Dope & Glory
Reefer Songs from the 30s & 40s
Trikont CD-0295
tracklist
CD 1:
1. Mezz Mezzrow & His Orchestra: Sendin' The Vipers
2. Fats Waller: Vipers Drag
3. Chick Webb & His Orchestra: When I Get Low I Get High
4. Tampa Red & The Chicago Five: I'm Gonna Get High
5. Julia Lee & Her Boyfriends: Spinach Song
6. Sam Price & His Texas Bluesicians: Do You Dig My Jive
7. Cootie Williams & His Rug Cutters: Ol' Man River
8. Yack Taylor: Knockin Myself Out
9. Harlan Lattimore & His Connie's Inn Orchestra: Reefer Man
10. Cab Calloway Orchestra: The Man From Harlem
11. Stuff Smith & His Onyx Club Boys: Here Comes The Man
12. Bob Howard & His Boys: If You're A Viper
13. Benny Goodman &His Orchestra: Texas Tea Party
14. Buster Balley's Rhythm Busters: Light Up
15. Trixie Smith: Jack I'm Mellow
16. Barney Bigard Sextet: Sweet Marihuana Brown
17. Sidney Bechet with Noble Sissle's Swingers: Viper Mad
18. The Harlem Hamfats: Weed Smokers Dream
19. Cee Pee Johnson & Band: The 'G' Man Got The 'T' Man
20. A. Kirk & His Twelve Clouds of Joy: All The Jive Is Gone
21. Georgia White: Stuff Is Here
22. Bea Foote: Weed
23. Lil Green: Knockin' Myself Out
24. Lorrain Walton: If You're A Viper
25. Buck Washington: Save The Roach For Me
CD 2:
1. The Cats & The Fiddle: Killin' Jive
2. The Meltone Boys: Mary Jane
3. Louis Armstrong: Sweet Sue, Just You
4. Nat King Cole Trio: Hit That Jive Jack
5. Sam Price: All Teeed Up
6. Original New Orleans Rhythm Kings: Golden Leaf Strut
7. Jazz Gillum & His Jazz Boys: Reefer Head Woman
8. Richard Jones & His Jazz Wizards: Blue Reefer Blues
9. Mezz Mezzrow & His Swing Band: I'se a-Muggin' Part 1
10. Mezz Mezzrow & His Swing Band: I'se a-Muggin' Part 2
11. Frankie Jaxon: Jive Man Blues
12. Big Bill Broonzy & Jean Brady: Knocking Myself Out
13. Richard Jones & His Jazz Wizards: Muggin' The Blues
14. Lil Johnson: Mellow Stuff
15. Tommy Dorsey: Minor Goes A Muggin'
16. Cab Calloway: Reefer Man
17. Oscars Chicago Swingers: Try Some Of That
18. Slim & Slam: Dopey Joe
19. Cleo Brown: The Stuff Is Here
20. Cedar Creek Sheik: Don't Credit My Stuff
21. Willie Bryant & Orchestra: A Vipers Moan
22. Don Rodman & Orchestra: Chant Of The Weed
23. Larry Adler: Smoking Reefers
24. Louis Armstrong & Orchestra: Muggles
25. Frankie "Half Pint" Jaxon: Willie The Weeper
THE INDEPENDENT
British National Newspaper THE INDEPENDENT just voted "DOPE & GLORY" as one of "THE TEN BEST COMPILATION ALBUMS" ever.
"This two-CD set is the most comprehensive anthology of "reefer songs" from the 30s and 40s, its 50 tracks by Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller,
Benny Goodman, Cab Calloway, Sidney Bechet and Tommy Dorsey offering indisputable proof of the vital part played by wacky baccy in the early
development of jazz." (The Independent, 26. Feb. 2003)
Dusted Magazine, Emerson Dameron 2002
As dragging on a charge has never been as troublesome or habit-forming as hitting the sauce, the bhang will never inspire the deluge of
musical tributes that booze does. Circa now, the gage that's the rage is about as mainstream as softcore porn. It's still frowned upon,
but impossible to avoid for anyone remotely extroverted. No longer a big deal. Part of the scene and the scenery.
'Twasn't always thus. In the former half of the 20th Century, as jazz culture got cooking, America and Mary Jane were still exchanging
guarded introductions. If pie-eyed neophytes occasionally found themselves more paranoid than they'd planned on as they gingerly embraced
Acapulco Gold, the feds were truly wigging out, portraying drug fans and distributors as brainless, heartless zombies, stripped of their
sobriety, diligence, thrift and self-mastery and set on taking as many down with them as time and stash would allow. (See the tragicomic
classic Reefer Madness.) As capitalism and debauchery proceeded from flirtation to full-tilt codependency, the media needed a patsy. The
dew was scapegoated for political reasons outside the scope of, uh, a record review, let's say that's what established the spliff's furtive aura.
