The Story Continued…
The Story Continued with Details…
In 1979, my father in law, Glen Hicks, won the rights to choose the first building lot for a new upcoming development in Wailea, Maui. It was to be called, Wailea Ekolu. After the condo was finished, it gave everyone in the family a place to go and stay for free in Maui, as the cost was absorbed by the family rental business.
Pretty much every year, Jodie and I would make a trip to Maui and sometimes take various members of our family and various friends to stay with us for at least part of the time if we were staying longer. Jodie and I, wanting to experience as much of the islands as we could, began to take small excursions to different islands; Kauaʻi, Lanaʻi, Hawaiʻi and Oʻahu.
In 1988, we invited some friends, Mike and Katrina Miller, to fly over and enjoy the condo with us and vacation on Maui. Coincidently, that was the year Jodie and I decided a side excursion day trip to Molokaʻi since we had never been there. On the morning of our planned trip to Molokaʻi, they drove us up to Lahaina to catch the shuttle boat, The Linn Wa II, which would take us out to deeper water where the Maui Princess ship was anchored. Mike and his wife, Katrina were visiting Hawaiʻi for the first time and they were happy just to hang on Maui. We told them to be a little cautious especially if they hiked out into some of the jungle areas, not to venture into someone’s pakalolo field. We added,( just for good measure), that they might get their heads cut off with a machete if they were caught. With that last reassuring word to our guests, we set off for our Molokaʻi adventure, telling them that we would see them later on in the early evening when the Maui Princess returned around 8:00 PM. ( to be continued…)
Earlier in this story, I explained briefly how it was that we got to be at this fun local style lūʻau. However, here are a few more tidbits of how that evening went and the ensuing time after when I found out 9 years later that Molokaʻi Slide had become a Hawaiian Hit Song!!
Missed the Boat Back
The boat returned, where is Tad & Jodie?
Everything that evening was super laid back and at some point, I mustered up my courage and got up on the stage and played one of my original songs, “ Latitude 20.” It was one of the first tropical tunes, inspired in Hawaiʻi that I wrote and I had a fun time singing it especially in the magical setting of a stage underneath the spreading arms of a huge mango tree. People seemed to like it okay enough and it opened the door to converse with many of the guests there. Everybody was enjoying each others company and as we waited for the food to be ready, we just sat down at the tables and talked a while. Eventually, the pig was dug up from the imu and all the food including a fish that was baked on an open grill was ready to eat!
The chickens that were just wandering around, had a hay day at picking up scraps of food and in one instance, one hopped up on the grill and began to peck at the fish! You might recognize the reference in the song; I like the chicken, he hop(s) up on the grill… After a couple of cold beers, and a belly full of good grinds, I became the leader of some sort of impromptu conga line and we paraded around the lū‘au eating area, doing what I called, “The Molokaʻi Slide.” I mean, there already was the Harlem Shuffle, so I couldn’t very well call it the Molokaʻi Shuffle… so the Slide was it… Simple as that!
( Mike story Continued)
The evening came and we were so entranced in the enchanting setting of the lūʻau and enjoying the food and fun. I knew that we were not going to make the ferry boat in time for the trip back to Maui. In truth, I didn’t want to, as we were having such a beautiful time. We tried calling the condo phone, using a land line that was available nearby to let Mike know that we were not going to be back that night, but we were unable to reach him. This was 1988! No cell phones! I was trying to remember the phone number and I think I was dialing it incorrectly, so there was that factor also.
Mike, with the admonition that we had given him about getting his head chopped off if he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, was conjuring up all kinds of bad visions and anxious thoughts of why we were not on the ferry boat that night. He even called Jodie’s dad back home on the main land and explained that we had not made the boat ride back and that he was concerned. Finally, Jodie was able to connect with her dad and tell him that we were just fine so the message got relayed to Mike and we went back to our little paradisiacal idylic time on Molokaʻi.
The late end of the lūʻau finally came and I had pretty much accepted the fact that we would be sleeping on the beach for that night. However, Katherine Diol, one of the hula dancers, considered our situation and exclaimed that we were welcome in her home a short distance away and then, we would be ready to catch the ferry back on the morning run. So finally, we parted with friendly Alohas’ and followed Katherine back to her place where we stayed up for yet a while longer, talking and reliving some of the moments of the lūʻau on her deck before we at last, said goodnight. The next morning, we caught the Maui Princess back to Lahaina and we were so excited to tell Mike and Katrina about what we had just experienced!
