Rhinofy-Unplug It In
My dad died.
I’m not gonna say it was unexpected, but when he got multiple myeloma the predicted lifespan was three years and that was already four years before. He got pneumonia in February, rebounded and came to California and went home and promptly died. After he got a chance to see the "Simpsons" episode wherein it was revealed that Krusty the Klown was Jewish and was supposed to be a rabbi. We laughed about it, my dad hated television, but had a soft spot in his heart for cartoons, he loved the Stoneway on the "Flintstones", but then he went into the hospital and when I spoke to him that night he was frightened and he promptly passed.
How can you be so alive and then so gone?
We flew in for the funeral. Went and visited the three pieces of property he owned and then flew home. To a funk heretofore unknown. No one can prepare you for death. It’s final. You can never speak to them again.
And about a week later, I exited my house in Santa Monica to a bright sunny Saturday afternoon and had a reminiscence of spring skiing and decided to go, right then.
Which was an excellent move. It had been a legendary winter. Even though I got a late start, the sun didn’t set until eight, daylight savings time had already bumped the clocks forward and it was a glorious feeling skiing as the sun went down, before the lights finally came on for the final weekend of night skiing at Mountain High.
And that experience was so good, I decided to go to Mt. Waterman the following Thursday. I thought it would brighten my mood. But it was too warm and the snow was too sticky and I was more bummed than elated.
Still, the evening held promise, I was supposed to show for Phish’s debut gig at the Variety Arts Center downtown, my buddy Chip Hooper implored me, and if you don’t think this business is about relationships, you’re not in it.
But first I had to drive back down, from 8,000 feet to Santa Monica, in the waning light.
On the way up, I’d played one of my favorite cassettes of all time, Tesla’s "Five Man Acoustical Jam". But scrounging in the glovebox for something different, I laid my hands on Eddie Money’s "Unplug It In" EP.
I bought the first Eddie Money album. The backlash was almost immediate, but how could you deny "Two Tickets To Paradise"? Sure, "Baby Hold On" was simple, but sometimes the best stuff is.
And I never purchased another one of Eddie’s albums but now I was on the Columbia mailing list, when they still shipped cassettes, and even though "Unplug It In" did not reignite Eddie’s career, the more I played it, the more I needed to hear it. Because of "Trinidad".
This was not even supposed to be about Eddie Money. I was sitting here thinking about the past, wondering if you could find a website where you could truly enter years gone by, and I thought of Billy Satellite’s "I Wanna Go Back", I wondered if it was on Spotify.
Stunningly, it was. I started listening, it sounded so good.
But since Eddie Money did the famous version of "I Wanna Go Back", a synapse fired and I wondered, did they have this forgotten acoustic EP on Spotify too?
And when it turned out they did, and I fired up "Trinidad", a bad day suddenly turned good, I thought of my father, of that mountain drive on April 16, 1992.
1. "Gimme Some Water"
This was the opening cut. Still is, I guess!
The original is on Eddie’s second album. It’s the same song, but live it gains a soul, an energy the studio version lacks. It’s the same arrangement, but suddenly it’s like Eddie’s singing in your living room. It’s so intimate and honest, the story comes alive. In an acoustic setting, the lyrics were more prominent, I could see the whole family. And that’s what it all comes down to, your clan. What do you do when a tribe member turns bad?
And when the song breaks down when Eddie sings about smacking that horse in the ass…
What you want when you’re driving is to blend with the music, feel as one. Suddenly, long after his peak, when nobody was watching, it was just Eddie and me in that car. We bonded.
2. "She Takes My Breath Away"
This was from Eddie’s stiff album, "Right Here", which was released in 1991 and stalled at number 160 on the chart.
I don’t know how it is being a girl, but guys experience this on a regular basis. You’re literally tongue-tied, around her you’re speechless, she makes you feel all tingly inside.
Eddie didn’t write it, but it’s smack dab in the middle of his oeuvre.
3. "Save A Little Room In Your Heart For Me"
I remember only listening to this once or twice and then fast-forwarding through. It’s not that it’s bad, listening right now it’s pretty good, but I was in one of those moods where I only wanted greatness. And good is not good enough.
4. "You Really Got A Hold On Me"
This is a pretty good cover, not as good as that of the Beatles, but you can listen without needing to push the button.
5. "Two Tickets To Paradise"
A faithful rendition of the hit.
6. TRINIDAD!
I’ve never been there, but whenever I see or hear it mentioned I think of this record.
It’s about the groove, the changes and the riff.
You don’t have to overthink it, you don’t have to complicate it, you’ve just got to find a way to put the blocks together in an ear-pleasing way.
The intro brings me not only back to Mt. Waterman, but Snowbird and so many places in between. That’s what a great riff does, set your mind free, open doors to places you’ve been but have become closed off from.
The original has got an exotic feeling, it’s got the riff, but there’s a distance. Whereas in this live rendition the band’s squeezing it out, they’re stretching, they’re trying. The audience can make noise as loud as the band, the act has to fight for attention, you’re all in it together, rowing that boat.
I always liked the original. Which is probably why I was partial to the acoustic take. But before the Napster era you’d hear these songs and not own them and when you finally did, when you got to hear them as much as you wanted to, you smiled from ear to ear.
And the riff is even better acoustic. It’s kind of like a girl without makeup. Less perfect, more authentic.
And about three minutes in, the track breaks down, it gets quiet, Eddie’s singing almost sotto voce.
And then…
Take me back
Take me back
Take me back now
Trinidad…
That’s what we all want to do, go back, to those special moments, when we felt so right, and the only thing that can take us there is music.
P.S. "Unplug It In"’s closer, "Fall In Love Again", would have been a hit if it was done by Bon Jovi, might still be! It’s a good album closer, but I kept going back to "Gimme Some Water", "She Takes My Breath Away" and "Trinidad". Still, before I go, I want to turn you on to the original Billy Satellite "I Wanna Go Back".
I, listening to the radio
Heard a song
Reminded me of long ago
Back then I thought that things were never gonna change
Used to be that I never had to feel the pain
I know now that things will never be the same
I wanna go back
And do it all over
Can’t go back I know
I wanna go back
‘Cause I’m feeling so much older
But I can’t go back I know
Ain’t that how it always is. You’re cruising along just fine and a song comes on the radio and jets you back to a time long ago. The memory makes you grin and wince at the same time. There was so much potential, if you’d only played your cards differently. That’s what Facebook is all about, the do-over, a chance to reconnect with the past to try and get it right.
I recall hanging out on Friday night
My first slow dance
Hoping that I’d get it right
Back then I thought I would never ever stand alone
It used to be that the lonely heart was never shown
I know now that things will never be the same
I wanna go back
And do it all over
Can’t go back I know
I wanna go back
‘Cause I’m feeling so much older
But I can’t go back I know
Maybe if you’d only been honest, showed the soft chewy inside instead of the exterior. We’re so worried about image, whereas relationships only gel when we reveal who we truly are, our hopes and dreams, our defeats as well as our successes.
I wanna go back. To discovering skiing for the first time, going to Aspen with my dad and watching him crash into the fence at the finish of the Roch Cup. We all used to be together and now we’ve slowly splintered apart.
Ain’t that the way it always is. There’s always something more important and then…
They’re gone.
But they live on inside these songs.
P.P.S. Trolling on Spotify I found an Eddie Money album from 1997 with live renditions of some of these songs, I’m gonna include those too.
