Still Hooked

Ah, for a trip back in time to Dr. Hook and memorable songs, such as Freakin’ at the Freaker’s Ball and I Got Stoned and Missed It. My sentimental journey began when Mark & Brian asked listeners if they could guess the top 10 on Billboard’s list of all-time best songs for making whoopie. When Olivia Newton-John’s Let’s Get Physical took number one, I almost drove into a ditch!

Really? No way in hell, people. Dr. Hook’s A Little Bit More is number one on any list anywhere, anytime. Okay, so Dr. Hook was big in the 1970s, but really? A song about exercise tops sex on the floor and wanting just a little bit more? Find Dr. Hook on YouTube and listen to A Little Bit More: believe me, you'll be wantin' a little something something half-way through!

Dr. Hook’s band has so many memorable songs, including another biggie, The Cover of the Rolling Stone, complaining about being one of the top grossing bands in his heyday, but a band that couldn’t get a RS cover. Someone has put Hook's song to a montage of RS covers on YouTube -- and it's quite enjoyable to view. Baby Makes Her Blue Jeans Talk is so sexist as to be funny, but perhaps not so much to today’s overly-PC young people who think everything anyone says is somehow pertinent (and offensive) to them specifically. Freakin’ at the Freaker’s Ball still makes me laugh as it’s so ridiculous, which makes it funny, but whoo-boy would it get all the targets of the satire up in arms if they heard it today. Back when, we believed that if you laughed at it, it didn’t blow up into something more important than it actually is … and I still believe that. People make too many little things into big things, sometimes to prove a point, but far more often to turn their pettiness into a cash cow in the court system.

Example: A woman is going to court to defend herself against her habit of talking profanity-laced trash in public, which I find offensive, but she’s flying her own flag, not mine, so I move on. Nope, a mother is up in arms because her child was exposed to (and allegedly offended by) the woman’s rant – and the child's mother stayed in place to capture it on her cell phone to prove just how bad this woman’s mouth is. So, which woman put the child in harm’s way: the trash-talker or the child's mother?

Dr. Hook played in a venue in Joshua Tree one year and I really wanted to go, but didn’t. My friends went, had the best time ever, and closed the place down. Her husband drove back to their home for a record album cover Dr. Hook autographed. I’ll have to ask if they still have that.

Yeah, I’d go see Dr. Hook today, perhaps joining an audience of arthritic grey hairs, all of whom remember the spirit, the energy, the enthusiasm, and the lyrics of one of “our” bands from back in the day. Yeah, you can sing along with Dr. Hook's easy rhythms, hum-able melodies, and memorable lyrics too, but be prepared to be over the top politically incorrect while you’re having all that fun!