Oh my gosh! Mike was livid!! I guess thinking back at the whole situation, I probably would have been upset too. So, there was Jodie and I, grown adults sitting in the back seat while our driver had fumes of green smoke coming off his head! It was all we could do to hide the smirks on our faces and mute our infantile giggles. At one point, I thought about jokingly asking, “Gosh dad, don’t we even get to stop for ice cream?” Probably a good thing I bit my tongue and held that one in. By the time we drove the 27 miles back to our condo, Mike had cooled down a bit and we apologized profusly as well we should have but…( I would do it all over again! )
(Mike even infamously declares that sometimes, you just do what you want to do because it is easier to just say you’re sorry after the fact when it’s done!) Hard to swallow your own medicine maybe….
Writing and recording…
I really enjoy crafting a song when I have a theme and a reason. As I said, I perused the photos from the lūʻau and many of the lines came just from the photos. For example:
I like the sand spreading out to the sea…just the way the jungle dissolved into the sandy beach to the ocean…
I like the feeling of you on this paradise isle… Someone snapped a photo of me kissing Jodie under a bent palm tree with the gentle Molokaʻi surf lapping in the back ground…
What you see is what you get it’s just a little grass shack… I was totally enamored by the charming grass shack with a little bar…
I like the gekos, singing in the night… “click click click”…who doesn’t like the cute little lizards?
And all the coconuts are free… we were surrounded by beautiful palm trees, with coconuts all stages, ripe and hard and creamy spoon meat…
I really do like chickens and have them wandering around in my own yard!
At the end of the song, in the outro, in my recorded original version, when I am saying,”come on everybody.. we do the Molokaʻi Slide…now follow Kelela…. In one of the photos of the grass shack taken from the beach, he is sitting alone in a red T-shirt on the left…
Kelela (hope I am spelling his name correctly) was an extremely shy and introverted person at the lūʻau, so I included him in the outro lyrics to be leading us all in a private humerous sort of way. Not sure if anyone picked up on that but that is why his name is mentioned.
I just had a fun time referencing all the things that I liked about the lūʻau and even the phrase, I like” became part of the whole expression of the song if not an actual motif. Everywhere we looked around the lūʻau, it seemed like we were always saying,”we liked this or we liked that.”
When I came home, to Vancouver Washington. (not Canada), I immediately began laying tracks down in my studio. Craig Russell my best friend and super talented musician, helped me form the percusion tracks and I played guitar. I had been recording various groups and individuals in my studio for a number of years so I had a reference list of musicians and vocalists that I was able to bring in for the recording of the different parts such as bass and background vocals. In very little time, I had finished my original version of Molokaʻi Slide with me singing it and I really loved the way it moved.
If I burp or fart in a garbage can, the first thing I do when I complete a song is fill out the copyright form and register it with the Library of Congress. Originally, I called the song, Take Me Back, since that was more of a reocurring theme in the song. I only mention the word Molokaʻi Slide once in the song when I sang,“I like to do the dance we do, we do the Molokaʻi Slide til’ the sun comes up shining, always mo’ bettah da kine…” Also at the end, I am inviting everyone to do the Molokaʻi Slide.
Later, I ammended the copyright, to rename it the popular title, “Molokaʻi Slide.”
Pidgin Talk
Back in the 80’s, we had a friend who moved to Hawaiʻi and everytime we would visit, he would sometimes break out into a little pidgin speak, the slang of the era, and it always cracked me up. Gradually, I guess it kind of phased out but certain phrases have remained and became a part of normal everyday Hawaiian dialect. Depends on who you are with… In no way do I speak pidgin, but I wanted to reference some of it because after all, I wrote Molokaʻi Slide in 1988! For instance; The phrase “Da Kine” is a multi purpose, can mean about anything phrase. When I sang, “take me back, back to da kine,” I merely was referencing the essence of Hawaii that I experienced at the lūʻau… the food, the setting, the hula, the sea, the sound of the ocean waves… “yeah, take me back, back to da kine.” It’s all da kine!!
