Mad Seasons [Abandoned Story]

35. Once Upon A Time ... [Part 2]

 "During these trips in August and September, they were talking to both the Los Angeles Times and Rolling Stone. Jeff specifically said they wanted to find a singer who was anything but like Andy Wood because that would just be prostitution."

"I agree."

Eddie nodded before continuing, very focused and a hint of enthusiasm in his voice.

"I knew Jack. We'd met at a Joe Strummer concert on November 21, 1989 at the Bacchanal where I was a roadie and Jack had been the drummer on Strummer's tour. When he got back from his trip to Yosemite, he told me he'd been thinking about me and sent me the soundtrack after Stone had given him the go-ahead. Before that, I was in a band called Bad Radio and then I joined another short-lived funk-rock band based in Los Angeles called Indian Style. It didn't last long, but I had a lot of fun there and was able to gain more experience."

"Bad Radio? Isn't that a common name?"

Eddie smiled without telling me more about the name because there was nothing more to say, except one important piece of information.

"I was the band's singer between 1988 and 1990. Before that, the band was more into paying homage to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and then the band started composing its own music. The band split up some time later."

"Why did you leave the band?"

"I wanted to undertake something new without knowing if it would come up."

He shrugged again, then sketched a modest smile before I teased him.

"But you're blushing?"

Eddie lowered his gaze and smiled more broadly before pulling back his hair, insisting he was blushing. He raised his head and stared at me, frowning on purpose before smiling. I took his cupped face in my hands and gently pushed it back then smiled.

"It's cruel to make fun of a man's sensitivity" he joked.

I looked falsely sympathetic, pitying him. His face, which showed a sulky pout, approached mine, gently pushing him away again.

"No. I want to hear the rest."

He straightened, directed his gaze to mine, falsely taking a short moment to reflect.

"I was in Los Angeles and I was at a basketball game with Jack. And it was during the game that he gave me the Stone demos. I didn't listen to them right away, but I remember it was September 13. I was working the night shift three hours south of Los Angeles on the freeway in San Diego, and I arrived at work for my night shift at a Chevron oil warehouse. It was midnight and I started really listening to the tape. It was the five instrumentals. Dollar Short, Troubled Times, E Ballad, Richard E and Agyptian Crave. I listened to the tape over and over again that night at work."

My attention increased tenfold when he came to talk about that famous Momason, his head held high and his gaze directed at me.

"At eight o'clock in the morning on September 13, I clocked in after finishing work, threw my board in the back of my pickup truck, which was a black 1989 Toyota, and drove across Pacific Beach as the fog rolled in off the ocean. Music still played in my head with the waves as I surfed. Difficult themes from my adolescence suddenly surfaced and lyrics began to merge in my mind. By the time I got out of the water, three melodies and verses had been created in my mind. I then ran to Beth's house in nearby Mission Beach because it was much closer, east near the Bacchanal. Words could escape me at any moment if I didn't hurry."

We smiled together, imagining the whole scene.

"Still wet that Thursday morning, I scribbled outlines on sticky notes from work, pulled out my trusty four-track and started singing. The result was three songs, a brief rock opera with shades of my beloved Who's Tommy. The first thing that was written was these three songs. Without even knowing these guys, we sort of wrote music together. It was this cool little mini-opera... about birth... incest... and death."