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BREWER & SHIPLEY

ONE TOKE OVER THE LINE

(Mike “Brewer,” Tom “Shipley”)

Kama Sutra 516

No. 10   April 10, 1971

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Mike Brewer and Tom Shipley were both talented musicians, but when they are remembered at all, it is for

that one song.

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“People are always asking, ‘Geez, what was the mean­ing of it?   Was it a drug song?”‘  Mike Brewer said in an

exclusive interview.   “I always look ’em in the eye and ask ’em, ‘Come on, have you ever been one toke over

the line; done one hit too many?’   Yeah, it’s about any drugs, or anything that you push too far.   A toke

seemed apro­pos at the time.   And at that time, I’d had one too many hamburgers, one too many Holiday

Inns, one too many nights on the road: toots, tokes, everything.”

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Both Mike Brewer (b. 1944, Oklahoma City) and Tom Shipley (b. 1942, Mineral Ridge, OH) had a folk­ music

history, five or more years apiece, preceding their union in 1966.   Each had worked the coffeehouse circuit

and the college stops on his respective turf.   After Tom graduated from Baldwin Wallace College in Berea,

Ohio, he and his new bride moved to California, then Toronto, and even lived in a tent on a Hopi Indian

reservation before settling in Los Angeles.   There, Ship­ley worked as a duo with Tom Mastin and signed a

songwriting contract with Good Sam Music, an affiliate of A & M Records.  Mastin grew tired, and

disappeared.

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Luckily for Brewer and Shipley, their paths crossed one smoggy Los Angeles night. Immediately, they began

writing together and recording demos for Good Sam Music.   In 1968, A & M issued their incomplete tracks

as an album (Down in L.A.) without permission, so the duo actively sought out a firm recording con­tract.

Kama Sutra obliged.   “One Toke Over the Line;’ with Mark Naftalin on keyboards and GRATEFUL DEAD’s

Jerry Garcia on pedal steel guitar, was the opening cut from their second Kama Sutra LP, Tarkio (1971).

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“The song came about by chance, in a dressing room, one night,” Brewer recalled.   “We’d had one too many

and just broke into song.   We were just kiddin’ around, not tryin’ to write a song or anything.   Neil Bogart

[the founder of Buddah and later Casablanca Records] heard us do the number as an encore, at a show.   He

said it was a natural and had to be our next single.”

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Over the next couple of years, a few more countri­fied albums appeared, and two more singles–“Tarkio

Road” (#55, 1971) and “Shake Off the Demons” (#98, 1972)–won positions on the Hot 100.   Mike, Tom, and

their families lived on a farm outside of Kansas City.   Into the ’80s they continued to tour, to eat

hamburgers, and to stay at Holiday Inns.

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Michael Brewer’s 1983 release, Beauty Lies, received favorable reviews.   Shipley, meanwhile, turned his

attention to working as a studio engineer; most successfully on Joni Mitchell’s albums Dog Eat Dog, Chalk

Mark on the Rainstorm, and Night Ride Home.