Chapter 5 part 3 - End of the Century |
| Whilst in Hong Kong , Terry overheard a men's room attendant humming a piece from one of his favourite Cantonese operas. Ever on the listen for good tune, Terry went back to his room with the tune in his head and sang it into a tape recorder. Back in LA he turned it into a song, Hong Kong. On his return to Hong Kong for more gigs, the story made the local press and there's a lovely article in The Hong Kong Standard with a picture of Terry and a somewhat bemused (non-english speaking) Lo Yuen, the aforementioned men's room attendant. The photo-shoot was of course done in the men's room which according to Terry resulted in a queue of increasingly desperate guys building up outside. It's only rock'n'roll but I need to pee....... The song appears on the Alive album which, whilst only released in 2004, was actually recorded in LA in 1994. Terry had been on a promise for some time to do a gig with Elliot Easton (The Cars) and the promised gig finally materialised in late 1994 at The Belly Up Club in Solan Beach CA. Seven of the songs performed were recorded and released. As well as Hong Kong there was a current crowd pleaser , Terry's version of 'One Night With You' rechristened and sung as 'One Night Of Sin', much more in keeping with Mr Reid's past pleasures! |
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| Also on the album is a co-written track 'The Road We Chose' surely a song that deserves some time in a studio. It's a wry look back over a career full of choices ,good and bad in which Terry philosophically muses on what could have been. Along the way making reference to all the 'radicals and rascal' ( no prizes for guessing who) that he's met along the way. Some having gone on to fame and glory, some burning out long ago. Terry recognising that he's chosen his own road, he's where he is and there's no point in regretting past decisions. The concert was a satisfying snapshot of Terry at his best, performing live interacting with a crowd in a small intimate venue one of many such events that, for once, just happened to get recorded |
| Now in the mid 1990s there's a sense of time and chance having moved on in Terry's life as the decade headed towards a close and the start of a new century. The informal but promising partnership with Mick Taylor effectively dissolved as they each chose another different road. Terry, of course, wasn't idle, he never has been, he was just operating below the reach of the public radar. In 1997 a small blip on the screen identified him as singing a tune on an epsisode of Conan (The Destroyer) a short lived TV series. The tune, 'In Love and War' was penned by Roxanne Seeman (a noted songwriter with whom Terry did some work in the 90s) and Charles Fox (prolific tunesmith and co-writer of Killing Me Softly). Thus Terry added a muscle-bound marauding swordsman to the cars , snow and beach themes of his other screen contributions. I'll leave you to string the metaphors together and add what Terry tune you think fits best. |
| Another public appearance occurred in 1998 as the real passage of time was sadly marked by the untimely death of a friend, Beach Boy Carl Wilson. Terry was part of the all star bill at the Roxy in LA when there was a Benefit concert for Carl . He sang 'Don't Worry Baby' a Dennis Wilson song, that he's pretty much made his own and often includes in his repertoire now . 'Don't worry baby, everything will turn out alright', I doubt there was a dry eye in the hall as he sung that. |
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