Twofer Tuesday and as promised in a previous post, I am revisiting the Edgewater Hotel in Seattle to tell you about two famous visits there by some 60’s rock n rollers. (Can you believe it was 60 years ago?)
First off, note in the photo that I took from atop the Space Needle how the Edgewater (with the Wyland mural) really is right on the water. Built in 1962 for the World’s Fair, it is situated on what is known as Pier 67 and remains Seattle’s only hotel built literally on the water.
At one time it even had a bait and tackle shop in its lobby so visitors could fish from their room window overlooking the water.
The Beatles took advantage of this arrangement when they stayed at the Edgewater on their first tour of America in 1964:
As you can see from this photo I took below, today that event is commemorated with a plaque outside Room 272.
OK, so that is the more well known, PG story about Edgewater’s most famous rock n roll visitors the Beatles.
However, there is a second, more X rated-event that you probably have not heard too much about and that is the infamous “Mud Shark” incident involving a couple of other rock bands who visited the Edgewater several years after the Beatles.
When we were atop the Space Needle, Brady scanned the Seattle waterfront with some assistance from an app that he had downloaded on his cell phone. It identified several of the Seattle buildings and points of interest below us.
When he located the Edgewater Hotel, he immediately started laughing and began quoting Frank Zappa’s “Mud Shark.” At first, I was unaware of the fact that the Edgewater was the location of what I had always known as the infamous Led Zeppelin fish tale. And while I am not going into it here, you can read all the sordid details for yourself if you dare do so (click here.) (Note that Snopes even weighed in (click here) and gave it a “Mixture” rating of truth and falsity which sounds kind of fishy to me.) You could also say that the story redefines the meaning of a “shark attack.” I could go for the trifecta of bad fish puns here, but I’ll pass doing so just for the halibut. (Sorry couldn’t restrain myself. It may have something to do with all this sex talk.)
But if you prefer not to waste your time reading about this mess, Frank did a nice job summarizing the incident in his song:
Tomorrow, I promise to spare you any further talk of Seattle, sex, drugs and rock n roll and return to the usual Buzzy’s Country Store Blog fare of beer, booze and b.s. even if it’s only for a day ir two.