The singer was "sitting downtown in a railway station" and "just waitin' for the train that goes home, sweet Mary."
Even if the song originated from an exclamation about smoking marijuana, it seems that the substance of the song is religious. The metaphor of the train is seen in other songs, such as "People Get Ready (There's a train a-coming....") and "This Train (Is Bound for Glory)."
I wouldn't brush off "One Toke Over the Line" as a "ditty."
And by the way, screw Agnew. Back in 1970, young people easily opposed censorship. Who would have thought that in 50 years, the tables would be turned and the young would embrace it?
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The very best version of One Toke Over the Line was by Lawrence Welk.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t8tdmaEhMHE&pp=ygUpb25lIHRva2Ugb3ZlciB0aGUgbGluZSBzb25nIGxhd3JlbmNlIHdlbGs%3D
"And by the way, screw Agnew. Back in 1970, young people easily opposed censorship. Who would have thought that in 50 years, the tables would be turned and the young would embrace it?"
Maybe Mr. Agnew was right?
Agnew was right.
Looking at what Cartels have done in the last 50 years, the current drug death epidemic in the Midwest and Inner Cities you can see he got it right.
Sister Rosetta has only one other post. I commented then, and I'll comment now. She deserves all the mentions.
"One Toke Over the Line" is a song, like many, that I was too young to understand. It was just melodic and pleasant.
"Even more surreal was a performance of the song on Lawrence Welk’s wholesome variety show in 1971. “One Toke Over the Line,” with its reference to “sweet Jesus,” had been mistaken for a religious song, and the perky singers Gail Farrell and Dick Dale smiled and bobbed their way through a bouncy rendition...."
Now, that's funny, right there.
@Althouse Who would have thought that in 50 years, the tables would be turned and the young would embrace it?
Politics is about pendulum swings, thermostatic self-regulation, and the rotation of priorities across generations. The left always becomes the right and the right becomes the left. In the time since free sex and drugs and rock-n-roll were the priorities of the offspring of the Rat Pack and playboys, their grandchildren regressed to the mean.
Soviet MSNBC and liars like Chris Murphy demand Soviet-like censorship.
You know what's really funny is this a form of reverse cultural appropriation. The song actually works as a modern day "spiritual." We've been hectored for several decades now about what older literature "really" means, and this was a case of the innocence of Lawrence Welk turning it upside down. Take that, lefties!
In the 40 years since President Richard Nixon declared war on drugs, the Commission says repressive strategies focused on criminalization have not worked. “Arresting and incarcerating tens of millions of these people in recent decades has filled prisons and destroyed lives and families without reducing the availability of illicit drugs or the power of criminal organizations,” the report concludes.
The criminalization of drug use in the U.S. has led to tragic consequences and mass incarceration, with a disproportionate impact on lower-income and minority communities. And now you just go to the store to get your stash. Bullshit ,always was and a major failure.
At the time of his death, Brewer was living near Branson, Mo. That place really is a black hole that sucks in aging musicians.
Americans migrating across the border to escape drug and pharmaceutical cartels, imported from China, manufactured across the border, transported through immigration reform, redistributed by corporations, would be funny.
That said, not every drug is a first-order forcing of George "Fentanyl" Floyd syndrome, vaxxxine toxicity, gender dysfunction, mass abortions/homicides, etc.
As for cancel culture, including affirmative discrimination, we'll always have Wilson and Palmerism, FDR and rabid Diversity, Biden and DEI, etc.
And, of course, the unprecedented cruel and unusual punishment meted in progressive sects under the Pro-Choice religion exercised with liberal license. #HateLovesAbortion
Obama Tokes Under the Rainbow (i.e. albinophobia).
Opinion| America needs to get serious about its drug problem.
by Elon Musk and Donald Trump Jr.
Who would you leave in charge of finding which songs are drug songs? Bob Dylan thought "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was about marijuana.
