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Pat Walsh
Pat's Peeps Podcast
Ep.180 Today's Peep Pays Tribute to Sportscasting Icon Greg Gumbel, Delves into Tommy Bolin's Impact on Deep Purple's Evolution, and Invites You to a Journey of Musical Reflection and Restful Celebration
This episode pays tribute to the legacies of sports broadcasting giants Greg Gumbel and Vin Scully. We discuss their profound impacts on our lives as sports fans, while also exploring the struggles of musicians like Tommy Bolin and reflecting on the importance of mental health in the industry.
• Remembering Greg Gumbel's career and impact
• Celebrating Vin Scully's storytelling and passion
• Personal anecdotes about meeting Scully
• Reflection on listener-submitted content
• Discussion on the repercussions of addiction in music
• A tribute to Tommy Bolin's influence on Deep Purple
• Analysis of Deep Purple's legacy and controversial album releases
• Final reflections on honoring the voices that shaped our experiences
well, here we are once again, my friends. Once again it's the Pat's Peeps podcast keeping it rolling through the holiday season. Pat's Peeps, 180. 180. Thank you for tuning in once again. We'll keep doing this throughout the holidays. And, yeah, 180 today here on this Friday. This is December 27th, 2024.
Speaker 1:And as I look out the studio window into the wet, beautiful foothills of Northern California, it continues to rain. And once again, sitting by the nice fire and always looking forward to doing my next podcast. Thank you, yes, it was particularly long, wasn't it? Like an hour, almost an hour, and I was really loving it because I enjoy talking music and so I thought you know it means how this is the holiday season. I'm trying to keep things light. I'll be talking a little music once again. Gee, what a surprise. Right, I know, but before I get to that, as I was preparing for my show, I saw some sad news, and we'll start there on Pat's Peeps. I hate to start with sad things, but on Pat's Peeps 180, I just saw the news that Greg Gumbel has passed away.
Speaker 1:Legendary sportscaster, greg Gumbel, 78 years old and, as we hear so often, from cancer, he called the NFL for CBS. Greg Gumbel, dead, for decades served as the network's host during the March Madness and they say he died after a courageous battle with cancer. You know this is a guy that we've heard for years If you watch, whether it's NASCAR, nfl, so many different things. The NCAA, like I mentioned, you heard Greg Gumbel. He missed the 2024 NCAA tournament due to what the Athletic reported as family issues, spent decades at CBS Two stints, 88 to 93, and then from 98 to 24.
Speaker 1:He returned to the network after a run at NBC to pair with Phil Sims. They formed the number one broadcast team until the end of the 2003 season. He hosted the NFL today for two seasons before returning to call the NFL games for CBS in 2006. And he held that role until 2022. And he was good at it and I'm pretty particular with my announcers. In 23, greg Gumbel, re-signed with CBS, continued his college basketball coverage, stepped away from his NFL duties. But if you listen back to some of Greg Gumbel's calls I mean these are just the sounds of again, if you watch sports, nfl, et cetera, everything I just mentioned then Greg Gumbel was a voice that you probably heard many times over and over in your households, many times over and over in your households Back to his own.
Speaker 2:10. Breaking free right side Gets a block. Holliday down the sideline, Touchdown. Denver, With time gonna go deep, has a man open down the middle of the field. It is caught touchdown.
Speaker 1:Torrey Smith looking at a third and seven throwing tip, intercepted, picked off by the Ravens, Corey Graham to the end zone for the touchdown you know, as we listen to his voice, greg Gumbel, you know it's like Pat Summerall, or it's like John Madden and so many others, charlie Taylor, I mean there's a lot of guys that just were the sound of the sport. I listen to Greg Gumbel, I listen to these calls and boy, he was Al Michaels. You know there's so many voices, but Greg Gumbel, I've enjoyed this guy for years.
Speaker 2:Manning on third and eighth. Fifth time Going for the end zone, it is Caught for the touchdown. Brandon Stokely First down, now at the 32 of the Broncos, flacco going to go deep down the sideline caught for the touchdown.