As I said, I sent a cassette of the song to Larry Helm, and one to Katherine Diol. She wrote me a letter back and made reference to our first grandchild to be born, who was named after Alexandra, our new friend we met on the boat to Molokaʻi. She also talked about how the lūʻau was turning into a small business for Larry and becoming a popular thing for people to come to. Just general chit chat, but the most memorable thing that she wrote in the letter was, “I can’t wait to hear your new song, I bet it will be great.” That letter was dated February 18, 1988.
I still really enjoy listening to Molokaʻi Slide as it brings back so many good memories. It is a strange thing to write and record a song. When I listen to any recordings I have done, it is from a perspective that no one else realizes or really can even understand. It is a strange feeling that is almost surreal like my own soul is serenading me with my own secret sauce. Weird… Add to that, it is also kind of a mixed emotion when someone else is performing a song that I wrote. When I listened to the Ehukai version the first time, I was thrilled. It was flattering to me the way they emulated some of the parts like I originally sang them like,“I like your HULA, I think it’s really good,” with a big emphasis on the word HULA!
Never Heard Anything…
I have to say that I was really surprised that I never heard back from Larry Helm whether he liked my song or not. There was the address location mix up I guess. However in retrospect, even though a year passed before the terrible tragedy in 1989, once it happened, I can certainly understand how meaningless any of it would be to him. The weird thing is; from 1988 to late 1996, I had no idea about anything that had happened. We just continued to come to Maui and enjoy the visits and then then return back home to Vancouver, Washington.
My Friend Bob
Bob Churchill was a friend of mine who was part Hawaiian, and part old school hippie. When he heard Molokaʻi Slide, he loved it and confidently declared that it was going to “blow Molokaʻi’s mind.” I had to convince him that no, it was not received too well and in fact, I got virtually no feed back from anyone except Katherine, the hula dancer!… (but never the less, thanks for the vote of confidence.) Again, I want to mention, that I didn’t know anything about the song’s grassroots popularity, or even Natalie Helm’s tragic death in 1989. The years just drifted from that time into 1996, and then, things happened…
Bob was a very good welder and in 1996, he had been commissioned to come work in some capacity on the two inter-island cruise ships, the Independence and the Constitution. He took a cassette copy of Molokaʻi Slide with him and gave it to the ship’s steward who evidently absolutely loved my song. In fact, it became a tradition that every night when they were cruising off the coast of Hawaiʻi, everyone would gather on deck and sing Molokaʻi Slide. When I heard of this, I was first of all, shocked and felt deeply honored, as though somehow, I had made a connection with the place and the people that I had come to love so much.
A while later, I think in early 1997, he went back over to Hawaiʻi to finish working on the ships, and one day, he frantically reached me on the phone to tell me that my song was almost playing non-stop on the radio. I was confused to say the least. All I could think of was the old cassette copies that I had sent to Larry and Katherine in 1988, and I was horrified that somehow, they had met the radio waves. Bob quickly interjected my thoughts with a statement that honestly did “blow my mind.” He told me that it wasn’t my recording that was so popular, but a local group named, Ehukai who had recorded Molokaʻi Slide and released it in late 1996.
My feathers were just a little ruffled if you understand the metaphoric phrase. No one had asked my permission to record my song, let alone to publicly release it. On one hand, I felt like I had been screwed over but on the other, I felt blessed and vindicated that indeed, Molokaʻi Slide was a great song! I was in a state of shock almost thinking that I had written something that actually was being played on the radio in Hawaiʻi ! Had it not been for my friend Bob, I may have never known about Molokaʻi Slide’s popularity and rise to fame.
Operator… Information
I dug out my copyright form from my file cabinet, bolstered my courage and determination and called the AT&T operator in Honolulu, to see if I could possibly get a phone number for the group known as Ehukai. Well, it had been a mystery for 9 years who actually wrote Molokaʻi Slide, and the operator started asking me questions…(her) “why do you want to get a hold of (Ehukai) for?? (me) I wrote a song on their CD that I am not getting credit for… (operator) (incredulously) WHICH SONG ????
