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"Take a Whiff on Me" (Roud 10062) is an American folk song, with references to the use of cocaine. [1] It is also known as "Take a Whiff (on Me)", "Cocaine Habit", and "Cocaine Habit Blues". [2]
This song was collected by John and Alan Lomax from Iron Head and Lead Belly, as well as other sources. [3]
The first recording appears to be the 1930 recording by Memphis Jug Band titled "Cocaine Habit Blues." [4]
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Huddie William Ledbetter, better known by the stage name Lead Belly, was an American folk and blues singer notable for his strong vocals, virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the folk standards he introduced, including his renditions of "In the Pines", "Goodnight, Irene", "Midnight Special", "Cotton Fields", and "Boll Weevil".
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The Memphis Jug Band was an American musical group active from the mid-1920s to the late-1950s. The band featured harmonica, kazoo, fiddle and mandolin or banjolin, backed by guitar, piano, washboard, washtub bass and jug. They played slow blues, pop songs, humorous songs and upbeat dance numbers with jazz and string band flavors. The band made the first commercial recordings in Memphis, Tennessee, and recorded more sides than any other prewar jug band.
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"The Bourgeois Blues" is a blues song by American folk and blues musician Lead Belly. It was written in June 1937 in response to the discrimination and segregation that he faced during a visit to Washington, D.C. to record for Alan Lomax. It rails against racism, the Jim Crow laws, and the conditions of contemporary African Americans in the southern United States. The song was recorded in December 1938 for the Library of Congress and re-recorded in 1939 for commercial release.
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"Little Sadie" is a 20th-century American folk ballad written in Dorian mode. It is also known variously as "Bad Lee Brown", "Cocaine Blues", "Transfusion Blues", "East St. Louis Blues", "Late One Night", "Penitentiary Blues" and other titles. It tells the story of a man who is apprehended after shooting a woman, in some versions his wife or girlfriend. He is then sentenced by a judge.
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Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions is an American folk music album. It was recorded live by the band of the same name at the Top of the Tangent coffee house in Palo Alto, California in July, 1964, and released in 1999.
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Cocaine use was common among black labourers in the Mississippi delta where blues first emerged, and was sold in various ... 'Cocaine Habit Blues (Take a Whiff on Me)', also known as 'Tell it to Me', is usually associated with Leadbelly, ...
Porter wasn't the only composer writing about cocaine in 1934. Huddie Ledbetter wrote a drug song called Take a Whiff On Me. "I'se got a nickel, you'se got a dime. You buy the coke and I'll buy the wine. Cocaine's for horses and not for men.
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