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Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show


Mickey

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Anyone remember those guys? They were a band in the 70's that were pretty unique, did a satire on syrupy ballads called "Sylvia's Mother" that was a huge top 40 hit as a syrupy ballad. Shel Silverstein, the cartoonist for Playboy, was also an accomplished song writer (he wrote "A boy named Sue" for Johnny Cash and "Unicorn" for the Irish Rovers) and was looking for a band that could interpret his songs when he ran across these guys who had been playing the seediest bars in Union City New Jersey starting in 1968.

 

Their lead singer, Ray Sawyer, had been in a car accident and lost an eye so he wore a patch which is where they got the name "Dr. Hook" from. Dennis Locorriere had a uniquely powerful and versatile voice, unbelievable range and could do more strange voices than Mel Blanc. They had a wild sense of humor, once disguising themselves as another band so that they could open for themselves. They had some great songs like "Looking for kitty", "Who the [eff] is Alice" and some hits you might recall like "Cover of the Rolling Stone", Queen of the Silver Dollar" and "Little bit more".

 

The bars they played were often dangerous. "We would play anything that would make them not hit us" Dennis used to say which is how they developed the ability to play so many styles. One night they were playing in an awful bar called the Sands Lounge because it had plastic palm trees in each corner of the dance floor. That night a burly trucker came in named Wayne Tibbs who, after seeing Ray with a patch over his eye, walked over to him and asked him "You ever see what a shotgun does to a man's face?" Ray said he didn't know but could guess. The guy got a few drinks and kept telling the band that he was going to shoot someone that night.

 

Later on, he was found in the parking lot, drunk, and waving a gun at anyone who came near. The police were called and eventually they were forced to shoot him. While lying on his back, bleeding all over the lot, Tibbs looked up at the cop who shot him and said "Hey, that was a pretty good shot!".

 

That was when rock and roll was rock and roll.

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