When I told her that I was the writer of Molokaʻi Slide, the AT&T operator came unglued and began laughing and sort of screaming with joy. It was then that I knew that my song really was a popular song at least in Hawaiʻi. The hair on my arms must have stood up 2 inches under 1 inch chicken skin bumps. I could hardly believe it, I had written a hit song!!
The operator suggested that I contact Tom Moffett, who was a personality, well known in Hawaiʻi for promoting concerts and other musical endeavors. If you were the Rolling Stones, the Eagles, Michael Jackson or Santana, or anyone of fame, you would contact Tom Moffatt to make arrangements to perform in Hawaiʻi. He was helping the group Ehukai in their sudden rise to popularity to manage with the business end of it all.
When I contacted them, they put me in touch with a gentleman, named George Chun who asked me, “what are we gonna do? We don’t want to get sued!!” I reassured him that I had no intentions of sueing anyone; I just wanted the CD covers to be reprinted with my name listed as being the writer of Molokaʻi Slide and get what financial recompense I was due. I sent George a packet of information including a copy of my copyright form which I had ammended to rename the song after its now popular moniker, Molokaʻi Slide. I included the story of how it all came to be and sent many of the photos of the lūʻau that had inspired me and when he called me back, he said, “there is no doubt that you are the writer of the song, you have everything in this packet except the taste of the pig!!”
Re-printed Ehukai CD Liner
True to their word, they reprinted the CD covers and posted my name as the songwriter and I joined up with BMI (Broadcast Music Industry) and soon started getting my first royalty checks. Now just to clarify; this was not some world wide hit, but it was definitely a regional hit. Even so, the royalty checks, even though they were not millions of dollars, were way better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick! They were always a blessing to get, four times a year. I usually, gather our family or whoever is available for a dinner out which we called the Molokaʻi Slide dinner with some of the proceeds.
At first, I was published by a local company on the islands, but after a brief period of time I signed with Niniko Publishing, a Tom Moffatt entity, because the original publishing company was having internal troubles and there was a lack of communication. As May of 1997 came around, Molokaʻi Slide won the Na Hoku award for Hit Song Of The Year and Hit Single Of The Year. I was told that as the writer, I would also receive the Na Hoku award trophy, but that ran into some road blocks as supposedly, you had to hold a residence in the Islands to receive it. Well, we had a condo on Maui, but then I was told that because I was not living full time in the islands that I would not be able to get the award. However, Molokaʻi Slide was a really big island hit and I think through various channels, they worked it out so I was able to get my own Hoku Award that proudly is displayed in my home. After all, it would have been pretty unfair to not award me, because the song became and still is a very popular song, as it has worn well and worked its way into the “oldie but goodie” category as a regular radio airplay song.
My Tour of Reclamation
When 1998 came about, I felt because of my dealing with Tom Moffatt, that at least I had begun to secure my rightful title as the writer of Molokaʻi Slide. George Chun, my personal contact with the Tom Moffatt Company, kept asking when we were going to come over so we could meet in person. So, in the early Spring, Jodie and I grabbed a flight and went to Maui, with plans to stay in Oʻahu to meet up with George Chun and his young sidekick and assistant, Andrea Dismuke. I liked Andrea a lot and she became someone who I was able to connect with when I had some problem regarding my song. For example; she was in contact with the Na Hoku committee or someone who was claiming to have written my song to inform them, that I was the writer, not Larry Helm or Ehukai as seen in this letter;
Jodie and I continued on to Maui and as we were shopping or with different people, or on the beach, I began to shamelessly make it known that I was the writer if the conversation was leading in that direction. I was goaded on in this self promotion because of things like this; Sometimes I would see a poster in a music store that said,“Larry Helm, winner of the 1997 Na Hoku award.” Frankly, it made my blood boil. When I brought it up with George Chun, he told me that he had contacted the Hoku Awards committee and they knew that neither Ehukai or Larry Helm had truthfully written the song, but they needed to attach a name to it in order to receive the two awards, so they just kind of used Larry Helm as the proxy writer of the song. Honestly, I don’t think Larry was going around telling people he wrote the song, but the erroneous title persisted and that is why I would tell people my story if the opportunity came up.
