Show Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here. The theme for Song Lyric Sunday this week is “End/Finish/Over/Stop.” ~~~~~~~~~~ “When we wrote One Toke Over the Line, I think we were one toke over the line. I considered marijuana a sort of a sacrament… If you listen to the lyrics of that song, ‘one toke’ was just a metaphor. It’s a song about excess. Too much of anything will probably kill you,” explained Tom Shipley, one half of Brewer and Shipley and co-writer of the song. The incident that sparked this song happened at the Vanguard in Kansas City, Missouri. The band was playing the show because, in seeking to escape the LA music scene, they started a tour of their Midwest homelands. Shipley reports that he was given a block of hash and told to take two hits. He ignored the advice and instead took three. Shipley recounts in The Vinyl Dialogues, “I go out of the dressing room – I’m also a banjo player, but I didn’t have one, so I was playing my guitar – and Michael (Brewer) came in and I said, ‘Jesus, Michael, I’m one toke over the line.’ And to be perfect honest, I don’t remember if Michael was with me when I took that hit or not. I remember it as ‘not’; I think Michael remembers it as ‘yes.’ And he started to sing to what I was playing, and I chimed in and boom, we had the line.” Brewer also remembers the occasion. “I just cracked up,” he said. “I thought it was hysterical. And right on the spot, we just started singing, ‘One toke over the line, sweet Jesus,’ and that was about it; then we went onstage.” Some radio stations refused to play this song because of the drug references, but not everyone got this meaning. In 1971 the song was performed on the Lawrence Welk Show by the wholesome-looking couple Gail Farrell and Dick Dale, who clearly had NO clue what a toke was. Welk, at the conclusion of the performance of the song, remarked, without any hint of humor, “there you’ve heard a modern spiritual by Gail and Dale.” FUN FACTS:
I couldn’t decide which video to use, so you guys get an “old” performance from 1971, a “newer” live performance from 1998, and yes…THE LAWRENCE WELK PERFORMANCE!!! I dare you to watch it without grinning! 😀 😀 😀 Enjoy! See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for Nesie’s Place! ~~~
Songwriters: Michael Brewer / Tom Shipley One toke over the line sweet Jesus Awaitin’ for the train that goes home, sweet Mary Whoooo do you love, I hope it’s me I bin away a country mile Don’t you just know I waitin’ for the train that goes home sweet Mary I want to be Compiled from Google, Lyric Find, Genius Lyrics, Wikipedia, and Songfacts.com How did one toke over the line get on Lawrence Welk?But because it was a hit single, the song also attracted the attention of Lawrence Welk, who liked to feature popular songs of the day sung by Welk Musical Family singers on his weekly television show. In 1971, singers Gail Farrell and Dick Dale performed “One Toke Over the Line” on the show.
Who all sang one toke over the line?"One Toke Over the Line" is a song written and performed by American folk rock duo Brewer & Shipley. It is a track from their 1970 LP Tarkio, and was released as their debut single in early 1971.
What year did one toke over the line come out?1970One Toke over the Line / Releasednull
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