4/20: A Passage To Bangkok
The only song I could have had for today!
Our first stop is in Bogota
To check Colombian fields.
The natives smile and pass along
A sample of their yield.
This is how much of a nerd I was: Growing up, I missed pretty much all of Rush’s drug references. It wasn’t until I watched Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage that I had any idea at all that Rush engaged in illicit extracurriculars, so to speak. This, despite the fact that they were three prog heads from the 1970’s singing about the Lord of the freakin’ Rings.
I figured it out eventually, at least.
Alex’s intoxicant of choice is cannabis—obviously. Pretty much everything that man is allowed to do on his own becomes a love letter to weed. And while “A Passage to Bangkok” was a group effort, Geddy writes in his autobiography extensively about Alex’s passion for marijuana. If there could be cannabis sommeliers, Alex would be a master.
Maybe because I’ve never had much interest in pot (it gives me a headache and makes me hangry), “A Passage to Bangkok” is one of my least favorite Rush tunes. In particular, I find the use of the vaguely racist Oriental Riff grating; I know the riff was popular in the 70’s, but the band is better than this laziness. The lyrics aren’t much better. It’s a song about drug tourism through developing countries, hopping from place to place where “the natives smile and pass along/ a sample of their yield.”
Yikes.
Anyway, despite my feelings on it, “A Passage to Bangkok” is a fan fave, and the only song I could have selected for 4/20. Have a restful and recharging weekend, however you choose to relax:
I’ve written extensively for EW&SL of my stoney younger years, so, like Dan, I too felt a kinship with this song back in my early teenage days. But even then I could tell that the melody was the equivalent of this TV commercial that was all over the TV back in the 1970s.
https://youtu.be/6YewrnKgBMM?si=Yfy9IzaM0OGtGlWW
I’m trying to remember what Geddy said about the song in the book, and nothing in particular is coming up. Did he mention the melody being taken from anything specific? One could say that the song hasn’t aged well, but it’s unfair to place current cultural values and norms on a time almost a half century ago. It all reminds me of how happy I am that cell phones and the internet weren’t around growing up — that all the stupid, offensive shit I did and said back in the day wasn’t recorded.
Having traveled quite a bit and learned how other people around the world live, my perspectives and beliefs are way more expansive from my younger years. I imagine that will only continue (hopefully) and in 20 years my view will grow wider even as my eyesight worsens….
As someone who smoked his first joint in 1979 at the age of 13, I was pretty much in the prime demographic for this song – but even I was a little embarrassed at the time by the artlessness of its "You know we totally like to get high, right?" message. I still love it, though.