Tuesday, March 22, 2011

More Doctor Hook

Trouble is...Doctor Hook was, and still is really addictive. This great band put to music poems from Shel Siverstein to make some of the most intense songs of the '70s and '80s. Last concert I saw was after they had come so far down in the world that they were playing at the Coach House Motor Inn in North Bay Ontario. Which to me just goes to show that great music, and great poetry just does not sell.

I mean, listen to this one...the "Ballad of Lucy Jordan". And tell me you don't get a catch in your throat. (This one always brings a tear to MY eyes!)

Sheldon Silverstein was a great, some would suggest THE greatest hippie poet of the '70s. He was a regular staple in Playboy Magazine where he would write songs and ballads about mundane things like Lucy Jordan, and wild amazing rides about dicing with the Devil. (And the devil said, with a grin, now YOUR point is thirteen.) and in other, more mainstream magazines. He was Uncle Shelby to all you folks who grew up in the 70's. But when those poems were turned into music by a competent rockabilly band with a lead singer with a catch in his throat, you get "Carry me Carrie".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZXjUu5HWYE&feature=related

But you might prefer a lighter version of the same song...lots more pot smoke on the stage...grin!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xesfuK83mJI&feature=related

Shel was a singer himself. He liked kids and did a lot of songs for kids. And he was a regular on the Johnny Carson show, among others. One of his most famous songs was made famous by Johnny Cash....he wrote "a boy named Sue".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17XUOQRwbdo&NR=1&feature=fvwp

This is one of his personal favorites....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e5ZVIpB4sw


Shel passed away on 10 May 1999. He WON'T rest in peace... Because every time I feel down, he drags me back into the light.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqQQjS2GmxI&feature=related