Since I pretty much only listen to "old music," recorded by now-dead people, it should be no surprise I listen to a lot of music from hippie era, and we all know hippies liked to get high, so I've listened to many songs about some "girl" named MARY JANE. Turns out, this Mary Jane woman is NOT a woman at all, but instead slang for marijuana, better known as pot, weed, or grass. Well, in celebration and, I guess, solidarity of Washington's legal marijuana shops opening today/this week I'd like to share my fave song titled "Mary Jane." It's by the group the Renaissance. Um, tho' it sounds more like a warning to not smoke as there's a suggestion Mary Jane might wanna "get off the devil's merry-go-round!"

There's a ton of bands which used "Mary Jane" as a song title, narrative, and for skunky inspiration: Fickle Finger, the Baroques, the Spokesmen (!!), the Sweet Smoke, the Tombstones, Willie & The Red Rubber Band, the XLs, Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera, the Excells, Rob London (& the Rogues), the Red House, the Everly Brothers' (their "Mary Jane" is fuzz drenched heaven), and even Del Shannon had a try.