Rock-tober: Day 6

When I first met Andrea, her musical tastes were...not as broad as they are now. Back then, she humored me and never messed with the 'stang's radio which was always pegged on some classic rock station. One day, we were tooling around Auburn, and the radio started playing an Eagles song.

Testing her new found knowledge base, she asked, "Is that the Eagles?"

"Yup."

She gets really excited at this point.

"Hey! I recognized the Eagles!"

Not thinking I might quash her new enthusiasm for the classic rock genre, I just blurted out, "Pfft. Everybody recognizes the Eagles."

I don't remember what happened next. She either pouted or punched me in the arm. Maybe both.

The bookend to that story took place 15 years later when Andrea and I were on vacation in the Southwest. We followed Historic Route 66 for a while and found ourselves in Winslow, AZ. She obliged my rock-n-roll geekness by snapping this pic of me. On a corner. In Winslow, AZ. Think about it....

Anyway...

The Eagles broke up in 1980 and were asked repeatedly, "When are you guys getting back together?" The response was always, "When hell freezes over." Well, the Eagles got back together in 1994 for their appropriately named "Hell Freezes Over" tour. They played a venue close to Mobile, AL, where I was living at the time. I checked on ticket prices and found the cheapest seats were way north of $100 - might just as well have been a cool million back then. Luckily, I was able to catch taped performances later. One of the best things to come out of that tour was the re-release of an acoustic version of "Hotel California". What I thought made this more than a microwaved rehash of an old hit was a 12-string guitar extended intro. The crowd had no idea what was coming until after the familiar opening refrain from one of rock's greatest ballads washed over them.