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After spending the second half of the '60s cranking out hit after hit (“I Think We're Alone Now,” Hanky Panky,” “Mony Mony,” Crystal Blue Persuasion,” etc.) Tommy James and the Shondells broke up. The reason? So Tommy could work on kicking his serious drug habit. Sad, but true.
In 1970, Tommy was itching to make some music again, so he and his songwriting collaborator, Bob King, went into the studio and started laying down a track that evolved into a “Great Song of 1971.”
They built the song backwards, starting with a short instrumental track they repeated in a loop for about three minutes, and then wrote the rest of the song around it. The lyrics were the last thing they added, but only after they came up with a title, which Tommy says came from listening to the bass line and putting words to it: “Draggin' the Line.”
Many people, knowing Tommy's history with drugs, thought the title had to do with snorting cocaine, but Tommy insists he had cleaned up his act, and the REAL meaning is centered around working at a boring job day in and day out—such as stringing up power lines (ala Glen Campbell's “Wichita Lineman.”)
“Draggin' the Line” was not an immediate hit. It was originally released as the B-Side of a single called “Church Street Soul Revival” that went absolutely nowhere.
At that point, the record company (Roulette) started getting feedback from radio stations saying that “Draggin'” had some hit potential, so Tommy went back into the studio, and added some horns and a few other enhancements. Roulette re-released it as an A-Side...and in 1971, it went to #4 on Billboard's Hot 100, and #2 on Canada's Top 40, selling over a million copies!
TRIVIA: The lyric line, “Loving a free and feeling spirit, hugging a tree when you get near it,” developed into the slang term “tree hugger,” and for better or worse, Tommy takes credit for that.
“Draggin' the Line:” A “Great Song of 1971!
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