You want to do drugs? Pro baseball is out, but there’s a bright future in rock ‘n’ roll for you. This week was a great example of double standard around drugs in our culture. The hulking Mark McGwire was shut out of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown because some of his 583 home runs likely came from a steroids-powered batting arm. This, apparently, is a bad thing, so a bunch of pure-as-the-driven-snow sports journalists have decided to bar him from the games, ahem, highest, honour. Awards are for athletes who are natural genetic freaks, not for those whose skills come from pills.Meanwhile, a world away in Cleveland, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was inducting the latest nominees. While this year’s group isn’t the most drug-addled bunch ever, the Hall itself contains such a litany of famous overdoses, cokeheads, pot advocates and hallucinogenic lyricists that you’d assume a pharmacology degree was one of the nomination requirements. Take a look at Eddie Van Halen, one of this year’s nominees, and tell me his homeless-junkie look come from years of clean living.
So it’s not that our culture has a problem with a copious intake of drugs, you just have to pick the appropriate time and place. Let that be a lesson to all you kids out there. But this rant was really just an excuse to post my favourite viral video of the moment, Spiders on Drugs. In the 1950s a researcher drugged spiders and observed the effects on their webs. This clip updates it do this decade with a Hinterland Who’s Who twist. Great stuff.
Wow, the years have not been kind to Mr. Van Halen. However, certainly the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame would be a lot less interesting if its initiates were drug tested. Long live sex, drugs and rock and roll.
ReplyDeleteIf that's a "Current Real Pic" of Eddie then I am the real, Jimmy Hendrix...
ReplyDelete"When given marijuana the spider didn't build a web but a hammock and laid around all day!" That vid is priceless Jeremy!!
ReplyDeleteVan Halen looks like crap and we too easily excuse celebs for their drug consumption total hypocrisy!
I did wonder about the photo myself Keith, but I looked around and I'd say it's real. The pic is from Eddie's arrival at Elton John's Academy Awards Viewing Dinner and After-Party last year. I'll admit it's a terrible shot, but it's no fake. See the link to photo service WireImage:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wireimage.com/SearchResults.aspx?igi=166416&s=eddie%20van%20halen&sfld=C&vwmd=e
That is a brutal, brutal picture!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that it is necessarily a double standard in our culture as it is the difference between two subcultures. I have the impression that, whatever the athletes might do, the journalists and fans of sports tend to be a whole lot more conservative than the fans and journalists of rock and roll. In other words, most rock fans are going to overlook the fact that many of the inductees into the Hall of Fame die overdosing on drugs and in other cases outright advocated the use of various drugs. On the other hand, I rather have to wonder that even casual pot use would keep a baseball player from the Baseball Hall of Fame. At any rate, I wouldn't think it possible, but I think Eddie Van Halen actually looks worse than Keith Richards now....
ReplyDeleteI think you're right about the conservative nature of sports. Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati had his gold medal revoked at the Nagano games after testing showed he had marijuana in his system when he competed. It was entually reinstated, but it certainly was indicative of the attitude about drug use of any kind. Not that pot is any sort of a performance enhancer.
ReplyDeleteIt's a real picture. I have seen actual moving image footage and he does look that bad. Like a street person. Diamond Dave may have bombed on the radio, but at least he doesn't look like he is on a liver transplant list!
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ReplyDeleteFar be it from me to make a comment one way or the other about "clean living." Pot. Kettle. Black.
ReplyDeleteBut let's be fair. His marriage broke-up at the same time he battled tongue cancer. And recently he had a hip replacement.
http://www.pe.com/entertainment/stories/PE_Fea_Daily_D_hagar.wherearetheynow09.23d1645.html
On the flip side, a quick Google search reveals alcohol hasn't helped him.
Oh MY! Eddie's looking a little rough around the edges. WOW. And you're absolutely right. What's with the double standards?
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Eddie looks like hell.
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