Hot Cha – Not recognizing the song written about me

My brother very generously gave the communes two dozen free tickets and back stage passes to his show last night in Cville.  The Acorners and Oakers loved it.  Some attendees were repeat offenders from last years show.

The band played it’s only platinum album Flood, for most of the show.  And on this album is the song Hot Cha, which is the most clearly-about-me song my brother has written. The lyrics of Hot Cha were written (i believe) in response to my disappearance from contact with my parents for much of 1982.  My brother and i often played the game Derby Day when we were little and Hot Cha was horse number two and my favorite.  Despite his claims otherwise, i am clear that this song on the Flood album is about me.

Derby Day Horses

The funny thing is that i told Mac that this song was about me just before the show and when it started playing she said “This is your song!”.  But i did not really recognize it.  At first this struck me as odd.  Here is this song, written by my brother, on his most famous album, which is about me and i don’t even recognize it.  That seems lame.

But really, i am not that big a fan of my brothers music (i do appreciate their theatrics) and it turns out that i dont know most of this album.  And he does not know my stuff, so it seemed fair that i might not be paying super careful attention to this critical media.

Before the show we bumped into Olivia in front of the Jefferson Theater with her TMBG t-shirt on, excited about the show – i had never met Olivia before this evening.  The conversation turned to the point where i admitted that my brother was in the band and Olivia said “You must be Pax”, which is i think the first time that someone has identified me by name for this connection.  I was so excited i gave her one of our back stage passes.

This band does not wear ties often – and has not had a line up change in 10 years.

When the show was over, we went thru the strange underground tunnels that lead to where the bands relax.  The woman in the wheel chair from Louisa who i had worked on a local campaign with me, who i donated tickets to, could not come with us to the back stage party, which made me sad.

As is often the case, my brother was gregarious and generous.  The commune hippies descended like locust on the food and drink in the back stage area.  When we left half an hour later it was all but gone.  We talked a bit about his coming tour to Australia, about angry audience vibe in Cville and other places. I also reminded him that he was completely right in his political forecast about Obama’s re-election.  In May of 2012 he had forecasted “people will be surprised how much he wins by”.  When i congratulated him on this forecast he was both dismissive (“could the Republicans have chosen a worse candidate?)” and quick to follow up with a new forecast for the coming two years.

“The Republican Party has opened a Pandora’s box of troubles which will ultimately tear the party apart.   The Tea Party and other wingnuts will crash it within two  years.”  I am doubtful, but i thought Obama was going to be much closer than he was, so i will suspend disbelief.

Mac, Maddy and brother John – April 10 2013

He talked about his work to stop fracking, his insights into NY Governor Cuomo’s completely political nature (“he has no moral compass.” John said)  and the unexpected  popularity of their coming Australia trip.

Having evaporated the food, my crew left the green room of the Jefferson theater without Olivia, who lingered behind in the place she always wanted to be.

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Since there seems to be a bunch of TMBG fan traffic to this post, i should perhaps go more into detail about my contention that this song was written about me, since there is at least some dispute about it.  The song refers to the first time Hot Cha went away a float island was his home.  A pretty clear reference to the time i spent hitching on sailboats across the Pacific.

In the original Hot Cha video (which seems now to have been pulled from You Tube)  i am told there was a phone with “PAX” on the center of the rotary dial.

My brother certainly feels some affinity for the prodigal son story in light of my disappearance and we did eat fondue together when we were growing up, which is a bit of an odd food choice.

Okay, enuf parasiting off my brothers fame, on to other adventures.