THE MESSAGE IS YOU

The most remarkable thing about today was that I solved a mystery that has plagued me for over twenty years!

On a misty day in 1983, I was driving around in my old Camaro on a street called Tulane. It was near the house where I grew up. There was a song playing on the radio (on Q102 "Texas' Best Rock", or KZEW "The Zoo", or KEGL "The Eagle" - I don't remember which, but that's all I ever listened to in those days, so it had to be one of the three).

It was sort of new-wave, sort of straight rock, but melodic and slow -- almost ethereal (if not for the drums) and spooky. Guitar and synthesizers. Very eighties. Good gloomy day music. The lyrics were a bit obscure, but I think the singer is looking for hookers out on the waterfront. I thought he sounded like the classic punk kid having issues with women, because he sees them as a foreign and enticing mystery, but not as anyone he can get to know as a person.

As a teenager, I ate this stuff up.

The melody and a few of the lyrics have stuck in my head ever since, but I could never figure out who recorded it. I seriously believed that this would be a mystery I would carry to my grave. -- which was alright with me, actually. Life needs mysteries.

But, of course, that didn't stop me from trying to solve it.

I asked every expert I knew; from my knowledgable friends (like Chris, Suzi, and Enormous J.J.) and Matt the music department manager at B&N, to the folks in various and sundry music stores. I often annoyed people by humming or singing a few of the lines or the chorus. People roll their eyes when you do this (especially in music stores). I don't blame them, but - dammit - I was desperate.

They had all kinds of suggestions. I suspected somebody like Tommy Tutone, the Tubes, or even Golden Earring. Blasts from the past. One hit wonder types -- and maybe this was the lesser known follow-up single. Every OHW has one.

Over the years, it became a Holy Grail of sorts. I checked the track listings of every possible suspect in every music store in town. I'd get an inspiration - Glass Tiger, Steel Breeze - and run down to the mall to see if maybe it was them. But it never was. The search, it seemed, would never end.

Then, with the advent of the internet, it became easier to access song lyrics with just a few words on Google. I tried for years, with different combinations of the words as I remembered them, but could never locate the lost song.

I was beginning to wonder if I just imagined it.

And then today, the misty weather brought to mind that long sought tune. I remembered the fateful day in my Camaro and the DJ saying the name of the song and artist ... and me not writing it down or remembering it.

So, for old time's sake, I got online, went to Google and typed the following:

"JUST LIKE A SECRET CODE THAT NOBODY KNOWS" LYRICS

And there it was.

"The Message is You".

From 1983.

By Gary Myrick.

Who?

I bolted over to the guy's website to find out more. It turns out he's from Dallas. A local boy. Apparently, he had some national success with a song called "She Talks in Stereo" from the same basic period. I sorta seem to remember such a song. But then again ...

Anyway, according to the site, Myrick experienced a muscial rebirth in the late 1990's and is still making music.

So there it is.

Being that I haven't heard the song in like 23 years, it's hard to say if I'd still enjoy it. It could be horribly dated, and I'm sure that my (and probably Gary Myrick's) sexual politics have changed quite a bit since then. There was, however, a great download on the site, of Myrick doing a cover of the Rolling Stones' "As Tears Go By". I was suitably impressed by his talent. But I think I'll probably remember the long and laborious search for the mystery song long after I've forgotten (again) the tune or the words.

I don't know if I want to blow any dough on a 20 year old album-become-CD just for one song.

Still .. I mean, come on. To hear it again would, at least, be an interesting experience. And I've searched for so long. Even if the song itself is anti-climactic, it might just be worth a listen, to reward a lifetime's search.

Maybe I'll laugh.

The eighties.

Anyway ... I found the Grail.