- Question
- Where does 420 come from?
- Argument1 of 2›
Bob Dylan invented 420
His song “Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35 ” contains a reference to 420 and marijuana.
The argument
The claim rests on a piece of arithmetic hidden in a title. Bob Dylan has a song titled "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35." 12 multiplied by 35 equals 420, and this song contains the lyrics "everybody must get stoned", thereby linking 420 and marijuana. The two halves together are what make the reading more than a numerical curiosity: the number is in the title and the subject is in the lyric, so the song joins a figure and a meaning that had no prior connection to one another. The chronology supplies the second half of the case. This song came out in 1966, which on this account is the first known usage of 420, predating the infamous concert flyers at a Grateful Dead concert that are more usually credited with spreading the term. If the song is genuinely the earliest instance, then every later appearance of 420 as a code for marijuana descends from it, whether or not the people using it knew where it had come from. The final step is a claim about what inventing a term consists of. Since Bob Dylan wrote the song that contains the hidden code that indicates 420, the argument holds it is clear that he created the term. Those who later noticed that multiplying the two numbers in the title produces 420 found something that was already there; they did not make it, any more than a reader makes the meaning of a sentence by understanding it. Authorship on this view belongs to whoever first put the number and the meaning together. As the man who originally connected 420 and marijuana, Bob Dylan created this term, not the people who discovered that multiplying these numbers led to 420.
Context
420 is a term that refers to smoking marijuana and is also a holiday (April 20th), where people celebrate consuming marijuana. It has mysterious origins, and understanding which one theory regarding it is correct will settle a decades-old cultural debate.
Premises
Counter-arguments
Bob Dylan may have contributed to 420's popular use with his song, but he did not create it. He wrote a song that contains no direct reference to 420 that just happens to be about marijuana. “Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35” may be a song you listen to on 420, but it is not the origin of 420. If you start applying arithmetic to every numeric reference in marijuana-themed songs, you’ll find others that create a combination of 4, 2, and 0. “Rainy Day Women’s #12 & 35” multiplication association to 420 is pure coincidence.