{"id":8992,"date":"2017-04-20T04:22:14","date_gmt":"2017-04-20T04:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=8992"},"modified":"2017-04-21T04:25:58","modified_gmt":"2017-04-21T04:25:58","slug":"ella-fitzgeralds-flirtation-with-reefer-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/ella-fitzgeralds-flirtation-with-reefer-songs\/","title":{"rendered":"Ella Fitzgerald’s flirtation with reefer songs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adam Gustafson<\/a>, Pennsylvania State University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe First Lady of Song\u201d Ella Fitzgerald would have turned 100 on April 25: institutions from the Library of Congress<\/a> to the Grammy Museum<\/a> will be honoring her amazing contributions to the jazz canon. \"The<\/p>\n

It will be interesting to see if any tributes mention Fitzgerald\u2019s \u201cWacky Dust,\u201d her song about cocaine. <\/p>\n

In the 1930s \u2013 just as Fitzgerald was getting her start \u2013 jazz was under fire for its purported ties to drug culture. The 1936 anti-drug film \u201cReefer Madness\u201d featured party scenes of young people listening to jazz and ragtime while smoking marijuana. A year later, Harry Anslinger, the commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, published \u201cMarijuana, Assassin of Youth<\/a>,\u201d which pinned the use of drugs on a culture of unscrupulous partying \u2013 with big band jazz as its soundtrack. <\/p>\n

In this climate, an ascendant singer named Ella Fitzgerald sought to take the opposite tack and cultivated a reputation as the \u201cgirl next door.\u201d Fitzgerald walked the fine line between being understood as a jazz artist and an entertainer. Two recordings from the beginning of her career signal this tension. \u201cA-Tisket, a-Tasket\u201d and \u201cWacky Dust\u201d were both released in 1938. One tune would go on to become a signature hit. The other would be largely forgotten, a side note to an otherwise squeaky-clean career. <\/p>\n

A dressed-up nursery rhyme?<\/h2>\n

By 1938, Fitzgerald had established herself as the primary vocalist for Chick Webb\u2019s orchestra<\/a> at Harlem\u2019s Savoy Ballroom<\/a>. Under Webb, Fitzgerald began recording for Decca Records and in May 1938, Decca released Fitzgerald\u2019s first major hit, \u201cA-Tisket, a-Tasket<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a song that perfectly encapsulates Fitzgerald\u2019s girl-next-door image. It opens with Webb leading the orchestra through a stock series of simple chord changes. When Fitzgerald enters, listeners are treated to a reworked nursery rhyme that asks little of them other than to sit back and enjoy. There is no moral value, no hint of the singer\u2019s inner life and no mention of drug use. <\/p>\n

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