Брюер и Шипли: История фолк-рок дуэта и песня "One Toke Over the Line"

American folk rock duo

Brewer & Shipley are an American folk rock duo who enjoyed their peak success in the late 1960s through the 1970s. The duo consisted of singer songwriters, Mike Brewer (born on April 14, 1944) and Tom Shipley (born on April 1, 1941). They were known for their intricate guitar work, vocal harmonies, and socially conscious lyrics which reflected the concerns of their generation – especially the Vietnam War, and the struggles for personal and political freedom. Their greatest commercial success was the song "One Toke Over the Line" from their 1970 album Tarkio. and Weeds. "One Toke Over The Line" was performed on The Lawrence Welk Show, a television program known for its conservative, family oriented format, by a duo known as "Gail and Dale". At the conclusion of the performance of the song, Welk remarked, without any hint of irony, "There you've heard a modern spiritual by Gail and Dale." This caused Michael Brewer to comment:
The Vice President of the United States, Spiro Agnew, named us personally as a subversive to American youth, but at exactly the same time Lawrence Welk performed the crazy thing and introduced it as a gospel song. That shows how absurd it really is. Of course, we got more publicity than we could have paid for. Brewer & Shipley have performed with many notable acts, including Stephen Stills, Bruce Springsteen, Black Sabbath, and Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, who played pedal steel guitar for "Oh, Mommy".

During 1989 they performed a gig together, and a brief time later began composing together again, producing two albums, SHANGHAI (1993) and Heartland (1997). They have continued to tour together, part time, since the 1990s. In 2011, the acoustic duo performed on Main Street in Tarkio, Missouri, to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Tarkio album. At present, Michael Brewer lives outside of Branson, Missouri. Tom Shipley lives in Rolla, Missouri, where he is part of the staff of Missouri University of Science & Technology (formerly the University of Missouri – Rolla). He is semi retired as manager of video productions and continues to work on special video productions for the university. He is a member of Engineers Without Borders and has traveled twice to the Amazon and Andes of Bolivia to produce videos for the organization. One Toke Over the Line . and Still Smokin', a documentary on Brewer and Shipley, was released on Vimeo on Demand on April 20, 2021.

In the first chapter of Hunter S. Thompson's novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Raoul Duke's attorney, Dr. Gonzo, sings the line "One toke over the line, sweet Jesus, one toke over the line" while the two of them drive from Barstow to Las Vegas. One Toke Over the Line is an addiction status in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV. Shipley, a cat featured in Tom Cox's memoir Under the Paw: Confessions of a Cat Man, is named after Tom Shipley. In the movie St. Vincent (2014) the song "One Toke Over the Line" is heard playing on Bill Murray's headphones and is listed on the soundtrack credits.