Andrea & George, Ken (in front)
They wined and dined us at Palamino’s Restaurant, together with Ken Makuakāne, who was part of the production for Ehukaiʻs recording. Our meeting up was written up in the Honolulu Advertiser in a small blurb in the Show Biz Column, supossedly to discuss songs for an upcoming Krush CD. Not my style, but they were a super popular group in Hawaii in the 80’s and I was not sure if George thought that I was going to write a song for them. Anyway, George or Ken had something to do with promoting them, or perhaps they were part of the Tom Moffatt entourage but as far as me writing something they might have liked, probably not a chance. At any rate, it was just a way to drop my name into the public domain and draw attention to the fact that I was the writer of Molokaʻi Slide.
My Performance Tour
I want to continue with what might be called a side story, but really, was more of my story concerning Molokaʻi Slide. When we got to Maui after our brief stay on O‘ahu, I decided to buy an 8 string ukulele and did so at the Nahenahe factory near Kahului. The person who was helping me and sold me the ukulele, knew that I was the writer of Molokaʻi Slide and said that I should engrave my name on the front of the it. I couldn’t quite visualize, “Tad Suckling” carved on the front of my nice new uke, but the kind hearted salesman, sensing my concern, gingerly informed me that he would use my Hawaiian name. OH… Okay! I actually got a little misty eyed, contemplating the hope of some exotic Hawaiian name that I might be called and as he began a search in an old book that had name translations in it, I had a tingle of excitement at the prospect. About the time I was deeply enveloped in the contemplation of my new exotic Hawaiian name, he broke into my thoughts with, “oh brah, you not gonna’ believe your Hawaiian name…It’s Kaki.” OK, OK let’s see… Translating this; the “a is pronounced with a short “ah” sound and the “i” is like the long “ee” and ok… kaahkee… Oh Crap…. My name sounds like Cocky Suckling!!! What are you gonna’ do? I just had him engrave it and had a good laugh and even more so as I went down the road with my new ukulele, chortling to myself.
We took a ride upcountry to just to take a drive. When we were upcountry, in Pukalani, I stopped at a small store to get some road snacks. I started talking with the young lady that was tending the store about how to drive to Hana, but not the usual way through Paia, but the backway to the south. She told me that it was simple, just take the second right out of Pukalani and you will go through Ulupalakua, past Maui Wine Company and keep going. The strange thing is, we had been coming to Maui for over 20 years and we would drive past Makena on that old road down by the shoreline that basically dead-ended at La Perouse Bay in a rutted mess, thinking that somehow, that was the way around the back side to Hana. We laughed so hard at the fact we had never even thought of the upcountry road and we decided to at least drive out to the old store at Kaupo since we were already upcountry.
I brought my new 8 string Nahenahe Ukulele along with me and when Jodie took over the driving, we slowly drove along the road enjoying the country side drive and gorgeous views. As we rode along, I was practicing playing Molokaʻi Slide on my new instrument. I mainly play guitar, so even though the fingering is different for various chords from the guitar, my fingers are trained to be able to go in similar positions to attain a certain chord on the uke. I didn’t have any particular reason for learning Molokaʻi Slide but I guessed, under the current circumstances with its success, I thought it might be fun to be able to play it on the ukulele and accompany myself just in case an occasion arose to perform it. The road out to Kaupo has some fun driving areas. The road at one point is very straight but undulates up and down as it passes over the lava fields and the center yellow divider line going up and down and up and down is almost hypotic. I ended up writing a fun song about this little drive called, The Road To Kaupo. (“Just keep driving straight ahead, down the yellow crooked line”) If you want to hear this song and more, select the “Listen” tab on the menu bar.
I digress. At some point on the drive, after practicing a while, I felt like I could actually play well enough on the uke to play and sing Molokaʻi Slide. We happened to be driving along a pasture full of cattle. I though to myself… Hmmm at least they are an audience, and they can moo… but they can’t boo, (sorry). So I stood by the side of the road and sang my song for the very first time in Hawaiʻi, to a herd of cows! The one thing about having an audience, it forces you to play through the song, even if you happen to make a couple of errors. It sharpens your skill at covering small glitches in a performance and not to stop, but play on. I made it through with better than a passing grade and I felt like, not only did the cattle enjoy it, but more bookings would be forth coming and imminent !
