Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Eddie's Cruisers

Please humor me for today while I take a trip down memory lane. Let me take you back somewhere between 15 and 20 years to when I was a kid in Junior High and High School who would go with my parents on Sundays when they went to a fairly large flea market. It was a good distance away; it took about 45 minutes to get there, and along the way, we would pass this used car lot named Eddie's Cruisers, which sold old cop cars, both marked and unmarked.


Inner Circle - Bad Boys (Theme From Cops) : Bad Boys

The Police - Message In A Bottle : The Police-Live (Disc 1)

The Fiery Furnaces - Police Sweater Blood Vow : Live on KEXP, NYC 4-6-05 (Original on Bitter Tea)


Who hasn't watched the Blues Brothers and dreamed of owning an old cop car that you could just run into the ground? I can still picture their car doing a back flip over the nazi's little puny car, barely making it to the County Assessor's Office, and then completely falling apart. The entire movie was a masterpiece, deftly integrating comedy with musical selections from such icons as Aretha Franklin, Cab Calloway, James Brown, and Ray Charles. It easily slots in my top 5 movies of all time.


The Blues Brothers - Everybody Needs Somebody To Love : The Blues Brothers Soundtrack

The Blues Brothers - Theme From Rawhide : The Blues Brothers Soundtrack


And the fact that Eddie's Cruisers used to sell old cop cars wasn't the only thing that made it stand out, even just the name itself was super cool in my book. I'm not sure if the owner's name was Eddie, but it brings back memories of the cult classic Eddie and the Cruisers. I can still remember when John Cafferty played at my high school as a reward for some anti-drug contest our school participated in. You just don't get any more apple pie, baseball, 2 cars in every garage American Rock-n-Roll than this.


John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band - On the Dark Side : Eddie and the Cruisers Soundtrack

Eddie Vedder - You've Got To Hide Your Love Away : I Am Sam Soundtrack


OK, fast-forward to yesterday, when I drove by the building that used to be Eddie's Cruisers. The sign is still there, the lot is empty and its been closed for many years, but...it still manages to conjure up all these memories.

The Tossers - Memory
: Purgatory

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