Transportation

Flipped on Music Choice's Retro-Active Channel

for a little while this morning.

The very first song

wasn't Long Song or Lullaby or Fascination Street

from The Cure's 1989 album Disintegration...

...it was the title track.
Très cool.
From the very first note that entered my ears,

I was mesmorized
How long's it been since I heard this?
At least a few years.

So what's the big whoop?
Man,

Disintegration is just another album that qualifies

as one o' the best ever.

Yeah,

but bigger than that was I was frozen in my chair,
transported back in time,
to another place,
when life was so simple,
so fun,

so different,
so wild.
It's pretty messed up...

or am I just hallucinating again?
that 1989-1990 seems like not so long ago.

But it was.

Except in moments like this that I had

when I was sitting here in whatever year this is

but in my mind,

at least in my memory,

I was back in New Jersey

oh those many years ago.

This cassette was

(almost)

permanently in that tape case in the car...

in my

1980 Jeep Wagoneer

ski & surf-mobile
and later

in my '76 land yacht

station wagon surf-mobile.

It was listened to on the way to see

The Cure at Giants Stadium

(with Love & Rockets and The Pixies opening!)

-- their very first North American show

on the tour for the new album.

It was listened to on so many 2 hour drives

on the Garden State Parkway
to and from Long Beach Island,

as well as Point Pleasant & Seaside Heights.

This album was high school,

especially the summer before senior year.

What a totally different world that was

from where I am today.

That was a special time,

so true it was.

Robert Smith was a huge part of it.

Always the Deadhead,

that's who I was,

who'd never be taken for one who really dug

The Cure

or Depeche Mode or INXS or R.E.M.

or whatever other band on tape

I could squeeze into that tape case under the seat,

that tape case sitting right in the middle

and ready for reaching into.

It was probably The Cure who was so central

to who I was musically

(aside from the Dead.)

Then their album Wish came out.

Again, played a gazillion times

just like Disintegration,

and eventually the two albums' listening pleasure evened out,

both getting the Play button just as much as the other.

Soon another concert,

this time for the 1992 Wish Tour.

Home for the summer

from the University of Utah,

once again spending almost all of July & August

down at the Jersey Shore,

it was announced they'd be playing one more show.

After two months playing most major U.S. cities

(and maybe a few up north in Canada, eh,)

there'd be one final North American show.

Where?

Duh, New York City, of course.

(Queens, not Manhattan, but still NYC.)

Right next to (or very close by) Shea Stadium...

Flushing Meadows-Corona Park...

Pretty cool.

But for some reason,

like two weeks beforehand,

the show was moved.
Oh well.

If I remember correctly there was word that it would be at
The Ritz.

The Ritz?

WOW!!

The Cure in a relatively small club rather than a huge setting?

How cool would that be?

How could that be?!

It couldn't be true.
Maybe just a rumor?

It wasn't true.
(There's no way it coulda been true,

they could never have gotten everyone

who already bought a ticket

into that small space.)
So, a little further east we had to go,

to Lawng Eyelind...
Uniondale, Long Island...

Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Ohhhh, mannnn, it was thought,

more on the disapproving side

but still thankful there'd be a concert to see.

Better in Nassau than nothin'!
Twas all General Admission

and a great show my best friend and I saw,
just like we did three years before at the Meadowlands.

And it was that night,

on the way back to Oakland,
when I first drove over the Brooklyn Bridge.

Bumpy road leading up to the bridge itself
is about all I remember...

of course, also the majesty of
the World Trade Center

and pretty much the whole New York City skyline!
(But then again,

twas nothing I'd never seen before.

Growing up near NYC,

it was a sight as common the back of my hand...

but still awesome every time!)

Wait.

Over the East River and through the city

without stopping in?
Not sure why but that's what happened.

Blew right through

lower Manhattan,
straight to

the Holland Tunnel
and home maybe 30 minutes later.

Boom.

When the next song after Disintegration started,

I was free to leave the trance it had me in.

How come Marty McFly

was able to go Back In Time
but we can't?

Hello?!
What's up with that?

I'd love to relive all of 1989 & 1990,

perhaps '91 & '92, as well...
exactly as it happened.

With all that was great

I'd take again what there was that was bad

just to enjoy those moments again.

Why not?

God Bless memories, I suppose.

... [shaking my head in ponderance...]

...[reflective speechlessness...]

Good times.