G.Love – ‘Who’s Got The Weed’

You know why Australia is better than America? Because we get an exclusive, antipodean-only release from the king of the harmonica, Mr G.Love himself. With his indomitable Special Sauce band, Garreth Dutton has been making records for longer than many of us have been alive. He’s the man who links Bob Dylan with Cypress Hill, the man who let a young Jack Johnson play on his album back in 1999 when nobody knew who the Hawaiian crooner was. G.Love raps, sings, plays guitar and harmonica, keeping his feet firmly entrenched in beloved Philly scene.

I got the chance to speak to G on the phone the other day (he said he was down here for promo, his publicist revealed it was actually for surfing) and he was disarmingly genuine for a guy who’s made his living drawling sweet nothings to the ladyfolk. Now about to embark on his 15th year of touring Australia (who the hell knew we were that interesting?), he decided to put together an album just for us, entitled The Long Way Down. That’s actually not hard for G, who typically records three times as many songs as he can fit on a CD any time he walks into the studio. The dude’s got jams coming out of his ears and eyeballs, spilling onto the floor to join the other blues ditties that didn’t make the cut. This song isn’t one of them, but it has never been released in this country so I think it can be reclassified as such.

‘Who’s Got The Weed’ is an ode to gardening. Just kidding. As G.Love explained, there have been so many good songs about having a joint that he just had to compose his own to join “the pantheon of weed anthems.” Convinced that Snoop Dogg, Dr Dre and friends shouldn’t have all the fun, G brings the funk on this slow-burning (pun semi-intended) track that comes off a bit like a Chili Peppers song before they started using the word ‘California’ all the time. It’s smooth, it’s sexy and it has highly realistic sounds of cones being punched through a monster bong. No jokes, One A Day attended a funeral the other day, and this was playing in the car on the way there. I spent the whole service singing ‘Who’s got the weeeeeeeeeeeeed?’ in my head. I’ve become a terrible person. But G.Love is most definitely not terrible, he’s lovely. Kick back and enjoy this, any time before or after 4:20.

G.Love – ‘Who’s Got The Weed’

G’s Record Label, Philadelphonic.