The stereotypical image of a session drummer as a bland individual who keeps a beat listening to a click track and totally ignores the actual music hardly fits the career of Eddie Hoh, quite commonly credited as Fast Eddie Hoh. He was indeed mostly known as a session drummer, and did most of his touring behind groups that utilized such players exclusively to make their studio albums, most notably the Mamas the Papas. But Hoh came out of the exceedingly creative environment of the early-'60s California rock scene. The ever-expanding oldies radio audience is pretty much not aware that the same fellow plays on many favorite sides from this period. Hoh also has associations with artists and bands considered to be among the most inspired and unique from this era of music as well, including Tim Buckley, Donovan, and the Flying Burrito Brothers. Factor in the Monkees as well as the aforementioned California dreamers whose least favorite day of the week was Monday, Monday and you have a drummer taking over a good deal of airwave territory. Daydream Believer is one his most famous appearances on record, but when it comes to the work with Donovan, the outrageous track entitled The Trip is a great example of Hoh really cutting loose.

Unlike some of the studio players from this period, who came up with jazz and vocal music and came over to rock for paychecks, Hoh's early years were spent toiling in folk-rock combos and blinking at the strobe lights in early psychedelic and garage groups. He was one of the drummers in an early-'60s outfit that played the Whisky a Go Go under the names of the Strangers and the Invaders, then became a member of the intriguing, if completely forgotten, Modern Folk Quartet. This band was quite influential on the Los Angeles scene, recording one of the first rock ragas and involving players that would go on to fame in groups such as the Turtles, the Lovin' Spoonful, and the Byrds. When this group failed to find larger success, Hoh got into studio work and became the first choice of many artists who wanted creative sparks to fly at sessions. Hoh was picked to drum on the original Super Session album featuring keyboardist Al Kooper and guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills, for example, and while this particular session has not worn well with time, it at least represents a kind of spontaneity that vanished completely from the rock scene until the punk era came along. Hoh also appeared with guitarist Harvey Mandel in the the Barry Goldberg Reunion, thus becoming associated with the psychedelic sound of San Francisco, and was an important contributor to the fascinating series of solo albums created by Mandel as well. The drummer ghost-drums for Mickey Dolenz on almost every Monkees album, and was recorded live with the Mamas the Papas at the Monterey Pop Festival. The box set from the latter event incorrectly lists him as "Eddie Hall." There are literally legions of entertainers using the nickname "Fast Eddie" including a German blues singer and a former member of Motörhead. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi