Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Dr. Hook partied way harder than you ever will...


Rock n' roll has always been synonymous with partying. Booze, drugs and punching wives has long been the norm for rock's great ambassadors. In the 1980's Motley Crue, Guns N' Roses and Metallica got paid millions of dollars to do all of the insane shit that people dream of while jacking off in their office. Excessive alcohol and drug use was not only accepted, it was an essential tool in getting the bands onstage every night to plow through another set of the same fucking songs in front of throngs of drooling gearheads.

The 90's were all about heroin and hating your parents. Not too much in the way of fun but it's hard to top shooting poison directly into your heart in the ripping shit up category. The 2000's saw the rise of recreational prescription drug use which, let's face it, really isn't partying since your little sister is probably doing the same thing right now at horse camp.

From The Beatles and The Greatful Dead to Led Zepplin and Aerosmith. Black Sabbath and AC/DC to RATT and Poison. Rock n' Roll has boasted it's fair share of righteous party bands. None, however, even come close to Dr. Hook and The Medicine Show. Don't believe me?

This clip is from a German TV show in the early 70's. Lead singer Dennis LoCorriere has either drank fire from the mouth of a poisonous volcano or he's discovered drugs that no longer exist in this dimension. I honestly can't even tell what substances him and Ray "Dr. Hook" Parker are on. It seems like they're stoned but they have way too much energy. It seems like they're drunk but the music is still tight as shit. Maybe Germany used all the gold fillings they won during the holocaust and created a synthetic, injectable form of gold dust that makes people giggle like Elmo and play kick ass music. We may never know.


You'll notice that when LoCorriere finally stops laughing and gets the song started keyboard player Billy Francis decides to stop playing and spend the rest of the song dancing around like a fucking maniac. At this point, the producers of the show must have started getting nervous. When people start acting like this it's usually not too long before a dick finds its way out of one of their pants. Unfortunately, since there's no protocol in Germany (or any other country for that matter) for what to do when your musical guest is balls deep into a pscyhotropic meltdown, they just had to cross their fingers and Seig Heil to God that everything would turn out OK. Imagine, less than 30 years after my Grandpa and his good friend Uncle Sam blew most of Germany to high hell, we make them put up this kind of behavior from our American rock stars. Not only does America piss all over our enemy's kitchen floor, we come back a few decades later to rub their faces in it while we do drugs and rock out in their garage. Regardless, this is what rock music is supposed to look and sound like. Long hair, beards, guitars, uncontrollable giggling, retarded elf dancing, bellies full of space drugs and frightened Germans looking for the exit. Beautiful.

Here's a clip from a couple of years later of them on The Old Crow Medicine Show. Note that their appetites for booze, drugs and yodeling has only increased while their ability to give a fuck has dwindled down to practically nothing.


Shortly after this period Dennis LoCorriere left the band to go solo and Dr. Hook turned into a soft rock/disco powerhouse, recording hit after hit of forgettable 70's dad rock. For those few years in the early 1970's though, there wasn't a band that could touch them in the field of full contact group partying and, for my money, there hasn't been one since.

Maybe Britney Spears...


25 comments:

  1. Hi! Sitting here in Norway, laughing my ass of now. Just saw the entire Musikladen-concert (the first clip)that a friend gave me on dvd for christmas, and I thought "what the hell, Dr. Hook?" and he said, just watch this shit... I remember them as a crappy band on the radio when I was a kid, and I even accidentally saw Ray on tour in 1990, but this, this was really something else. And my main question is, what the hell were they on? What fucks you up so entirely, and still allows you to play so damn good? I suggest that the following is involved: Cannabis (lots) Alcohol (at least Dennis the guy w long hair on vok/git is getting more drunk during the first 4 songs and then sobers up a bit, if the alcohol is not just overrun by speed dropped at the same time) Speed in various forms, Cocaine, and at least a couple of them must have taken some acid, and various pills to help fine-adjusting each one to perfection... Was looking for behind the scenes stories, but found this blog, anyway, buy it folks and watch the whole show.

