Jim Motavalli, a columnist for The Daily Green alternative-energy magazine, tells about the fascinating background of Tom Shipley.
Shipley works as a video producer at the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla. According to the article, among Shipley’s favorite work is documenting students’ efforts at building vehicles for the North American Solar Car Challenge, which has taken place on Route 66 several times in its history and will return to the road this summer.
The races cover routes such as Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles, or Dallas to Calgary, and Shipley goes along with his high-def cameras. The films help the school find sponsors to get the teams on the road. “By the time the students graduate, they’re in demand,” Shipley said. “I feel really blessed,” he added. “I’ve won tons of awards, and I’ve had two really good careers.”
Here is some of Shipley’s camera and editing work:
But Shipley is a lot more well-known for being one-half of Brewer & Shipley, whose biggest hit was “One Toke Over the Line” in 1971.
The sly pro-marijuana song reached No. 10 on the singles chart, and landed them on President Nixon’s notorious enemies list.
“When we wrote ‘One Toke Over the Line,’ I think we were one toke over the line,” said Shipley told Motavalli.
Still, it had to be a kick for the duo when they saw their song being performed on “The Lawrence Welk Show” — and the host being seemingly oblivious to its meaning.
Thanks for including the Lawrence Welk link. It’s a classic.
Brewer and Shipley still perform at Wildwood Lodge Resort in Steelville, MO in their Living Room Concert series.