Country singer/comedian Jim Stafford had an unlikely Top 10 hit with "Wildwood Weed" in 1974. (It peaked at No. 7.)
Surprisingly, Rolling Stone failed to include it in their updated list of Country's Highest Drug Odes.
Written by Don Bowman, "Wildwood Weed" is based on "Wildwood Flower," a song performed by the Carter Family in 1928. It dates back to 1860.
Bowman's song by Stafford alludes to the weed's special powers:
Reached down for a weed to chew on
Things got fuzzy and things got blurry
And then everything was gone
Didn't know what happened
But I knew it beat the hell out of sniffin' burlap
The song continues:
The very next day we picked a bunch of them weeds
And put 'em in the sun to dry
Then we mashed 'em up and chopped 'em up
And put 'em in the corncob pipe
Smokin' that wildwood flower got to be a habit
We didn't see no harm
We thought it was kind of handy
Take a trip and never leave the farm
And concludes on a comical note:
One day this feller from Washington came by
And he spied it and turned white as a sheet
Then they dug and they burned
And they burned and they dug
And they killed all our cute little weeds.
Then they drove away,
We just smiled and waved
Sittin' there on that sack of seeds!
RELATED: The Stoniest Albums on Rolling Stone's Top 500 List, Plus Two Egregious Omissions
Country's 15 Greatest Drug Odes
"Cocaine Blues" - Johnny Cash
"Follow Your Arrow" - Kasey Musgraves
"Get High" - Brandy Clark
"High Cost of Living" - Jamey Johnson
"I Can Get Off on You" - Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson
"I'm Getting Stoned" - Eric Church
"Long Haired Country Boy" - Charlie Daniels Band
"Methamaphetamine" - Old Crow Medicine Show
"One Toke Over the Line" - Brewer & Shipley
"Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die" - Willie Nelson
"Sam Stone" - John Prine
"Seeds and Stems (Again)" - Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen
"Toes" - Zac Brown Band
"Weed Instead of Roses" - Ashley Monroe
"Weed With Willie" - Toby Keith
One More Omission
"Shanty" appeared on Jonathan Edwards' debut album in 1971. "We're gonna lay around the shanty, mama," he sings. "And put a good buzz on."
Click here for special perks when you subscribe to CelebStoner.