As we rounded the corner a little ways down the road, there came into sight, a funky little step van that obviously was selling snacks and homemade ice cream.
There was a small sign on the side of the road that read, “Soda, Coffee, AUNTIE JANES, Fine Foods.” It was just kind of in the middle of a field with nothing else around but I saw Auntie Jane sitting outside the van in the Hawaiian sun with her grandchild, who I would have guessed to be around 5 or 6 years of age. When I approached the van, I noticed that the little granddaughter was being a little bratty and was talking kind of nasty to her auntie while licking on a home made ice cream cone that had been fresh made and given to her by Auntie??!! Cheeee! As we were talking, I had let Auntie know, that I was the writer of Molokaʻi Slide to which she informed me that it was her grandchild’s favorite song! I started singing it and the little girl started smiling and then joined me on the chorus. Auntie and her little granddaughter, were the first humans that I sang my song to in Hawaiʻi.
The setting was almost too exquisite as all of our eyes were squinting at the constantly shimmering blue waters, with the Big Island of Hawaiʻi protruding like a monolitic giant in the slightly hazy distance. I sang my song, and everyone joined together and sang with me. No, the applause was not gigantic, measured by the sheer limited amount that were there on the front porch setting, but I felt warmly received and realized that then and there, regarding Molokaʻi Slide, I truely had come back…back to Da Kine.
I asked sweet Auntie how much further to the store at Kaupo and she said it was just around the next bend, so after another successful performance, we continued on to the store at Kaupo.
Auntie was right! As we drove a short distance around the bend, the old store at Kaupo came into view. And now, my confidence bolstered by my two very recent performances (albeit, one audience was cows) I introduced myself to Manny, the store owner and his wife, and a small gathering of upcountry venturers who had driven out to the old store at Kaupo like we had. We all gathered on the sun weathered front porch, and I told them the story of how Molokaʻi Slide came to be.
The fun Aftermath
The rest of our stay on Maui in 1998 was really fun. I was amazed at how popular the song had become and how its popularity just kept hanging on. I was on a mission. I know it seems uber vain to keep telling everyone that I was the writer, but I figured that the more people that knew, the more people they would tell and so on and so on. I wanted to make sure, for posterity sake, that I would always be known to be the writer, because there had been other names associated with Molokaʻi Slide. One of the worst examples was when Taimane Gardner, the ukulele phenom, released a version of my song in Japan on Sony Records. I was so excited to hear that Taimane was going to do a version of my song. She is an amazing musician and performer, but I was super disappointed at the way it turned out as there was very little of Taimane and her excellent ukulele playing. On top of that, when I received my copy of the recording, the CD credits someone named Roy Hamada, I think the saxophone player, as being the writer of my song! Even though I received an apology letter from the producer, I have to say, it really upset me. Things like this and seeing signs in music stores declaring for instance, Larry Helm as the writer, or even Ehukai as the writer, just steeled my resolve to let people know whenever I could that it was my song. Just to clarify; Ehukai did not write Molokaʻi Slide, but they did a great arrangement and recording of MY SONG! Even to this day, I can still google the song and find sites saying, written by XXX or song and lyrics by XXX. That is why I insisted that they reprint the CD cover and the liner to reflect that I am the writer and I was thankful that they did. It was shameless, but I had to admit, when we were out shopping or out to dinner, or on the beach, it was fun to see people’s reaction when I told them I wrote Molokaʻi Slide clear back in 1988! I wanted to make sure that, if the song continued to hang around, I would be known as the writer and not someone else who had nothing to do with it.
Also on our 1998 trip, I was interviewed by Alakaʻi, the DJ of KPOA, and a well known personality on Maui. Her lilting vocal style of broadcasting always made me smile and it felt good to be able to spill out more of the actual story behind Molokaʻi Slide, knowing that many people would be hearing it on the broadcast waves of “KPOA, Island Sounds, Island Wide.”
At that time, there was a local brew pub/nightclub on Kihei road called the Hoppa Brew Pub. Mark Kalawaiʻa (of Ehukai) invited me to come there one night as he was doing a solo gig. Jodie and I were in the audience of a packed house and Mark announced that the writer of Molokaʻi Slide was in the house. Everyone clapped loudly and I stood up for my 10 seconds of fame, gave a brief wave of gratitude and then, with the recognizable syncopated timbale intro riff, they started to play Molokaʻi Slide. Everyone got up and danced to my song! It was truly an amazing moment and I have to admit, I had a few tears in my eyes.
