Songs about smoking (tobacco, cigars, pipes, etc.)

Subject: Smoking in song
From: Armen Tanzerian
Date: 19 Mar 01 - 11:46 PM

I will bow to no one in my distaste for smoking. I quit over thirty years ago, and I advise anyone who smokes to quit and anyone who does not never to start. BUT, I have always found a little ingenuous the huge lawsuits by various plaintiffs claiming that they were deceived by the advertising of the tobacco companies into thinking that smoking was not dangerous. Oh, really? Everyone has ALWAYS known that smoking is very bad for you, and my favorite bits of proof come from popular music. The two that come to mind are, first, a WWI song called "Good Morning, Mr. Zip-Zip-Zip!", which says, in the chorus:

Ashes to ashes and dust to dust,
If the Camels don't get you, the Fatimas must.

One could claim that "get you" merely means "get you hooked" -- except for the funereal opening to the couplet. The other example of the dangers of smoking woven into popular music is Tex Ritter's "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette", from about 1946, I think. The next line of the chorus says "Puff, puff, puff, until you puff yourself to death."

Add to this that every high-school coach since time immemorial has told his players smoking was forbidden, and it makes it difficult for anyone to claim with a straight face that they weren't aware smoking was bad for you, even deadly, long before the Surgeon General's Report and mega-million dollar lawsuits. Anyone else got any musical examples to support or refute this?

[Some song titles in this thread have been converted to links by a Mudelf.]

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking in song
From: Ebbie
Date: 20 Mar 01 - 12:12 AM

Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag
And smile, smile, smile
While you've a lucifer to light your fag
Smile, boys, that's the style!
What's the use in worryin'? It never was worthwhile
So pack up your troubles in your old kit bag
And smile, smile, smile...

Subject: Lyr Add: CIGARETTE BLUES (Roy Book Binder)
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Mar 01 - 12:23 AM

CIGARETTE BLUES
As recorded by Roy Book Binder on "Bookeroo!" (1988)

1. Since I'm out here, baby, course I'm all alone.
I haven't got me nobody just to carry my smoking on.
Woncha just smoke my cigarette, baby? Smoke it all night long.
Roll my cigarette, baby, 'til you make my good ol' ashes——

2. Going up the country, git my ashes hauled.
Women round this part of town gonna let my ashes fall.
Woncha just smoke my cigarette, baby? Smoke 'em all night long.
Roll my cigarette, baby, until you make my good ol' ashes——

3. Going up the country, get my hambone boiled.
Women round this part of town gonna let my hambone spoil.
Woncha just smoke my cigarette, baby? Smoke it all night long.
Roll my cigarette, baby, 'til you make my——

4. One thing that I want you to know before I leave from home:
No, my cigarette ain't too big; no, it ain't too——
Won't you just smoke my cigarette, baby? Smoke it all night long.
Roll my cigarette, baby——

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking in song
From: Ebbie
Date: 20 Mar 01 - 01:51 AM

kat!!! *G*

Ebbie

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking in song
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Mar 01 - 04:06 AM

LOL, Ebbie, I had posted it before...guess it just kinda slipped by..you should hear Roy sing it...soooo smooth, you have to really listen for a sec before ya catch theinnuendos! dwditty was maybe gonna work it up and sing it for us in Paltalk, but I don't know if that is still on now:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking in song
From: dwditty
Date: 20 Mar 01 - 06:25 AM

Kat, I keep working on it. A little tricky, but one day I'll get it. I guess you'd call it a slow burn.

dw

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking in song
From: Son of the Mill
Date: 20 Mar 01 - 06:34 AM

Camels, a fine cigarette,the only cigarette with a photo of the factory on the packet!UG.

Subject: Lyr Add: A JOLLY AND TRUE-HEARTED FELLOW
From: nutty
Date: 20 Mar 01 - 07:08 AM

These are the words of an old broadside from the North of England.

FromThe Myrtle and Vine: Or, Complete Vocal Library. … Vol. 4 By C. H. Wilson, Esq (London: West and Hughes, 1800), page 193:

A JOLLY AND TRUE-HEARTED FELLOW.

