Words from MySpace - Sign O Times

"Sign O Times" was the first Prince song I remember hearing (back in 87). Not that I became an instant Prince-fan, but still...

The lyric goes:

In september my cousin tried reefer for the first time.
Now he's doing horse.
It's June.

As a 13 year old I didn't have the slightest clue as to what Reefer where (however I knew what Horse was ) but of course I wanted to find out...
Now, this was back in the ages of stones and there wasn't any Internet, Googles and Wikipedias. I used a common dictionary and somehow I ended up concluding that reefer was misspelled, cause reefer couldn't be found and the closest word that actually made some kind of sense was that it had something to do with paying taxes.

I found the explanation a bit unsatisfactory.
But yeah.. sure paying taxes can be e real drag, and if you're a very sensitive person like Prince's cousin might be, who knows... paying taxes could be the very thing that pushes you over the edge towards a life in drug-hell.

I was only 13, what did I know?

Now why am I telling you this?
Currently I'm reading "Brother Ray" and today he talked about reefer in the same sense that Prince actually ment it - Reefer as in a synonym for cannabis or spliff.
I've come full circle.

********************