This enchanting event inspired the basis of the song, “Molokaʻi Slide”. The very next day, when I returned to Maui, I began putting the song together into its basic composition. When I get a song in my head that I am trying to write, it is like having an ear-worm crawling around my brain, as the parts continually swirl around in my head until I finally start writing it down in some sort of penned form… I was somewhat relieved in a couple of days, because I had finished the song in its rough form and I liked the way it was taking shape.  I have been a musician and a songwriter for much of my life, more or less for my own enjoyment, although, I did get a singer/songwriting contract from Four Star Television in the early 70’s. 

Grass Shack Bar

Moreover though, songwriting has been a way I have captured memorable events that I knew about or took part in, just like someone might take photographs. After a time of reflection and viewing the photos from the memorable lūʻau, I completed the song and recorded a demo of it when I returned home in my own recording facility, Cozydog Recording Studio. I really was pleased with the song and the lyrics in particular as I thought were well done and painted a good picture of the lūʻau. Many of the lyrics were just how I perceived what I was seeing. There was a photo of me kissing my wife Jodie under a bent palm and it evoked the line, “I like the feeling of you on this Paradise Isle.”

Another example was the beautiful smile of Katherine, one of the hula dancers,

”I like the people, I like the way they smile.” Of course, “what you see is what you get, it’s just a little grass shack,” speaks for itself.

 I have always been enamoured with the tropics from even my childhood. When I was 13 years old, I visited my Aunt Doris, a creative soul, who lived in San Francisco. I rode the Shasta Daylight Train by myself, for a week long stay with her. Visiting my aunt was a cultural experience and one place she took me to was the Conservatory of Flowers where I was able to walk around in the huge greenhouse and feel like I was deep in the tropics somewhere. When I returned home, my aunt called my parents and told them I was the only child she had ever seen boarding the train with a large potted Split Leaf Philodendron plant as a souvenir! So, fast forward to the lūʻau; for me to suddenly be a part of so many idyllic tropical scenes, it was beyond a beautiful dream!

I sent some of the demo cassettes to several people including Larry Helm, and Katherine Diol, one of the hula dancers who graciously took us to her home after the lūʻau for the night, after we missed the return boat back to Maui.

Natalie Helm, Larry’s daughter, liked the song a lot and introduced it to her school volleyball team and it was soon adopted as the theme song for the team from Molokaʻi. Her cousin, Linsey Crivello, performed the song in the Brown Bags to Stardom statewide contest and after that public performance, Molokaʻi Slide gained a large grassroots popularity. Natalie’s love for the song continued to propel its popularity and very quickly, It became an island favorite. 

Oddly enough, I didn’t know any of this was happening. I never did hear back from Larry and I thought it was strange that he at least did not acknowledge the song. Objectively speaking, I felt really good about it and thought it was both a fun and catchy song. Later on, when we finally were able to communicate, he did say that he had lost my address and thought I lived in Vancouver, Canada… not Vancouver, Washington.