A pro marijuana song

November 4, 2014 10:55 AM

In honor of marijuana initiatives on the ballot in my states in the USA, I present Puff Puff Give. (SLYT)
posted by josher71 (43 comments total)

Found the lyrics, for those of us who can't watch weed videos at work.

Puff puff give puff puff give

Share and and Live you gotta puff puff give (rep)

It grows from da Earth the Earth can’t hurt
Stay alert with consciousness
Know what your worth you gotta puff puff give

Heals a cancer mind Helps the blind
Rocks djs to rhyme on time
Inhale the God of herbs sweet kind live
Grow to the sky-puff puff give

Good in da’ brownie, rice crispy treat
Groove and dancin’ in bare feet
Love and sunshine free to live
Thank you ganja God –puff puff give

I suspect there are many other weed-related songs out there with more substance. And fewer white vegan chefs.
posted by showbiz_liz at 11:06 AM on November 4, 2014 [2 favorites]

Well, this should really help dispel all those stereotypes about pot smokers.

I like The Weed Song, by Jabe. Pretty much sums up my feelings on the subject.
posted by bondcliff at 11:08 AM on November 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

Oh you guyz and your illegal cannabis. That's so 2012.

;-)
posted by humboldt32 at 11:09 AM on November 4, 2014

Dude, stuff like this is what drove me off of all social media. There's tons of reasons why it should be legal but this song is not one of them.
posted by thebotanyofsouls at 11:10 AM on November 4, 2014 [8 favorites]

Surely that's David Cross in a dredlock wig and this is an old Mr. Show sketch?
posted by Think_Long at 11:14 AM on November 4, 2014 [7 favorites]

Are...are you trying to defeat those ballot initiatives?
posted by evidenceofabsence at 11:19 AM on November 4, 2014 [6 favorites]

Maybe go with Dar Williams Play the Greed (MySpace link!, not sure if it works because I am one of those people who can't listen at work.)

I finally learned that the market's righteous holler
Comes from a pale face on a paper dollar
And I betcha got few bucks in your hemp wallet
So throw a tiny wrench in the fiber optic wires
Morals are cheap and you can be the buyers
We can let 'em poison and perish foreign lands
Or we can play the greed right into our hands

Everybody says it can't happen here
Everybody says it can't happen here
Things'll turn around just as sure as they said it
Hell, things change and they all take credit

So ask why there's only forty songs on a station
And ask your cafe about their coffee's plantation
And why is it Arizona hasn't gone solar?
And tell your print shop that hemp grows faster
And it doesn't mean a back room clear cut disaster
The market doesn't care but it wants to understand
And you can play the greed right into your hands

Smiling man says it can't happen here
Channel 4 says it can't happen here
Things'll turn around just as sure as they said it
Hell, the change comes and they all take credit

So roll up your pennies and do your battle
The chairman will start quoting Chief Seattle and
Put little tree frogs on their letterhead
'Cause the market resists and the market absorbs
With a five-pointed leaf on the cover of Forbes
The very same people turned valleys to dams
These are the ones that drain prairies to sand
And they'd just as soon you didn't know this land is your land
But we can play the world back into our hands

Malcom's gonna say it can't happen here
Rupert's gonna say it can't happen here
Things'll turn around just as sure as they said it
Hell, things change and they'll always take the credit

Hell the change comes
Let's let 'em take the credit

posted by maryr at 11:20 AM on November 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

I got scabies just watching this video.

"Stay alert" strikes me as an odd advertisement for marijuana. But "Heals a cancer" is just ridiculous. I guess that scanned better than "helps with unpleasant side effects of debilitating illnesses and their treatments, including chemotherapy".
posted by Nelson at 11:25 AM on November 4, 2014 [4 favorites]

This is why we should legalize pot and criminalize pot culture.
posted by mochapickle at 11:26 AM on November 4, 2014 [25 favorites]

These are the sort of people for whom, if you find yourself pitched next to them at Glastonbury, you move your tent into the next field.

