Favorite 100 Songs of the 80s: (#73) Musical Youth – Pass The Dutchie

I guess “Pass The Dutchie” was my informal introduction to world of smoking the funny stuff. At 11-years old I was hardly an expert on lyrical song meanings (nor am I now), but I strongly recall great debate on what this tune was really about.

The facts are that a “Dutchie” is a Jamaican cooking pot. While in the realm of music that’s stupid and irrelevant, I later learned the term was subbed in for what was originally “Kutchie”, which’s indeed a pot containing weed. As it turns out a group called The Mighty Diamonds originally recorded a song called “Pass The Kutchie” with a much lower beat and clearly about getting high. The song was received with little fanfare.

Musical Youth, a group of kids between the ages of 11 and 16 were given the song with the lyric switched to “Dutchie” and a quicker tempo—and the rest was history.

There’s more to the song and how the group was ultimately screwed, but this is a countdown of my favorite 80’s tunes—not a VH-1 episode of Behind The Music.

I probably didn’t know a third of the lyrics, but I couldn’t stop mumbling along anyway.

How does it feel when you got no food?

Chart Success: Their only hit in America, “Pass the Dutchie” reached number-ten on the Billboard Top 100 and remained on the charts for 18 weeks. It finished 1983 ranked 91^st on the Billboard Top 100.

Great Lyrics: I’m not sure there’s a song in this countdown with lyrics that make less sense. To me, that’s glorious. #WhySoSerious

“It was a cool and lovely breezy afternoon
(How does it feel when you’ve got no food?)
You could feel it ’cause it was the month of June
(How does it feel when you’ve got no food?)
So I left my gate and went out for a walk
(How does it feel when you’ve got no food?)
As I pass the dreadlocks’ camp I heard them say
(How does it feel when you’ve got no food?)”

Fun Fact: Many don’t know this, but “Pass The Dutchie” was one of the more historical videos in pop culture history. It’s actually the first black act to be on MTV regularly, beating Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” by a few weeks (thanks Songfacts.com for this stat).

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97. The Police – Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic

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95. Billy Joel – Uptown Girl

94. Cyndi Lauper – Time After Time

93. Kenny Loggins – Danger Zone

92. Peter Gabriel – In Your Eyes

91. Night Ranger – Sister Christian

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