7. Iowa Pot

Lyrics & music: Jerry Samuels
© Wise Brothers Music LLC
Vocal arrangement © 2013 Mike Agranoff (with helpful kibbitzing from Stuart Markus)

Vocals: Mike Agranoff, Stuart Markus, Hillary Foxsong, & Gerry McKeveny

Well, there are lots of drinking songs.  Maybe this can be a 21st-century equivalent.  (Or perhaps a 1960s equivalent.)  I first heard this song sung around a campfire at the Philadelphia Folk Festival in the early 80s.  That was an appropriate place, considering the subject matter.  I learned it, and then immediately thought how suitable the song would be for a barbershop quartet.  That concept stewed in my head for about 20 years until I finally got around to writing the vocal arrangement.  The composer Jerry Samuels is also known as "Napoleon XIV," who wrote "They're Coming To Take Me Away" (Haha! Hoho! Heehee!)

Chorus
Oh, I owe a lot to Iowa pot, Iowa grown and bred.
I never knew such beautiful boo
Grew in this groovy land I'm in, and I'm in-
Debted indeed to Iowa weed, Iowa bred and born, O,
I owe a lot to Iowa pot, and that's not just Iowa corn.

1.
Contraband in the land of mañana is so ruthlessly reckless to cop.
But those Iowans cop what they wanna, standing on a marijuana crop.
And it grows in that midwestern section.
And there isn't a glimmer of doubt.
It would shake a Jamaica connection,
'Cause it's cheap, deep, and far fleeping out.

Chorus

2.
Well, I never did care for domestic. I was always turning it down.
But I just smoked a joint so majestic, so fentestic, it's the best stick in town.
So you keep your Colombian rip-off, and your shady Canadian scene.
For I'd rather be singeing my lip off
On some neat, sweet, Iowa green.

Chorus