I learned this in '85, man. It was mud city, but after that first night, I bugged out. It was that or contract instant mental diabetes. This instinct should always be honoured.

I am incompatible with these people. One or other of us is on the wrong planet.
posted by Devonian at 11:28 AM on November 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

Why are there so many songs about ganja?
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:36 AM on November 4, 2014

Musicians like it. It makes music sound better.

(Debbie Harry and Chris Stein were on BBC Radio 4 this morning, giving a very listenable 40th anniversary of Blondie interview. The suibject come onto Stein's illness and his recovery, and some credit was given to the sacred 'erb. "That doesn't cure anything", said the presenter. There was disagreement. "I have to say that," said the presenter. "This is the BBC."

Sigh.
posted by Devonian at 11:41 AM on November 4, 2014

Why are there so many songs about ganja?

Same reason there are so many songs about booze and heroin. And sex.
posted by showbiz_liz at 11:52 AM on November 4, 2014

Same reason there are so many songs about booze and heroin. And sex.

'Bustin makes me feel good.
posted by josher71 at 11:55 AM on November 4, 2014

Personally, I prefer my weed songs a bit more sleazily honest.
posted by Catblack at 11:58 AM on November 4, 2014 [2 favorites]

Holding, by John Hartford.
posted by the Real Dan at 12:00 PM on November 4, 2014

Let me make a suggestion,
Why don't you come inside
I can light up your fire
We can blaze it side by side
I think you know the truth about the herbs
that they are gift from Jah
The laws of man are a bunch of words
so you have to take it easy stars

I won't tell your captain or your supervisor
if you come back later you'll see your commisioner
he's my numero uno preferred customer
so why not give it a try

you should take...

One likkle draw from my chalice,
that's all that you'll need
before you take my herbs from me,
Mr. Officer
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 12:01 PM on November 4, 2014

What I want to know is what is up with all these skull bongs. Those goddamned skull bongs. It's like 'yeaaaahhhhh me and my skull, getting stoned' It makes all us sensible stoners look like we're members of a cult of death or something
posted by angrycat at 12:05 PM on November 4, 2014

Yes, those things are entirely unrelated in my case.
posted by malocchio at 12:11 PM on November 4, 2014

I tried it in grade school and college. Didn't like it. Fucked with my time-sense and gave me paranoia. Was never my drug of choice. Unfortunately, my drug of choice is killing me. It's not that I want to get drunk so much as I want to end sobriety. I would love to give pot another go-around. Anymore I'm convinced it'll probably add years to my life. Instead it'll stay illegal and I'll just continue drinking myself to death.

I suffer from a chronic pain condition, and I have no idea if marijuana would help, but you can rest assured I resent the fact I can't find out (legally). Most of the prescribed medicines haven't helped and all had shitty side effects. Again, as a break from a constant grind I'd like to have pot be legal.

My body, my choice I say. I wish more people agreed with me.

Also, the folk in this video need jobs and a bath, then we can talk.
posted by cjorgensen at 12:12 PM on November 4, 2014 [6 favorites]

Every movement has that group of fellow-travelers that everyone just wishes would find some sort of different hobby for a while. Stoners are to cannabis legalization what the black bloc-ers are to Occupy, I think.
posted by Kadin2048 at 12:16 PM on November 4, 2014 [2 favorites]

cjorg, these days you could probably get some helpful weed dealer to explain which strains would help with pain relief and not make you paranoid. If it were legal, of course...
posted by showbiz_liz at 12:19 PM on November 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I would love to walk into a shop and have choices. I'm also told edibles have a mellower and longer buzz and might be better than smoke.

Also, a goodly portion of the paranoia came from it being illegal. You worry about the neighbors and the cops at the door.
posted by cjorgensen at 12:31 PM on November 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

I have to say Catblack, Supajoint's Damn I Wanna Smoke Some Weed makes a pretty compelling case. Particularly the part where the two women almost kissed, the lit joint between them. Free love baby.
posted by Nelson at 12:42 PM on November 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

/inhales

There is only one song about this subject, as far as I am concerned.