One of the thing that my publisher did was, help me track down quite a number of people that had recorded and released their version of Molokaʻi Slide. Without mentioning names, one recording had sold close to 32,000 CD’s or cassettes and they were able to capture the back royalties. Sometimes, as the internet became more advanced, I would do google searches and find other recordings that were unauthorized. It was not that I didn’t want other people recording it, I just wanted to make sure I was listed as the writer and get what I was due.
In 1999, Sunset Magazine did an article called, “Hooked on the Grill.” They quoted this part of Molokaʻi Slide:
“I like the fishes, swimmin round in the sea
I like to plop úm on the grill
And I cook úm up for me
With a big pat of butter,
Man it can’t get better than this.”
The idea of the article was that cooking fish may be as easy as putting a big pat of butter on it and plopping it on the grill, BUT… Here are some other recipe’s and ideas. They actually listed me as the writer and I felt as though my shameless efforts of promotion might be paying off. I also told them that I had a pretty nice yard and a year later, they came down and photographed part of a water feature in my landscape and it made it into Sunset Magazine in an article called, “Inspired by Hawaii,” in 2001. They also included it in one of their ʻhow to do books called, “Garden, Fountains, Waterfalls and Pools.” That magazine stayed in stores for a year and it was kind of fun when I was in a different city, in a store like Home Depot, and I opened the book and there was a picture of part of the water feature in my yard!
Back in 1996 shortly after the song was relased, our local channel 6 news did an on site report on it and panned between the audio of Ehukai performing it In the islands and me in my garden singing it. I was so nervous. It had been so long since I had played it on my guitar that I accidently played it in a lower key, so when it switched between Ehukai version and me, it sounded kind of strange as it dipped from a higher key to the lower key I was in. It made for a good laugh. They also showed me in my studio and it was kind of the second time I had experienced a “home town boy makes it big” sort of report, the first being when I signed a singer/songwriter contract with Four Star Television in the early 70’s.
In 1999, it became the theme song on a Rose Festival Float in Portland, Oregon. Oddly enough, they used my recorded version of the song, playing it as it made its way along the parade route with princess’s waving on board.
In Kihei, a small shave ice and snack store got to know me as we visited there quite frequently for a shave ice frozen treat and finally named my favorite blend of flavors, Coconut/Stawberry, The Molokai Slide. Can’t get any cooler than having a shave ice named after your song!
Through the years, I would meet various people that would tell me that Molokaʻi Slide was part of many great childhood memories. It seems that it became a tradition in grade schools to do a maypole dance in the Spring while singing my song. Also, hula dancers, developed a real hula with the interpretation of the words visualized in hula dance gestures and dance steps that depicted the idyllic lūʻau. I got to see it first hand when in 2012, The University of Portland Hawaiian club invited me as a special guest to their performance gathering. I watched about 30 people on stage doing a hula, set to my song, as I was invited and given a front row seat as the guest of honor.
It was a wonderful event for me, even though, when introduced, the Master of Ceremony kind of stumbled in disbelief over my weird name. I guess it might be an appropriate time to elaborate regarding my name. It is English and supposedly, I am related to Sir John Suckling, the inventor of Cribbage and one of England’s top 50 poets of all time. When I was born, I had a good solid English name of, Richard Norman Suckling. My Aunt Doris, the one from San Francisco, was in Scotland at the time, and learned that the word for scarecrow, was Taddybogle. I guess I was such a homely baby that they started calling me that for a nick name and it gradually evolved to Taddybobo , then Taddy, then finally ended up with just Tad. I never did use my real name so I opted to legally change it to Tad and in the process, had the revelation, that with the name Richard, I would have been most likely called…. Dick Suckling! SO, that coupled with my Hawaiian name Kaki, just about spells it all out, of why I maintain a healthy sense of humor.
