Sheldon Alan "Shel" Silverstein (September 25, 1930 – May 10, 1999) was an American poet, singer-songwriter, musician, composer, cartoonist, screenwriter, and author of children's books. He sometimes styled himself as Uncle Shelby, especially for his early children's books.
Silverstein confirmed that he never studied the poetry of others and therefore developed his own quirky style: laid-back and conversational, occasionally employing profanity and slang.
Cartoonist
In his childhood, Silverstein began as a cartoonist by tracing the works of Walt Disney, and was also influenced by the style of Virgil Partch. He was first published in the Roosevelt Torch (a student newspaper at Roosevelt University); and continued this profession when he began being published in Pacific Stars and Stripes, where he had originally been assigned to do paste-up and composition. It was through Stars and Stripes that Take Ten, his first book, was published; it was primarily a compilation of his cartoons for that newspaper. He would continue this trade throughout his career, from Playboy to his illustrations for his children's books.
Writings
Silverstein's work did not include writing for children when he first began his career, but his editor at Harper & Row (now HarperCollins), Ursula Nordstrom, encouraged Silverstein to write children's poetry. After having used his clever, silly ideas in his first book, Silverstein decided that he liked the result and wanted to do it again.
A blurb by Otto Penzler from his crime anthology Murder for Revenge (1998) says:
“ The phrase "Renaissance man" tends to get overused these days, but apply it to Shel Silverstein and it practically begins to seem inadequate. Not only has he produced with seeming ease country music hits and popular songs, but he's been equally successful at turning his hand to poetry, short stories, plays, and children's books. Moreover, his whimsically hip fables, beloved by readers of all ages, have made him a stalwart of bestseller lists. A Light in the Attic, most remarkably, showed the kind of staying power on the New York Times chart — two years, to be precise — that most of the biggest names (John Grisham, Stephen King, and Michael Crichton) have never equaled for their own blockbusters.
And there's still more: his unmistakable illustrative style is another crucial element to his appeal. Just as no writer sounds like Shel, no other artist's vision is as delightfully, sophisticatingly cockeyed.
One can only marvel that he makes the time to respond so kindly to his friends' requests. In the following work, let's be glad he did. Drawing on his characteristic passion for list making, he shows how the deed is not just in the wish but in the sublimation.
”
This anthology was the second in a series, which also included Murder for Love (1996) and Murder and Obsession (1999). All three anthologies included contributions by Shel Silverstein.
[edit] As a songwriter
Silverstein's passion for music was clear early on as he studied briefly at Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. His musical output included a large catalog of songs; a great number of which were hits for other artists - most notably the rock & roll group Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show (later shortened to just Dr. Hook).
He wrote the music and lyrics for "A Boy Named Sue" (which was performed by Johnny Cash and for which Silverstein won a Grammy in 1970), Tompall Glaser's highest-charting solo single "Put Another Log on the Fire," "One's on the Way" (which was a hit for Loretta Lynn), and "The Unicorn" (which became the signature piece for the Irish Rovers in 1968). Another Silverstein-penned song recorded by Cash is "25 Minutes to Go," sung from the point of view of a man facing his last 25 minutes on Death Row, with each line of the song counting down one minute closer.
He wrote the lyrics and music for most of the Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show songs, including "The Cover of the Rolling Stone", "Freakin' at the Freakers' Ball," "Sylvia's Mother", "The Things I Didn't Say" and a cautionary song about venereal disease, "Don't Give a Dose to the One You Love Most".
He also wrote many of the songs performed by Bobby Bare, including "Rosalie's Good Eats Café", "The Mermaid", "The Winner", "Tequila Sheila", and co-wrote with Baxter Taylor the song "Marie Laveau", for which the songwriters received a BMI Award in 1975. "The Mermaid" was also covered in 2005 by Great Big Sea, which released its version on the album The Hard and the Easy.
Further famous songs that Shel Silverstein wrote were "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan", (first recorded by Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show in 1975) which was re-recorded in 1979 by Marianne Faithfull and in 1996 by Belinda Carlisle and later featured in the films Montenegro and Thelma & Louise and "Queen of the Silver Dollar", first recorded by Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show (on their 1972 album Sloppy Seconds), and later by Doyle Holly (on his 1973 album Doyle Holly), Emmylou Harris (on her 1975 album Pieces of the Sky) and Dave & Sugar (on their 1976 album Dave & Sugar). Shel was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his song I'm Checkin' Out for the film Postcards from the Edge. He also composed original music for several other films and displayed a musical versatility in these projects, playing guitar, piano, saxophone, and trombone. Silverstein also wrote "In the Hills of Shiloh", a very poignant song about the aftermath of the Civil War, which was recorded by The New Christy Minstrels, Judy Collins and Bobby Bare, among others.
The soundtrack of the 1970 film Ned Kelly is composed of Silverstein's songs, performed by Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson among others.
Silverstein also had a popular following on Dr. Demento's radio show. Among his best-known comedy songs were "Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout (Would Not Take The Garbage Out)", "The Smoke-Off" (a tale of a contest to determine who could roll—or smoke—marijuana joints faster), "I Got Stoned and I Missed It", and "Bury Me in My Shades". He also wrote "The Father of a Boy Named Sue", in which he tells the story from the original song from the father's point of view, and the 1962 song "Boa Constrictor" that is sung by a man who is being progressively swallowed whole by a snake (recorded by the folk group The Brothers Four),[citation needed] although it is now better known as a children's playground chant.
A longtime friend of American singer and songwriter Pat Dailey, Silverstein collaborated with him on the posthumously released 2002 Underwater Land album. It contains 17 children's songs written and produced by Silverstein and sung by Dailey. Silverstein also appears along with him on a few tracks. The album also contains artwork by Silverstein.
Silverstein was posthumously inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 200
These first 7 selections are for those who have never heard Shel to see if you like his work.
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All done for awhile here. I have more Shel, but I have to listen again to some of them to assure they are for Children. At some point in time I will put the Adult selections of Shel's on the comedy Group.----------------------------Rick
Replies
I love these books as well.
Happy Holidays, katy