I heard that song at least a hundred times, and I could tell immediately it was pro-pot. But I never listened to the lyrics. Or much cared. That's typical of my experience of pop music. Most of them could be instrumentals. I can tell the mood and general thrust of the song, but beyond that, I only get curious if someone raises an issue. I think I'm in the vast majority of consumers of popular music in this respect.
BBC wouldn't play "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" because "of course Henry The Horse dances the waltz" was considered a reference to heroin.
Former big time pot user, Sir Elton John, said recently that legalizing pot use is a big mistake. The voice of reason and experience.
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was based on a child's drawing.
"8 Miles High" was based on flying in a Lear jet.
Who would have thought that in 50 years, the tables would be turned and the young would embrace it?
Peer pressure.
There are a lot of songs about all sorts of crime — murder, theft, rape, arson, kidnapping. Why would you ban a song because it tells of crime? And why would you start with the songs about using marijuana? Just in the Beatles category: ban "Run for Your Life" before "A Little Help From My Friends."
David Peel & the Lower East Side's "Have a Marijuana" was based on...oh, never mind.
Opinion| America needs to get serious about its drug problem.
by Hunter Biden
I knew the song well, but I had never heard of Brewer and Shipley. Were they that effectively censored or just one-hit wonders? The story that they made Nixon's enemies list is making the rounds, but Nixon actually had (something that's been called) an enemies list (two, in fact) and they weren't on it.
Did the "War on Drugs" actually change anything or do anything? Drugs were illegal before Nixon's speech, and they were illegal after it. What were the specifics of Nixon's policy, and how did his approach differ from what government agencies were already doing?
Someone said in college that "Lucy in the sky with Diamonds" was promoting drug use. Given the gibberish lyrics, I think not. Maybe written while using drugs.
Its amazing you have to go back to Agnew in 1970. I suppose Nancy with her "Just say no" campaign wasn't about censorship but personal responsibility. I vaguely remember Tipper Gore wanting to put warning labels on records, which I have no problem with. Those who wish, can listen, label or no.
Just Say No to censorship.
I owned that album, but it disappeared in the great vinyl purge of 2014 when I decided I wasn't about to pack up and move 2000 LPs. As I recall, it was a decent record with listenable folk rock songs beyond "One Toke Over the Line". But I don't remember any of them to name them.
‘Just say no’ is like telling a manic depressive to ‘just cheer up’….
In Dylan’s case, that was just the China White talkin’
Yeah, that was the Byrds’ claim. And Hendrix said that “Purple Haze” was about a dream of walking underwater.
They gave new meaning to the phrase 'one hit wonder.'
The song was unavoidable, but not one pothead in ten could tell you who performed it.
Personally, I regret my past drinking much more than my past toking.
I believe that the proponents of the bans were distinguishing between simply telling a story about something, and actively promoting that something as a societal positive.
Not really - Just Say No was aimed at keeping kids from starting a habit, not at junkies.
Spiro Agnew’s been dead almost thirty years, Althouse. You can stop hating on him any day now. BTW, from what I can see Agnew was vastly less corrupt as Vice President than Joe Biden from 2009 through January 2017 (and beyond). If you’re going to receive bribes and try to get away with it, it sure helps to be a Democrat.
“It’s ketamine, not ketayours!”
Ask yourself why the wealthiest among us are so often drug addled miserable freaks. You would cross the street without a second thought if you didn’t know who they were. You wouldn’t let your kids within 500 yards of them. And one of them is picking winners and losers right now.
The song actually works as a modern day "spiritual."
Except the whole use of the word "toke". I don't know any other meaning of the word other than smoking a joint.
Screw Agnew is beautiful full rhyme.
Phone message:
Hey, listen, when you get up there,
let the horse into the pasture.
She loves to run around in the grass.
Grab a bottle of wine, make yourself a fire,
stay as long as you want. This is going to be good for you.
Translation:
It's code, Tim. You should watch Law & Order.
Horse is heroin.
Grass...marijuana.
"The horse likes to run around on the grass."
The heroin likes to run around on the marijuana.
Wine. Alcohol.
Like beer... Or wine.
