From Black Sabbath and Cathedral, to Electric Wizard and Clutch and beyond, these are the 150 songs by 150 bands that you should get mega stoned to today.
But more importantly, why the hell do we always celebrate 4/20 (or even 4:20) as the date or time to get high? According to an article from The High Times dating back to 2014, it all started with a group of five high school kids attending the San Rafael High School in 1971. The group started smoking weed regularly under the statue of Louis Pasteur at 4:20 and used the password "420 Louis."
The term got revived in 1990 after a flyer began circulating around Grateful Dead shows in Northern California, specifically around the San Rafael area. The flyer managed to make its way to the High Times offices in New York, where it was published and promoted "the grandmaster of all holidays: 4/20, or April 20th."
Better yet, SF Gate even got a hold of "Waldo Steve," one of the original kids that used to smoke under the statue. In an article dating back to 2000, Waldo Steve said the kids would shout "420 Louis" at one another in the hallways as a kind of code to ask if anyone had weed.
"It was just a joke, but it came to mean all kinds of things, like 'Do you have any?' or 'Do I look stoned?' " he said. "Parents and teachers wouldn't know what we were talking about."
Waldo Steve later added that the whole thing really wasn't a big deal. "We have proof, we were the first. I mean, it's not like we wrote a book or invented anything. We just came up with a phrase. But it's kind of an honor that this emanated from San Rafael."
Anyway, go ahead and blast this playlist at full volume. Everyone within earshot will probably understand.
