Der Bingle or Der Bongle?
Word that Bing Crosby was a big pot smoker suddenly makes so much about his music and demeanor, not to mention his performances, make more sense. Take the clip above, which is from The Road to Morocco. It helps explain what Der Bingle is rolling and what he and Bob Hope are doing in North Africa in the first place (decades before Crosby, Stills, & Nash boarded the Marrakesh Express).
From Destiny-land, the happiest blog on Earth, comes this:
Things I didn't know about Bing Crosby…
A 2001 biography of Crosby by Village Voice jazz critic Gary Giddins says that Louis Armstrong's influence on Crosby "extended to his love of marijuana." Bing smoked it during his early career when it was legal and "surprised interviewers" in the 1960s and 70s by advocating its decriminalization, as did Armstrong. Crosby even recommended that his son smoke pot instead of drinking alcohol, if Wikipedia is to be believed. They quote his son as saying that "There were other times when marijuana was mentioned and he'd get a smile on his face…."
And it makes the Bowie-Bing Drummer Boy shtick a little more understandable too.