A band that gets little discussion anymore (if they ever did). ILM-watchers eagerly await your verdicts and comments.
― staggerlee, Saturday, 14 February 2009 00:27 (4 years ago) Permalink
― PappaWheelie V, Saturday, 14 February 2009 03:21 (4 years ago) Permalink
One of my favorite live clips on youtube:
"Sylvia's Mother" is great, too.
― xhuxk, Saturday, 14 February 2009 03:33 (4 years ago) Permalink
― Otto von Biz Markie (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 14 February 2009 03:35 (4 years ago) Permalink
From Rolling Country 2007:
DR. HOOK, Greatest Hooks -- I voted for this in my #5 reissue spot in my Nashville Scene ballot, even though their coked-up schmaltz is frequently unbearable. But "Cover of The Rolling Stone" is one of the funniest songs ever written anywhere and therefore what Nickelback's "Rockstar" (which has nonetheless been growing on me even more since I saw its goofy video) should be, and "Sylvia's Mother" is like OutKast's "Ms. Jackson" only better, and I honestly think Dr. Hook's later country-disco sellout-sleaze period (best exemplified by "Sexy Eyes" and the very funkily riffed "Baby Makes Her Blue Jeans Talk", though the Ray Parker Jr. imitation "Girls Can Get It" is cute too) may stand up as a completely original hybrid that should have turned into its own genre but somehow never did. Otherwise, "A Little Bit More" appears to concern sexual stamina, "Sleeping Late" appears to concern masturbating, and "A Couple More Years" appears to concern being older than your partner (not that she's a little teenage blue-eyed groupie or anything of course.) But I'm pretty sure she dumps him anyway.
Scott Woods, on his blog a few days ago, on a song that Greil Marcus surprisingly includes in the appendix of records he considers great in the back of Stranded:
Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show, “Carry Me, Carrie” (1972) - Over-emoted fragile-voiced rock gospel bombast that reminds me of "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan" (which, oddly enough, the group also recorded). Curious choice. It's okay, but I prefer "Sylvia's Mother."
I also figured a couple months ago (talked about this a lot on a recent thread on '70s German K-Tel albums) that the supposed '70s glam band Smokie sounded a lot like Dr. Hook and the gang.
Also, they used Shel Silverstein like Blue Oyster Cult used Richard Meltzer, which is obviously cool.
― xhuxk, Saturday, 14 February 2009 03:41 (4 years ago) Permalink
And Dr. Hook's eyepatch predated Bushwick Bill's by decades at least as much as "I Got Stoned And Missed It" predated Afroman's "Because I Got High". (Back cover of the band's '70s Greatest Hits LP and front cover of Geto Boys' "Mind Playing Tricks On Me" 12-inch look hilariously alike, with all the other band members standing, surrounding the eyepatch guy in the band who is sitting on a chair facing southwest.)
― xhuxk, Saturday, 14 February 2009 03:58 (4 years ago) Permalink
― PappaWheelie V, Saturday, 14 February 2009 04:14 (4 years ago) Permalink
"Sylvia's Mother" is one of the most horrid songs ever recorded. Band is 90% dud, saved only by the truism "When You're in Love With a Beautiful Woman, It's Hard."
― Joseph McCombs, Saturday, 14 February 2009 05:33 (4 years ago) Permalink
this video was one of the most hysterical things I've ever happened across on VH1 Classic:
― some dudes might think about blow jobs, like, way way way less (some dude), Saturday, 14 February 2009 05:46 (4 years ago) Permalink
Supposedly, in their early days, they occasionally glammed up and disguised themselves as their own terrible opening band, and to be regularly booed offstage! Any stunt like that would put any band halfway to "classic" right then and there. And that nonsensical guitar solo in "...Stone" clinches it.
― Myonga Vön Bontee, Saturday, 14 February 2009 06:44 (4 years ago) Permalink
Great band, no doubt. Like xhuxk says, "Sexy Eyes" almost invents some fantastic genre of its own tho I'm not sure if that's more about the dissonance between the way they look and the way they sound. No doubt that Smokie copped some of their moves, either, at least from the "Sylvia's Mother" period. Still, there's something about the sound of "Sexy Eyes" and "When You're in Love" that's timeless to me, a brightness and lightness of touch on the groove that means if those records don't put a smile on your face then you might as well admit to yourself that you hate fun.
― Otto von Biz Markie (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 14 February 2009 10:04 (4 years ago) Permalink
No doubt that Smokie copped some of their moves, either, at least from the "Sylvia's Mother" period.
Especially in "Living Next Door To Alice," I think.
Also occurs to me that Dr. Hook and the Tubes might make up a genre (not sure who else would be in it) -- absolutely over-the-top and unserious to the point of visual and musical insanity semi-successful '70s rock acts who wound up giving in to the biz and laughing all the way to the MOR bank in the early '80s. I get the idea they both really enjoyed selling out.
