There are certain musicians you encounter over the years that are “up for anything.” If you couched the offer in the correct terms, you could get them to try drug abuse, orgiastic exhibitionism, competitive eating, garroting, transfixion, cannibalism, voting Republican — pretty much the compass of human depravity. They’d never show up for rehearsal, often pawned their instruments to get tequila money, and lived in a hallway, but infuriatingly always seemed to be able to play and sing better than the kids who practiced. And they always knew what to do when the audience showed up. Exhibit A: Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show.
Bestest guitar solo ever.
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As proof that Dr Hook is "up for anything," I saw them live in my home town in the seventies.
Unusual? In more ways than one.
Sipp I have a little tune over at mine you may or may not like.
That was beautiful, man
Do you suppose they have any memory of that?
I actually saw Dr. Hook perform — must have been 1974 — as the opening act for the band Sparks, in what must be the most jarring musical mismatch since Hendrix opened for the Monkees on their '67 tour. The mostly glam-type (of which I was not) adolescent audience lustily booed them off the stage, except they wouldn't leave the stage.
As you suggest, they seemed to be "up for anything," and seemed to enjoy — or at least be oblivious to — annoying all and sundry.
One image that is seared into my memory is that of the guy with the eye patch… how to put it… playing air guitar, so to speak, with his privates, in a manner calculated to mock the disapproving throng. If memory serves, this was in order to give added onanistic poignancy to a drawn out version of the weeper, Sylvia's Mother. I will admit that I was too chemically altered to assess their musical merits.
George the guitarist looked like he was about eight feet tall!!
I bet the band kept eyepatch man chained in a crate between gigs.
I'm down for whatever.
ROTFLMAO!
dunno why but Animal, from the Muppets comes to mind.
OMG.
I'd forgotten about Dr. Hook.
They were clever in a whacked way — their name always made me laugh, and it makes me laugh harder now, since, well, since I'm not 16.
Bwha.