Oh, man, they are planning one hell of a party.
It's going to be wild up there.
>Ampersand said...
...But I never listened to the lyrics. Or much cared. That's typical of my experience of pop music. Most of them could be instrumentals. I can tell the mood and general thrust of the song, but beyond that, I only get curious if someone raises an issue. I think I'm in the vast majority of consumers of popular music in this respect.<
I believe this is true of the majority of male consumers of pop music, though not to the advanced extent that you took it to. But it's certainly not of the female consumers of it. In my long experience, detailed attention to song lyrics is decidedly a woman thing. They hear them; they memorize them; they relate them to themselves and their lives and romances, etc; and they invariably refer to them and the guy they're with. ...And he says, "What?"
Really?! Agnew was allowed to plead no contest to a single tax evasion charge and was fined $10,000, avoided all the other charges and received 3 years probation (for what turned out to be years of taking bribes, stretching into his time as VP). Seems like being a Republican didn't hurt him in getting a pretty sweet deal.
Looking at who replaced Agnew as Maryland Governor, maybe it should be simply called professional courtesy?
MARVIN MANDEL (1920-2015)
Governor (Democrat), 1969-79
Governor of Maryland, January 7, 1969 to January 17, 1979.
Mr. Mandel was convicted in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland of mail fraud and racketeering on August 21, 1977, and sentenced on October 7, 1977 to four years in prison. From May 1980 to December 3, 1981, he served his sentence in federal prison camp at Eglin Air Force Base, southwest of Valparaiso, Florida. On December 3, 1981, his sentence was commuted by President Ronald Reagan to nineteen months, most of the time already served. From December 4 to December 20, 1981, he served the last days of his sentence at a halfway house in Baltimore. On June 19, 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision overturning Mr. Mandel's conviction.
Norwegian Wood is wholesome and uplifting too.
There was an episode of "Homicide: Life on the Street" where the detectives debated whether Spiro Agnew's bust should remain on display in the State Capitol.
I always think of this:
"Man, this is the way to travel,” said my attorney. He leaned over to turn the volume up on the radio, humming along with the rhythm section and kind of moaning the words: “One toke over the line, Sweet Jesus … One toke over the line …”
One toke? You poor fool! Wait till you see those goddamn bats.
-- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson
That is comedy gold. I always suspected the woman knew what the song was about, but the guy didn't and clearly no one else associated with the show was clued in.
Lennon lifted one of the offending lines from Run for Your Life ( "I'd rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man." ) from "Baby Let's Play House," a tune covered by Elvis Presley on the Sun sessions.
I had Tarkio on vinyl years ago but can't remember anything but the hit, which might say something about the album's staying power.
"Happiness is a warm gun. "
Puff the hallucinating President toked under an albinophobic Rainbow.
My wife's college roommate thought the chorus of "Beast of Burden" was "I'll never leave your pizza burning."
I can never hear that song without hearing those lyrics. It works.
"Monday nothing, Tuesday nothing, Wednesday Thursday nothing
Friday for a change a little more nothing, Saturday Sunday nothing.
Not a goddamn thing."
I’ve suggested to my usual music partners that we should start a cover band that does all marijuana songs, called “The Weed Band,” because NY state is going through weed legalization. I asked Grok to list weed songs, and it produced a very comprehensive list. My partners were unreceptive, given that they are all old, church going grandpas.
Agnew was right.
"Looking at what Cartels have done in the last 50 years, the current drug death epidemic in the Midwest and Inner Cities you can see he got it right."
Nope.If drugs were legalized, regulated, and available at the corner drug store, there would be no cartels. "Coke" would be as available to buy as Coca Cola.
"Former big time pot user, Sir Elton John, said recently that legalizing pot use is a big mistake. The voice of reason and experience."
Some recovering alcoholics might have the same opinion on the repeal of prohibition of alcohol. They, and Sir Elton, would be wrong.
'Tis the nature of mondegreens.
