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elcome to the Digital Meltd0wn Music Blog. The aim of this blog is to introduce the readers to music that is out of print, commercially unavailable, released under a creative commons license, or with approval by the featured artist. The majority of the music posted here would be considered underground. Don't let that fool you into thinking that the music featured here might be any less enjoyable than that of the mainstream artists you hear on the radio, as this couldn't be further from the truth. Please keep in mind that the majority of the artists that appear on this blog, along with their respective record labels, are not wealthy and need your support. If you enjoy the material that you find here, please support the artists/labels by purchasing their material afterwards. If you are an artist/label that would prefer to have your material removed from this blog, simply leave me a comment, and I would be more than happy to promptly remove the offending post. In addition to running this blog, I also work on a few other projects during my spare time. You can find links to those, as well as a few other important links associated with Digital Meltd0wn in the menu bar above.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Viper Mad Blues - 25 songs of dope and depravity




Year of Release: 1991
Label: Mojo Records
Genre: Jazz, Blues

Track Listing:
1. Kickin' The Gong Around - Cab Calloway & His Cotton Club Orchestra
2. Dope Head Blues - Victoria Spivey
3. Cocaine Habit Blues - The Memphis Jug Band
4. Pipe Dream Blues - Hazel Meyers
5. Smoking Reefers - Larry Adler
6. Take A Whiff On Me - Leadbelly
7. Killin' Jive - The Cats & The Fiddle
8. You'se A Viper - Stuff Smith & His Onyx Club Boys
9. The Stuff Is Here And It's Mellow - Cleo Brown
10. Reefer Man - Baron Lee & The Blue Rhythm Band
11. The Onyx Hop - Frankie Newton & His Uptown Serenaders
12. Knockin' Myself Out - Lil Green
13. Junker's Blues - Champion Jack Dupree
14. Reefer Hound Blues - Curtis Jones
15. The Reefer Song - Fats Waller
16. I'm Feeling High And Happy - Gene Krupa & His Orchestra
17. When I Get Low, I Get High - Chick Webb & His Orchestra
18. Ol' Man River (Smoke A Little Tea) - Cootie Williams & His Rug Cutter
19. Blue Reefer Blues - Richard M. Jones & His Jazz Wizards
20. Cocaine - Dick Justice
21. Reefer Head Woman - Jazz Gillum & His Jazz Boys
22. Willie The Weeper - Frankie 'Halfpint' Jaxon
23. Cocaine Blues - Luke Jordan
24. Blue Drag - Freddy Taylor & His Swing Men From Harlem
25. A Viper's Moan - Willie Bryant & His Orchestra

Viper: One who smokes gage AKA tea or marijuana. Usually also a member of the Jazz sub-culture.

This is an exceptional collection of jazz era songs about drug use from some of the biggest names in the business. Cab Calloway, Gene Krupa, Fats Waller and a host of other great musical acts from the 20s, 30 and 40s. Though there are a few songs about cocaine, mostly this is an assortment of "reefer songs".

Reefer songs were primarily a black phenomenon, played by black musicians to black crowds and at the time, marijuana, or "tea" was referred to as "that drug that white people are scared of". Hundreds of "tea pads" flourished in the Harlem area in the 20s and 30s. Tea pads were similar to speakeasies, only they were usually set up in apartments and had really low prices. In these tea pads, they say you could get high for a mere quarter! I can just imagine all the cool cats lounging around talking, smoking and listening to these songs.


Download: Viper Mad Blues Pt. one
Download size: 56.43 MB

Download: Viper Mad Blues Pt. two
Download size: 53.03 MB
Posted by Anonymous
Labels: ,

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for this post.
Dream album!
Great to see Gaye Bykers as well a few posts back. I used to party with those guys back in the 80s.
They always performed best as 'The Lesbian Dope-Heads on Mopeds', in drag of course, Lol.
Regards. roy rocket

5:10 PM
Anonymous said...

this is a real treat to find....havent heard most of these before will definatley look out to try and purchase this.....thank you.

2:39 AM
roldo said...

WoW what a great album!! Thank you.

10:25 AM

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