Brewer & Shipley “Shake Off the Demon”

The first song, “Shake Off the Demon,” sounds totally familiar—was this their hit? Oh, I know, it sounds like Byrds song, or Gram Parsons—which song? I’ll think of it… Or maybe the Flying Burritos? Am I thinking of that “Older Guys” song? Naturally, the reason I bought this record is because the picture of the dudes, Michael Brewer and Tom Shipley, is so totally insane looking, how could I not? It looks like a treated black and white photo—I mean, this is 1971, it’s not digital manipulation or a phone app—and it’s even signed! (by Thomas Weir) so obviously they were all as impressed as I am. I wouldn’t call it flattering—what they look like is a couple of insane, opium smoking, absinthe drinking poets from few hundred years ago in France, or… you get the idea! There’s a much smaller, color photo on back—they look totally different, a couple of attractive young guys—so it’s a choice to look wacko on the cover—and I like it. Who are these guys? They both sing, play guitar and other axes, and they wrote all the song (except one by Jackson Browne). It’s a weird album—nice, overall, but I find it a bit boring, too. It’s the odd album where the first song on each side are the ones with the best grooves, and also my favorites, at least. “Shake Off…” and also, “Working on the Well”—I dig it, which is another way of saying, “working on the well”—not that I understand it! I suppose some of the subtler ones might start to grow on me if I give it a few listens—we’ll see. The “i” tells me they both died recently—they’ve been around. Their big hit was “One Toke Over the Line” from around 1970—I didn’t know that was them—it’s kind of a country song, and I always thought it was a bit dull, but it is a blatant weed reference, which at the time… well, “toke” was a relatively new word! So they were on the cutting edge, sweet Jesus. The exciting thing I read was that they met in Kent, Ohio, my old home, or one of ’em. They then moved to LA, didn’t care for it, then settled in Kansas City. I can relate! They put out 10 albums and a lot of singles. I still don’t know which one is Brewer and which one is Shipley!

8.14.26