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"One
Toke Over The Line" |
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Stupefaction |
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Even in the tranquility of hindsight, Mike Brewer cannot hide a stunned
shudder of stupefaction at the epic contradictions that befell him and
partner Tom Shipley in the immediate aftermath of the release of their
signature single "One Toke Over The Line" in 1971. Returning from
a mini-vacation in the Florida Everglades, they discovered that "the
Vice President, Spiro T. Agnew, had named us personally as subversive to
American youth," Mike recalls. "At exactly the same time, Lawrence Welk performed "One Toke Over
The Line", on his TV show, introducing it as a gospel song." Of such
absurd quiddities were the legends of the era forged; careers, images,
reputations, entire futures, dipped in the invisible ink of the
transitive notoriety.
~
Bruce Pollock |
Spiro T.
Agnew |
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Ah-One (toke), And Ah-Two |
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| The Lawrence Welk Show (1951 -1982) was America's
wholesome musical variety show, with a mostly older audience.
By the '70s, the show tried to broadened its appeal by including current pop songs,
country music, and religious music. On one
show in early 1971, accordionist and assistant conductor, Myron Floren
(with a smirk?)
introduced singers Gail Farrell & Dick Dale and
"one of the newer songs". Farrell and Dale then launched into
a wholesome |
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rendition of "One Toke Over The Line".
If that
wasn't hilarious enough, at the conclusion of the song 'Mr. Welk' comes on camera and says
"And there you heard a modern
spiritual by Gail & Dale"
(calling it a spiritual
and mixing their first and last names). |
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Show becomes mythical |
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Brewer & Shipley were in London when the Champagne Music Makers
performed their
rendition of "One Toke Over The Line", so the duo missed the show
(as if they would have been watching anyway).
Michael and Tom so loved the 'epic contradiction', that they began to
routinely introduce
"One Toke" in concert by explaining
that the song was simultaneously banned by Nixon/Agnew and performed on
Lawrence Welk as a gospel song. For over 35 years Brewer
& Shipley, and fans of the duo, searched in vain for a video of the show.
As each
year went by, it appeared less and less likely that a video of the show, deemed the Holy Grail of Brewer & Shipley lore, would ever be located.
But sweet Jesus,
in August 2007, the Holy Grail was finally located. The video below
speaks for itself and is now found all over the internet.
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One Toke on
Lawrence Welk
The Holy Grail of Brewer &
Shipley lore. Gail Farrell & Dick Dale
perform "One Toke Over The Line" on The Lawrence Welk Show
in 1971 |
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"One
Toke Over The Line" |
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