The duo Brewer & Shipley reached the Top 10 in 1971 with “One Toke Over the Line,” a ditty about marijuana that ran afoul of Nixon-era censors.
by Alex Williams
December 20, 2024
Michael Brewer, half of the folk-rock duo Brewer & Shipley, who scored an unlikely Top 10 hit in 1971 with “One Toke Over the Line” — one of the most overt pop odes to marijuana of the hippie era and presumably the only one to be performed on the squeaky-clean “Lawrence Welk Show” — died on Tuesday at his home near Branson, Mo. He was 80.
His death was confirmed in a social media post by his longtime recording and performing partner, Tom Shipley. No cause was given.
While often categorized as a one-hit wonder, Brewer & Shipley actually notched two other singles on the Billboard Hot 100: “Tarkio Road,” which climbed to No. 55 in June 1970, and “Shake Off the Demon,” which sneaked in at No. 98 in February 1972.
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