Eddie’s patent illustration…
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This is what it’s all about. Before all that nicey nicey Jump crap (which I still like but they definitely started off harder, meaner). And the intro by Eddie.
With Eddie playing this kind of magic, David Lee Roth could much more easily project that image of being invincible, in my opinion.
There are several hilarious details about Hagar’s defining song, “I Can’t Drive 55.” I would like to focus on a stanza near the end, which I have analyzed at length with Perfecting Sound Forever author Greg Milner. The lyrics involve Sammy bemoaning traffic on the highways of California, and the key passages reads as follows: “What used to take two hours now takes all day / It took me 16 hours to get to L.A.” The central question surrounds whether (a) these two sentiments are connected, or (b) they refer to two wholly disconnected episodes. I mean, it’s possible that the first line is a complaint about how increases in freeway congestion have made it difficult to efficiently run errands around town on any random weekday, while the second line refers to an unrelated drive from (say) suburban Seattle to suburban Los Angeles. However, Hagar delivers these two lines as if they have an intertwined working relationship, and that’s logistically problematic. Let’s assume Sammy is talking about driving down to L.A. from his home in San Francisco, maybe after attending the Bammy Awards. He claims the trip “used to take two hours.” That would mean he was driving at (roughly) 191 miles per hour. But if this same excursion suddenly took 16 hours, it would suggest a sustained average speed of just under 24 mph. It’s almost like he literally can’t drive 55, always operating way above or way below the legal specifications of the roadway.
It just came to my mind that this year Peter Green died too.
And going over this list I saw McCoy Tyner (I forgot it already!):
@wcr, article above talks about Eruption.
Interview 3 years ago, below. Best part is first half, when Eddie discusses about how he got to America and then building guitars through trial 'n error.
He also spoke some Dutch.
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So awesome on this song before things get a bit weird with the bassist.
And yes, Peter Green. Great blues.
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I don’t suppose any of you are old enough to have seen this guy pitch?
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Oh man. My pa was a big fan. Not only do I remember Ford, but I saw him pitch.
My pa had business in Kansas City in (iirc) the summer of 1966. I was his right hand man. He got us tickets at old Municipal Stadium, a huge, sprawling, dusty, rickety, wooden (!) fire trap that was way past its best-by date (it had been the home field for the Monarchs for many years). Yeah, they were playing pro ball in a wooden stadium back then, in KC.
We saw Sudden Sam McDowell pitch for the Indians against the KC Athletics (the Kansas City franchise was not the Royals yet, not back then) in a day game (A’s won), and a few nights later we saw Ford pitch for the visiting Yankees (A’s lost). We were pretty excited. First two MLB games I attended.
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The boozy glaze across Eddie’s eyes in some—not all—of those photos linked by tango indicates some of what was to come for Valerie and others close to him.
Good for Eddie for evidently getting cleaned up toward the end of his life. But by then the damage had been done.
Guy
Another one…
Great baseball commentator, too.
Always loved his twitching left elbow before getting set to bat (at 0:18 below).
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Used to love that show.
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Conchata was great in her role too. 
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Joe Morgan was an astonishing baseball player, a historically great second baseman. But his work as a TV commentator was, to put it mildly, not always appreciated, especially when the game went through its “moneyball” phase.
RIP.
Guy
The Wall Street Journal has reported that, after 60 years on the bottom shelf of the soda aisle, Coca-Cola’s first-ever diet soda has been discontinued. No longer will it be found at off-the-beaten path gas stations along Highway 5, or buried deep in the Walmart soda aisle.
My mom and her gal pals drank it in the 70s.
I drank it. Great with a pinch of lemon.
It’s been gone for quite a while in the US. But I have heard Spain still makes it.