It is Mardi Gras and Spring Break all rolled into one. Then, lit and smoked. The band members’ tongues are firmly pressed into their cheeks as they look for a party. They make you cry, laugh, whoop and holler. Then, they’ll roll you another one. Yes, the Doctor is in the house.
First, there was George Cummings, Ray Sawyer and Billy Francis and it was good. Then came Dennis Locorriere and it was better. In 1969 a club owner asked for their name.and their decision-making probably went something like this:
Cummiings:
“We ah,” (pulls out another zigzag rolling paper) “we need a name” (rolls zigzag with one hand and licks it). “The man wants us to give him a band name.” (takes a “strike anywhere”” match, scrapes it on his unshaven chin, lights the zig zag and takes a long inhalation.) “Well, any ideas? (the cigarette and conversation pass to the right.)
Francis:
(Large puff, followed by a cloud of exhalation) “Damn, that’s tough. Any of you got some pills? My head is killing me.” (Pockets are searched and contents placed on table)
Locorriere:
(Looking at contents on table) “Wow! Man, that is a god damn medicine show! Hey, let’s call ourselves the ‘Medicine Show.’” (large toke, and the conversation moves to the right.)
Sawyer (who wears an eyepatch due to a 1967 car accident):
“Naw, not good enough. We need a hook. That’s it! How ‘bout “Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show?” (Nods all around; mint juleps are sipped; roach is extinguished.)
Cummings:
“Umm. What were we talkin’ about?”
Well, maybe not like that but that is how I have always envisioned it (according to wikipedia Sawyer is “mistakenly considered Dr. Hook because of the eyepatch.”) The band had a string of top 100 hits until 1983 when Sawyer left the band. Their early, gritty, hits are the subject of their pre-disco 1976 Best of Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show release called “Revisited.”
You won’t find the later hits “Sexy Eyes,” "When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman" or “Walk Right In” here. You will find an amalgamation of the band’s best “quirky” work, with almost all of the lyrics written by the late, great writer/poet Shel Silverstein. . Sure, you get the time-tested hit “Cover of The Rolling Stone,” but you also get “Sylvia’s Mother,” which tells of a man trying to telephone his ex-girlfriend, Sylvia Avery, to say one last goodbye, but unable to get past her mother; “Acapulco Goldie,” a tale about a beautiful Acapulco prostitute; “Freakin’ At The Freakers’ Ball,” a journey best characterized as a visit to San Francisco’s yearly Exotic-Erotic Ball; “Makin’ It Natural,” about “going straight” over a woman; “Penicillin Penny,” which explores the life of a Sunset Strip streetwalker with venereal disease; “Get My Rocks Off,” a ditty about what things are needed for the singer to, well, get his rocks off; “Carry Me, Carrie,” a poetic look at a delusional, alcohol addicted, street person; “Queen Of The Silver Dollar,” the saga of a female bar fly who is ultimately won by the singer; and “Roland The Roadie And Gertrude The Groupie,” the story of a roadie in love with a groupie who is only in love with groups.
Okay, this isn’t classic. It isn’t pop. It isn’t straight ahead rock. It’s not jazz, What is it? It is Mardi Gras and Spring Break all rolled into one.
- Old School
Buy here: Revisited
Buy here mp3: Dr. Hook And The Medicine Show Revisited
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