Poring over these jazz sides now, one gets hep to the mixed emotions that fogged up the tea pad as youngsters of all sorts got their first blast.
Seasoned vipers such as Fats Waller and Cab Calloway pay dap to the dealer, as the party starts swingin' and the panties drop as he darkens the
door. Julia Lee didn't much like the "spinach" when she first tried it, but now it's all she wants to know about. Chick Webb openly tokes on
jabooby to fend off depression. Jean Brady and Yack Taylor (on their respective versions of the vigorously depressing "Knockin' Myself Out")
break out the matchbox as part of an abysmal, post-breakup self-destruction streak ("That's why I'm knockin' myself out/Yeah, I'm killin'
myself/I knock myself out/Gradually/By degrees"), which, tellingly, also involves alcohol. And on the opposite side of the room, Mezz Mezzrow
& His Swing Band play a counting game that wouldn't be quite worthwhile without at least a brisk contact buzz. For less abstract guffaws, take
a toke on Buck Washington's side-splitting "Save The Roach For Me," one of the dopest gems in the jewelry box.
If you think this archive is little more than a novelty to break up mixed CDRs while you're messin' around, well, I suppose that's keen, jelly
bean. But, if you're after some hot old jazz and the Panama Red theme is secondary at best, well, you too are in luck. These tunes uniformly
swing, and somehow sound a lot crisper than most of the grimy garage and psychedelic reissues your pedestrian pot-puffer prefers. There's hot
jive, infectious boogie woogie and plenty of slow drags. Perfect for your next crosstown crawl, whether you're holding or not. And one of the many,
many cherry good, amusingly esoteric collections our pals at Trikont are hawking. (http://www.dustedmag.com)
tangents.co.uk, Paul Donnelly 2002
Anyone who still thinks the Sixties were the great dope era should have a listen to this. Fifty tracks which unashamedly celebrate the weed and,
in most cases, make no attempt to disguise the subject. Ok maybe 'Spinach Song' could just be about the stuff that Popeye used but Julia Lee & Her
Boyfriends' spirited jive leaves you in no doubt which greens are on offer here. Some great trumpet and sax too.
Titles like 'I'm Gonna Get High', 'Weed Smokers Dream' and 'Save The Roach For Me' don't even pretend to be ambiguous and Tampa Red delivers the
first in that list like he means it while The Chicago Five kick along behind him. Fats Waller had a prodigious appetite for many things and on
'Vipers Drag' he sleazes his way through a dream about 'a reefer 5 feet long'. He sounds as though he's having a good time anyway. The song appears
elsewhere too as 'If You're A Viper', though with out Fats' dopey scat.
The Meltones' crooning makes 'Mary Jane' seem like an innocent song about the girl next door who is 'just the kind you could take home to mother'
but they also remind us how 'stunning how cunning this girly can be'. Less innocent, perhaps, is 'Sweet Marihuana Brown' whose dangerous allure is
captured in lyrics like 'every time you take her out/she's bound to take you in'. Little devil.
Some songs highlight the reefer lovers struggle with the law. Imagine their chagrin when 'The 'G' Man Got The 'T' Man. The song is still delivered
with verve by the unrepentant Cee Pee Johnson & Band. There would be other 'connections' who could step in and supply the 'jive' after all. 'Jive'
'this modern treat makes life complete' is celebrated by the fact that 'Stuff Is Here' and that 'The Man From Harlem' really could cheer up the
gloomiest gathering. Other herbally refreshed characters like 'Reefer Man' and 'Dopey Joe' flit in to deliver their goods then vanish.
Most of the songs are celebratory but a few register the need to escape from grim reality. 'Knockin' Myself Out ' is featured three times and each
woman's voice is desperate. Take your pick from Yack Taylor, Lil Green or Jean Brady. Larry Adler's lugubrious 'Smoking Reefers' also suggests that
dope is only 'to get beyond the misery' while Jazz Gillum warns about his 'Reefer Headed Woman'.
