Brian Robbins: Music

• MP3 play whole song, hi-fi (broadband)

"Marijuana" has become a big underground hit (no pun intended). For this I am grateful, but for some reason, everyone seems to think that it is a Phish song.

The version that has been circulating around is a rough demo that I made. I just threw up a crappy microphone and hit record. The polished version was released on my first album, “Banned in the State of Utah.”

While living in Boston, I used to walk by a movie theater on my way to school. One day I noticed a big sign in the window that proudly proclaimed, “We drug test all our employees.” I found myself pondering the absurdity of a society that looks favorably upon a business that drug tests the guy who doles out the popcorn, or rips your ticket in half. The intent of the sign was obviously to make the public nod approvingly at the “responsibility and good citizenship” of the theatre. Being a bit of a civil libertarian, I had a decidedly different reaction. While walking around the city that afternoon I wrote the hook of the song: “Marijuana, the government wants to test me when I pee,” and mapped out most of the verses.

MARIJUANA (The government wants to test me when I pee)
Words and Music: Brian Robbins
Album - BANNED IN THE STATE OF UTAH

Well once upon a time in 1776,
Thomas Jefferson signed his name on a piece of marijuana,
and this document was a symbol of freedom and of liberty,
at least for the rich, white gentry.

As time marched along,
this plant that I refer to has been used for everything,
from medicine to the American flag.
And now it seems to me
that somewhere along the way,
things got messed up, yeah, got a little messed up,
Oh marijuana.
A gift of God to my brothers and me.
Oh marijuana
Now the government wants to test me when I pee.

Well some say a conspiracy
of the petro-chemical and pulp-paper industries combined
in a crazy plot to kill the competition.
Government hysteria, conflict of interest and monopoly,
with total impunity.

Yeah, so, if you don’t buy the conspiracy,
just think about the reality
that your tax dollars go
to spray poison on the fields of a farmer in South America.
And as an added bonus,
you don’t know who gets to smoke that poison pot.
It could be someone that you even like.

Oh marijuana
a gift of God to my brothers and me
Oh marijuana
now the government wants to test me when I pee.
Oh marijuana
you cant legislate your own morality.
Oh marijuana
the government wants to test me when I __

Reefer madness, chronic blindness,
what is the half-life of bad propaganda?
Hired to promote the status quo,
but what is the shelf life of bad legislation
Policies fail, denied bail,
you made him a demon now pay for his trip to prison.
The hypocrite smirks, it’s a moral disgrace
as he reads from a law that was written
about the same time that he had
his last original thought.

Well they said the man was dying,
and the nausea and the pain left him wasting away
and unable to keep a meal down.
So he tried everything a prescription could obtain
but to no avail.
The side effects were worse than the pain.
So now he breaks the law
to use the one thing that seems to help him out.
And the people say, Oh you’re just getting’ high.
Not to change the subject but,
didn’t you ever wonder why getting’ high’s a crime
in the first place?

Oh marijuana.
Oh marijuana
Oh marijuana
now the government wants to test me when I pee.