Speaker 1:Greg Gumbel, 78 years old. Really, really sad to see that brother of Bryant Gumbel. Brother of Bryant Gumbel, right, bryant Gumbel. Here's a couple of more from Greg.
Speaker 2:And it comes up just short and they're going to return it. Here's Cromartie and Cromartie down the right sideline with a head of steam to the 30, 20, 10, 5, touchdown. That would be 109 yards on the return.
Speaker 1:Greg Gumbel, 78 years old. Rest in peace. Man, it all comes down to that. You have this career, this great career, no matter what it is you do, and then all of a sudden, you're gone and we just keep moving on. The world keeps spinning, you know it leaves voids. I'm just sad to see this. Some other things I wanted to talk about today. I got a couple of. You know, I always like to share our. I just dropped my mic. Hold on, there we go.
Speaker 3:I like to share my listener-provided content that people send to me and I got a couple of those here, having you out here.
Speaker 1:It's literally like having an encyclopedia of the. This is David Letterman interviewing, speaking of announcers. It got me to thinking, thinking about Greg Gumbel. It got me to thinking about my favorite announcers, so I'm going to share this one before I get to the listener input. This is the great Vin Scully on David Letterman, and he's going to tell us why or how excuse me he got his job as an announcer baseball announcer. Being a baseball announcer was my longtime dream. I think I could have done very, very well. To be honest, I think I would have done very well. It's not an ego thing, but I think I could have done very, very well. To be honest, I think I would have done very well. It's not an ego thing, but I think I would have done well, either as a baseball or a football announcer. It was a passion of mine. Oh, what just happened there?
Speaker 1:I don't know what just happened there. Okay, hold up, fellas hold up, hold up, hold up, hold up. I knew, oh, I'm Hold up, hold up.
Speaker 2:Hold up, hold up, I knew, oh, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1:Hold on, david is in a real hurry to get his thing, out here and it's operator error on my part here.
Speaker 1:Anyhow, I think at one time I just decided I didn't know if I wanted to spend all of that time on the road in hotel rooms. If I had to do over again I probably would have. I would have pursued it, but Vin has always been one of my favorites. You know I always thought, gee, you know, wouldn't it be great someday to meet Vin Scully? And I met him. You're never going to guess where I've told this on my radio show. By the way, I'm Pat Walsh. Ever going to guess where I've told this on my radio show. By the way, I'm Pat Walsh. I host my radio show, kpk Radio in Sacramento, heard nationally, internationally, on the iHeartRadio app, just like this podcast and all your streaming platforms. I met Vin Scully.
Speaker 1:I was at a Dodger Giant game, a candlestick. I was in the press box and I had to use the restroom. So I used the press restroom between innings I walk in. There's no one else in the restroom, absolute truth. I'm using the urinal. And again, I've said this before and I mean it. If you're a man, you should know the name Royal Sloan Valve Company, usa. Royal Sloan Valve Company, usa. Royal Sloan Valve Company, usa, because it's at the very top of every urinal and that's where your eyes should be focused, not straying anywhere, not having a conversation with the dude that might be next to you.
Speaker 1:So this time I walk into the press bathroom, I'm all by myself. I start doing my thing, suddenly the door opens and who is it? None other than Vince Scully, who stands next to me and I said and I couldn't help myself I had to start to chuckle. And I know he's like what's this guy chuckling? I go to wash my hands, then he follows and about 10 seconds later he washes his hands. I said, mr Scully, I always wanted to meet you. Little did I know that it would be standing next to you at a urinal and he had a good chuckle and a good laugh out of that. It's one of my great memories being the sports guy for so many years. So here he is on.
Speaker 3:Letterman, vince gully, telling us how he got his job as an announcer. Uh, having you out here, it's literally like having an encyclopedia of the sport and and also part of american culture. Uh, you started doing radio play-by-play for the brooklyn dodgers when 1950, 1950, and so this would be 41 years. Somehow it's gone by and uh, how did you get the first job?
