Hi folks, Jeff here:
There are celebrations in this country and there are celebrations. You have your New Years, Thanksgiving, Mardi Gras and of course, Take Your Secretary to a Motel Day, but here in Portland, we're about to have a party that might dwarf them all.
It happens in two days on October 1. That is the day that possession of recreational marijuana becomes legal in Oregon. Already people are lining up by the "dispensaries" like Apple fanboys waiting for their iphones. The front page of the Oregonian is featuring videos on how to roll a joint or the kind of strain that is best for beginners (this from a paper that still requires drug testing for the few reporters that are still left on staff).
From what I'm told, the dispensaries all have several clerks who show you the different strains they carry in cans behind the counter. Typical Oregon, they are especially proud of their local products. After asking you what kind of effect you are looking for — medicinal, intense, sleep inducing, spiritual — they will show you that strain. A friend in Vancouver says that "Berry Plush" worked nicely for him. If they ask me, I'd probably say, "I don't know; I just want to get fucked up." Having lived through the '60s when Texas hippies were sentenced to life in the can for three seeds, I can honestly say I never thought I'd live to see this day. And I don't even indulge -- well hardly anyway. Since 2000, I have smoked dope exactly four times -- on the night of each presidential election. I mean how else was I going to get through it? "Oh, Dick Cheney, he's really a beautiful man."
Anyway, with all the advice for newcomers about how not to Bogart a joint and the kind of munchies one should stock up on, I haven't seen any stories on the best soundtrack to accompany toking up.
Who else to ask but our loyal Burning Wood readers?
Do we start with your San Francisco bands, the Airplane and Country Joe or does their music tend toward the acidic? Mid-life Beatles? Your Rubber Soul? I'm open to suggestions. Maybe we can even put together a soundtrack for Thursday night when for the first time in a non-presidential year I, and the rest of this city intend to be one toke over the line, sweet Jesus.
24 comments:
I don't partake, sorry. (I did get sympathetic munchies when my friends did partake though, especially ice cream!). Now if you are looking for a soundtrack that goes with a nice, sweet preferably German Riesling, that I can do! But if I had to assume, I'd say Rubber Soul- if only because I always need the Beatles. Anything by the Dead (fairly sure why!) Flaming Lips (not sure why, but "In the Morning of the Magicians" popped right into my head). Boston's first record too because I remember being in basements with friends lighting up and listening to it, our That 70's Show. Good post Jeff.
I now want to go eat a pint of Ben & Jerry's Phish Food. ;)
Does John Prine's "Illegal Smile" still count?
Talking Heads, Remain in Light. That album will take you on a journey.
Afroman - I Got High
I'm constantly smelling people getting high on the streets of NYC these days. Almost every day. And it's always cheap-smelling skunk weed. Like most people who've gone to concerts and hung out with music fans over the course of decades, I know what good pot smells like! This stuff just smells the marijuana equivalent of Four Loko or Colt 45. And wouldn't you know it, when you track down the source of the skunk weed, it's always some surly looking dude who looks like he wants you to physically confront him over his public pot smoking.
I'm not sure this is what the founding fabulous furry freak brothers had in mind!
I guess I might be one of those who smoked their pot back in the 60s & 70s, I'll still partake to be sociable but I'm just not feelin' it! For all you rookies out there, however, roll up a big fat spliff & put on the King Tubby/Roots Radics Dangerous Dub albums... you'll thank me for the suggestion if you can remember where it came from...
A box of Malomars and a carton of milk
Since I'm a Dad, I don't like passing folks smellin' of the skunk weed on the street... but I guess that's partly the price we pay.
Song-wise:
"And It Stoned Me" - Van Morrison
Ride's Nowhere lp. The first cut even lifts the McCartney bass riff from "Rain."
William's post reminds me of this one time...
One summer in my 20s I worked at a greenmarket in the East Village. Drove a big box truck full of fruit and veggies down from upstate, set up, sold stuff all day. I took lunch one day and went to use the payphone. As I chatted, the smell of something fine and green being burned in the next booth over caught my nose. Could not help but inquire, and it turned out the gentleman would be glad to sell me a pinch.
So of course i hustled back to the truck and grabbed some dough from the cashbox. Now, this was in the early 80s and killer greenbud was not nearly as prevalent as it is now. A major score!
That night was a Todd Rundgren concert in Poughkeepsie. I met a friend there and we enjoyed my find in the car before heading down the street to the show. Yes, they were searching everyone on the way in, but no sweat, I'd left the stuff in the car.
Except I hadn't. The dude yanked the bag out of my jacket pocket with a "what do you think i am, an idiot?' and it was gone forever. Easy come, etc.
Great Todd show though - A Capella tour.
So that's my recommendation. Great record, weird and spacey enough but deeply tuneful and generally wonderful. Have fun and here's to legal weed!
