I am 65 years old. Was not a hippie, nor did I use drugs. But I and everyone I knew, knew what the word toke meant. I can’t imagine anyone thinking it’s an anti drug song.
A toke is a big hit from a joint (or a bong rip)It's about getting higher than he ever was, sitting in the railway station waiting for the train to take him home to his sweetheart (Mary)
Omg. An Anthem for 60's. 😆 Lol. Have always loved this song. Yes Harri it's a gospel song. House of Bong. Just a great beat. I don't think adults had a clue what this was about. We did.😉 Great reaction Harri. Thanks Harri and David. Great old song. Cheers from Canada 🇨🇦
I think most of us have found ourselves “one toke over the line” a time or two - especially in our younger days. 😉 Toke refers to a draw or hit of marijuana and when you’ve had one too many, well, you’re one toke over the line.
Shipley has said that the song is about excess. About doing anything to excess. Which would include that puff of grass that takes you over the line. It's not about hard drugs. It's like kids you knew in school who spent most of the day high on weed, just wasting their time.
it's their time to waste. maybe they don't consider it being wasted. life is all about perspective. what's expected of one isn't necessarily the path they will choose. it's those people who stand out and are remembered. not the drones.
You are waaaaay overthinking this Harri. Lol As an old hippie chick from back in the day, I can tell you that a toke is hit off a joint or pipe. And they're talking about being a little too high. This was a kind of anthem for a lot of us back in the 70s. I still play it sometimes when just sitting around jamming with friends. Love you Harri! ✌❤
Thank you Harri for an open and honest review on your first time hearing this song. It is refreshing to actually hear a reviewer risk being so far off base. This proves that you are not one of the many fake reviewers that clutter RU-vid with their click bait titles and overblown adjectives. As with most every review you've provided, I learned something new with this review. I did not see a connection of this folk-pop song with a future country song by Sir Paul. Your point of view certainly has merit. Thanks for the entertainment and education! Keep up the great work.
Early 70's was a strange time. We had what was called Jesus Freaks. You could go to evening service playing folk and rock with Bible reading and meet up after and smoke a joint. Every one was looking for something while trying to combine the other stuff going on. I mean we had a Rock Opera called Jesus Christ Superstar.
@@davidtalley4816 LOL! Wonder if anybody remembers Wildwood Weed by Jim Stafford?!! College does weird things to you when it's your 1st time away from home~ 🤣😂🤣
Larry Welk had this on his show once, apparently thinking it was a church song. Check out "Can't Find My Way Home" by Blind Faith. Several tokes over the line.
If you want a real hoot, look up the Lawrence Welk version...no, I'm not kidding. That's how much the 'squares' thought this song was an anti-drug anthem.
Imagine coming home with a buzz in the 70's and mom is watching her favorite Lawrence Welk and this song comes on. And now for your moment of Zen ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-t8tdmaEhMHE.html
Hysterical and entirely true. This very scenario played out at my parent's place. Just ask two of my three brothers as well. Between us, we could probably get the memory pieced together.
@@davebzen795 I wonder if it was a joke on Lawrence ? That someone suggested the song and all he heard was Jesus and thought "oh an inspirational song" and gave it the green light. Bet they were trying hard to keep a straight face singing it. It was a surreal moment for me anyway. Like when a politician uses "Born in the USA" as a patriotic song.
@@Hobodeluxe960 You may very well be correct. Frankly, I find it challenging even today to think about Lawrence and his lead in every Polka song. Bubbles percolating while he says, 'a one and two...while my three brothers and I howled like a wolf at night. I have to stop here before I can't eat today or, worse yet, have nightmares
There is a hilarious version of this song from the Lawrence Welk show. They figured that the song said “…sweet Jesus” so it was a good family song. You should watch it for the fashion alone!!! 😂😂😂
I would call the sound folk-pop. At that time, a lot of pop songs kind of flirted with the country sound. But as for the meaning of the song, it's about smoking marijuana. When it first came out, I was in high school, and had no idea what it meant. After a little while, our local radio stations banned the playing of this song, because it was about drugs (this was Amarillo, Texas). But eventually we started hearing it again.
@@dannyc.jewell8788 I don't think I know Gram Parson, although might well have heard the music without hearing the name. I think, too, that the Bicentennial perhaps had an influence. It seemed to get us interested in the lives of our ancestors, wanting to learn simple skills like churning butter, building log cabins, knowing how to live off the land, etc. Enter the granny dresses, overalls, beards, and wire-rimmed glasses. The Back to the Land movement just begged for country music . . . I may have it all wrong, but that's how it swirls in my (somewhat jumbled) memory.
@@wearinganapron 1st I think you are one smart guy , Gram was friends with Keith , Exile on Mainstreet ,asked to leave , rich kid , Florida Oran juice , Bio ''Hickory Wind , "dated '' Emy Lou Harris , lights of Baltimore , ''flying Burito Brothers, Byrds famous movie about his accidental death Loaned the book to one of Emmy Lou 's old time friend in Maryland and NoVa ,it looks to not be coming back
I was very young when this song was popular and had no idea what ‘toke’ referenced. I would loved to have seen the look on my own face when I was older and realized what it was knowing I sang the heck outta the song at maybe 9 or 10 years old. As others have said, I think it’s about having one toke too many and maybe just waiting for the high to wear off so you can move again. 😂
A toke was a hit off a joint. So possibly a little over indulgence. Lol. This was a great song in its day. Thank you Harri. 😊. Back then pot was not as strong as what they have today. Have you listened to Dont Bogart that Joint my friend ?
