Some of you folks may have tried to listen to The Legend of Hoot's Panhead last week, but Odeo presented us with total, maddening failure some technical difficulties on the sound playback. Not to worry! Good ol' YouTube to the rescue...
My uncle Tom- aka Dirty Duck- was an old-time Minnesota biker and British-car mechanic who taught me most of what I know about wrenching (and also tried to convince me that MGs were good daily drivers, but that's another story). In addition to being the best mechanic I've ever seen in action, he was a world-class storyteller who'd been everywhere and seen everything, ya know. He died on the road nearly 20 years ago- in a Super Cobra Jet 428 Torino- but before he left (ideally, to an afterlife featuring Jaguar V12s that never need spark plug changes) he had me record one of his thousands of stories, delivered in that great St. Paul accent. The Legend of Hoot's Panhead is set in 1967 Los Angeles and features till-tapping Seconal-addicted AWOL Marines, rival motorcycle clubs, a pillowcase full of quarters, and- of course- a '48 Harley Panhead. It seems like a good Friday Monday sort of story, so enjoy. Warning: NSFW (if you work in the kind of place where the word "motherfucker" coming from computer speakers makes your boss get scary facial tics, that is).
If you'd prefer to just download the MP3 in non-streaming .zip format, go here.
Related:
Go Back to Get Back: Automakers Could Follow Harley's Lead [internal]