cannabisnews.com: What a Wonderful Wasted World





What a Wonderful Wasted World
Posted by CN Staff on November 07, 2003 at 09:38:42 PT
By John Gleeson -- Winnipeg Sun
Source: Winnipeg Sun 
With everyone from the U.S. drug czar to Mothers Against Drunk Driving howling over the coming decriminalization of marijuana in Canada, we are faced yet again with a one-sided debate, as the illegal status of pot keeps its most credible defenders silent. Indeed, when the PM begins joking about toking in his dotage you know the lunatics have taken over the weed tent.
That's where a little history can help -- in the form of a jazz story. Something to let Grandma know that Reefer Madness is really Hello, Dolly. That, yes, Satch was a viper, and his wonderful world was wasted, but it was wonderful all the same. In the years after the Second World War, Louis Armstrong was bigger than popes or presidents. More than a jazz legend, he was the world's most beloved entertainer -- a symbol to war-ravaged Europe of America's goodness, courage and indomitable cool. No wonder that at the height of the Cold War the U.S. State Department tried repeatedly to send Armstrong and his All Stars to the Soviet Union to play; he was such an American turn-on. He was also a daily marijuana smoker from about age 27 until his death in July 1971, one month short of his 70th birthday. "We always looked at pot as a sort of medicine, a cheap drunk and with much better thoughts than one that's full of liquor," Armstrong told biographer Max Jones in his last years, when he decided to "tell it like it wuz." Armstrong, of course, couldn't tell it exactly like it wuz. He had to deny he was a present user, but he was unequivocal in his praise of "gage," as he called marijuana. "We did call ourselves vipers, which could have been anybody from all walks of life that smoked and respected gage," Armstrong said. "One reason we appreciated pot, as y'all calls it now, (was) the warmth it always brought forth from the other person. "If we all get as old as Methuselah our memories will always be of lots of beauty and warmth from gage. Well, that was my life, and I don't feel ashamed at all. The respect for it will stay with me forever. I have every reason to say these words and am proud to say them. From experience." Armstrong's experience with marijuana warrants public exposure, because it counters so many clinical stereotypes. Armstrong was well on his way to being a recognized musical giant before he took his first regular toke -- his scrappy, soulful and downright demonic-paced Hot Five and Hot Seven "race records" of the 1920s had established him among musicians as the pre-eminent jazz soloist of his generation and a brilliantly original singer. After starting his 43-year association with marijuana in 1928, the mature Armstrong: * Entered his "classic" phase, teaming up with a young Earl Hines on piano to record the body of work that jazz critics consider Armstrong's -- and therefore jazz's -- finest. Among the jewels were West End Blues, which some rate the best jazz record ever made, and a dreamy number called Muggles, which just so happened to be slang for marijuana. * Radically and permanently expanded the jazz songbook to include pop standards, endearing himself to a largely white audience with songs like When You're Smiling, Ain't Misbehavin', Rockin' Chair, Body and Soul and All of Me. * Transcended the record industry's segregated label system, opening the door for other black artists. * Wowed New York and then Hollywood, appearing in dozens of films including Pennies From Heaven (1936), A Song is Born (1948) and High Society (1956), for which Cole Porter wrote two Armstrong numbers. He also made a handful of three-minute music videos called "soundies" in 1942. * Worked with such diverse talents as Billie Holiday, Danny Kaye, Duke Ellington and Bing Crosby, who once said: "Rev. Satchelmouth is the beginning and the end of music in America." * Reinvented the New Orleans sound with his All Stars at landmark 1947 concerts, standing pat in the face of bop and other "fancy" musical trends. * Travelled the world with the All Stars, performing more than 300 nights a year and planting jazz and its offshoots in the U.K. and beyond, doing what he called "my day's work, pleasing the people and enjoying