Various - The Ultimate 30s and 40s Reefer Songs

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4...according to our Phil on Thu 30 Apr, 2009.

OK the last one from me is a stonking CD on Viper called The Ultimate 30's and 40's Reefer Songs' which manages to incorporate 2 things I love. Cheeky old music and smoking gear. Featuring old blues stalwarts like Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald and loads more (dead) old folks all singing about rolling up a phat one and getting busy with Mary Jane. It's well party music!! And from a historical point of view it's an interesting album to listen to (lyrically) and in some way you can see how lyrics have developed from this to the weed smoking gun toting ho busting hip hop of today. So if you like 30's swinging jazz blues music and you like a smoke this album is made for you!

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’The Ultimate 30’s & 40’s Reefer Songs’ A bumper crop of Original, Reefer influenced Jazz, Blues & Swing from 1930’s & 1940’s America!.

Marijuana has been around from the beginnings of time and has played a key role in various civilizations. In the first half of the 20th Century jazz culture took hold, marijuana was still legal and proved popular with the musicians of the day, some would say influencing and helping them along their way. Even so its use was still kept relatively underground in an already conservative America, resulting in the use of various alisas such as ’Jive’, ’Golden Leaf ’, ’Texas Tea’, ’Viper’ and others too numerous to mention.

Eventually Middle Class White American worries over its corrupting influences won the day and it was banned in 1933 in 33 states with the rest following suit some 3 years later.

In many ways these were the pop records of the day, as they were often no more than 3 mins long and obtained national appeal from the Radio and Record Companies. This was the bedrock on which pop culture was laid. This is an important cultural record of a time long since gone but the songs should be loved and remembered - forever.

TRACK LISTING:
1)’The Reefer Song’ by Fats Waller - 1943 2) ’Reefer Man’ by Cab Calloway- 1932 3) ’Wacky Dust’ by Ella Fitzgerald & the Chick Webb Orchestra-1938 4) ’Killin’ Jive’ by The Cats & The Fiddle-1939 5) ’Sweet Marihuana Brown’ by Barney Bigard Sextet-1945 6) ’Viper Mad’ by Sidney Bechet with The Noble Sissle’s Swingers- 1938 7) ’Mellow Stuff’ by Lil Johnson-1937 8) ’Here Comes The Man with the Jive ’ by Stuff Smith & His Onyx Club Boys- 1936 9) ’Save The Roach for Me ’ by Buck Washington-1944 10) ’When I Get Low I Get High’ by Chick Webb & His Orchestra-1936 11) ’Weed Smokers Dream’ by The Harlem Hamfats-1936 12) ’The Stuff is Here’ by Georgie White-1937 13) ’Reefer Head Women’ by Jazz Gillum & His Jazz Boys-1938 14) ’Weed’ by Bea Foote-1938 15) ’I’m Gonna Get High’ by Tampa Red & the
Chicago Five-1937 16) ’Light Up’ by Buster Balley’s Rhythm Busters-1938 17) ’Jack I’m Mellow’ by Trixie Smith-1938 18) ’Smoking Reefers’ by Larry Adler-1938 19) ’Knockin’ Myself Out’ by Yack Taylor-1941 20) ’All the Jive is Gone’ by Andy Kirk and His Twelve Clouds Of Joy-1936.

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