Speaker 4:well, I'll never forget coming home and my mother, who is red-haired Irish and 89 now, yeah uh, I came in the house and I was still a kid and she said you'll never guess who called. And I said who and who, and she said Red Skelton. Wow, red Skelton. And I finally found out it was Red Barber and that was the beginning of going to work for the Dodgers.
Speaker 3:Did Red Skelton ever call your mom? No, funny thing.
Speaker 4:Not to my knowledge anyway, this subject never came up.
Speaker 3:Now, I don't know your age, but I'm guessing you were a kid when you took that first job, right?
Speaker 4:Well, yes, I was very small. In fact, there's a line from Mame where one lady says to the other, real bitchy type, just how old are you, how old do you think I am? And she said somewhere between 40 and death. So you know that's.
Speaker 3:But what were you doing now, I mean in those days, to get that job, to be radio play-by-play as the assistant to Red Barber? I guess that was magic and unheard of, oh yeah. So how were you in a position to even call them? Well, very quickly.
Speaker 4:I had gone to Fordham University here in New York, worked on the radio station, auditioned and got a job with CBS in Washington. Did almost everything there. I had some letters of introduction to people to keep me alive until the following February when I was going to go full time. One of the letters was to Red Barber and he said gosh, we don't have anything. I'm rushing to meet my wife. And I said I understand, you know, leave your name, et understand, leave your name, etc. And that was the beginning David Letterman.
Speaker 1:I miss that guy man. These announcers make a big difference. I love what they do. I love it. Greg Gumbel Gone, vin Scully so many greats In terms of listener content today. Let's see, I've got one I'll share with you. This one came from Scotty. Scotty, let me see where you're at, scotty. All right, scotty sent this along. This is this is Elon Gold. This is Elon Gold. This is Trump's ear-piercing hack. This guy impersonating Trump and man Elon I mean this guy, elon Gold does an outstanding job, I must say.
Speaker 5:You know they didn't do very well. They didn't do very well at all. I think they did. They did very badly. They did so badly, they did horrible. And you know, I think I think we now know, I think we know what the secret is in Secret Service. They're horrible at their jobs. I think that's the secret. They don't know. They don't know what to do. They don't know what to do. They have no idea. You know. You look at me and I think I did very well. I think I did. I did so well. You know, I think I did better than anyone.
Speaker 5:You look at a lot of people and there's so many people this happens to and they don't do well. You know JFK, he did horrible. He did. That's great. I think he did so badly, worse than Lincoln. He was so bad. You know, they don't know. You see the bullet. You're going to turn your head like that. That's all you're going to do. You're going to do this. And then the bullet, it whizzes by. It whizzes by. You know it just pierced my ear. I never thought I would get my ears pierced. I never thought. I think that was the gayest thing I ever did. I've never done so. I think I'm gonna get the gay vote now. I think the guys, I think the gays love me. You know they do the gays, they love me, they love me. You know the lgbtq, the t? It stands for trump.
Speaker 1:People don't know that god, I wish I could do a trump impersonation like that. That. That is great man. Thank you, scotty, always sending great content. Definitely appreciate that. You know I told you I was going to talk a little music. I talked Zappa yesterday because I'm in the music mood, telling little music stories and such One of my other favorite bands. I mentioned yesterday that Frank is one of my all-time favorite rock guitarists. I got to thinking about another one of my favorite favorite bands. I mentioned yesterday that Frank is one of my all-time favorite rock guitarists. I got to thinking about another one of my favorite rock guitarists, and a couple of them actually, one being the great Richie Blackmore Talking about Deep Purple, in my opinion, the most underrated band in America, in England, in the UK.
Speaker 1:Man, they are like the Led Zeppelin of the UK. I mean, they just love Deep Purple. They're huge, absolutely huge. I can't do that, trump, like Elon does Anyhow, and you know I've seen Deep Purple many times. Richie Blackmore is just an incredibly awesome guitarist.