my horn." * Became, in February 1949, the first jazz musician to appear on the cover of Time. * Recorded some of his best albums, including classic duets with Ella Fitzgerald, in the '50s and enjoyed his first million-selling hit, Mack the Knife, in 1955. * Knocked the Beatles from their 14-week hold on No. 1 with Hello, Dolly in May 1964 -- more than four decades after his first recordings were cut with King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band. Worshipped by musicians, adored by the public and loved by the people who knew him (including ex-wives), the mature Armstrong's career was dazzling, his life positively storybook. And through it all, he smoked his gage. "His regimen," wrote David A. Jasen and Gene Jones in Black Bottom Stomp (Routledge, 2002), "included a daily dose of Swiss Kriss (an herbal laxative that he swore by), a few applications of the lip salve made for him by a German trombonist named Franz Schuritz, some red beans and rice -- when he could find them on a hotel menu -- and several marijuana cigarettes." Despite his habit, he was always a meticulous professional, dependable, emotionally stable and universally cherished for his folksy wit and wisdom. The only time the pot ever had overt negative consequences was in November 1930 when Armstrong was busted smoking a joint in the parking lot of the New Cotton Club in Los Angeles. He spent nine days in the city jail awaiting trial, and his record company sent an eastern gangster named Johnny Collins to L.A. to "fix" the problem. "Whether he used sweet reason or hard cash, Collins did the job," wrote Jasen and Jones. "Louis received a suspended sentence and went back to work and back to pot. He never smoked it in a public place again but he would smoke it every day for the rest of his life." Collins used the incident to muscle his way into controlling Armstrong's contract; it took about three years for "the brightest star in jazz" to dump "the worst manager in show business." Even in jail, Armstrong encountered some fellow vipers. "We reminisced about the good ol' beautiful moments we used to have during those miniature golf days," he said. "We'd go walking around, hit the ball, take a drag, have lots of laughs and cut out." You can say Armstrong did it to feel good -- call it recreational if you like. Or you can point to the unimaginable poverty of his childhood, the racism of his time, and say he used it as a crutch to take the edge off life's pain. You can risk ridicule and say he did it because it helped connect him to the truth as a man and an artist. You can definitely say it's too bad he smoked so much -- he died of heart failure and, like the late Israel Asper, might have lived on for another decade if he didn't smoke like a chimney. But no one can say the mature Armstrong should have been denied his daily muggles -- any more than you could deny Asper his daily packs. They came and went in clouds of smoke. End of jazz story. John Gleeson is the editor of the Winnipeg Sun. Source: Winnipeg Sun (CN MB)Author: John Gleeson -- Winnipeg SunPublished:  November 7, 2003 Copyright: 2003 Canoe Limited Partnership Contact: editor wpgsun.com Website: http://www.fyiwinnipeg.com/winsun.shtmlCannabisNews -- Canada Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/Canada.shtml
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Comment #18 posted by ekim on November 09, 2003 at 20:11:16 PT
ok Snoop its up to you 
put these wonderfull words of Louis Armstrong in the Memory Bank for many years to come. And please give money made from the overwhelming sucess of the DVD to this WEB site Cannabis News.com Step up Snoop --its not very often something like this happens.
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Comment #17 posted by kaptinemo on November 07, 2003 at 13:07:38 PT:
Ziss vill shcare ze kiddies frrrom uzink drrrugs!
Und mebbe vee kahn get zem to tell us vhere dee Jews, uh, er, zee Drrruggies are hidink!Tell, me, liebchen, vhere are zee drrruggies hidink? Vell, vhen you shtop shcreaming, mebbe? (SLAP!) Zere, ist dat better? Heavy handed sarcasm? Not when you consider what has just happened has been warned about for years. When a guard dog snarls at it's handler, it's time to put it down. When police pull this kind of stunt, it's time for heads to roll.
