Any song/s that you have (or know of) that refers to smoking, or growing, or mentions weed in some way.
This is Toke N Talk, so I thought I'd yarn on for a bit (finished a 1 month drought without medication on Sunday arvo...
)
But first, some trivia that I knew (and didn't even have to ask Google).
in
1910, during the Revolution in Mexico, the song '
La Cucaracha' was being sung by refugees heading North. The chorus is about a cockroach who just can't walk any further because it's got no weed left to smoke (now I'll have to
Google the lyrics). This song goes back to the early 1800's, but up until 1910, the lyrics didn't reference pot. La Cucaracha had meant literally '
cockroach'. The term
roach stems from way back to
1910 when
La Cucaracha morphed into the
first stoner song.
You have to remember that this is Spanish and doesn't have the rhythm that the original language has.
The cucaracha, the cucaracha,
Doesn't want to travel on
Because she hasn't,
Oh no, she hasn't
Marihuana for to smoke.
In Spanish:
La cucaracha, la cucaracha,
Ya no quieres caminar,
Porque no tienes,
Porque le falta,
Marihuana que fumar.
Thanks to Pam Rotilla dot com for the lyrics.
I'll start with some other
really old ones that I found at
Online Pot.org's site.
Sweet Weed. Sung by
Bea Foote in
1938.
At the start of the song, she sings
"Sweet sweet weed, all day long"
Then says to her back up singer:
"Hey (Gabe?), I think I'm gonna send myself..."
"What you gonna do buuud?"
"...I'm gonna light up, Jive?"
The sound of someone toking up can be heard in the background...
She says ...
" Say I'm the Queen of all Vipers...
I mean I smoke my weeed.
You know it makes me feel kinda happy,
when I'm in need."
...and sings
"Dreams come from my weed,
all day long.
Puts my heart at ease,
in sweet dreams.
Fragrance from maui and ????
Oh how that tea sends me,
All vipers love their mauro,
love it good and strong.
etc etc..."
She tokes up again at the end of the song.
Remember
Cab Calloway in '
The Blues Brothers'?
He sang
Minnie The Moocher, in
1933.
It was originally known as
Willy the Weeper in
1927.
Cab Calloway was a big time stoner, as were most jazz players of the twenties, thirties and onwards. Actually,
if it wasn't for jazz, weed might not have exploded on the world scene, and especially the United States as fast as it did. Jazz players knew a good thing when they smoked it. One of the many theories as to why cannabis was criminalized was because the US Govt of the time were trying to further oppress the rising popular culture of Black America. One way to do that would be to restrict availability of their drug of choice.
There is a video clip of
Cab Calloway singing '
Reefer Man' circa 1939 available at
Online Pot.org's website (
"The Best Marijuana, Cannabis, & Pot Songs Of All Times,"). Or search Youtube. I think the address for the clip is:
http://www.youtube.com/v/D44pyeEvhcQ
"
Have you ever met that funny reefer man?/ Have you ever met that funny reefer man?/ If he says he walks the ocean/ Every time he takes the notion/ Then you know you're talking to that reefer man."
There other old school jazz tracks on the site, like '
Save The Roach For Me' and '
When I Get Low I Get High' by
Ella Fitzgerald.
Anyway, back to the future. This is taking ages because my month long drought came to an end on Sunday arvo
(I think already said that). I'm back on the meds that work for *all* my ailments...
Enough emoticons...
How about '
Growing Marijuana In My Yard' by
Ben Scales. It's a country tune, but read ben's reason for writing it below the lyrics:
"I'm growing marijuana in my yard
I'm growing marijuana in my yard.
I've got little pots of pot -
Spread out all over the lot
Cuz I'm growing marijuana in my yard.
I got the seed from Mexico
Stuck it in some dirt and let it grow
Put it in my garden with my peppers and my peas
And I get all the smoke I need for free.
I'm growing marijuana in my yard,
I'm growing marijuana in my yard.
We keep it where no one can see -
So let's keep this 'tween you and me,
But I'm growing marijuana in my yard.
Yes, I'm growing marijuana in my yard,
But I can't tell my boss or I'll get fired.
I don't grow much just what I use -
I work all day and when I'm through
I smoke some marijuana from my yard.
Now the policeman wants to talk to me He says,
How you gonna smoke up all that weed?
He says, Money's what you're in it for -
Don't you know we're in a war?
Now I'm gonna haul your ass downtown with me.
And I said, Hey, man, what is it to you?
How do I infringe on what you do?
I beg your pardon,
if you're offended by my garden
But I just can't grow Prozac in my yard.
So I grow my own medicine in my yard.
I give some to my neighbor for his heart.
I share it with my grandma,
who keeps it from her son,
Cuz we all know that stuff's against the law.
Now there's nothing growing in my yard
Cuz the cops took all my land and both my cars.
Now I have to buy my pot -
From a teen-ager in a parking lot
Who's growing marijuana in his yard.
Anyone can grow it in their yard
I could show you how, it ain't hard.
Never mind the president,
Let's overgrow the government.
And all grow marijuana in our yards.
Ben Scales says on his website:
*******
I attended the annual NORML conference in San Francisco
in April 2002.
I was sitting in my hotel room, deeply inspired from all of the presentations I'd heard, and asking myself, "What can I do to help?" Then, I remembered the little chorus I used to sing to myself when I was growing my own in Saipan, and these lyrics came out.
Although the song is intended to be funny, the underlying theme is not at all funny.
Over 700,000 Americans are arrested for marijuana every year, although no one has ever died or even been seriously or permanently harmed from the plant itself.
This song is about equal rights:
beer drinkers and tobacco users have more rights than a pot smoker,
and that's not fair.
Alcohol and tobacco kill people and pot does not.
Responsible adults should be allowed to choose to use marijuana,
and should be able to buy it in stores, just like alcohol and tobacco users can buy their poisons just about anywhere.
As a parent, I am distraught that our government lies to our children about marijuana.
When the White House declares that marijuana is the most dangerous drug in America, and more addictive than "alcohol, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, ecstasy, and all other illegal drugs combined," it destroys any credibility it may have once had regarding truly dangerous drugs.
Being a parent is hard enough without having to protect your children from the government itself.
More importantly, no one, especially law enforcement, should come between a doctor and her/his patient.
Marijuana has been found by the DEA's own administrative judge to be one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man, yet it remains listed as a Schedule I drug - considered too dangerous to be of any medical use - more dangerous than cocaine or heroin - despite the fact that it has never killed anyone. Ever. Aspirin is more dangerous than marijuana, yet our federal government refuses to allow sick and dying patients access to this medicine that has been recommended by their doctors.
What are they so scared of?
That maybe people could grow their own medicine instead of having to rely on the corporate pharmaceutical companies' over-priced products?
The prohibition of pot causes far more harm than pot itself every could, and it's high time to end the hypocrisy.
OVERGROW THE GOVERNMENT!
*******
Growin' Marijuana In My Yard can be downloaded at Ben Scales' website. It's a freebie.
Ben Scales Music
Well, now that I've chewed your virtual ears for a bit, I'm going to have another cone...
...or three. I've got a heap of pot related music on my 'puter, so I'll see what I can find from the sixties and seventies maybe.
Dave Peel and the Lower East Side in
1968 comes to mind. Dave Peel
revived this song in 1995 for
NORML's Hempilation album. He got together with the
360's and '
I Like Marijuana' came to life again.
I'll see if I can upload a sample or something.
mary jane by mr. abe wake