Speaker 1:At one point though, you know there's some feuding going on in the band, which happens in so many bands, right? Same thing with the great Deep Purple, and at one point, and at several points within the band of Deep Purple the lineup changed so many times. Ian Gillen was out, coverdale, glenn Hughes would come in. Glenn Hughes would start playing bass, he would start singing, coverdale would sing. Coverdale, of course, was also with Whitesnake, the lead singer. Later on Coverdale sang on the first rock album that I ever bought with my own money, which was Deep Purple Stormbringer. Glenn Hughes was on that record as well.
Speaker 1:At the same time I was catching on to a cat by the name of Tommy Bolin from Sioux City, iowa. Tommy Bolin had his own career going, outstanding guitarist in his own right. So at one point Richie Blackmore leaves the band. The band puts out a search and they decide you know, we're going to go with Tommy Bolin. We respect this cat and we love what he does with a guitar.
Speaker 1:Now he was a little. He was different than Richie, both phenomenal but different. If you've ever listened to Tommy Bolin his solo stuff he had some great solo records Teaser, my favorite, private Eyes and Come Taste the Band. Well, that's not a solo, but that's when he joined Deep Purple. And when he joined Deep Purple he had the same kind of sound. He put his stamp on the band Deep Purple. It was different than Richie. Like I was saying, richie sometimes sounded like his notes sounded like I don't even know how to describe it like sharp razor blades, glass, edgy I don't know how to describe Richie. We'll play some of them coming up though. So Tommy joins Deep Purple and they come out with this album called Come Taste the Band, and I'm going to give you a little taste of the band with Tommy Boland, and it starts right from the get-go with Tommy's guitar and his patented sound, john Lord on the keyboards.
Speaker 2:So Tommy Bolling sounding and I'm 10,000 miles away. Just lose yourself and watch the band kick back and play. Get up, keep it low.
Speaker 1:It's getting tighter all the time. You say you're feeling fine, it's getting tighter all the time. The thing about Tommy Boll if you listen to Tommy and his solo stuff very similar to Paul McCartney in my opinion. He doesn't have the same sound, but he has a lot of different breaks in the song, a lot of different points in the song, a lot of different points in the song where things change up into something completely different for a couple of minutes. And it happens with Tommy in this song, which is very different for Deep Purple.
Speaker 2:Right here.
Speaker 1:Very different for Deep Purple Extreme Tom Bolen influencer Glenn Hughes on that bass, fantastic guitarist in his own right. That's a song called Getting Tighter from Come Taste the Band on Pat's Peeps 180. So that's Tommy Bolin's guitar sound, which is again much in line with his solo stuff. But then along comes the last concert in Japan. Deep Purple had released an album with Richie called Made in Japan, which is a great name for a live album Because it used to be. Everything was made in Japan. I remember that. But this is different. This is not Made in Japan. This is the last concert in Japan and this is an album by Deep Purple that should have never been released, in my opinion and in other people's opinion. Released in March of 77., in June of 78 in Europe, and they dedicated it to Tommy Bolin. He passed away.
Speaker 1:It records the last Japanese concert of the Mark IV lineup that included Bolin, recorded on the 15th of December of 75 at the Tokyo Budokan where Cheap Trick did live at Budokan, and then they achieved gold certification in Japan for this record, which I believe is because of the fact that Tommy Boland had passed away and that's why they released this. Performance drew 14,000 people and attendance record for the Budokan Hall. Parts of the concert were also recorded on 16mm film, included the video Rises Over Japan, released in 85. Now this recording was substantially edited, the complete concert remastered, restored for this time around, live in tokyo, released in 01. In addition to including a large portion of the set, it omitted from the original release. Uh, the 2001 re-release restored the show's original sound quality, which was compromised when a hurriedly mastered audio track meant for a potential video release was used to hasten the original release.