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Comment #16 posted by FoM on November 07, 2003 at 13:04:08 PT
Virgil I Posted The Article
This might be the only article that will come out about this school drug raid so I went ahead and put it together and posted it. This is important news. It's down right scary news.http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread17751.shtml
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Comment #15 posted by FoM on November 07, 2003 at 12:32:43 PT
That's The One Virgil
It is one of the papers I have to snip so I posted the link. I hope the NYT's or someone does an article on this. I saw the video like I said and it made me think how traumatic it must have been for the children in the school. When I was in school nothing bad ever happened and there were some drugs in school. Just good diet pills but no one hassled us. It was like just don't do anything out of the ordinary and all was well with the school.http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread17739.shtml#24
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Comment #14 posted by Virgil on November 07, 2003 at 12:27:35 PT
The school raid must have been yesterday
Here is a link out of Charleston. This happened in Berkeley County which is still the Charleston Metro Area. It will stay up for a while and then it goes to registration. You can always hit the Back button- http://charleston.net/stories/110703/loc_07bust.shtml
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Comment #13 posted by FoM on November 07, 2003 at 11:52:45 PT
I'll Look Out For an Article To Post
It might take a few hours but this story won't go away without a good article or two so I'll keep looking. If this story passes away quickly I fear for our children.
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Comment #12 posted by FoM on November 07, 2003 at 11:49:10 PT
H.S. Drug Sweep Infuriates Parents
November 7, 2003 — Police officers stormed a South Carolina High School hallway yesterday with guns drawn. 
They were screaming for kids to get on the floor so their school bags could be searched for drugs.Officers say the way they conducted their drug sweep was for everyone's safety.But some parents are furious, saying the cops crossed the line and went too far. "I don't think it was an over reaction."
No drugs were actually found during this raid.
But police say they sent a strong message to drug dealers who may have their eyes on this high school!Copyright 2003 by Action News. http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/110703_nw_drugsweep.html
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Comment #11 posted by FoM on November 07, 2003 at 11:45:43 PT
Virgil
I saw the video on the news earlier. I posted a link to the story from a US paper but it was a snipped source and it was easier for me that way. I couldn't believe the video when I saw it. Guns pulled on kids in their school over drugs!!!!
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Comment #10 posted by FoM on November 07, 2003 at 11:41:51 PT
EJ That's OK
I love It's a Wonderful World. I don't think there has ever been a song that touches the heart of every generation that hears it for the first time like it has. If Cannabis is what helped Louie Armstrong feel so good about life then it shouldn't be against the law. What is so wrong about feeling good inside?
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Comment #9 posted by E_Johnson on November 07, 2003 at 11:40:41 PT
Modern mortality -- an idea that needs criticism
"You can definitely say it's too bad he smoked so much -- he died of heart failure and, like the late Israel Asper, might have lived on for another decade if he didn't smoke like a chimney.
"Or he could have ended up slowly dying of Alzheimers for twenty years, with nothing but feces-soaked diapers and a vacant stare for his loved ones.On one level it's completely normal to say something like "he would have lived another decade if only..." and on another level, it's completely absurd.Nobody knows the future. Maybe he would have been hit by a car. Maybe he would have gotten another kind of cancer. Maybe he would have gotten Alzheimers and then would have taken twenty years to slowly die in bed with a vacant stare.It's actually cheaper and easier on the people around you to die of lung cancer than to die from Alzheimer's.And perhaps in a way, less painful.So this idea that society has somehow been robbed by smokers who die of lung cancer is a bunch of hooey.Children are always going to be robbed of their parents. It's a basic fundamental condition of the world called human mortality. I.e. we are mortal, we all must die some day.Children who lose their parents to lung cancer are in many cases spared the expense and heartbreak of losing them to something even harder to cope with as a family. Living longer is not always living better.