With my pipe in one hand and my jug in the other,
I drink to my neighbours and friend;
And my care in a whiff of tobacco I smother,
For life, I know, shortly must end.
For whilst Ceres most kindly refills my brown jug,
With good liquor I'll make myself mellow;
In an old wicker chair, I'll seat myself snug,
Like a jolly and true-hearted fellow.

I'll ne'er trouble my head with the cares of the nation,
I've enough of my own for to mind;
For the cares of this life are but grief and vexation,
To death we must all be consign'd.
Then I'll laugh, drink and smoke, and leave nothing to pay,
But drop like a pear that is mellow;
And when cold in my coffin, I'll leave them to say,
He's gone,—what a hearty good fellow.

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking in song
From: gnu
Date: 20 Mar 01 - 08:03 AM

Armen... yes, BUT, I recall TV adverts like Fred Flinstone ( a childrens' cartoon character for those who don't know )taking a long drag and exhaling with a satisfied look on his face and saying, "**** tastes good, like a cigarette should."

Aiming advertising at five year olds ? I hope they get sued into the poorhouse.

coughinggnu

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking in song
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 20 Mar 01 - 08:28 AM

I remember one song about giving up which started:
Tobacco, tobacco, I hate you I do....
and ended each verse
....when I've had just one more cigarette.
Sheila Hancock, husky voiced UK actress recorded it over here.
RtS

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking in song
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Mar 01 - 08:56 AM

dwditty...it is a bit tricky, isn't it...glad to hear you are still having a go. I know it will sound fantastic when you do it for us. Thanks!

gnu, I agree.

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking in song
From: Gary T
Date: 20 Mar 01 - 09:02 AM

As counterpoint, also from "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke": "...I don't reckon they hinder your health, I've smoked 'em all my life and I ain't dead yet!" Now, is that great logic, or what?

[Picky details--the line mentioned in the opening post is "Puff, puff, puff, AND IF (not 'until') you smoke yourself to death..."; the song was by Tex Williams (not Tex Ritter).]

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking in song
From: LR Mole
Date: 20 Mar 01 - 09:02 AM

"I'm so tired; I'm feelin' so upset
Although I'm so tired, I'll have another cigarette
And curse Sir Walter Raleigh;he was such a stupid get..."

I recall being completely thrown by this last expression, which I didn't hear again until years later on Monty Python (and they pronounced it "git".) Anyway, Lennon certainly wasn't endorsing the practice: the last words to that song are "...give you everything I've got for little piece of mind."

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking in song
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Mar 01 - 09:50 AM

...while we're being "picky" (pun intended) --- That legendary Kentucky thumbpicker Merle Travis co-wrote the song in question with Tex Williams....

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking in song
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Mar 01 - 10:40 AM

LR Mole, the Brits on here spell it "git", also, as well as pronounce it that way and I never knew if it was "piece" as in he's lost it to drugs and it needs to be recovered **BG** or "peace" as in restful mind? I guess I've always just thought of it both ways.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking in song
From:
Date: 20 Mar 01 - 07:01 PM

Cigareets is a blot on the whole human race --
A man is a fool who has one in his face.
He're my definition, let me tell you, brother:
It's a fire on one end and a fool on the other.

-- Cigareets, Whusky, and Wild, Wild Women

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking in song
From: Bill D
Date: 20 Mar 01 - 11:03 PM

cigareets and WHUSKY...and wild, wild wimmen!

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking in song
From: Bill D
Date: 20 Mar 01 - 11:06 PM

also, in the DB Tobacco's But an Indain Weed

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking in song
From: GUEST,Steve N.
Date: 21 Mar 01 - 05:23 PM

Gary T.: The song is not from any of the Tex group....it's from Merle Travis. Lots of Texes did it, Doc Watson did a wondrous version, but it's Merle's song!

