Don't Bogart Me

Album: The Fraternity Of Man (1968)
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Songfacts®:

  • "Don't Bogart Me" is far better known as "Don't Bogart That Joint," which is the line that repeats throughout the song. By censoring "joint" from the title, it helped keep the album on shelves (tolerance for drug references varied by state in 1968).

    The term "bogart" means to not share, so the song is asking us to be cool and pass the joint around after taking a puff. It's a reference to the famous actor Humphrey Bogart, who often showed up in movie scenes with a cigarette dangling from his lips, usually without actively smoking it. This way of holding a cigarette became associated with selfishly keeping something to oneself rather than sharing. So if someone is keeping the joint in their mouth without smoking it or passing it on, much like Bogart's dangling cigarette, they're "bogarting that joint."
  • This is the best known song by The Fraternity Of Man, a six-piece group who were the class clowns in the San Francisco music scene. They released just one album (their 1968 self-titled debut) but did show up on some heady bills, including a concert at the Hollywood Bowl with Janis Joplin and Iron Butterfly where they played the song.

    Their drummer, Richie Hayward, had played in a group called The Factory with Lowell George and joined George's band Little Feat in 1969. Little Feat often played the song in concert and included it on their seminal 1978 live album Waiting For Columbus, where it's listed as "Don't Bogart That Joint."

    Another Fraternity Of Man member was bass player Martin Kibbee, who co-wrote a handful of songs for Little Feat, including "Dixie Chicken."
  • In 1969 "Don't Bogart Me" was used in the movie Easy Rider, a counterculture classic starring Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. The song appears on the movie soundtrack, which far outsold the Fraternity Of Man album. Better known songs on the soundtrack include "The Weight" by The Band and "Born To Be Wild" by Steppenwolf.
  • The song was written by band members Elliot Ingber and Larry Wagner. Ingber later joined Frank Zappa's group, The Mothers Of Invention.

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