MUSIC HISTORY: Reefer Songs

‘Jive’, ‘Golden Leaf ’, ‘Texas Tea’, ‘Viper’, 'Weed', 'Reefer'. Since the legalization of marijuana is a hot topic at the moment, I thought this would be a fun time to take a look at songs in the past about marijuana.

The Volstead Act of 1920, which raised the price of alcohol in the United States, made marijuana an attractive alternative and led to an increase in use of the drug. “Tea pads,” where a person could purchase marijuana for 25 cents or less, began appearing in cities across the United States, particularly as part of the black “hepster” jazz culture. By 1930 it was reported that there were at least 500 of these “tea pads” in New York City alone.

During the Great Depression as unemployment increased, resentment and fear of the Mexican immigrants became connected to marijuana use. Numerous research studies linked marijuana use by lower class communities with crime and violence. In 1937, Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act which criminalized the drug. From 1951 to 1956 stricter sentencing laws set mandatory minimum sentences for drug-related offences. In the 1950s the beatniks appropriated the use of marijuana from the black hipsters of the '40s and the drug moved into middle-class white America in the 1960s.

In 1934, when marijuana first appeared in the pages of TIME magazine, it was with an asterisk that clarified that it was "a drug, long common in Mexico, made from a variety of hemp weed." In the years that followed, the drug showed up in the news a few times, mostly associated with the idea of “reefer madness”.

The reason for the connection between jazz and pot was, TIME magazine guessed, that the illusion of a slower sense of time and a keener sense of hearing might allow musicians to improvise with more confidence. Plus, though the effects of the drug might look like the effects of alcohol, it seemed in some ways to be a better choice of vice. Though regular use would get in the way of "orderly living," it didn't seem to cause "physical, mental or moral degeneration." Seeing their heavy-drinking musical colleagues afflicted with cirrhosis or other alcohol-related conditions could further convince jazz artists to choose to light up instead.

Cabell "Cab" Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City, where he was a regular performer. Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the United States' most popular big bands from the start of the 1930s to the late 1940s.

"Have You Ever Met That Funny Reefer Man", often known simply as "The Reefer Man", is a 1932 American jazz song composed by J. Russel Robinson, with lyrics by Andy Razaf. It was first recorded by Cab Calloway and his orchestra.

Hezekiah Leroy Gordon Smith (August 14, 1909 – September 25, 1967), better known as Stuff Smith, was an American jazz violinist. He is well known for his song "If You're a Viper" (original title "You'se a Viper").

“Here Comes the Man with the Jive” is an early celebration in song of the kindly neighbourhood marijuana dealer. Smith recorded the song with his orchestra, Stuff Smith and his Onyx Club Boys, for Vocallion on August 21, 1936.

Georgia White (March 9, 1903 – c.1980) was an African-American blues singer, most prolific in the 1930s and 1940s. From 1935 to 1941, she recorded over 100 tracks for Decca Records, usually accompanied by the pianist Richard M. Jones and also, in the late 1930s, by the guitarist Lonnie Johnson.

Georgia recorded “The Stuff is Here” in 1937.

Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller (May 21, 1904 – December 15, 1943) was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer. His innovations in the Harlem stride style laid the groundwork for modern jazz piano. His best-known compositions, "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Honeysuckle Rose", were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1984 and 1999.

"If You're a Viper" is a jazz song composed by Stuff Smith. It was a hit for Smith and is one of the most frequently covered songs about marijuana smoking in American popular music.

Fats Waller recorded the song in 1943 and his version, which has been commercially released numerous times since the 1950s, has kept the song in circulation.

"Viper" was Harlem slang for a pot smoker at the time and the song has numerous marijuana references. Edward Jablonski wrote that the term was inspired "by the hissing intake of smoke” and Russel Cronin wrote, "Conjure the image of the hissing viper for a second: taking a swift, sly suck on a skinny little joint. A viper is a toker, which practically all jazz musicians were, and the viper songs celebrated a new social hero."

Ford Lee "Buck" Washington (October 16, 1903, Louisville, Kentucky - January 31, 1955, New York City) was an American vaudeville performer, pianist, and singer. He was best known as half of the duo Buck and Bubbles with John W. Bubbles.

Washington and Bubbles (born John W. Sublett) first began working together in the 1910s, while Washington was in his teens. Bubbles was primarily a tap dancer while Washington sang and played piano behind him. By the late 1920s they were on Broadway, performing with Eddie Cantor, Al Jolson, and Danny Kaye. They toured Europe in the 1930s and appeared on television and in films, including Calling All Stars (1937) and Cabin in the Sky (1942).

Buck recorded “Save the Roach for Me” in 1944.

Cee Pee Johnson (February 22, 1915 – after 1947) was an American jazz drummer and vocalist. He was born in Algiers, Louisiana. He first appeared in published sources in Dallas early in the 1930s, playing in his brother Bert Johnson's band The Sharps and Flats. Cee Pee danced and sang with this ensemble, and also played tom-toms. He moved to Los Angeles in the middle of the decade, and played with Emerson Scott's band at the Onyx Club in Hollywood. He eventually became the group's bandleader, and played at several high-profile West Coast clubs.

Cee Pee Johnson and Band recorded “The G Man Got The T Man” in 1945.

Thanks for listening. Hope to see you again next time when we take a journey back in Music History.

(Information used in this post from Wikipedia and Time.com)

Dominique "Nik" Petersen is an aficionado of old music and the author of Dr. Hook and Me: A Fan's Journal/Scrapbook. Read about it and her other books at the website:

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