By Keefer
Apr 20, 2021
In no particular order, a list of some of the best songs celebrating marijuana. Thanks to High Times, Rolling Stone, Udiscovermusic, and my own music collection.
Fats Waller: ‘If You’re A Viper’
Perhaps the earliest, coolest (and most famous) reefer song in jazz, this was originated by gypsy-jazz violinist Stuff Smith in 1937 and was later cut by a host of others, most famously (though a female singer, Rosetta Howard, did it before him). Everybody shared the dream of “a reefer five feet long”, but only The Manhattan Transfer version (on their very first album, Jukin’, kept Smith’s wording of the title: ‘If you’se A Viper’.