2003 APRIL 20 #110
Ralph Carmichael and Kurt Kaiser - Natural High
'420' (April 20th) has been labeled as a holiday dedicated to celebrating the culture of cannabis and the joys of the joint. The 'claim' is that '420' entered drug parlance as a term signifying the time to light up a joint (see Snopes' Urban Legend Reference Pages for more information.)
To celebrate 4-20 (and a religious recording every Sunday) the 365 Days project catches the groove of Carmichael and Kaiser on this cut from 1970.
Ralph Carmichael writes on the back cover notes:
To an experimenter in drugs, being "high" carries with it the connotation of escaping... being above it all... rid of the odd shaped pieces of life that won't fit together... temporary release from unbearable hopelessness. But... this musical was written for the use on another group of experimenters... kids who have found that sensation is not the essence of fulfillment... only truth is the essence of fulfillment. Jesus said, ""I am the way, the truth, and the life." The reality of Christ becomes out source of truth, love and strength which enables us to face the reality of life. Christ is not an escape from reality - He is reality. So in this sense, Christ is our NATURAL HIGH.
Kurt Kaiser continues with:
Kids' music changes almost weekly. We have the responsibility to change, too. Truth doesn't change - but vernacular, musical idiom, and styles definitely do change. Problems that concern kids also concern parents, and NATURAL HIGH provides us with the opportunity to express ourselves in the "straight ahead - gang sound" of today. It's honest, true, unrefined and, we feel, "where it's at."
Have a fantastic Sunday 'breathing in' the air around you.
- Otis Fodder
TT-4:01 / 5.5MB / 192kbps 44.1khz
from the LP, "Natural High - A Folk Musical About
God's Son"
(Light Records LS-5558-LP) 1970
