Shel Silverstein has been much on the collective mind at GMR recently. Some of his books for children have been reviewed, and a second part is promised in the near future. As well as being a children’s author, Silverstein was a cartoonist for Playboy magazine, often commenting on sex and the “Hefner” lifestyle. But this compilation album looks at his songwriting, and especially the work he did for an unknown New Jersey bar-band, Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show.
According to Glenn A. Baker’s detailed and informative notes, Silverstein and the Medicine Show came together when Shel was looking for a band to play the songs he had written for a little-known Dustin Hoffman film, “Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?” In this interesting but hardly memorable film, Hoffman played a songwriter, and Silverstein provided the songs. Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show was cobbled together from a variety of Jersey bands, and they were one of the few highlights of the film. The two lead singers, each with his own unique style, offered a breadth of style and emotion that separated Dr. Hook from other bands. Ray Sawyer, the eye-patched pirate/cowboy, had a raspy soul growl and Dennis Locorriere brought a higher pitched sweetness to the band. The musicians were bar-bred professionals.
Raven’s I Got Stoned and I Missed It offers a broad look at a decade of recordings. They bring together 23 Silverstein songs drawn from nine different albums. If you’re looking for original material by the band, forget it. This collection is strictly “Uncle Shelby’s” stuff! The two songs from “Harry Kellerman” start things off — accompanied by the voice of Dustin Hoffman’s character signing what sounds like a suicide note — then “Last Morning.” The songs are countryish, fingerpicking, steel guitar, harmony vocals, sad and blue. “Bunky and Lucille” is a bluesy romp. The difference between Ray and Dennis as lead singers is apparent right off the bat.
Then three tunes from Dr. Hook’s debut album, which included the big hit “Sylvia’s Mother.” I recall hating this song when it was played over and over on the local Top 40 AM station, but I’ve since learned to love it. It’s all pretty and soppy, Dennis’s quavery voice telling what was essentially a slice of Silverstein autobiography. “Please Mrs. Avery, I just got to talk to her, I’ll only keep her a while …” It’s so sad. “Marie Lavalk” is a bit of N’Awleans rock and “Judy” is a more countrified story song. Shel was great at writing these tales of the disaffected, the marginalized, the out-and-out odd.
The second album was titled Sloppy Seconds. Subtle, huh? It continued the slow parade of Silverstein’s neighbors through the Medicine Show’s backyard. “Carry Me, Carrie” (a sort of follow-up to “Sylvia’s Mother”) a ballad, leads into “Freakin’ at the Freakers’ Ball,” “Queen of the Silver Dollar” and the biggest hit the band would know, “Cover of the Rolling Stone.” Banned in Britain due to the blatant advertising of the title and chorus, this is one of those classic fun songs, right down to the essential rock ‘n’ roll guitar solo in the middle. Brilliant. Then, of course, there’s always the great “Looking For Pussy,” for all you cat lovers out there. If you are easily offended, Sloppy Seconds was not an album to buy. Raven has selected the best of the offenders.
“The Ballad of Lucy Jordan” was later covered wonderfully by Marianne Faithfull, but the Medicine Show gave it a go first and acquit themselves very well. The album Belly Up was the source for “Roland the Roadie and Gertrude the Groupie” and “The Wonderful Soupstone.” The latter is Shel’s interpretation of the old children’s story “Stone Soup,” which has always been a favourite of mine, too. “Roland the Roadie…” falls into the story song category, melodic, rhythmic, and funny too. The two singers play well off each other.
It was about this time that Top 40 radio stopped playing the “novelty” songs and focussed on the covers and ballads that they were filling their albums with. Bankrupt in 1974 featured a Top Ten version of Sam Cooke’s “Only Sixteen,” but Shel was offering songs like “I Got Stoned and I Missed It” and “Everybody’s Making It Big But Me.” The band was looking for hits, and they were coming in the form of schmaltz, so there was little room for Silverstein’s cast of characters.
Locorriere is quoted as thanking Silverstein “for giving me such sophisticated songs to sing when I was just a young hippie,” and the proof of Shel’s talent fleshes out the album with another half-dozen tracks from later albums. They were not the cream of the crop, but still possessed a sense of humour, a keen eye to the “groovy rock’n’roll” world and were played with Dr. Hook’s trademark flair.
Shel Silverstein was a true renaissance man: author, cartoonist, singer/songwriter and man-about-town. Raven’s collection of his songs as done by Dr. Hook shines a new light into a dark corner of rock ‘n’ roll some people might have ignored. Or, maybe you just got stoned and missed it.
(Raven Records, 2003)
