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Shel Silverstein
49,510 plays (4,265 listeners)
comedy, spoken word, poetry, ferraille, green box… see all
Sheldon Alan “Shel” Silverstein (September 25, 1930 – May 10, 1999) was an American poet, songwriter, musician, composer, cartoonist, screenwriter, and author of children’s books.
Silverstein’s passion for music was clear early on as he studied for awhile at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. As a songwriter, Silverstein kept a low profile but cast a long shadow. He tended to shun publicity and even photographers. Nonetheless, his musical output included many songs which were hits for other artists. Most notably, he wrote the music and lyrics for ”A Boy Named Sue” that was performed by Johnny Cash (for which he won a Grammy in 1970); “One’s On the Way” (which was a hit for Loretta Lynn), and ”The Unicorn Song”; which, despite having nothing to do with Ireland nor Irish culture, became the signature piece for The Irish Rovers in 1968 and is popular in pubs all over the world to this day. He wrote the lyrics and music for most of the Dr. Hook songs, including “Cover of the Rolling Stone,” “Freakin’ at the Freakers’ Ball,” “Sylvia’s Mother” and the cautionary song about VD, “Don’t Give a Dose To the One You Love Most.” He also wrote many of the songs performed by Bobby Bare, including “Marie Laveau”, “Rosalie’s Good Eats Cafe”, “The Mermaid”, “The Winner”, and “Tequila Sheila”.
Silverstein’s passion for music was clear early on as he studied for awhile at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. As a songwriter, Silverstein kept a low profile but cast a long shadow. He tended to shun publicity and even photographers. Nonetheless, his musical output included many songs which were hits for other artists. Most notably, he wrote the music and lyrics for ”A Boy Named Sue” that was performed by Johnny Cash (for which he won a Grammy in 1970); “One’s On the Way” (which was a hit for Loretta Lynn), and ”The Unicorn Song”; which, despite having nothing to do with Ireland nor Irish culture, became the signature piece for The Irish Rovers in 1968 and is popular in pubs all over the world to this day. He wrote the lyrics and music for most of the Dr. Hook songs, including “Cover of the Rolling Stone,” “Freakin’ at the Freakers’ Ball,” “Sylvia’s Mother” and the cautionary song about VD, “Don’t Give a Dose To the One You Love Most.” He also wrote many of the songs performed by Bobby Bare, including “Marie Laveau”, “Rosalie’s Good Eats Cafe”, “The Mermaid”, “The Winner”, and “Tequila Sheila”.
Videos
Top Albums
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I Got Stoned And I Missed It
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Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too
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Homework Machine
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Peanut-Butter Sandwich
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Monsters I've Met
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The Generals
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A Front Row Seat To Hear Ole Johnny Sing
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The Dragon of Grindly Grun
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Zebra Question
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Shoutbox
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horse_glue wrote:
the older i get the more i love this guy. sleep easy.
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abouc wrote:
Freakin' at the Freakers Ball is one of the best albums Ive ever heard. Top notch musicians and hilarious lyrics make for a truly enjoyable listening experience.
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JackSzwergold wrote:
Genius.
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arms4wardraise wrote:
the world has been poorer with his passing
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wheelsfalloff wrote:
Hey I found that at an op-shop for 2 bucks! Its funny how Dr.Hook plummeted into a cheesy hole of suckiness once Shel stopped writing for them.
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notunique wrote:
actually some of his best work is on the album Inside Folk Songs also rereleased as Inside Shel Silverstein. it is only on Vinyl to my knowledge, but would be worth picking up if found for a decent price.
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notunique wrote:
He died in 1999 ;)
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nslaven wrote:
god bless shel silverstein... one of my early inspirations for sure. Inspiration for what you ask... every artistic outlet I have and life in general. long live silverstein
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MHotel wrote:
i was surprised to learn that shel wrote one of my favorite cash songs. this was years ago but further proof that this man was a higher level of human.
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Recent Activity
- h3llokt, Wichita1, paulerix and 10 other people added Shel Silverstein to their libraries. Friday morning
- lalarabbit tagged Shel Silverstein with ‘silverstein’. August 2008
- lalarabbit, jerryconway, jfunk5 and 1 other person added Shel Silverstein to their libraries. August 2008
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Missed connections
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process in background
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6 Aug 2006 | 1 comment
