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The Online Reefer Madness Teaching Museum
“EXPOSING THE MARIJUANA DRUG EVIL IN SWING BANDS!”
Radio Stars July 1938
By Jack Hanley
Astounding facts about the habitual
use of “reefers” among musicians (page 8)
YOU'VE read about marijuana, of course.
Newspapers recently have been, full of stories
about reefer-crazed young men and women jumping from windows, killing policemen,
robbing, assaulting and running amuck, while under the influence of the weed.
And many stories about marijuana say that among those who first spread
its use here were musicians; specifically, "hot" or “swing"
musicians.
Did that mean, then, that the hot
virtuosi of rhythm we listen to on the air are not just highly talented, expert
"ride" men? Were the
sizzling trumpet licks, the ingenious, and finger-breaking riffs of the
clarinet, the wacky off-beat of the drums all the product of drug-inflamed
performers? There was one way to
find out, so your reporter tried it. Knowing
something of music, and musicians, I investigated, questioned and tried to get
the low-down on marijuana in its connection with music.
It wasn't very simple; those who
know, or who have been using the "hay" themselves, are naturally
reticent about it. Stories and
articles giving statistics on the spread of the weed, criminal records of the
various shocking crimes committed under its influence, guesses and estimates
were all very significant. But I
wanted to get the, first-hand facts from musicians themselves.
And the, following facts came to light.
Most of the really big-time
swingsters are definitely not reefer addicts; produce their effects entirely
legitimately. Yet, at least one
major, hot organization on the air is usually "high" on reefers.
Musicians' use of marijuana is
confined almost wholly to swing players.
Those who "hit the weed"
seem to use it more temperately or to show less violent reactions than users
outside the musical profession.
The most persistent users among the
"cats" are the younger players and the second and third raters who
think both that it's "smart" to smoke, and that the "hay"
improves their technical ability.
Colored swingsters, on the whole,
are "walking on air" more often than whites; yet, again, most Negro
top notchers avoid the stuff.
I talked first to some
"sweet" musicians, whom the "cats" call "long
underwear" men. They were vague
or completely mystified about marijuana. Those
who had heard about it knew very little and shied away from discussion,
understandably enough. Mark Warnow,
one of radio's top-notch "straight" leaders, said:
"I can truthfully say that
neither myself nor any of my orchestra ever even heard about reefers until
recently. Not very long ago a man
appeared on the We, The People program for which we played, and he spoke about
marijuana. And we had only the
vaguest notion of what he was talking about until he had explained himself.
"My orchestra is a group of
serious young men and women who take their music seriously; who love music.
They are no more associated with the wild, hectic type of music than they
are with opium or black magic. We
find our music on the pages of our arrangements, not in sudden improvisations.
And the personal---the creative element---in performance is given to
shadings of tone, to interpretation and nuances of expression.
I know that no musician of this type with whom I have been associated has
had anything to do with marijuana."
Emil Coleman, society bandleader
and popular exponent of "sweet" music, says essentially the same
thing. "The youngest member of
my orchestra, in point of service," he says, "has been with me for
twelve years. Some have been with me
for twenty years, so I believe that I know my men pretty well, particularly
since I pick my musicians from the standpoint of character as well as a high
degree of musical ability.
"Swing music, it appears to
me, seems to need some stimulant, it requires extreme cleverness of its
performers; perhaps some get that (Continued on page. 18) stimulant from
marijuana. I really don't know.
Our stimulus comes from our audience---the people we know and for whom we
play. Ours is a pliable orchestra;
we work without arrangements, shaping our music to please the dancers, playing
what our friends like to hear. I
know none of my group uses other stimulants, and I'm so sure that if someone
should tell me differently I would not believe it."
These two leaders are fairly
indicative, and their sincerity cannot be doubted.
Therefore tracking down the "hay" smokers led, inevitably, to
the swing group. And there can be no
question that it is here reefers are rampant.
Yet it was significant to discover that the real Kings of Swing, the boys
on top, do not depend upon reefers for their ability.
Artie Shaw, bandleader and performer extraordinary on the clarinet, spoke
frankly about it.
"It's true," he nodded,
"that reefers can be something of a problem in swing bands.
But I think the worst angle to it is that the 'jitter-bugs'---the young
swing fans of high-school age, so often 'hit the tea.'
To give you an example, I was playing a dance date up in a certain town
when a youngster, obviously in his early 'teens, came up to the platform.
He said: 'Hey, Artie-how about "breakin' a stick" with me in
intermission?' He took it for
granted that because I was leading a swing band I smoked reefers."
Breaking a, stick, of course, was an invitation to have a smoke.
“I think," Artie went on,
"that the hysterical articles about marijuana do more harm than good.
A mature, well-balanced individual is not apt to play around with
reefers; it's the youngsters in search of a sensation, or the emotionally
unstable type, the 'screwballs,’ who are the most likely prospects.
And those are the very ones who will not be scared away by horrible
stories of marijuana's weird effects. They
get a kick out of trying something dangerous,
unpredictable. The more they read
about wild orgies held while 'walking on air' the, smarter they think it is to
play around with reefers.
"I found once,
dealing with a youngster who was a good musician, but hitting the weed, that the
best cure was kidding him out of it. Once
boys and girls get the idea that kids use reefers, that it's high-school stuff
and a prop for second-raters in music, they'll leave it alone'.
I know that in this case I speak of it worked and the lad quit when no
amount of terrorizing would have influenced him."
I quote Artie Shaw at length
because I found what he said to be, sound. More
than one bandleader admitted that he had encountered the marijuana, menace in
his outfit. One leader told me of a
young man in his band who was a crackerjack musician, but who used the weed so
consistently that he was quite undependable.
