Songs
The records themselves. The viper songs of thirties jazz, Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, then calypso, Peter Tosh and reggae, Black Sabbath, Rick James, Cypress Hill, the Chronic era, Willie Nelson and everything after. The music, not documentaries about the musicians.
Part of Marijuana
43 moments in this segment.
- - Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra - Muggles. Recorded in Chicago on 7 December 1928 with Earl Hines; 'muggles' was 1920s slang for cannabis, which Armstrong smoked daily for most of his life.
- - Cab Calloway - Reefer Man. Cab Calloway's 1932 hit, the definitive jazz-era 'viper' song, released on Banner and popularised by his appearance in the film International House.
- - Benny Goodman and His Orchestra - Texas Tea Party. A 1933 Goodman side with Jack Teagarden; 'tea' was jazz-age slang for cannabis, and the title is a coded joke.
- - Bessie Smith - Gimme a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer. Bessie Smith's final recording session, 24 November 1933, whose rent-party lyric 'gimme a reefer' put cannabis into a mainstream blues record.
- - Stuff Smith and His Onyx Club Boys - You'se a Viper. The 1936 original of the viper anthem, cut by violinist Stuff Smith's band at New York's Onyx Club on 52nd Street.
- - Fats Waller - You're a Viper (The Reefer Song). Fats Waller's version of the viper standard, recorded in 1943; 'viper' was the era's word for a cannabis smoker.
- - Bob Dylan - Rainy Day Women #12 & 35. The opening track of Blonde on Blonde (1966), banned by some radio stations for its 'everybody must get stoned' refrain.
- - The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Purple Haze, live at the Atlanta Pop Festival. Hendrix performing his 1967 song at the Atlanta Pop Festival on 4 July 1970, six weeks before his death.
- - Black Sabbath - Sweet Leaf. Opening track of Master of Reality (1971), built on a riff and a cough sample from Tony Iommi; the record that brought cannabis into heavy metal.
- - Steve Miller Band - The Joker. The 1973 US number one whose 'I'm a joker, I'm a smoker, I'm a midnight toker' line put cannabis into the vocabulary of American radio rock.
- - Bob Marley & The Wailers - Rebel Music (3 O'Clock Roadblock). From Natty Dread (1974); the lyric describes being stopped by Jamaican police with 'no herb' to declare, tying cannabis directly to policing.
- - Toots and the Maytals - 54-46 That's My Number, live at Winterland. Toots Hibbert performing the song about his 1966 imprisonment for cannabis possession in Jamaica, live at Winterland in 1975.
- - Neil Young - Roll Another Number (For the Road). From Tonight's the Night (1975), Young's ragged post-Woodstock reckoning; official remastered audio.
- - Peter Tosh - Legalize It. The title track of Peter Tosh's 1976 debut solo album, the single most famous cannabis-legalisation anthem in reggae and a record banned by Jamaican radio.
- - Bob Marley & The Wailers - Rebel Music, live at the Rainbow Theatre. Marley performing the song at London's Rainbow Theatre in June 1977, one of the best-documented shows of his career.
- - Peter Tosh - Legalize It, live at the One Love Peace Concert. Peter Tosh performing Legalize It at the One Love Peace Concert in Kingston, 22 April 1978, the night he lectured the assembled Jamaican politicians on cannabis law.
- - Peter Tosh - Bush Doctor. Title track of Tosh's 1978 Rolling Stones Records debut; 'bush doctor' casts the herbalist as healer against pharmaceutical medicine.
- - Bob Marley & The Wailers - Easy Skanking. Opening track of Kaya (1978), a slow, unhurried smoking song that helped define the album's mellow reputation.
- - Bob Marley & The Wailers - Kaya. Title track of the 1978 album Kaya; 'kaya' is Jamaican patois for herb, and the song is Marley's most explicit hymn to it.
- - Rick James - Mary Jane, live TV performance. Rick James performing Mary Jane, his 1978 funk hit whose title is a long-standing slang name for cannabis, on the TV show Soul Alive.
