Friday, August 28, 2009

R.I.P. Eric Stratton, Rush Chairman


Well I have never had the platform or the occasion to tell this story, but since Senator Edward Kennedy died while pushing a health care plan for all Americans which is 180 degrees different from the one that extended his life, here goes. No 'red pill' or 'blue pill' for him.

For those of you who doubt the veracity of what follows you may confirm, I'm sure, that the late Senator was where I met him on the night of December 31, 1987, the only thing you will not be able to check on is if I was there... I was.

Aspen, Colorado... Paradise Club, headliner Fleetwood Mac, special guest guitarist Eddie Van Halen... Opening act, The Nitty-Gritty Dirt Band. How did I get into this show? Connections that I have since lost. I had no business being there, but there I was.

After getting my drink on in a testosterone fueled kinda way, I was on the dance floor for the whole show... Even got to give Eddie Van Halen a high five because the rest of the shit-bird "guests" were too cool to dance. Also in attendance? Valerie Bertinellli. Probably a lot of other important folks too.

Anyhoo, the clock hits midnight and the balloons come down and everybody is hugging and taking another blow or hit or whatever they did, and all of a sudden a rumor hits the crowd. Senator Kennedy is outside and wants to come in and the security team is not letting him. This turns out to be true, and after either a threat or money changing hands, in walks the very red-faced but rigorous looking Senator. He draws all the attention like a freaking shooting star. And let me tell you, the ladies did flock.

I can't remember if I shook his hand or not but I do remember that he was drunker than Cooter Brown, stumbling a bit and slurring a bit, highball in hand. I thought that was the end of the story, but it wasn't.

So I leave the club after the best live show I will ever see and go home to start recovering from the debauch. Oh but there's more. One of my friend's took a date to the show... she flew in from California. She was, well... she was hot. Smokin' hot and 25. The Senator liked her... a lot. The phone rings at our crash pad at 3am. We let it ring. It rings again, and again. It's Senator Kennedy calling for Cali girl.

He is charming and insistent enough to convince her to come out with him the next day skiing (and also with Eddie Van Halen). She goes with Teddy and Eddie in a fine limo. And that's all I know. Good Catholic boy the late Senator. He proved to me in the span of ten minutes that there's no need to cease living the fraternity boy life if you command power.

I'll say one thing for the man, he had fun, and he never had to pay the piper for it. Maybe now.

19 comments:

  1. 911, inquiring minds want to know... what Van Halen song can one dance to? Or Fleetwood Mac for that matter.

    "Might as well jump. Jump..."

    Whahaha!

    -SCNS

    ReplyDelete
  2. OTOH, the Roman Catholic Church has a different take on the good Catholic boy. Along with all the maudlin comment by the bereaved media, note the silence from the Vatican.

    ReplyDelete
  3. dear anon.,
    if i remember correctly eddie simply came out and traded riffs with the mac on a completely f-mac show. believe me, he can play with anyone and he did.

    the story about the high five is worth a tell... after one of the songs stopped and the shit-bird audience politely clapped (for f***'s sake it was a once in a lifetime show! kinda like going to a honky-tonk and having the stones show up incognito... maybe 400 people in the house...).

    i was up next to the stage yelling, 'eddie!' 'eddie!' and he looks down at me and says 'what?'. not expecting a response i was forced to riff... 'do angus young!' i said, making angus' signature half-goose-step guitar deal. eddie laughed and obliged me and then gave me a high five. seemed like a cool guy.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Back in the late 70's to mid 80's I had good concert connections in highschool/college through a boyfriend. Got to meet and chat - even been invited to dinner once or twice. Always a bit disappointed up close, better to lust from afar! In case you were wondering... no I didn't. Good memories, I should be researching/studying...
    -SCNS

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh! I was referring to a variety of bands...(not Eddie)
    -SCNS

    ReplyDelete
  6. While he is being made into a legend, no one speaks of the woman he murdered in the bottom of the lake.

    ReplyDelete
  7. 911, really, sweetie, how could you insinuate Valerie Bertinellli is important?

    As for Teddy, I'm praying Karma, Mary Jo, and St. Peter are standing at the Pearly Gates blocking the entrance to that bloated, cheating, murdering codfish. May the reign of the Kennedys enjoy a quiet repose to anonymity.

    ReplyDelete
  8. lynnprice,
    I heard the other day a family member is going to take up the torch to fill his roll in govt already. Since there will be "no family member" there for the first time in years. You know the USA would of course never make it w/o one of the family member to be there since they are royal and from Camelot.
    All Icould do is roll my eyes, again another Kennedy is made into a saint.

    ReplyDelete
  9. May the reign of the Kennedys enjoy a quiet repose to anonymity.

    Amen!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Damn you 9-11!!

    Beats my "Disimpacting Jesse Helms" story all to hell...

    ReplyDelete
  11. He was what he was, but it is still annoying that he is being turned into a hero when he had the morals of a fruit fly.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anon 11:20, oh you should have seen Mary Jo's findagrave.com message space filling up with sentiments like, "at last, your murderer meets judgement" late at night on the 26th. These were all deleted by the next day, so there's just a ton of blank "virtual flowers" for that day onwards. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=dfl&GRid=4569& Pretty much all the blank ones are people telling her he's in Hell.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Oh, it doesn't really matter how terribly flawed they are, Massachusets will always replace the fat, lying fuck with another worthless blowhard. We're talking the same state that re-elected him for nearly 50 years, and will continue to return Kerry and Frank to D.C.

    Meanwhile, I worked at a movie studio during grad school and, when one project was done, Randy Meatloaf brought in his band for the "Wrap" party; what a blast! After the party, he invited me (I'm a guy) back to his trailer, along with a half-dozen beauties, and we partied till the Sun came up. Meatloaf is a fun, regular guy.

    ReplyDelete
  14. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts refused to permit Ted's cremation...seems the funeral hone doesn't have a pyrotechics permit. The good news, however, is that we now know the Eternal Flame at Arlington is E-85 certified!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Carbon offsets! They forgot to buy carbon offsets! How many would they need to offset one senator? I'll bet he burns like a damned Yule log.

    ReplyDelete
  16. OMG! Valerie Bertinelli!!!!??? Did you cross skin with her 911? She was and is a 15 YO's dream. Hot meter off the scale. Anymore details on her? What was she wearing or something or not wearing..
    Don't worry, I still luv U Lynn..

    ReplyDelete
  17. OF, I certainly would not disrespect what a beautiful thing Lynn and you have but you are kidding, right, about the Valerie Bertinelli part ?

    ReplyDelete
  18. Sort of off topic, but I just read this. I suppose you were maybe aware of it, but it is the first I had seen of it.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I'll take 7% more, thanks. Don't need all those caths anyway, everybody knows that.
    -SCNS

    ReplyDelete

ALL SPAM AND GRATUITOUS LINK POSTINGS WILL BE IMMEDIATELY DELETED.