Thompson was an insightful, twisted story-teller who, IMO, ended-up a loathsome, hateful, selfish asshole of the highest (lowest?) order.
And yet - F&L in 'Vegas stands dog-eared in the non-fiction section of my bookshelves. The characters were friends or familiar passers-by and every mile between LA and the glitter in desert is paved with outlandish expectations and even more outlandish explanations and excuses of a personal nature. Only one fellow survivor and I haven't checked on him in years...
Bang Bang - Shoot Shoot
Maybe they'd sing this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bRJLkNqNXI
What does the title mean? It made more sense to me as a kid as "One toe over the line."
"Back in 1970, young people easily opposed censorship."
That's not exactly how I remember it. But you might want to consider that females are much more inclined to look favorably upon censorship than males. Check it out.
Drug use went down when Nancy Reagan was pushing "just say no" and went up when Bill "I didn't inhale" was president. You'd be surprised at what carries influence.
Gambling, pot, porn, and prostitution are legal nowadays.
Potterville Prevailed
Agnew/Nixon are a reminder of a simpler time long past. Neither party is ever going to let a VP or other high official be prosecuted while they have the executive branch, and any president is going to go down swinging in an impeachment action rather than resigning for the good of the country. The Dems learned this a lot quicker (see, eg, Clinton and Holder), but the Rs have finally learned it.
JSM
This could actually be seen as an ANTI-drug song. While the lyrics are ambiguous, it's easy to interpret "One Toke Over the Line" as the easy-to-make mistake in dosage (well known to many pot users) that takes marijuana consumption from a pleasant experience to one that makes someone anxious and paranoid. At that point, the singer is unable to do anything but wait to come down: "Don't you know I'm just waiting for the train that goes home, sweet Mary / Hoping that the train is on time."
"Who would have thought that in 50 years, the tables would be turned and the young would embrace it?"
Who would have thought that the young of 50 years ago would be teaching it to the young of today?
Yeah, cook, things have worked out well in Oregon.
Old Man Shivers
You an'me, we sweat an' strain,
Body all achin' an' rack'd wid pain,
Lif’ dat barge!
Toke dat bale!
And if ya get a little high
You’ll land in jail.
Cookie "one-note" never disappoints.
Wasn't "Sgt. Pepper" the Beatles' LSD album?
“Acapulco gold and Panamanian Red
Da bigger da bank account da higher the head”
They were always good for a laugh. 😆
Liver-lipped corksoakah!!!
Should "Snowblind Friend" be condoned, condemned or commended?https://youtu.be/HOIgo9rEjDE
If drugs were legalized, regulated, and available at the corner drug store, there would be no cartels.
Marijuana has been legal in Washington state for several years now. There is still a massive black market, as well as pot shop robberies, smash and grabs and murders in said shops.
If Biden had been smoking pot during his Presidency, would he have been (a) better or (b) worse or (c) the same?
My answer is: Who could tell?
"Back in 1970, young people easily opposed censorship."
It's a question of whose ox is being gored. They oppose censorship when truth helps the agenda, support censorship when truth undermines the agenda. This is generally the way leftists and the elitists operate. The right used to do this, but now they get accused of "censorship" if they want to protect children from pornographic imagery in schools.
“Nattering Nabobs of Negativism". Best punk rock band name ever?
Well, Freder, I note that Biden has not been penalized even that much.
“ Who would have thought that in 50 years, the tables would be turned and the young would embrace it?”
Gotta call you out on this one, Ann. The censorship-defying youth of the 60s/70s were against censorship from the right. They applauded then as they do now censorship from the left. What has changed is the institutions of power were more right-leaning then than now. That’s all.
boatbuilder,
That sort of thing is rampant in English poetry - - anything written with a regular meter can be set to any music that has that same meter.
Using your example, the verse at least of "Deck the Halls" fits perfectly to "Beast of burden"
In anyone who was within hailing distance of the Jesus movement in the '60s and '70s knows about singing Amazing Grace to the tune of House of the rising Sun..
Jim @4:49pm
Plus, we reek -- literally.
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