So the story goes, an early version of Dr Hook And The Medicine Show started performing in New Jersey bars in the late 60s, playing whatever kept the clientele happy which meant they became pretty good at ‘faking’ their way through lots of different styles of music. They had recorded a handful of songs in a cheap studio just to hear what they sounded like - a couple of covers and an original or two – and somehow the tape made its way to several different sets of ears, some of whom were looking for a group to record the title track of a new film.
The film was the 1971 Dustin Hoffman-starring movie vehicle, Who Is Harry Kellerman And Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? and, although then a band of unknowns, Dr Hook were chosen to record the song, written by Shel Silverstein. This almost accidental pairing inaugurated a long standing creative association between them.
Until then, Silverstein had had a successful career as a writer, cartoonist/ illustrator and songwriter, beginning with the US military magazine, Stars and Stripes, while doing his US National Service in Japan and Korea. Early in the life of Hugh Hefner’s Playboy magazine, he dropped some illustrations off to their offices in the hope that they may get published. His first work was published in Playboy in August, 1956. He cashed the Playboy cheque immediately, went home and threw the money down on his parents' table and told them he was moving out and was going to support himself as a cartoonist.
In 1960, he published his adult book of drawings, Now Here’s My Plan: A Book of Futilities, before turning his attention to writing books for children. His first efforts, written under the name Uncle Shelby, included Uncle Shelby’s ABZ Book: A Primer For Tender Young Minds (1961) and Who Wants A Cheap Rhinoceros (1964). Among his memorable characters were the protagonist in Uncle Shelby’s Story of Lafcadio, The Lion Who Shot Back (1963); the boy-man and tree in The Giving Tree (1964) his most famous prose work; and the partial circle in The Missing Piece (1976). His children’s books were positively compared to that of Dr Seuss, and he created his own imaginative locations such as the land of Listentomeholler and the Castle Now.
Silverstein was also a musician and a songwriter. He had written the hilariously memorable (and Grammy Award winning) A Boy Named Sue for Johnny Cash, highlighting his ability to turn a zingy narrative into song. The collaboration with Dr Hook scored commercial paydirt almost immediately by way of the global success of the heartstring-tugging international hit single Sylvia’s Mother in 1972.
Other songs such as Carry Me Carrie and especially The Ballad of Lucy Jordan (memorably re-interpreted by Marianne Faithfull on her epochal Broken English album of 1979) stand in great contrast to the likes of Cover of the Rolling Stone, Get My Rocks Off and Acapulco Goldie, where laugh-out-loud humour and Stoner imagery did much to endear Dr Hook to the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers crowd, but it’s all different facets of the Shel Silverstein talent jewel. Shel’s distinct, idiosyncratic worldview may fall foul of contemporary standards of Political Correctness but much still stands up pretty well.
Dr Hook would go on to soften their style a little, and enjoyed several hit records in the late seventies, when they’d moved from Columbia/ CBS to Capitol Records, scoring success with the likes of When You’re In Love With A Beautiful Woman, A Little Bit More, Sexy Eyes and others.
Silverstein was the kind of artist they simply do not make any more. The term ‘Renaissance Man’ doesn’t quite cover it - his talents crossed a breathtaking range of form and media. He suffered from coronary heart disease, and having previously sustained two heart attacks passed away in May 1999. Thus ended a remarkable life, and an individual whose life and work transcended genres and generational divides – to invoke the cliché, we shall never see his like again.
With thanks to Alan Robinson