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    1. Quaaludes (8 years later :))

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    2. You sound like you know all about those drugs and or combinations there in?
      Or are you a burned out drug counseler?
      I mean wtf do you really know anyway??
      🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂

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    3. Cocaine speed , gotta love the songs

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  2. Ya gotta love their music, a bunch of hippies having fun

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  3. I love em and I was curious as to what they were on I would say according to the time it would probably be
    Ty stick, opium Dipped strings wrapped around droid buds of marijuana.

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  4. watching this is cool they arnt fn idiots i love there singing least its there part of the act

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    1. Best band ever - Just love them. Listen to their songs now and get taken back in time. Fantastic voices and great songs

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  5. I always liked them but didn't realize how great they were until later. Also, being on various narcotics up until about 18 years ago, it's obvious that they are truly high. Most likely acid, maybe some coke along with it. What a great band, I'm so glad they were recorded and we can still experience their music.

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  6. Reading the article and there are a few things that stuck out. Rat's last name isn't Parker it is Sawyer. Dennis did not leave the band in the 70's he left when the band broke up in 1985. Ray Sawyer left in '83. George Cummings left in 75,nothing is more irritating than to have someone write an article about a band and have their facts wrong. If you're going to write something get your facts correct instead of pulling made up shot out your ass.

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    1. Correct - I met the band in 82 and Ray was still there

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    2. He said they Ray left in '83. 82 comes right before 83. just sayin

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  7. I loved them back when I was a kid. As an adult I really appreciate them even more and I got a kick out of them having fun Whether they were high or not. All in good fun.

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  8. This is totally hilarious 😂

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  9. Ray left the band when? I saw them in Minneapolis in 1998 and in Fargo in 2001 or 2002. I happen to know Ray Sawyer was there...because...as always, he stayed after the band was done playing and met with each and every fan there who wanted to meet up with him.. wanted to say hello, shake his hand, get their boob or cd autographed, tell him a story, ask a question or whatever...would get a chance to do so. Sadly, it seems...all that partying finally caught up to Ray and he passed away, at age 81. in true Dr. Hook Style..on the night famous for parties....NEW YEARS EVE 2018. Ray and his wife Linda, married since 1969, had one son. They would have celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2019.

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    1. He left initially in '85 but returned for a couple of reunions, but he may even have gotten this incorrect, because it was in an interview I just listened to on YouTube from a few years before he passed and he seemed to be, well, kinda sick. Point is that he was in and out, but there's a timeline on their Wiki page, even though that's not the most accurate source. There's also Allmusic and Songfacts, which are much better, but all of these comments seem lazy.

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  10. Ray and Linda had 2 sons, Michael and Casey and a daughter Amy.

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    Replies
    1. What happened to Amy did she die

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    2. There is no truth to Ray and Linda having 3 children. I have the 1 birth certificate of their son Cayse Sawyer (geez, learn how to spell it correctly at least). His DOB, hospital where he was born, you name it.

      There is NO other children born of the marriage. The will states so as well, look into the files in Florida will you? Oh you cannot, none of you are lawyers so you cannot go on the federal government PACER, can you?

      Shucks. But thanks for playing and thinking one dumb a## can type a rumor THUS becomes truth. SMH. Fools.

      Facts, people. Fact check each and every time. Not that hard to do.

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  11. I saw them back in 8o or 81. They enjoyed being on stage and was the best concert I've ever seen.They put alot of feelings and heart in their music.Their songs had a story in them.Some silly,some serious. But they were the greatest in my opinion. I thank them greatly. Hats off to Dr. Hook and the medicine show.

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  12. One thing's certain, and that's the reason for Ray's departure: the commercialization of the band. Those later songs not written by Uncle Shelby or the entire band but solely by Dennis were written with "big hit" goals, and that's not the band Ray founded. He enjoyed being a road warrior, but Dennis was feeling the road life tear his physical and mental health to pieces. Record companies are ruthless. A better deal would have afforded them the best of both worlds. Better promotion of their real music could have meant less time on the road.

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    1. I would love to know 2 things was ray and Dennis s friend ship fake😠 I hope not.and what were the keys ray always had dangling from his belt

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    2. He's driving a Morgan car in one of the music videos. Maybe its the car keys.

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