While many Baby-Boomers, like my own parents, find the chiffon and polyester costumes as suffocating as the show’s sentimentality, The Lawrence Welk Show, was my escape from reality. Wunnerful Wunnerful Welks description of a song called One Toke Over. Considering historical realities like segregation and stringent gender roles, I’m not sure that time actually existed, but watching Welk you almost believed there was a trouble-free and bubble-filled era. Jo Ann Castles tits bouncing up and down when when she played ragtime piano. Oddly, the song was performed on The Lawrence Welk Show, a television program known for its conservative, family-oriented bent, by a duo known as 'Gail and Dale.' At the conclusion of the performance of the song, Welk remarked, without any hint of humor, 'There youve heard a modern spiritual by Gail and Dale. Nostalgia - The Lawrence Welk Show made its national debut on ABC in 1955, and even then was devoted to celebrating a simpler, more wholesome time.
But bear with me as I count the ways I’ll miss my weekly television dates with Larry Welk.ġ. Now, if you’re like many people (including some in programming here at the station) you may be saying it’s about time and good riddance. Welk, at the conclusion of the performance of the song, remarked, without any hint of humor, 'there you've heard a modern spiritual by Gail and Dale.' Brewer and Shipley spent 35 years. The funniest thing, and this is a true story, says Brewer, is that while it was getting so much controversy, Lawrence Welk played it on his show. In 1971 the song was performed on the Lawrence Welk Show by the wholesome-looking couple Gail Farrell and Dick Dale, who clearly had NO clue what a toke was. KCPT said its final adios, au revoir, auf wiedersehen and good night to The Lawrence Welk Show last Saturday evening.įor 29 years - barring pledge drives (like the one we’re in now – donate here) and Auction (RIP) - Welk’s musical family had a home on our station. One Toke is now the touchstone for the duo that helped define folk rock in the early ’70s with soaring harmonies and dual acoustic guitar work. Accordionist Myron Floren introduced it as one of the newer songs as Welk singers Gail Farrell & Dick Dale launched into their wholesome rendition of One. 'This is how weird it got with 'One Toke.' As Agnew was coming down on us, Lawrence Welk played it on his show, introducing it as a gospel song.