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Comment #8 posted by Virgil on November 07, 2003 at 11:39:05 PT
Police state alert. Postpone all tranquility
It is strange that this report comes from Scotland and not out of Charleston or the US. From http://www.news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2150808. This is the entire article.Armed Police Storm School in Drugs Raid By Mark Sage, PA News, in New York Armed police stormed a high school and ordered children to the floor at gunpoint so they could conduct a drugs search, it emerged today,Officers ran into the South Carolina school, screaming at pupils to lie face down, before rifling through their bags.Students who did not do as they were told were handcuffed.Parents were outraged at the raid, but principal George McCrackin said he would “utilise whatever forces that I deem necessary” to keep drugs out of the school.Stratford High School in Goose Creek has 2,700 pupils but does not have a reputation for drugs or crime.During the raid a sniffer dog found traces of substances in 12 bags, but no drugs were recovered.Parent Latonia Simmons called the incident “senseless”.“Now why did they have to take all that force?” she told CNN.“They were innocent kids. They were just minding their own business, getting ready for class.”But Mr McCrackin denied the raid was an over-reaction.He said: “I’m sure it was an inconvenience to those individuals who were on that hallway. But I think there’s a valuable experience there.”Police said CCTV footage inside the hall led them to believe there had been “drugs activity”.A spokesman added that although some officers had drawn their weapons they were “not pointing at the faces or heads of the students”. 
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Comment #7 posted by E_Johnson on November 07, 2003 at 11:32:05 PT
I guess I'm confused
I just took my prednisone. I didn't see the reference to the book. I read another book that said something else.
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on November 07, 2003 at 10:57:49 PT
ekim
I liked what you liked in the article. How nice these words are. It's hard finding news to post today because it's Friday and the news slows down. This week there has been intense news from Montel Williams and The MS Study results. I thought this article would be a nice diversion from the news we are trying to digest. I love It's A Wonderful World.Louie Armstrong said:One reason we appreciated pot, as y'all calls it now, (was) the warmth it always brought forth from the other person. And I Say:Truer words have not been spoken.
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Comment #5 posted by ekim on November 07, 2003 at 10:35:27 PT
no truer words were ever spoken thank you Louis
He was also a daily marijuana smoker from about age 27 until his death in July 1971, one month short of his 70th birthday. "We always looked at pot as a sort of medicine, a cheap drunk and with much better thoughts than one that's full of liquor," Armstrong told biographer Max Jones in his last years, when he decided to "tell it like it wuz." Armstrong, of course, couldn't tell it exactly like it wuz. He had to deny he was a present user, but he was unequivocal in his praise of "gage," as he called marijuana. "We did call ourselves vipers, which could have been anybody from all walks of life that smoked and respected gage," Armstrong said. "One reason we appreciated pot, as y'all calls it now, (was) the warmth it always brought forth from the other person. "If we all get as old as Methuselah our memories will always be of lots of beauty and warmth from gage. Well, that was my life, and I don't feel ashamed at all. The respect for it will stay with me forever. I have every reason to say these words and am proud to say them. From experience." 
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Comment #4 posted by Max Flowers on November 07, 2003 at 10:07:02 PT
1930? I thought it was still legal...?
-- The only time the pot ever had overt negative consequences was in November 1930 when Armstrong was busted smoking a joint in the parking lot of the New Cotton Club in Los Angeles. --I thought it was scheduled in 1937...? Then again in those days I guess a black man could be thrown in jail for just about anything someone wanted to throw him in jail for, including looking at you funny...
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Comment #3 posted by E_Johnson on November 07, 2003 at 10:06:30 PT
I'm not sure this is right...
I read that Louis Armstrong himself claimed that he started smoking pot at age 16, not 27, and he smoked it every day until he was busted in 1931 and then had to quit because he was afraid of getting put back in jail with violent criminals who might harm his hands or his mouth and keep him from ever playing again.That's what I read. I never heard of this other story that he started when he was 27 and smoked until 70.A lot of information was given here but I don't see anything in the way of references to published works that could be considered authoritative sources regarding his marijuana use.
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on November 07, 2003 at 09:49:12 PT
What a Wonderful World 
What a Wonderful World - Louie Armstronghttp://www.rmo.com/2beers/Louis%20Armstrong%20-%20What%20A%20Wonderful%20World.mp3
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Comment #1 posted by druid on November 07, 2003 at 09:49:01 PT
Louis 
One of my all time favorite quotes comes from this great musician. :)
"It really puzzles me to see Marijuana connected with Narcotics - Dope and all that crap…it's a thousand times better than whiskey - it's an Assistant - a friend."
 - Louis Armstrong
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