The fits of deep depression reefers so often, produce would seize him
until he had to be restrained, from suicide; in addition, procuring a
supply of the weed in strange towns was a problem, also, and he became
increasingly miserable when deprived of it.
And this, I think, is significant: Not once did I find any testimony that
would bolster, the belief that getting "high” on reefers really improved
musical ability. True, like alcohol,
the "tea" will release inhibitions and sometimes allow a latent
ability to show. But more often than
not, the musician who is "walking on air" can do as well if not better
in his normal, un-stimulated condition. One
instrumentalist who admittedly smokes "hay' put it this way:
"I never use the stuff when
I'm working," he assured me. "Sure-I
hit the tea occasionally, for relaxation, for a kick.
But I made a definite test once and I found that, so far as I was
concerned, reefers made me want to play, made the notes sound wonderful.
But the actual results were far inferior to my usual performance.
That is---while it releases musical inhibitions it also impairs the
critical faculties, so that what I played wasn't really half, as good as it
sounded to me.”
That
is an individual reaction, of course, and no two persons react in quite the same
way to the Mexican weed. But what
this musician said seems pretty well borne out by others.
True, quite a few swingmen smoke the hay occasionally.
Some of them are the better type musicians.
And almost invariably, the better the player the less he uses the weed.
Carried right to the top of the profession it means that few of the top notchers
smoke at all and none of them depend upon "hay" for their, swing
ideas. Your reefer addict who has
become an, habitual user is almost invariably a youngster, a serond-rater or a
"nut" type who would be susceptible to dangerous sensation in any
field o endeavor. I know definitely
of only one real swing star who habitually got high on the weed, and he was a
colored musician whose career was almost ruined by his addiction.
Unquestionably,
marijuana’s most serious menace is in the peddling of cigarettes to school
kids; in the prevalence of "hay" smoking among teenaged
youngsters incapable of realizing the dynamite they are playing with.
That this is so has been demonstrated by various, government
investigations. There are so-called
“booth-joints” where kids can get a hot dog, a (Continued on page 54)
coca-cola and a reefer for a quarter. And
these children make up the main body of the swing fans; they are the jitter-bugs
who dance in the aisles when Benny Godman plays the Paramount; from them come
many of the newer recruits to the ranks of swing musicians.
This presents the conflicting picture of stories, unquestionably
authentic, of horrible crimes committed while "reefered up," and the
picture I got from many musicians who smoke an occasional reefer without
becoming either addicted or dependent upon it . . . or so they say.
And, if you'll bear with the writer's opinion, the answer to that
probably is that, like alcohol, some can take it moderately and some cannot.
Drunkenness has caused innumerable tragedies, many crimes.
But everyone who takes a drink is not an intoxicated maniac, though the
extreme cases are the ones that make the headlines.
The dangerous difference between marijuana and alcohol is that while
liquor's effects vary somewhat with individuals, the general effects are pretty
much the same; whereas marijuana's reactions are never the same in two persons
and often not the same any two times with the same person!
For marijuana has as many different manifestations as it has names, the
cigarettes, in which form it is mostly used, being known as muggles, (though
that term is old hat now-definitely "corny"), mootah, Mary Warner,
hay, tea, mezz, brifo, or reefers, all meaning the dried yellow buds of the
Mexican hemp weed, cannabis.
And
just what does this insidious stuff do? Well, after a few drags you find a
pleasant exultation pervading you. Everything
becomes simplified to your mind; problems resolve themselves with crystal
clarity, slight remarks become hilariously funny or intolerably depressing.
You have all the power in the world and nothing is too difficult for you
to do. Your mind goes racing on,
ahead of your tongue, and you find yourself talking interminably, perhaps,
annoyed with yourself as you hear your own voice going on and on, failing,
somehow, to make the point you are after and rambling endlessly without
volition. Then, possibly, your brain
sharpens---you see everything clearly; you are a master mind and you can settle
any argument with sparkling and brilliantly pungent remarks.
You are strong and agile and freed of any physical demands or limitations
except that you become voraciously hungry. You
may lean back in your chair and enjoy weird and exotic hallucinations; talk with
nonexistent beings, suffer delusions of grandeur.
Perhaps you'll be surprised to find yourself leaping madly about,
indulging in wild physical activity; dancing all night, fighting or merely
cavorting without fatigue. You may
sink into a slough of despondency and suddenly realize, incontrovertibly, that
the best thing to do is to throw yourself from a window.
And if you feel that way you probably will throw yourself from a window.
Or, you may as easily decide that your companion should be killed . . .
and you'll kill him.
Eventually
you'll fall into a profound sleep from which you cannot be awakened, and
afterward, no matter what your reactions have been, you'll probably suffer an
awful depression and be tortured by finding yourself in some strange
circumstances, unable to recall quite what occurred.
Or else you will recall some shocking occurrence and hate yourself for
having done it.
Not
you of course. The foregoing are
only a few of the possible reactions. The
"tea" might as easily madden you to a homicidal frenzy, like that of
the Filipino who runs amuck; it might make you a philosopher, a rapist or a
thief. But,
unlike any other narcotic, it has no legitimate use; it never did anyone
one bit of good, whereas it has caused more tragedies, ruined more lives than
any equivalent stimulant. It never
helped a good musician, and it never, never made a good instrumentalist out of a
poor one.
It's
good stuff to stay far away from.
Radio Stars July 1938 – Dell
Publishing Co., Inc.
149 Madison Ave, New York, N.Y..
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