When I first moved to San Francisco in 1987, I wrote down the names of the Towns that Tommy talks about in this excerpt. Although I didn't ride these roads on a Harley, I did see some gorgeous country and it is still my favorite place to roam in the Bay Area. I can see how Tommy was influenced by all this beauty to write those incredible songs! _______________________________________________________ «�»¥«�»§«�»¥«�»§«�»¥«�»§«�»¥«�»§«�»¥«�»§«�»¥«�»§«�»¥«�» ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ TOM JOHNSTON: "I'm a bike freak, I've always been a bike freak. I've got a '74... Harley, '74 HOG. I love the image. I'm not a Hells Angel but we used to have a lot of 'em hanging around at our pad at one time. We used to party with them a lot. I've loved motorcycles since I was about five years old, I loved them and I've always wanted one eventually, I kind of went up through the ranks. I got a small one at first, then I got a Norton and now I got a Harley." "A Norton is a great bike. It's a really fast, super good handling bike, but there's something about a HOG, I could just sit around and listen to the pipes all day as much as anything else. I just get off on the way it runs, the clunky old transmission... Cause it's such an old antique bike, I mean it's still an antique bike even though they're making them brand new. There's so much about it that's like a part of American history in a way. They run so radical, I mean it's just a completely different motorcycle and the imagery behind them has been blown completely out of shape by the Hells Angels and all." "They really aren't such bad people when you get to know them, but you have to be on the good side of them. And because of our music we were. They dug the band and that's basically what it was all about. They dug us a lot." "I live up in Marin now and there's so many beautiful places to ride up there it's just unreal. Just gorgeous places to ride. Gettin' lost in the country and around rivers, lakes and mountains, it's just incredible." "Yeah you take Sir Francis Drake Boulevard which isn't going to be familiar to anybody, but you follow it all the way back to Woodacre and you end up in Olema and you can go out to Point Reyes from there, all that area through there is just gorgeous, Petaluma, Novato..., incredible. And I think that helps for writing music, it stimulates your mind musically on what kind of influence you're going to be writing under and that's a good influence not a bad one." Tomorrow: Tom and Pat discuss their writing and Tom talks about "Natural Thing". Rick _________________________ To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe doobiefans-list" in the body.
