"Hey, Mister Ganja Man" - Silas Scarborough - Live in Cincinnati (video)

"Hey, Mister Ganja Man" is a groove tune I roll out sometimes because it can go all night if you have the vibe.  Playing with a band, the song wouldn't stop until the sun came up or the audience smoked up all the reefer.

There is no deep meaning, it's ok to be happy for no particular reason and sometimes it's better when no-one has any idea why.  There's something extra-delicious sometimes about an 'illegal smile' and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

Need some pedantic with any overt mention of drugs as I've used them all, abused quite a few, and from that I know beyond a question:  the soulsucking drugs (e.g. opiates from heroin all the way to hydrocodone) will win.  My only reason for saying anything is I don't want you to die.  I'm blowing reefer all day long but the only thing sucking my soul is music.  Getting high is a magical thing but there are limits.  Once it goes from getting high to blowing your shit into outer space, you are past that limit and you better pull your shit together mighty fast or you ain't comin' back.


Some believe, Lotho among them, I think, that reefer is just as pernicious but in a more subtle way insofar as it robs ambition.  In my view it's rubbish as I've lived as a high-flyer on a six-figure salary and was blowing reefer the entire time on the ascent path.  I also have lived as I do now in abject poverty and neither circumstance has anything to do with smoking marijuana.

It's reasonable to argue I would have accomplished more had I broken out of the straightjacket of corporate IT.  I'm likely to agree with you but there's no way of obtaining a proof so any verdict on cannabis in that context is highly speculative.

By accomplishing more, I don't mean making more money as it would not have significantly changed life.  In my own perspective, accomplishment has many more dimensions than financial and that one, for me, is only important for me insofar as life isn't too cold and there's something to eat.  I have needed more diversions than that in previous times but that may well be part of the increased accomplishment in that I would not need them if my purpose were toward something higher.

That's an old man regret which is self-indulgent hogwash and I still really don't think it's worth your while or wiles trying to pull an indictment on reefer out of it.


The main point is Rastas won't use heroin or anything of that nature.  It's a known poison.  Don't fuck with it, man.  It's no good for you, you know.  It's all about one love but that does not work with heroin.  It wants you to love it instead.  Don't do that, man.  Your love is too important to us all.

I met a Rasta from Mozambique and that isn't a play on song lyrics, I really did ... but that could be kind of a swell lyric.  I am so diggin' the Mozambique Rastas and I had no idea.  It's worldwide and of course it is because it started in Ethiopia.  Emperor Haile Selassie is the One, man.  (No, he didn't start it but rather he is the basis for it.)

This guy is so cool and is way into the music over there.  Mozambique is so much cooler than I ever realized.  He said he would take me around to meet the people if I could ever get there and ... wow!

That all started over Bernie Sanders.  Yah, I'm serious.  This cat is completely hip to Bernie Sanders all the way in Mozambique and he tells me he feels the Bern there too.  It's one love, man.  I'm tellin' you.  It's worldwide.  He provides active support for Sanders so this cat is so jammin'!


Life is much more Rasta than it seems and no possible way it stopped with Bob Marley.  So ... Hey, Mister Ganja Man.


My seventh grade teacher asked the class who is the leader of Ethiopia.  Naturally, I have to wave my hand in the air and offer some really weird knowledge just to ensure my classmates hate me.  They'd call me a 'fucking freak' although not to my face.  Sure that affected me as I would really prefer not to be a fucking freak, half of it maybe but not the freak part.  It wasn't until years later that 'freak' became a compliment, one of the finest kinds.

Maybe it was Robert Morley who said, "The only ones who enjoy high school are bullies and boors." (Might have been bores as it works either way)

Hat tip to Robert Morley (larfs).