Sunday, April 19, 2020

Music History Today: April 20, 2020

April 20, 1971: Five friends at San Rafael High School in California coin the term "4:20" as a euphemism for smoking pot. April 20th becomes a popular day to spark one up. 
The most credible story traces 4/20 to Marin County, California. In 1971, five students at San Rafael High School would meet at 4:20 p.m. by the campus’ statue of chemist Louis Pasteur to partake. They chose that specific time because extracurricular activities had usually ended by then. 
Read more:  Time Magazine

Shaggy and Scooby desktop wallpaper
Shaggy and Scooby desktop wallpaper
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Shaggy and Scooby cellphone wallpaper
Shaggy and Scooby cellphone wallpaper

April 20,1981: John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas was jailed for five years after pleading guilty to drug possession charges. Rumor has it their 1962 hit, "Puff, the Magic Dragon," was about weed.

Over half a century has passed since Brooklyn native Leonard Lipton, then a 19-year-old engineering student at Cornell, wrote the poem “Puff, the Magic Dragon” upon which ‘60s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary based their 1963 hit song of the same name. But on almost a daily basis, Lipton is still asked what he calls “the question”: Is “Puff” about drugs? 
Read more:  L A Weekly


If you multiply the title numbers in Bob Dylan's 1966 song, "Rainy Day Women #12 And #35," you get 420. 
There have been many theories over the years as to the significance of 420, but one of the most interesting is that it hails from Bob Dylan's song "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35," better known to laypeople as the "Everybody must get stoned" song.
Read more:  Rock Turtleneck Blogspot


Brewer & Shipley's 1970 hit, "One Toke Over the Line," is about marijuana. 
It’s strange enough that Brewer and Shipley’s “One Toke Over the Line,” voted the number 6 all-time best stoner song by Rolling Stone, somehow managed to scrape into the Billboard top 10 in 1971, a time when mere possession of a single joint of marijuana could still earn the user a long prison term in all 50 states. 
Read more:  Best Classic Bands


A "Dutchie" is a Jamaican cooking pot, and while there's not much reason to pass one around, it was an acceptable substitute for the original lyric: "Pass The Kutchie," Kutchie being Jamaican slang for a pot that holds marijuana.
First recorded by Jamaican harmony trio the Mighty Diamonds, “Pass the Kouchie” is better known as “Pass the Dutchie,” by the British kiddie-reggae group Musical Youth, who rode their version to MTV success in 1982. 

Musical Youth

In addition to the cleaned-up title – the judge in a later copyright case noted that “Kouchie” was slang for a “pot in which marijuana is kept,” while “Dutchie” was, in Jamaican patois, a “Dutch stewing pot.”--the Musical Youth version also scrubbed any marijuana references from the verses, replacing the line “How does it feel when you got no herb?” with “How does it feel when you got no food?”  
Read more: Rolling Stone


Because I Got High
Afroman

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