The Chase, Twenty Five Years Later
Today on the radio I was reminded that on this day twenty five years ago we were all captivated by the low speed police chase of the infamous white Bronco. The following is an edited version of an essay written in 2014 on the twentieth anniversary:
The Chase
“I’ve had to run, I’ve had to crawl.
Been rich as a king, had nothing at all.
Still raising hell, tearing down walls.
I know where I stand, I’m learning to fall.”
From “Learning to Fall” A Song Written by Eric Lowen
Listening to the radio this week I was reminded of a week in my life twenty years ago.
Friday June 17, 1994 probably started off as a normal day for most Americans, but it wouldn’t end that way. I was in Seattle for some kind of a meeting, something to do with homecare pharmacy I think. The meeting ended on Friday but I had decided to stick around until Sunday and do some sight- seeing. So I rented a car and started looking for things to do. Through a local paper I found out that a band I liked, Lowen and Navarro, was playing at a club called the Backstage. Just a couple of days before I left to go Seattle I saw them play at Wolf Trap in Vienna Virginia. Before the show I found Eric Lowen walking around the Wolf Trap grounds and introduced myself and we talked a bit.
The show at the Backstage started really late and since I didn’t know the area and had nothing better to do, I thought I would scout out the place so I would know how to get there later that night. So in the afternoon, I found the club and went inside. The band had just finished their sound check and Lowen greeted me as I walked in but then immediately launched into this “man have you been watching the TV?………….OJ Simpson is on the 405 with the police chasing him……its crazy!”
I went back to my hotel and watched along with about 95 million other Americans, the rest of the events that unfolded that evening and countless replays of what had occurred earlier. OJ Simpson and the White Ford Bronco, may be the most famous police chase ever witnessed and recorded.
Later that night I went back to the Backstage, watched the show, had an after show backstage refreshment with the band and another fan from Annapolis who was in Seattle that weekend too.
The OJ Simpson drama would play out over the next sixteen month’s as the trial was televised and America continued to watch. I remember sitting in a board meeting in the glass enclosed conference room of the company I worked for at the time and watching the staff spill into the hallway shouting the news through the glass when OJ Simpson was found not guilty.
I continued to be a big fan of Lowen and Navarro, catching them at the Birchmere in Alexandria, or the Barns at Wolftrap, or wherever they played in the DC area.
In 2004 Eric Lowen began his own chase for life as he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s Disease. ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord ultimately leading to death, there is no cure. He continued to tour, as his disease progressed he would do shows in his power wheelchair assisted always by his traveling physical therapist.
In December of 2008 Lowen and Navarro put out their last studio CD called “Learning to Fall.” The last time I saw them was at the Birchmere, and in fact their last live performance together was at the Birchmere on June 6, 2009. Kim and I had tickets but for a reason I now can’t remember, we decided not to go.
On March 23rd 2012 Eric’s run for his life ended and he died of complications from ALS.
If you have about eight minutes here is a link to a somewhat moving video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeaO6TvGX4w
So like the question I heard on the radio this week that made me recall all this, where were you during “the chase” twenty years ago…..do you remember?
…
That was from 2014, it’s hard to believe that memory is now twenty-five years old now. Dan Navarro still tours and makes frequent visits to the DC and Annapolis area. Lowen and Navarro’s biggest claim to fame was probably the fact that Pat Benatar’s “We Belong” was their song. Their music is well worth a listen.
Well, so where were you during “the chase” twenty-five years ago?