1936
WEED SMOKERS DREAM * THE HARLEM HAMFATS * VOCALION 1005 * UK
Not from Harlem but Chicago the group originally backed Jazz and blues singers, but went on to cut some forty records under their own name. On Weed Smokers Dream the vocals are by 'Kansas' Joe McCoy, who also co wrote the song with trumpeter Herb Morland, other members of the outfit on this recording were: Odell Rand, clarinet; Horace Malcombe, piano; Charles McCoy (brother of Joe) guitar and mandolin; John Lindsay, bass, and Fred Flynn, drums. The song, to give it it's full title, Weed Smokers Dream (Why Don't You Do Now) went on to become a Jazz and Blues standard under its new name Why Don't You Do Right after McCoy rewrote the lyrics. Interestingly the use of the word 'weed' didn't seem to bother the authorities as much as it would some forty years later when mention of the notorious substance - "a weed with it's roots in hell" - on record was instantly outlawed by the self appointed guardians of our morals; another of the groups titles was Tampa Red's Let's Get Drunk And Truck .