― xhuxk, Saturday, 14 February 2009 12:01 (4 years ago) Permalink
I think the Sutherland Brothers and Quiver sort of fit here too.
― Otto von Biz Markie (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 14 February 2009 20:33 (4 years ago) Permalink
I got into these dudes bcz of the Shel Silverstein factor. I really liked Shel's songs and I was knocked out when I found out Shel wrote 'Rolling Stone.' I got the best of for free, actually – the dude at the record store was so embarrassed I wanted to buy it that he was like, "Here, just take the damn thing." This band is so much fun.
I've never seen a photo of these dudes. I always imagine them looking like the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.
― i'm shy (Abbott), Sunday, 15 February 2009 18:50 (4 years ago) Permalink
Xhuxk - I'd add latter-day Three Dog Night ("Brickyard Blues") to that genre.
― Joseph McCombs, Sunday, 15 February 2009 18:55 (4 years ago) Permalink
Recently posted on Rolling Country about Lisa Rogak's bio, A Boy Named Shel. The maestro gets tired of living near-simultaneously in Sausalito, Chicago, Nashville, Key West, Martha's Vineyard, with random global hits, so decides he'll also set up non-housekeeping in Wodstock, and have a band. Not start one, and not perform with it (though he did sometimes), but write all the songs and supervise the records. So his contacts among the lumberjacks locate Hook, set up an audition in Jersey. " 'It was a really sleazy bar,' said Shel. 'There was a revolving red light for psychedelic schmaltz and a fairly naked go-go chick shaking her ass around to 'Last Morning,' which was a personal, sensitive song I wrote for the movie. Even in that atmosphere, they brought it off.' " The movie was Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why is He Saying All Those Terrible Things About Me?, starring Dustin Hoffman. Hook and Shel appear in it, and the book includes pix of mustachioed Dustin and massively bearded Shel (who in one shot sports a great wig on his fuck-the-60s shaved dome), making musique and soireeing with two ma'mselles who should have been on the cover of Rolling Stone, if not Oui. How it all ended up with Hook? You'll have to read the book! (Somebody on some other thread mentions that Dennis L. "still tours England every year.")
― dow, Sunday, 15 February 2009 20:45 (4 years ago) Permalink
After really listening to "Cover of the Rolling Stone" the other day, I realized that (in that song, at least) they sounded exactly like the Electric Mayhem:
Or I guess the Electric Mayhem wound up sounding exactly like them. Either way: classic.
― Deric W. Haircare, Monday, 16 February 2009 01:57 (4 years ago) Permalink
They must have had an album come out when I was really small, because I remember they were all over tv and Dr Hook's eyepatch kind of creeped me out
Something about their sleazy soft rock really appeals to me. "Sylvia's Mother" is almost too pathetic to be tolerable but "Sharing The Night Together" conjures up airport lounges and terrible singles bars in a way that makes me happy.
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 19 September 2012 16:27 (8 months ago) Permalink
I got the best of for free, actually – the dude at the record store was so embarrassed I wanted to buy it that he was like, "Here, just take the damn thing."
Wow this has never happened to me and I've bought some embarrassing stuff! New life goal.
― Lewis Apparition (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 19 September 2012 16:38 (8 months ago) Permalink
Also it looks like i need a Dr. Hook antho, stat
huh this is a weird band
― congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, 5 February 2013 16:52 (3 months ago) Permalink
― congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, 5 February 2013 16:53 (3 months ago) Permalink
Weird that this thread pops up the same day this appears on Gawker.
― 誤訳侮辱, Tuesday, 5 February 2013 17:14 (3 months ago) Permalink
not really, i read that article and then started listening to some of their music. great article.
― congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, 5 February 2013 17:22 (3 months ago) Permalink
first '45 i ever bought (i was ten) was by these guys ("only sixteen"). 20 years later i move to a san francisco apartment and my actual next door neighbor is Rik (the guy on the top right three posts up)(!!). he's got some kinda folky country thing now - Gayle Lynne and the Hired Hands. who cares
― making plans for nyquil (outdoor_miner), Tuesday, 5 February 2013 17:39 (3 months ago) Permalink
That article is amazing. Thanks for the link.
― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 5 February 2013 17:59 (3 months ago) Permalink
i posted it on the great music writing thread but no one talked about it with me so i revived this thread too
― congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, 5 February 2013 18:02 (3 months ago) Permalink
and on facebook. i'm pretty obnoxious.
wow yeah this is fantastic!
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 5 February 2013 18:24 (3 months ago) Permalink
It is absolutely stellar.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 5 February 2013 20:57 (3 months ago) Permalink
Just ordered this dvd after reading the article. awesome stuff.
― sofatruck, Tuesday, 19 February 2013 19:10 (3 months ago) Permalink