- - Musical Youth - Pass the Dutchie. The 1982 UK number one by Birmingham teenagers Musical Youth; the original Mighty Diamonds song was 'Pass the Kouchie', a cannabis pipe, sanitised to 'dutchie' (a cooking pot) for radio.
- - Bob Dylan - Rainy Day Women #12 & 35, live at Farm Aid 1986. Dylan performing the song at Farm Aid in 1986, backed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
- - Dr. Dre - Nuthin' But a G Thang. The lead single from The Chronic (1992), whose video's backyard-party imagery defined the album that named itself after cannabis.
- - Sublime - Smoke Two Joints. Sublime's 1992 cover of The Toyes' reggae song, from 40oz. to Freedom; the version that carried the song into American ska-punk culture.
- - Dr. Dre - Let Me Ride. From The Chronic (1992), the album whose title and cover made cannabis the visual signature of West Coast hip-hop; the video won a Grammy.
- - Wu-Tang Clan - Method Man. From Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (1993); the video's blunt-passing imagery is a foundational document of East Coast cannabis rap.
- - Cypress Hill - I Wanna Get High. From Black Sunday (1993), which came with liner notes citing hemp history alongside the music.
- - Cypress Hill - Hits from the Bong. From Black Sunday (1993), the album that made Cypress Hill the most openly pro-cannabis act in hip-hop and put them on the cover of High Times.
- - Tom Petty - You Don't Know How It Feels. From Wildflowers (1994); MTV censored the line 'let's roll another joint', and the video was shot as a single continuous rotating take.
- - Method Man - Bring the Pain. The lead single from Tical (1994), an album so saturated in cannabis imagery that its title is slang for the drug.
- - Snoop Dogg - Gin and Juice. The second single from Doggystyle (1993), produced by Dr. Dre; its laid-back G-funk hedonism became shorthand for the West Coast cannabis era.
- - Bone Thugs-N-Harmony - The Weed Song. From BTNHResurrection (2000), the Cleveland group's harmonised ode to cannabis.
- - Afroman - Because I Got High. Afroman's 2000 novelty hit, a chart success in the US and UK that turned a home-recorded joke into the era's best-known cannabis song.
- - Ziggy Marley - Beach in Hawaii. From Love Is My Religion (2006), the album that won Ziggy Marley a Grammy and carried his father's herb-and-faith themes into a new generation.
- - Wiz Khalifa - Reefer Party. From the 2010 mixtape Kush & Orange Juice, the free release that made Wiz Khalifa a national name and a cannabis-culture figure.
- - Kid Cudi - Marijuana. From Man on the Moon II (2010); the video was shot at Amsterdam's Cannabis Cup, tying the record directly to the festival circuit.
- - Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa - Young, Wild and Free. The 2011 single with Bruno Mars from the Mac & Devin Go to High School soundtrack, a generational cannabis anthem that passed a billion views.
- - Redman - How to Roll a Blunt. From Whut? Thee Album (1992), Redman's debut; the track is a step-by-step rap that became an East Coast cannabis standard.
- - Willie Nelson - Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die. Willie Nelson's 2012 song with Snoop Dogg, Kris Kristofferson and Jamey Johnson, from the country elder who became cannabis legalisation's most durable public face.
- - Rebelution - Roots Reggae Music. From the 2014 album Count Me In by the Santa Barbara band, one of the acts that carried reggae's herb tradition into American festival culture.
- - Rebelution - Roots Reggae Music, live at Red Rocks. Rebelution performing at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado, a live recording from the band's own channel.
- - Damian Marley - Medication, featuring Stephen Marley. From Damian Marley's 2017 album Stony Hill, recorded while he was converting a California prison into a cannabis grow.
- - Neil Young - Roll Another Number, live at Farm Aid 2019. Neil Young with Promise of the Real performing the 1975 song at Farm Aid in 2019.