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking in song
From: Bert
Date: 21 Mar 01 - 05:29 PM

Mr Nicotine Man by David Perry

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking in song
From: Kim C
Date: 21 Mar 01 - 05:40 PM

kd lang recorded a song called I'm Down to My Last Cigarette... I think it was on Shadowlands? Was that the name of that album? "You told me you'd call me but you haven't yet, and I'm down to my last cigarette."

There's also a line in The Gambler about "he pulled out a cigarette and asked me for a light" or something like that.

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking in song
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 21 Mar 01 - 07:29 PM

I learned this in junior high school, say fifty-five years ago:

[Sung]Tobacco is a dirty wee--eed.
[spoken] I like it.
[Sung]It satisfies no mortal nee-eed.
[spoken] I like it.
{Sung:]It makes ya thin, it makes ya lean,
It takes the hair right off yer bean.
It's the worst durn stuff I ever see-een.
[Spoken]I like it!

And also, as sung by Carl Sandburg:

[Sung} Cigarettes will spoil your life,
Ruin your health and kill your baby,
Poor little innocent child!
[Spoken]They're so mild! They're so mild!
They're ALL so mild!
All cigarettes are milder than all OTHER cigarettes!

This from an era when "mildness" was the great advertising catchword for many, many brands.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking in song
From: Armen Tanzerian
Date: 22 Mar 01 - 12:39 AM

"Ruin your health and kill your baby"?!! Wow, if ever my original point was proven that no matter how much lies and prevarication the tobacco companies pumped out, everyone knew it was a killer. Sounds like Sandberg even anticipated the second-hand smoke and/or pre-natal danger angle.

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking in song
From: toadfrog
Date: 22 Mar 01 - 01:02 AM

Mr. Tanzerian: Interesting point. Think about this. Do you think that if a person is easily fooled, it is proper to cheat that fool? Or go one step further. If some person is greedy, is it right and moral to use his/her greed to cheat him/her? Should we even have laws against fraud? After all, if someone is cheated he has only his own stupidity to blame. Is it o.k. to play on other peoples' weaknesses to cheat them out of money? If not, why is it o.k. to manipulate those weaknesses to destroy his or her health?

People are weak and suggestible. Otherwise we would have no advertising industry, and of course no smokers. It is said that people are responsible for the consequences of their own acts. O.k. but why should only the little guy (and his family) have to pay for these consequences. Why not the big guy who manipulates, destroys, and has no principles?

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking in song
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Mar 01 - 01:11 AM

Excellent points, toadfrog, esp. considering the fact that they've admitted to putting addictive chemicals in them and lied about having done so. (I am sure McDonalds does the same thing to their fries! Someday, someone will prove me right!**BG*)

HERE is an interesting, previous thread on quitting smoking.

katanadamantnon-smoker
whoifshebecomesawidowbecauseherhusbandgothookedat16willwantsomekindof
S-A-T-I-S-F-A-C-T-I-O-N!

Subject: Lyr Add: THE POWER OF A CIGARETTE
From: bill\sables
Date: 22 Mar 01 - 06:21 AM

THE POWER OF A CIGARETTE

'Tis Yuletide out in the trenches, the night is cold and drear.
With never a sign from our sturdy line, of the foeman who lurks so near.
Our boys they are staunch and ready, though chilled to the bone and wet,
But their eyes grow bright as they place a light to a Woodbine cigarette.

Merely a pinch of tobacco encased in a paper shell,
But it has a power in the midnight hour the soldier alone can tell
For it whispers of dear old England; of home, and his heart's desire
And it seems to show in its ruddy glow the gleam of a homestead fire.

It brings to his mental vision the faces of those he loves,
And he softly sighs as he clasps his eyes on his tattered and war-torn gloves.
It speaks to him too of friendship and colleagues who ne'er forget
And his heart grows glad as the soldier lad inhales from his cigarette

'Tis Yuletide out in the trenches, the enemy close at hand,
But he quite forgets while his cigarettes whisper softly of Motherland.

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking in song
From: Whistle Stop
Date: 22 Mar 01 - 08:32 AM

It doesn't bother me if the tobacco companies are forced to pay through the nose for poisoning people all these years, even with the victims' active participation. But cigarettes are great "props," in songs as in movies (think Humphrey Bogart, James Dean, others). I've written them into songs myself, as have lots of people, even though it's been years since I smoked.

