Michael Brewer, Whose ‘One Toke’ Was a Big Hit, Is Dead at 80 NYT | Top Stories By: Alex Williams 21 December 2024 at 14:54 The duo Brewer & Shipley reached the Top 10 in 1970 with “One Toke Over the Line,” a ditty about marijuana that ran afoul of Nixon-era censors. © Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesMichael Brewer in about 1970, the year that he and his musical partner, Tom Shipley, had a Top 10 hit with “One Toke Over the Line.”