Only A Moment Ago / Terry Cashman, Tommy West

I've just returned from a very strange holiday and DC played an important part in it.

I left on December 4th for 2 weeks in Egypt. On my own and without Internet. One of my fav places on Earth. The Red Sea. Great hotel, fantastic weather. At first I felt like having a jet lag, so sleepy , everything was so colourless, dull..and I remembered an interview with Maura Rossi. That 63 year old DC couldn't stand dull people and dull situations. He needed excitement..At the time when I read it I thought to myself, 'Poor David, old and unhealthy, what kind of excitement you could have after such life'. But..maybe that was the problem..Maybe I just stopped being a middle aged optimistic and laughing person and became grumpy, unhappy and old. It was like music suddenly stopped.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0u8Y15xKQU

It wasn't a nice thought, after all DC found only pain and emptiness, but it was just a beginning. On the third day I discovered that I had quite a serious nervous breakdown. I will spare you details, I was trying to behave normal, swimming, walking etc..but I was scared that I would never return home. That I would die there, in that place in the middle of nowhere..I had nightmares, and later couldn't sleep. I cried when heard that Michael Nesmith died (which was really scary, I never was a Monkees fan). And one night I wrote a letter, very long and emotional, to RRHoF why DC should be inducted. It wasn't bad and at last I slept. But still one week of my holiday was left and I needed something more to calm down my nerves. I started writing a script for a movie. The working title - 'The Teen Idol'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUhh_wtOJnk

Scene 1. London's hotel,  April 1976 (I didn't have Internet, so I couldn't check dates). DC was to appear on The Russell Harty Show that day. In the morning he gave an interview and I remembered how that journalist described him. Very skinny, eyes raw and red, like belonged to an alien, skin stretched taut across the cheekbones. He chain-smoked Marlboro. They talked about the RCA albums, at one point DC paused when he was asked about touring. And in my dialogue DC tells the journalist 'Do you really want to know how it was to be a teen idol..?'

Scene 2 . Atlantic City, Steel Pier , btw DC wrote in his book that it was in 1972 , but he was wrong, those three shows were in August 1971. Anyway in that scene we can see a very attractive, skinny girl, in jeans, clogs, she has long hair, full makeup, glasses, she is walking all the way through the crowd, thousands are waiting for the second DC's concert. The men are looking after her. When she is just a few steps from the stage door, she smiles. This is David of course..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTppP88xhhY&t=2s

But I needed something more, not just scenes from the DC's autobiography,  a conflict, a problem, but not with Jack and I didn't want making his love life  a main theme. I went for a long walk and at last after 10 days it was something truly enjoyable. Of course - Wes Farrell. The conflict between them. DC's fight for an artistic independence..I wrote much more, the last scene was  DC singing 'Then I'll Be Someone' on the Russell Harty Show..but..I stopped writing because I felt that no one would ever wanted even to read it .Because you can't write about DC being a teen idol without writing about sex. But not  gentle, romantic sex scenes on the beach, no, but how it really was, DC wrote a lot about it himself and not without a reason. Because it was fun but also sth which made him hated that teen idolatry even more. He was a victim too. He was manipulated but he was a manipulator himself..

At last I returned home, yesterday. It was the longest and strangest holiday in my life. I feel like I've been away for a year at least. I also have an impressive tan and I' m quite fit after all that swimming and walking. So it wasn't so bad..

Thank you David Cassidy..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZFHa3QOvkI