Toss me a cigarette, I think there's one in my raincoat
We smoked the last one an hour ago
So I looked at the scenery...

Nice image, even if these things do kill you.

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking in song
From: GUEST,Martin Carthy
Date: 22 Mar 01 - 03:40 PM

Dear Whistle Stop,

There's this guy named Paul Simon who ripped off my guitar arrangement of Scarborough Fair.

Now I see that he's ripped off some of your lines. What a bugger, you should sue the prick.

In solidarity,

MC

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking in song
From: Whistle Stop
Date: 23 Mar 01 - 07:56 AM

Why deny the obvious?

Subject: Lyr Add: SMOKE GOES EVERYWHERE (Bob Lusk)
From: GUEST,Bob Lusk
Date: 23 Mar 01 - 09:34 PM

I'll apologize for submitting this since I had put it on a forum here once before and it it long. This is a song I wrote a few years ago for a hearing on second hand smoke. Kind of condenses the facts. I'm having it recorded by a local gospel group in a few months.

Thanks - Bob

SMOKE GOES EVERYWHERE
Words by Bob Lusk c. 1999. Tune "I've Been Everywhere"

Chorus:
Smoke goes everywhere, smoke goes everywhere
On your clothes and in your hair
Smoke goes everywhere
Smoke fills up the air, smoke goes everywhere

Sung:
And smoke will give you:
Mouth cancer, gum cancer, throat cancer, larynx cancer,
Kidney cancer, esophagus cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer,
Pancreatic cancer, cervical cancer, bladder cancer, and lun---g cancer

Chorus:
Smoke goes everywhere, smoke goes everywhere
On your clothes and in your hair
Smoke goes everywhere
Smoke fills up the air, smoke goes everywhere

Don't smoke, Please don't smoke!
Don't smoke, Please don't smoke!
Don't smoke, Please don't smoke!
Don't smoke, Please don't smoke!
Ple-a-s-e - don't smoke!

And it will give you:

Sung:
Heart disease, hypertension, high cholesterol, emphysema, stroke, allergies, ulcers, headaches,
Coughs, colds, wheezing, asthma,
Bronchitis, pneumonia and - Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

Spoken:
It'll also give you wrinkles and bad hair.
It kills your cilia and it will kill you.
Also burn down your house. 50% of all fires are caused by cigarettes.

Chorus:
Smoke goes everywhere, smoke goes everywhere
On your clothes and in your hair
Smoke goes everywhere
Smoke fills up the air, smoke goes everywhere

Spoken:
There are over 4,000 chemicals in cigarette smoke.
We know 43 cause cancer and that 401 are toxic.
We're not sure about the other 3,556 but we don't think they are good for you. Not exactly from your health food store!

Sung:
And smoke has nicotine, tar, carbon monoxide, vinyl chloride,
Hydrogen cyanide, methanol, ammonia, arsenic,
Toluene, tolu-i-dine, naphthalene, naphthy-l-amine,
Nickel, phenol, butane, pyrene,
Benzo-pyrene, urethane, acetone, cadmium, polonium,
DDT. DDDDD TTTTT DDT, DDT

Chorus:
Smoke goes everywhere, smoke goes everywhere
On your clothes and in your hair
Smoke goes everywhere
Smoke fills up the air, smoke goes everywhere
Smoke doesn't care, smoke goes everywhere.

Spoken:
And now the kids: (we haven't even talked about the kids yet)

Sung:
Spontaneous abortion – that means they won't even be born-,
Fetal deaths, crib deaths, pre-term births, low birth weight,
Bronchitis, pneumonia, ear infections.

Spoken:
It'll even make them smell bad. Nothing worse than a smelly baby!
If the mother smokes, smoke goes in the bloodstream from the mother to the baby – kids born a smoker, doesn't stand a chance.

Chorus:
Smoke kills everyone, smoke kills everyone
Your daughter and your son,
Smoke kills everyone, smoke kills everyone
Smoke kills everyone.