/exhales
posted by spitbull at 12:45 PM on November 4, 2014

My favorite song on the topic.

Background here.
posted by JimInLoganSquare at 1:20 PM on November 4, 2014

I made it to "It grows from da Earth the Earth can’t hurt." Are you fucking kidding me? Lava, earthquakes, and quicksand all come from the earth and are constantly trying to kill us. Ridiculous.
posted by nestor_makhno at 1:41 PM on November 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

Give her a break, man, she's high.
posted by bondcliff at 1:43 PM on November 4, 2014

There is only one song about this subject, as far as I am concerned.

While this is correct, the song in question is Because I Got High. And if you think it is anti-, as someone on YouTube appears to do, you're reading either too much into it or not enough.
posted by capricorn at 1:43 PM on November 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

I bought an oz. the other day and tossed it on the passenger seat of my car, just 'cause.
posted by humboldt32 at 1:55 PM on November 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

Why are there so many songs about ganja?
And why are the singers so fried?
Singers are dreamers
Too in to illusions
And stoners spend too much time high.
Some say they're dumb and inane like the Bieber
And then again, there's Willie.
Someday we'll find it
The ganja connection
The singers
The stoners
And weed.
posted by maryr at 1:57 PM on November 4, 2014 [10 favorites]

Also, a goodly portion of the paranoia came from it being illegal. You worry about the neighbors and the cops at the door.

Not all of it though... Go to amsterdam and watch the silly american drug tourists as they are all paranoid.

Actually, 'acute social anxiety' might be better descriptor than paranoia (which can also happen).

... Now for a song . (You'd think a band called 'lords of acid' would be more drug friendly - but I guess they're not called 'lords of marijuana')
posted by el io at 2:22 PM on November 4, 2014

maryr, that was beautiful!
posted by mochapickle at 3:34 PM on November 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

That was pretty much what I was hoping for.
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:54 PM on November 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

The hippie chick is grand, but it really takes off when the balding white Rasta starts rapping in patois.

Are we SURE he isn't Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords?
posted by Fnarf at 5:03 PM on November 4, 2014

Looks like 57% voted YES in FL, but 60% was needed to pass. Maybe 2016 will be the year.

It's pretty fucked when you have a personal injury lawyer and a Vegas billionaire going head-to-head on a referendum.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:02 PM on November 4, 2014

The phrase "puff puff give" just makes me think of answering machine. I'm guessing it's a US thing?
posted by inpHilltr8r at 7:31 PM on November 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

the Earth can’t hurt

I'll be sure to let Socrates know.
posted by Jahaza at 8:47 PM on November 4, 2014

Nelson: ""Stay alert" strikes me as an odd advertisement for marijuana. But "Heals a cancer" is just ridiculous."

According to the NIH:

Cannabis has been shown to kill cancer cells in the laboratory and to affect the immune system. However, there is no evidence that Cannabis' effects on the immune system help the body fight cancer (see Question 6).

20 Medical Studies That Show Cannabis Can Be A Potential Cure Cancer
New Research Shows How Marijuana Compound Can Reduce Tumor Growth In Cancer Patients
posted by Lexica at 9:05 PM on November 4, 2014

The Great Smoke Off by Shel Silverstein just because.
posted by bonobothegreat at 9:05 PM on November 4, 2014

similar? ben harper - burn one down

herb the gift from the earth
and what's from the earth
is of the greatest worth
so before you knock it try it first
you'll see it's a blessing
and its not a curse

posted by kuatto at 5:02 AM on November 5, 2014

Before the comments get closed, let the record show that Stranger in Blue Suede Shoes is also a mighty fine example of the genre, as is You're A Viper - although I can't find the George Melly version, which is a shame because he should not be forgot.
posted by Devonian at 9:03 PM on November 5, 2014

How did this get missed?
posted by littlemanclan at 11:18 PM on November 5, 2014