I think you nailed it with Rubber Soul! No Neil Young, that's for sure. Gonna add Voodoo Child (slight return), Rainy Day, Dream Away and Whipping Post to the pile. Two queries: What strain would benefit an eighteen year returnee? Do you have any couch space?
Former imbiber with many pleasant, if hazy, memories of back in the day. I took possession of some of my big sister's vinyl just before going off to college. It included what became our go-to soundtrack for burning, an album by Eric Burdon & The Animals from 1968 called "The Twain Shall meet." You can read a bit about it here: http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-twain-shall-meet-mw0000310087
...and listen to the whole thing on YouTube, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCC9ju9MJo8
It's quite an artifact--you can practically smell the patchouli oil. Putting it on a turntable as the Reagan era was beginning was like stepping outside of time.
If one was only going to choose one song, you'd have to go with the final track, "All is One" (which starts at around 37:16 on the YouTube clip).
-mikesensei
Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen
Hi Jeff,
I loved your post - so nicely written too! I'm already planning my next trip to Oregon, haha.
I've been spending a lot of time with five volumes of this "VA - Truckers, Kickers, Cowboy Angels The Blissed-Out Birth of Country Rock (1965-72)"on The Bear Family label. Each Volume has a different photo of Gram Parsons posing with a truck full of hay, and a bottle of tequila. One which was the gatefold on the original "GP" lp. He is the ghost in this machine. From the "Lovin' Spoonful's "Nashville Cats" to Commander Cody's "Hot Rod Lincoln", it is all killer and no filler. The best part is are the great songs I didn't know. The Sir Douglas Quintet kills it on "Texas Me". The Bear Family has been doing this kind of thing well for a long time.
Sugarman 3 'Pure Cane Sugar', followed by The Beta Band 'The Three E.P.s' will do just fine.
http://youtu.be/fH0XKGrJxFM
http://youtu.be/eeTa8HuS9LQ
Reggae music from roughly the same period and later is a good call, and King Tubby is right there. Go here to find out more and download some prime cuts:
http://alanwalkerart.com/wp/?p=1631
The live Van Morrison album "Too Late to Stop Now" used to do it for me back in the day. Nowadays it'd be some Chitti Babu or Nikhil Banerjee (check out http://oriental-traditional-music.blogspot.co.uk/ if you're interested)
Hello all...no, please remain seated,
Fun topic, Jeff. So let me weigh in.
It's been a very, very long time since I blazed (I'm told that I had a lot of fun in college. I'll take their word for it since my grades seem to bear that out).
So my music answer is, of course going to be dated. Here's what was big in the "head" wing of my dorms back in the mid 70's:
- Koln concert by Keith Jarrett. We all nodded out by the end of side 2.
- Bad Company - don't laugh, their 1st album was the sound track to many a session in fall 1974
- Fleetwood Mac, Bob Welch era - again, ya hadda be there.
- Alan Parsons Project - Tales of Mystery, etc. I don't think I've listened to this album in almost 40 years. Can't imagine it's aged well, but with a snoot-full, who knows!
- Joan Armatrading - at least in my little corner of the world in the mid-70's, firing a bong and putting on some Joan was the equivalent of Sinatra and a cocktail in the late 50's. If I ever meet Joan in person, I'm gonna thank her profusely.
Regards,
RichD
All of these are such great suggestions. Marie, I'm wondering given the state of publicity whether the state will be sold out by tomorrow evening. Our local business support group was actually offering a pot coupon online yesterday, and they were all taken within a half hour. Charlie, I will inquire on your behalf tomorrow. According to the Oregonian video, many of the dispensaries are offering "strains for beginners."
Said the straight man to the late man
"Where have you been?"
In the Court of the Crimson King
Headphones optional
Still blaze up on occasion. I'm surprised no one mentioned Pink Floyd. Umma Gumma is my personal fave for this. On a more modern note, The Shins Oh Inverted World or Wincing the Night Away. Heard an early concert of theirs and they played some Pink Floyd, so I guess they are in the same boat.
I look forward to my future medicinal use to ward off various effects of aging (more). My suggestions based on ... past experience.
Genesis: Seconds Out or Wind & Wuthering
Eric Clapton: Slowhand or Backless
George Harrison: All Things Must Pass
Beatles: Sgt. Pepper
James Taylor: Greatest Hits
Lynyrd Skynyrd: One More from the Road
Peter Frampton: Frampton Comes Alive
Michael Hedges: Aerial Boundaries
Led Zeppelin: In Through the Out Door
Fleetwood Mac: Rumours
Leo Kottke Mudlark
Pat Metheny Group: Offramp or Travels
Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays: As Falls Wichita, so Falls Wichita Falls
Hopefully, there's an all-night convenience store nearby.
Cheers
Michael D.
They Only Come Out at Night by the Edgar Winter Band takes on a whole new feel in a smokey haze
Holy Smoke! Something by the Doobies, surely?
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