Viper Mad Blues

I honestly wonder whether I was dropped on my head repeatedly as a child. It's the simplest explanation, really. Otherwise, what could have possessed me, as a 16-year-old living with my parents, to ask for this CD as a Christmas present?  It's a compilation of jazz songs, originally released between 1927 and 1943,exclusively about marijuana, with a dash of coke thrown in for spice.  

I'm sitting here wondering, how on earth did I manage to sneak this one by?  And what audacity to even try - I must have assumed that Mom and Dad were clueless, and would never notice the subject matter.  Hell, my Dad is approximately clueless about everything more illegal than scotch. Mom only seemed to give a damn about stopping me from seeing sex - she once kicked me out of the living room during the love scene in The Terminator, for fuck's sake.  Ha!  It's actually all coming back now.  It was ordered from a catalog of all jazz CDs, and I also asked for (and received) Louis Armstrong, Spike Jones, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Charlie Parker, and Billie Holiday.  (No, I'm not a big jazz guy, but I've certainly wet my feet.)  I figured "Viper Mad Blues" would blend into the background.  And I guess I was right, because here we are.

It's not exactly a secret that musicians and drugs are often fast friends, but it seems that some people think that the Beatles brought that first reefer across the pond or something.  No, here we have Cab Calloway, Bessie Smith, Ella, Benny Goodman, and other prominent musicians singing, among other songs, "The Stuff is Here, and it's Mellow" (1935), "Dope Head Blues" (1927), and Fats Waller's cleverly titled "The Reefer Song" (1943).  The CD is a lot of fun, if of somewhat poor audio quality.  Not a problem, really - I certainly understand that these aren't necessarily recordings taken directly from diamond-encrusted masters, or whatever. It's raw, full of pops and crackles, but so am I.  

Alright, I gotta go refill the bong.  Back tomorrow...