After moving to L.A. with my my first big-time band... the one with personal management, big-time agency, record deal... you know, the one that couldn't miss... after all that fell apart, they re-posessed my car and yanked out the phone and we (me, the bass player and some poor girl who'd run away from home, hitch-hiking over the Rockies with her dog to follow some now-defunct band) lived on macaroni & cheese (... still can't look at that yellow-and-blue package without getting queasy) instant pancake mix (just add water) and coffee. Lots of coffee. Undernourished hippie kids with the jitters.
It was then that a big juicy cheeseburger started sounding like a banquet. Burger in the sky with diamonds. There was a famous sidewalk stand down on Beverly (Tommy's) that served 'em up 24 hrs a day, and at peak times there would be a line down the block.. people in suits, people in limos... people waiting for a bus. We'd take a bus down there in the middle of the night, when we had an extra buck.The place opened back in the 20's, and there'd been a line ever since. What a burger. Weighing in at around 3 pounds, made of real beef patties, big juicy slices of 'mater, a generous swipe of mustard, a fistfull of fresh sweet onion and a big glob of greasy chili... no fries, no chips... and you didn't miss 'em. The burger was enough. No place to sit, either, so people ate in their cars and tried to keep the mess out of their laps, or stood around the sidewalk trying to keep it off their shoes. I used to dream about those burgers... still do.
Soon as I got it together enough to flee L.A. and score some of those cushy lounge gigs that used to be out there in America when people still smoked and drank, I gloried in the historic meal-of-choice for road musicians and truck drivers (chili and chicken-fried steak notwithstanding) and must have wolfed a burger in just about every state... but mostly in Haste and Confusion. Now I take my time (and my Tums).
Those in-the-know will agree that a good burger is a work of art, and not easy to find (nor digest). I still love burgers, (if you want to talk about chain-burgers, The King will do in a pinch) all my friends love 'em... enjoy one today... who wants to live forever, anyhow?