." It's also included on the Melody Makers Live album, Live 1. Lyric
1999 Nitro Burnin' Funny Bong - GWAR
Gods Were Alien Reptiles? Gosh, We Are Revolting? Gnarly Wankers And Retards? Whatever, Gwar is a theatrical punk-metal ensemble that makes monstrous music with lyrics that mostly extend their own bizarre mythology. This track from their fifth album, We Kill Everything - a riposte to Nitro Burnin' Funny Cars by The Dead Milkmen - is typical: "So I'm stuck on this planet and I'm hooked on the weed / And the crack and the booze and the pills and the speed / And the sex and the mud and the blood and the shit..." and typically funny: "I'm talkin bout the Nitro-Burnin Funny Bong / Just one hit, your life goes wrong / Nitro-burning funny bong / Another stupid stoner song..." Lyric.
1999 100 Dollar Bag - Beenie Man
"An a guess mi a guess / Dis is what I believing / Get di sensimilla is di real born healing / When mi smoke di sensi, make mi reach to di ceiling / I nah go deal with no stealing / Well, di coke, di crack, di heroin / Dat mi no dealing / An di sensimilla give yah natural feeling / Coke mash dem up an leave di whole a dem screaming / Good sensimilla man burning..." One of the Biggest Ragga Dancehall Anthems '99 (Greensleeves). Lyric.