Speaker 1:In 1995, in an interview, glenn Hughes called the last concert in Japan an awful record. That's a quote. He said. It quote should have never been released. Why? Because Tommy Boley couldn't play. He had taken drugs the night before. He'd fallen asleep on his left arm for eight hours. The album's original cover incorrectly stated that it included a live version of Woman from Tokyo, when it included only just a short jam on its main riff. Because he couldn't play, he was so drugged out. The main riff was performed during John Lord's organ solo and it displeased Deep Purple fans. Now why? Because you're expecting the killer guitar riffs. So essentially, what happened here was that John Lord, the keyboard, had to play all of the parts that were made for Tommy Boland. They were originally made for Richie Blackmore's guitars guitar.
Speaker 1:Tommy Boland died in December of 76. The album was released shortly after and the record company was in a rush to capitalize on his death. Tommy Boland died in December of 76. The album was released shortly after and the record company was in a rush to capitalize on his death. The band was done. They thought, as we know, it was not completely done. That version obviously yes, but they thought it'd be an easy cash grab.
Speaker 1:But again, as we listen to this, the mix is crappy. All that stuff that I said. There's no guitar At certain points within the record. I mean you can't play Smoke on the Water without the guitar. Ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba-da, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba Got to play that on a guitar. So I'm going to play you a couple of examples here from this.
Speaker 1:This is, let's see, this is Deep Purple Burn. Now, when you listen to Burn, you'll hear the original with Richie Blackmore playing guitar Right off the bat. There's Richie Blackmore and John Lord working together. All I need is blood. So there's Richie's great guitar. If you listen further in, you'll hear Richie. Such a unique style. He's in my top three favorite guitarists. So that's how the original sounded. Man, he is so good. Now let's listen to the last concert in Japan, where you hear no guitar because Tommy Boland is too drugged out, and instead you hear John Lord trying to cover his ass with his keyboard. And John Lord, in my opinion, one of the greatest, if not the greatest rock keyboardist of all time. Let's go See no guitar. I mean, that is just unbelievable. As good as John Lord is, where's the guitar? Oh, he's over there. He's too high.
Speaker 4:Wow.
Speaker 1:And, believe me, it's not leading up to a big guitar riff. Wow, wow. I mean, that is just truly. That's just bad. They released it. Can you imagine? You pay your ticket, pay your money for your ticket. There's no guitar. It's one of the great guitar bands of all time. There's nothing there. I mean there's just nothing. It's like John Lord is just practicing with a band Just horrible. The lost record and then they go back and re-release this thing Absolutely amazing.
Speaker 1:As we finish off here, I want to play you some Tommy Boland from his solo records Back when Tommy was in his prime. It was a great song. I mentioned that. Private Eyes was my favorite. There's so many good ones to choose from Tommy Bolin on that record, but for me Post Toasty's one that got played a lot it's called. So we listen to some Tommy Boland. I thought he has a cool voice too. My mind has been blown About some things that don't seem right and my gun is cocked and loaded. I hope I get me some sleep tonight. Well, I don't know what went wrong. I think I'm just going to go through my whole album collection now. Well, I don't know what went wrong. I hope I get me some sleep tonight. Rest in peace, tommy. So take the night. Great Gumbel, finn Scully, leave the chorus. Lon Simmons, don't let your mind post-host it.
Speaker 1:Like a lot of our friends did Just play a little bit of this Just to kind of demonstrate how Tommy would change up within his music. You know like I was talking about. Of course I don't have the rights to the music. I always have to say that I'm just trying to educate, etc. Etc. Seems like nothing is right.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know what we're on. I hope I get me some sleep tonight. So take it nice and easy, leave the crows in the pit.
Speaker 1:I love to hear it. Now listen to him change things up.
Speaker 2:The mood and the feel. Yeah, oh, so good.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to Pat's Peeps 180. Have a beautiful weekend. We'll continue next week. Okay? Appreciate you listening, god bless, thank you, I'm out.