Aside from this Brewer & Shipley have a great catalog of songs. you know who Lawrence Welk is they did a version of this song on his show, thinking is was a Gospel song.
Don't sleep on these guys, they're great. That's Jerry Garcia on pedal steel guitar on this track. Check out Don't wanna die in Georgia, Platt river, sweet love, people love each other.
The funniest story about this song involves a Variety show. A variety show that prided itself as clean cut. The last act was a country duet. Everyone thought it was a gospel song until after the fact. You can actually find the clip on RU-vid.
Good old hippie tune, always loved it. Doesn’t it mean when a joint gets short enough to need a roach clip? Listening to this one again brings back such memories!
Vice President of the United States, Spiro Agnew, labeled Brewer & Shipley as subversives, and then strong-armed the FCC to ban "One Toke" from the airwaves just as it was peaking on the charts. Brewer & Shipley landed on Nixon's Enemies List, a badge of honor they wear proudly to this day. Even in the midst of all the fuss about the drug related lyrics, Lawrence Welk featured "One Toke Over The Line" on his show in 1971.
Once again Harri has sent me rooting around in historic newspaper. In an interview dated Sept. 17, 1971, Tom Shipley said "This was not a drug song. In the Southwest, 'one toke over the line' means fed up, or the last straw. Even the straights say it to mean that they've just had it with everything." (I forgot that people used to speak of Hippies & Straights). So say the artists themselves, and we all know that all artists aways tell the truth about everything.
Not sure if you're familiar with Lawrence Welk, he was an accordionist/band leader who had a TV show back in the 60's and 70's. It was very 'conservative' with a bit of a religious leaning. He had a couple who would sing songs on the show, often spirituals. They somehow became convinced that this was a spiritual and sang this on the show. A rather amusing segment. It's here on RU-vid, just search for this song title and Lawrence Welk and you'll find it. At the end Lawrence calls it a 'modern spiritual'. :)
KLOL in Houston used to play a passage from Hunter S Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas about assembling a drug collection so there was no doubt what this song was about
If you don't know of The Lawrence Welk Show,...search for that, and this song title. Lawrence Welk was the entertainment that my Grandparent's viewed, a "big band' with Accordion lead, women as harmony singers, Americana, "safe" now seen as excess cheese! Weeks band and singers didn't have a clue about the true meaning of this song lyric -picing up on "Sweet Jesus" and "Railway Station" that it was innocent, not laced with "herbal Jazz cigarettes" 🙃
When I first heard this song back in the '70s I thought it was performed by the Osmond Brothers. I was too young to recognize any possible drug references.
Just saying. This is recent. I'd suck back on a joint so hard sometimes, thinking I didn't want to waste any of the joy. Times like that, I entered some other world, and my regular self was there, only he seemed sinister, more than happy to get me and my soul into trouble. And while that was going on, I was watching myself being high. So bloody existential, it was. I'd do it again, if I weren't on prescribed meds, and if my brain wouldn't down-regulate and toss me into panic disorder when I tried to quit weed cold turkey. But I do miss it. I've been drunk but I don't miss alcohol. But I cherish my memories of weed.
The song got a lot of flak for mentioning Jesus & Mary in a song that was about drug usage. At the time a lot of people didn't know what a toke was including Me being only 14 at the time. The song even got performed on Lawrence Welk, the squarest show on television. They thought it was a spiritual. One toke over meant that they had smoked too much & gotten higher than normal.
I've always loved this song. It's so bouncy and light, even if I didn't ever actually get the point. Didn't matter. I never thought about the McCartney influence until you mentioned it. But, yeah, now I hear it, too.
The song is about waiting, stoned, in an ACTUAL train station. The singer is reflecting on his travels while waiting for the train (while stoned on pot). Check out their version of "Witchi Tai To" (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dS_41bCx_nE.html), a song written by Native American jazz musician Jim Pepper. A great song.
ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Ye3ecDYxOkg.html is the Lawrence Welk show singers doing this, without knowing it was about marijuana and thought it was a gospel hahahahahaha
My brother. I got to be an Acquaintance And Friend Of Tom Shipley. And I've never talked to him about It. Here's what I think the song is saying saying basically. It's a token. That's you paid to get on the train. I don't know about the name Mary. I could be wrong about all it is is the word TOKe think it's supposed to be token at a train station over the line.its a song about going Home on a train. And back in the day all the hippies adoubted the expression a TOKe as a hit of a joint
You are getting there Hari. A toke is a puff on a marijuana cigarette or joint and the two of them just got a little too high waiting on a train. It is that simple. But, it was one of those songs that seemed well hidden. You could play it and maybe your square parents wouldn't quite understand. It fooled Lawrence Welk who got a couple of singers to do a cover of it thinking it a gospel song that the kids actually liked and playing it could make him look hip. He didn't realize how hip he really was, or maybe he did. Maybe he fooled us all. But you can't fool Spiro T. Agnew, the first Vice President under Nixon. He found the song to be subversive and got radio stations to ban it so it was never a hit. It was just one of those songs with a great story.
Please try pull up. “Oh Mommy” by Brewer and Shiply and You’ll never forget them they put it all together check it out Brother whenever you have a chance. Thank you.
Is that Jerry Garcia on pedal steel? I think it is or maybe I’m over the line. I think the song is literally being in a downtown train station hoping the train hurries up because he smoked too much pot.
