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In reply to the discussion: The Pretty Little Hippie Chicks Are Grandmas Now. [View all]tpsbmam
(3,927 posts)174. ROFLMAO! They clearly had no clue WTF they were singing about! Tracked this down....
This song is about drugs, especially marijuana. A "Toke" is a puff from a marijuana cigarette or pipe. Tom Shipley explained: "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."
Mike Brewer and Tom Shipley were Folk singers in Los Angeles. This was their only hit.
Brewer says of the song's origin: "We wrote that one night in the dressing room of a coffee house. We were literally just entertaining ourselves. The next day we got together to do some picking and said, 'What was that we were messing with last night?' We remembered it, and in about an hour, we'd written 'One Toke Over the Line.' Just making ourselves laugh, really. We had no idea that it would ever even be considered as a single, because it was just another song to us. Actually Tom and I always thought that our ballads were our forte." (quotes from brewerandshipley.com)
Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead was brought in to play played steel guitar on the Tarkio sessions. He didn't play on "One Toke Over The Line," but did appear on the B-side, "Oh Mommy' (I Ain't No Commie)."
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 a 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." Brewer & Shipley heard about the performance and searched for the footage, but didn't see it until the clip showed up on YouTube in 2007.
Mike Brewer and Tom Shipley were Folk singers in Los Angeles. This was their only hit.
Brewer says of the song's origin: "We wrote that one night in the dressing room of a coffee house. We were literally just entertaining ourselves. The next day we got together to do some picking and said, 'What was that we were messing with last night?' We remembered it, and in about an hour, we'd written 'One Toke Over the Line.' Just making ourselves laugh, really. We had no idea that it would ever even be considered as a single, because it was just another song to us. Actually Tom and I always thought that our ballads were our forte." (quotes from brewerandshipley.com)
Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead was brought in to play played steel guitar on the Tarkio sessions. He didn't play on "One Toke Over The Line," but did appear on the B-side, "Oh Mommy' (I Ain't No Commie)."
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 a 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." Brewer & Shipley heard about the performance and searched for the footage, but didn't see it until the clip showed up on YouTube in 2007.
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=2506
Thanks for posting....that was definitely a great laugh!
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I certainly did do the go-go boots thing! But they were not allowed in cotillion!
calimary
Feb 2013
#52
Awe yes those were the good old days. I don't know how old you are but stop
southernyankeebelle
Feb 2013
#3
My father-in-law use to say "Every day you wake up in the morning and put your feet on
southernyankeebelle
Feb 2013
#118
Life is like a roll of toilet paper - the closer you get to the end the faster it goes.
CrispyQ
Feb 2013
#201
Gman, you are someone who understands that it's a state of mind as well as a time or place. Yes.
The Wielding Truth
Feb 2013
#81
And it's a truly sweet state of mind. Don't you think? It would be great if everyone knew the
The Wielding Truth
Feb 2013
#196
I saw the Merry Prankster's bus. Some of them pass through town to see Ed McClannahan and
alfredo
Feb 2013
#192
I'm gonna be 60 this year and the same is true - I'm more progressive now than ever before.
calimary
Feb 2013
#171
To me and their other contemporaries they still are pretty little hippy chicks
Dragonfli
Feb 2013
#18
And we STILL aren't the "Lawrence Welk" generation! (Did you hear that Led Zeppelin will tour?)
WinkyDink
Feb 2013
#23
Holy shit! Holy shit! They had no idea what it meant? OMG, that's just...beyond comprehension! I
Nay
Feb 2013
#136
ROFLMAO! They clearly had no clue WTF they were singing about! Tracked this down....
tpsbmam
Feb 2013
#174
I am being 100% truthful when I say it is one of the funniest words I know of
DonRedwood
Feb 2013
#39
Yeah, and some of the hippie guys are feelin' a little older now too, Baby Blue
NBachers
Feb 2013
#28
My dad, born in 1913, was one of the original '50's jazz freak sound system mainacs
NBachers
Feb 2013
#188
I had a great encounter with one of my "hippie chik" contemporaries.....
socialist_n_TN
Feb 2013
#30
You mean like Grace Slick? Jefferson Airplane? Ask Alice? That Hippie Chick?
Leslie Valley
Feb 2013
#47
20 years ago, the last of the hippie chicks taught me the most valuable lessons of my life
Nevernose
Feb 2013
#51
Well, you could certainly have some of mine! I still have more than enough down below.
calimary
Feb 2013
#159
My girlfriend and I were the first to wear backless long dresses (that we sewed ourselves)
Nay
Feb 2013
#137
After serving in Vietnam, Bill later married a Vietnamese woman whom he met on a visit there
pinboy3niner
Feb 2013
#122
THAT's the Joan I remember! Met her, and her lovely sisters, in '65 in Carmel
FailureToCommunicate
Feb 2013
#146
A close mental association I have with hippie girls is the girl from The Party
anAustralianobserver
Feb 2013
#91
Your singing my song Don. Those were the days and they go by way to quickly. sigh......
Little Star
Feb 2013
#151
It has been a most enjoyable conversation. I'm gald so many people joined in.
DonRedwood
Feb 2013
#189
Actually, there was another group back then that were the anti-hippie chicks...
Spitfire of ATJ
Feb 2013
#207
I look at pictures of my grandmother when she was 40 and she looks older than my mom
DonRedwood
Feb 2013
#215