Spoken ala Arlo Guthrie:
And it kills more people than alcohol, car accidents, suicides, murders and AIDS combined.
It kills more people than other drugs like heroin, crack ,marihuana, or cocaine. I mean it kills more people than all those things put together.

Chorus:
Smoke kills everyone, smoke kills everyone
The old and the young,
Smoke kills everyone.
Smoke kills everyone, smoke kills everyone

Don't smoke, Please don't smoke!
Don't smoke, Please don't smoke!
Don't smoke, Please don't smoke!
Don't smoke, Please don't smoke!
Ple -a-s-e - don't smoke!

Don't smoke around my kid in restaurants, please!

Subject: Lyr Add: SMOKER'S SONG (Peter Ross, Hamish Imlach)
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 24 Mar 01 - 05:55 PM

It seems this song isn't in the DT. The written lyrics don't give a true idea. Imagine them sung by Hamish Imlach interspersed with a really vicious smoker's cough. Sorry I can't provide a tune, not even a name for it, although it is a fairly familiar one:


SMOKER'S SONG
(Peter Ross / Hamish Imlach)
As recorded by Hamish Imlach on "Sonny's Dream" (1987)

Now I'm a social outcast
A modern-day refugee
Joy turns to gloom when I walk into a room
They all turn their back upon me
I'm not a thug or a mugger
I've not murdered anyone yet
But you would think I was Charles bloody Manson
When I light up a cigarette

Some folk get their kicks from alcohol
Some stuff their nose with cocaine
Some folk like knocking old women about
Some like tae batter their weans
There's masochists, sadists or rapists
Folk that like dressing in drag
I'm no' like them, that's no' my game
Gimme peace just to light one more fag

You can snuff it doing too much exercise
You can snuff it not doing enough
You can snuff it by eating too little
You know, you can snuff it eating too much
You can snuff it staying out late at night
You can snuff it lying in your bed
So my way of snuffing is to keep right on puffing
It's on my own bloody head

Spare a thought for all the smokers
Doing their bit for the Crown
Remember when a smoker lights up
He's keeping your income tax down

Yes he is
He's keeping your income tax down

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking in song
From: Susan of DT
Date: 25 Mar 01 - 12:20 PM

Not musical, but cigarettes were widely nicknamed "coffin nails" in the 20s and 30s.

There are a couple of traditional "tobacco is bad" songs in DigiTrad: Check out Tobacco Union, Tobacco Song and Tobacco's but an Indian Weed.

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking in song
From: Kim C
Date: 26 Mar 01 - 12:00 PM

How could I forget! John Bull Tin by Tom Russell.

Personally, I prefer a cigar. I have never been influenced by advertising in this endeavor because I have never SEEN any advertising for cigars. It's all my brother's fault. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking in song
From: GUEST,Matt_R
Date: 26 Mar 01 - 12:05 PM

First he smoked my eyelid, then he punched my cigarette.

Subject: Lyr Add: MY LAST CIGAR
From: GUEST,Roll&Go-C
Date: 26 Mar 01 - 12:54 PM

I offer this ironic gem from the 19th century.

MY LAST CIGAR
(Anon mid 1800's, published in READ 'EM AND WEEP; first published in 1868)

'Twas off the blue Canary Isles,
A glorious summer day,
I sat upon the quarter deck,
And whiffed my cares away;
And as the volumed smoke arose,
Like incense in the air,
I breath'd a sigh to think, in sooth,
It was my last cigar.

Chorus:

It was my last cigar;
It was my last cigar,
I breath'd a sigh to think, in sooth,
It was my last cigar.

