Another April 20 and Delaware continues to creep slowly towards making recreational marijuana not just legal but obtainable. Don’t bogart that process!
The Fraternity of Man was a psychedelic blues band formed by members of Lowell George’s group The Factory after he left for the Mothers of Invention. This slow country number about dope-smoking etiquette, officially titled “Don’t Bogart Me,” appeared on the band’s eponymous debut LP. It was released as a single and, given its subject, got no airplay. Both the song and the album would have remained in obscurity had the tune not turned up in the hippie film classic “Easy Rider” and its top-selling soundtrack album.
What became known as “Don’t Bogart That Joint” gets played by lots of bands as a comic break in concert. Little Feat put it on their 1978 live album “Waiting for Columbus.”
The Fraternity of Man couldn’t capitalize on the song’s popularity because the rest of their repertoire sounded nothing like it, even when the subject was similar. The leadoff track on their first LP, “In the Morning,” is an ode to what a later generation would term “waking and baking” that sounds a lot like an imitation of the Doors.
