Saturday, June 18, 2011

Expounding on Being a Weirdo #1 - Why Dr. Hook Rocks


"We keep gettin' richer but we can't get our picture
on the cover of  The Rolling Stone"
~Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show~

 With lyrics like, "Smear my body up with butter and take me to the Freaker's Ball," and introductions like, "George is going to sing a song from it [Penicillin Penny] just in case you have V.D. ", it's not surprising that there hasn't been a mass demand for a sunset return of Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show. I hope this blog changes things. I hope I can do justice to the tacky, yet touching music that I love. This misunderstood band with a bad-ass reputation deserves some thoughtful analysis.

Music provides the soundtrack for our lives. I remember hymns sung at my grandparent's funerals, the song that was playing when I was in a car accident, and the first lullaby I sang to my own child. Music is a powerful human interpretation of creation, complete with warts and all.

In my life, Leonard Cohen is the great musical poet, Rod Stewart the great musical sex pot, and Jimmy Buffett the great musical partying pirate. I love Rachmaninoff, Elton, Aerosmith, Alison Krauss, Willie Nelson, Ella Fitzgerald, The Beach Boys and I could go on and on. What all of these artists have in common is that their art - music - stirs our emotions. The music and lyrics bring us back to the essence of who we are.

More often than not, I use music to pick me up when I feel cut down. When I'm brought to my knees, a good laugh and a bit of silliness helps remind me of the impermanence of all things, and the happiness that comes with being in the moment. And what kind of life do we have if we're not silly during at least a few of those moments every day?

This is musical genius at it's silliest;




In my best concert going form, you might find me shaking it next to the dude with the eye patch, and going home with the lead guitarist, if only in my rocked out imagination of course (seriously though, dig him as the lead singer in this video and tell me he's not just an oozing sexy little piece of man-pie). But I digress....

Dr. Hook and the Medicine show makes me laugh. One of my favourite 'isms goes like this, "Anything that makes you smile, giggle or laugh; Marry it or Buy it."  I'm not married and I'm not a shopper, so I have to settle for what's at hand. A lot of the lines in their lyrics make me laugh out loud. Good solid belly laughs;

"When your body's had enough of me and I'm layin' flat out on the floor. When you think I've loved you all I can, I'm gonna love you a little bit more." What the hell?! If my body has had enough of you pal, just keep layin' flat out on the floor unless you're getting up to order pizza or get me a glass of water!

OR

"Night falls on the city. Baby feels the beat. Slick and sexy angel of the street. The queen of all the night birds, watch her when she walks. She don't say nothin' but baby makes her blue jeans talk." The queen of all the night birds? Really??? Seventies slang all sounds so porn, and porn is just silly.

OR

"Who's gonna water my plants? Who's gonna patch my pants and who's gonna give me the chance to feel brand new? Who's gonna iron my shirts?" HAHAHA!!! I luvvvvvv 70's dumb-man-isms. 70's men are crowned the kings of all things man-dumb. Ironically, they are still alive and well today. You've heard the one about the man who asks his wife to do all of his laundry, and his wife's reply is that the next person to dress him is going to be the funeral director. Unfortunately, I am the funeral director, so it's not so funny at my house.

OR

"Grease your lips and swing your hips, don't forget to bring your whips..." Ok, just funny 'cause who doesn't like to be greased and whipped once in a while?

OR

"I could get myself a nose job. I could diet for a year, but I'll never be Robert Redford 'cause I'm much to fond of beer." If the John Mellancamp fan is out there reading this, you'll also get a buzz from these blue collar lyrics.

OR the classic,

"Now it took seven months of urgin' just to get that local virgin with the sweet face up to my place to fool around a bit. Next day she woke up rosy and she snuggled up so cozy and when she asked me if I liked it, it hurt me to admit; I was stoned and I missed it." I need not comment on this little lyrical gem. The words paint a thousand pictures do they not?

In the style of Ray Stevens, Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show tells a story with many of their songs. Roland the Roadie and Gertrude the Groupie is a classic example.

Besides having wonderfully silly lyrics and funkadelic beats like we hear in, "Sexy Eyes", or "Walk Right In", the band cuts to the heart of things with songs we can all relate to in our broken-heartedness like, "The Things I Didn't Say".  With lines like, "Instead of saying sorry babe, we'll work it out, I said, if that's the way you want it I won't stand in your way. I said good-bye, good-luck, god bless you and then she walked away. She's gone and now I'm hearing all the things I didn't say." 

And then there are songs like, " I don't want to be alone tonight";




We've all felt like this. We can all relate to songs like, " I Don't Feel Much Like Smiling Today", and, "Life Ain't Easy". Life ain't easy sista, I can testify to that!!!  I love the lyrics, " Here I am in the wind again, blowing wherever it takes me. Laughing and splashing in the summer sun, until the alarm clock wakes me.....Life ain't easy and nothin' comes free."


In their 1969-1985 heyday, Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show was touted as a Rock, Soft Rock and Country band from New Jersey.  Most famous for their song, ``The Cover of the Rolling Stone``, and their subsequent success as the cover photo, Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show came into their own after their tape was demoed for the obscure 1971 film, "Who is Harry Kellerman and Why is he Saying Those Terrible Things about Me?".  Shel Silverstein, the popular children's poet wrote the music for the screenplay, and thought that Dr.Hook and the Medicine Show had the right sound to sing songs like, "I Never Got to Know Her", and "The Last Morning".

Believe it or not, Shel Silverstein, author of one of my favourite children's books, "The Giving Tree", also penned, "Penicillin Penny" and "Sylvia's Mother". When I was in public school, we were treated to a viewing of "The Giving Tree", once every year. Little did I know that Silverstein was the writer of such genius lyrics that I sang my heart out to on the pier with my high school friends.  With the trademark soul-rasping voice, Dr. Hook sang our adolescent heart songs.

The band produced over a dozen albums between 1970 and 2007.  If you happen to eye one somewhere, be a good lad and pick it up for me will ya? Dr. Hook and the Medicine  Show has given generations simple beats, great lyrics and endless entertainment.  Buy my ticket, sign me up, and get me a front row seat next to Gertrude the Groupie. I'm in for a road trip!

One last piece of tacky kitsch for all the sentimental (aka hormonal) romantic chicks out there like me;




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