Of course you can just enjoy some of the music. 'All Teeed Up' and 'Golden Leaf Strut' don't need words. Marvel at how the surface noise keep
perfect time on the first track. Then listen to the superb New Orleans jazz circa 1925 of the second track. And while you listen there's an
informative booklet that tells you something of the lives and times of reefers and those who championed them. Whether it comes to a canablis café
near you or is supplied direct, it is a thoroughly life enhancing experience. (http://www.tangents.co.uk)
The Independent - 15 February 2002
These days, recreational drug use is so ubiquitous a theme in rock and hip hop that there's precious little excitement or outlaw exoticism left in
the notion – and no wonder, given the repetitive tedium of most dope raps. The 50 reefer songs collated on Dope & Glory, however, come from a time
– the Thirties and Forties – when musicians had to be a little more circumspect in their drug allusions. Creatively, they were all the better for
it: the glossary of clarinettist Mezz Mezzrow's autobiography Really the Blues, a treasury of hipster jive argot, contains more than 50 terms for
the consumption of marijuana, and the bands featured here are just as inventive, with their coded talk of vipers, spinach, tea, gage and "muggles".
It's a much more enjoyably hedonistic world than the surly place inhabited by most rappers, too – there's not one mention of firearms anywhere on
these two CDs, the main danger facing pre-war tokers being the possibility of apprehension by the authorities. As you might expect, humour figures
heavily here, with plenty of absurdist rhymes such as "If he has a sudden mania/ To sell you Pennsylvania" (one of several such couplets from Harlan
Lattimore's "Reefer Man" from 1932, surely one of the earliest recorded raps). For sheer unbridled stoner fun, nothing beats the "viper's vocal"
version of Louis Armstrong's "Sweet Sue, Just You", a torrent of nonsense gibberish that makes Stanley Unwin seem sensible.
Keith Chandler - BBC
Fifty exhilarating tracks tell the story of marijuana usage within the jive culture of the American underbelly during the 1920s and 30s. Jazz,
blues, and hokum by many of the greatest singers and players of the period evoke an era that was hip and cool from within, and despised from without.
Chill out, kick back and enjoy.
Keith Chandler
'Close the windows and lock the door,
Take the rug up off the floor,
Hey, hey, let's all get gay,
The stuff is here.'
The 'stuff' being referred to in the above verse, by Georgia White, is marijuana, otherwise known as 'jive' and 'roach,' 'reefer' and 'weed,' 'golden
leaf' and 'Texas tea'. Colloquial usage had a whole raft of them, and many are found in the fifty vintage tracks featured here, each concerned with
the theme of getting high on marijuana. Not that the performers refer to it by that name very often. In American society at large, as reflected in the
output of the commercial recording companies at least, it was almost as taboo as sex. And just as sex was 'disguised' in many songs under a wide
variety of euphemisms - see Volume 3 in the 'Flashbacks' series (Trikont US 0277) - so too the forbidden plant.
Hemp has been a cultivable crop with a distinct market value, grown in temperate climates for millennia. 'You'll find what I mean in any old field,'
sings the vocalist with Buster Bailey's Rhythm Busters. Used across the centuries for numerous purposes, from rope, sail and paper making to car paint,
in numerous ancient and modern cultures various parts of the plant were also commonly ingested as a narcotic. Consumption induces a relaxed and peaceful
state, in which reality perception is transformed. 'I'm sailing in the sky,' sings Trixie Smith. Senses are heightened, even though speech, memory and
motor functions may be temporarily impared.
'Everything will seem so funny, darkest days will seem so sunny,' observe The Cats and the Fiddle about their 'Killin' Jive.' Its effects are
diametrically opposite to being deep in the blues. In fact, it can, for a time anyway, drive away those feelings of despair. In 'When I Get Low I
Get High' Ella Fitzgerald has been left by her man, but she won't let it get her down as long as she's 'still got a dollar' to buy that stuff. Yack
Taylor too, like Ella, is 'Knockin' Myself Out' because her man left her. She too knows the temporary remedy the weed will bring, but is far more depressed,
'I usta didn't blow gage, drink nothin' of the kind, But my man quit me and I changed my mind. That's why I'm knockin' myself out. Yes, I'm killing myself.
I knock myself out, gradually by degrees.'
On a more positive note, 'You alone can bring my lover back to me, even though I know it's just a fantasy,' sings Gertrude Michael, extolling the virtues of
'Sweet Marijuana.' Meanwhile, Bea Foote proclaims herself the 'Queen of Vipers,' and croons languorously about her 'Weed,' which,
'Puts my heart at ease, in sweet dream...
All vipers love their mezzroll, Love it good and strong. Dreams come from my weed all day long.
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