I leaned upon the quarter rail,
And looked down in the sea,
E'en there the purple wreath of smoke
Was curling gracefully;
Oh, what had I at such a time
To do with wasting care!
Alas, the trembling tear proclaimed
It was my last cigar. (CHO)

I watched the ashes as it came
Fast drawing toward the end;
I watched it as a friend would watch
Beside a dying friend;
But still the flame crept slowly on;
It vanished into air;
I throw it from me, spare the tale,
It was my last cigar. (CHO)

I've seen the land of all I love
Fade in the distance dim;
I've watched above the blighted heart,
Where once proud hope hath been
; But I've never known a sorrow
That could with that compare,
When off the blue Canaries,
I smoked my last cigar. (CHO)

And a woman is only a woman but...;)

Subject: Lyr Add: MY LAST CIGARETTE (Sydney Carter)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 11 Feb 22 - 02:36 PM

This is the song that Roger the skiffler mentioned back on 20 Mar 01 - 08:28 AM:


MY LAST CIGARETTE
Words and music by Sydney Carter
As recorded by Sheila Hancock on Decca F.11618 (45rpm, 1963)

SPOKEN: Sidney, rush down to the corner and get me a packet of king-sized. (Filter?) No, menthol; I want to feel like a fresh mountain stream!

1. Tobacco, tobacco, I hate you, I do.
Like Venus I'd look if it wasn't for you,
But I'll give up the habit; I will even yet
When I've had just one more cigarette.

2. It wasn't the whiskey; it wasn't the wine
That made such a wreck of this body of mine.
I'll give up the habit; I will even yet,
When I've had just one more cigarette.

(Cough....cough....cough....cough)

3. Under my eyes are a couple of bags.
I blame it all onto a packet of fags,
But I'll give up the habit; I will even yet,
When I've had just one more cigarette.

4. My teeth are all yellow and so is my tongue.
I breathe through a kipper; I call it a lung,
But I'll give up the habit; I will even yet,
When I've had just one more cigarette.

(Cough....cough....cough....cough....cough)

5. Nail in my coffin, so pale and so thin,
I am a fool to keep knocking you in.
You think you can kill me; how much do you bet?
When I've had just one more cigarette.

6. I'll fling the packet away, away,
Fifty times in a week, I say—
Fling the packet away, away,
When I've had just one more cigarette.

(Cough....cough....cough....cough....cough)

Subject: RE: Songs about smoking (tobacco, cigars, pipes, etc.)
From: Joe_F
Date: 11 Feb 22 - 09:12 PM

If I Were King

    If I were king, my pipe should be premier.
       The skies of time and chance are seldom clear,
       We would inform them all with bland blue weather.
       Delight alone would need to shed a tear,
       For dream and deed should war no more together.

    Art should aspire, yet ugliness be dear;
       Beauty, the shaft, should speed with wit for feather;
       And love, sweet love, should never fall to sere,
       If I were king.

    But politics should find no harbour near;
       The Philistine should fear to slip his tether;
       Tobacco should be duty free, and beer;
       In fact, in room of this, the age of leather,
       An age of gold all radiant should appear,
       If I were king.

       William Ernest Henley

Subject: RE: Songs about smoking (tobacco, cigars, pipes, etc.)
From: Joe_F
Date: 11 Feb 22 - 09:22 PM

Ode To Tobacco
Ode to Tobacco

by C. S. Calverley

Thou, who when fears attack
Bidst them avaunt, and Black
Care, at the horseman's back
Perching, unseatest;
Sweet when the morn is gray;
Sweet when they've cleared away
Lunch; and at close of day
Possibly sweetest!

I have a liking old
For thee, though manifold
Stories, I know, are told
Not to thy credit:
How one (or two at most)
Drops make a cat a ghost,—
Useless, except to roast—
Doctors have said it;

How they who use fusees
All grow by slow degrees
Brainless as chimpanzees,
Meagre as lizards,
Go mad, and beat their wives,
Plunge (after shocking lives)
Razors and carving-knives
Into their gizzards.

Confound such knavish tricks!
Yet know I five or six
Smokers who freely mix
Still with their neighbors,—
Jones, who, I'm glad to say,
Asked leave of Mrs. J.,
Daily absorbs a clay
After his labors.

Cats may have had their goose
Cooked by tobacco juice;
Still, why deny its use
Thoughtfully taken?
We're not as tabbies are;
Smith, take a fresh cigar!
Jones, the tobacco jar!
Here's to thee, Bacon!