Edgar Winters was just here, couldn't have been more than a month ago, because I remember making some witty remark about his new album's cover, surprise winner of last year's "Bad Taste in Album Design" award, just nosing out Mom's Apple Pie. My idea of a good time this last week has been walking the streets with an Edgar Winter--They Only Come Out At Night lapel button, with an eye towards passerby response. It's been minimal. Anyway, celebrate the collapse of another semester with Edgar Winter and scenic Boston's equally scenic James Montgomery, I was one of those people who passionately hated, "Sylvia's Mother", because I was taking it much too seriously. Then I heard Dr. Hook, on "VD Blues," do a tune called "Don't Give a Dose to the One You Love Most," which was written by Shel Silverstein, and he's nothing if not weird. Meanwhile, the new album is called Sloppy Seconds and Silverstein's almost writing exclusively for Dr. Hook. All of which sheds a lot of light, in retrospect, on the serious intent of "Sylvia's Mother," even though I still don't think it's nearly as funny as "It's My Party."

Wicked Wilson Pickett is at the Sugar Shack. Little's been heard from him, and that's a partial result of a general mellowing in R 'n' B over the past few years. Pickett's being replaced by the slickness of your Al Greens. And that's too bad, because you can't always dance to the Rolling Stones, and ass-wriggling to Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes just ain't the same.

I think Thn Hardin's playing Oliver's, but I can't find the journal that said so. Anyway, I've dug Tim Hardin since his "Misty Roses" succinctly described a cliffle I mistakenly fell in love with when I was a freshman. I haven't been to the Cliffe since, but I'm still listening to Tim Hardin, despite the decline Rolling Stone attributes to him. I like to see him as a low profile James Taylor.

Orpheum Aquarius Theater, Edgar Winter, Jan. 31, 8 p.m.

Paul's Mall, Dr. Hook, Thru Sun., the 28th, 267-1300.

Sugar Shack, Wilson Pickett, 110 Boylston St. 426-0086.

Oliver's Tim Hardin. Thru Sun. 62 Brookline Ave. 536-4840.