In 2011, I signed a contract with CBS Television, for them to use Molokaʻi Slide on an episode of Hawaii Five-0. It is episode 14 of season 2 called The Puʻolo (the package) and I tried to watch the episode but never could hear the song. Finally, my son-in-law watched it for me and informed me that it was on the air for one minute, 12 seconds playing on a radio in the background of a sandwich shop of one of the characters of the show. Subliminal and not exactly what I envisioned but still,1 minute 12 seconds of airtime!
Alakaʻi at KPOA Radio
Mark & I at Hoppa Brew pub
George Harrison & Molokaʻi Slide
On one of our visits to Maui, Jodie and I were in the little town of Paia for some shopping. In one of the stores, I was in a conversation with the owner of the store and I let her know that I was the writer of Molokaʻi Slide. She was excited to learn that and told me that she had something of interest to share with me. It seemed that she and some of her friends were employed by the late Beatle, George Harrison who had his grand estate on Maui. They helped out around the grounds with various maintenance and one night, they all gathered around a camp fire and George Harrison, played and sang Moloka‘i Slide with his ukulele. According to Glenda, the shop owner, he claimed it was one of his favorite Hawaiian songs!
I am still Amazed
As Molokaʻi Slide aged, it gracefully has become a regular radio air play selection in the islands and has been recorded by many different artists. It has carved out its niche as an “Oldie but Goodie” as many people still stream and download it for their playlists.
Molokaʻi Slide continued to expand in popularity and there were many different artists that recorded their own rendition. One of the most popular, was by Darell Labrado, a young boy of 11 years old. His version on his album, Shaka the Moon, became fairly well known and popular and even though he sounded a little like a chipmunk to me, ( he was only eleven…) I enjoyed his recording.
I suppose if I had to rate the different versions that I like the most; It would be my own version followed closely by the commercial Ehukai version that became the hit. I also liked an early version, recorded by Paʻa Pono and sung by Bruzah Paleka. It reminded me of Huey Lewis and the News; kind of direct and a little brash in a fun, raw way. Some of the recordings were a little strained to me where they used an older traditional Hawaiian vocal style. I didn’t think it was a very good fit but, it’s OK. Thatʻs just me! I am glad that the song is enjoyed in any style. Recently, there is even a punk version! Different but hey… I am happy anyone likes the song!
I guess I am still amazed how popular it became. On the 30th anniversary of me writing it, I was at Yee’s Orchard on Kihei Road on Maui, getting some delicious ripe Mangos. The fruit stand lady, part of the Yee’s Orchard family, knew that I was the writer and pointed me out to a young lady also buying fruit. After she bought her fruit, she came up and requested a photo with me! I was honestly flattered! I guess all my shameless promotion through the years had worked! I was known as the rightful author of Molokaʻi Slide and … That is how it should be.
These small stories surrounding Molokaʻi Slide are significant to me and probably not too many other people. I will tell one more thing that I think was amazing to me.
Besides music, it most likely will be thought of as strange, but I am an avid insect collector. I travel all over in the USA in search for different specimens and I have a fairly large collection. One thing I do besides being the geek running through a field with my butterfly net, is I love to put out a mercury vapor lamp and black lights against a white sheet and attract moths in the night. It is really interesting to see what flies into the set up at night. One trip to Hawaiʻi, I took a miniture set up with me and we rented a little bungalow out in the jungle near to Hana. I set my lights up and waiting for the night to come, Jodie and I were watching the University of Hawaiʻi playing another team. At some point, Hawaiʻi was in a play where the pass came to the setter perfectly and the ball was set and the hit was executed straight down the line. The announcer who was really into the game screamed with passion, “there goes that old Molokaʻi Slide!!” Jodie and I looked at each other in sort of a quizzical sort of way. I could hardly believe my ears! I surmised that maybe many years ago, some of the surviving players that were on the other flight on that ill-fated night in 1989, either had children or maybe grandchildren, and they had named a volleyball play after the song that Natalie had loved so much in honor and remembrance of her. I really don’t have anyway to officially research this, but I can think of no other explanation.
Epilogue
As the years passed by, I got an email from Larry Helm himself in 2010. I kind of suspected that Larry was somewhat of a victim in all the fame and notoriety that happened around Molokaʻi Slide. In the email, he stated that, if it wasn’t for Natalie, the cassette tape would probably be sitting on a shelf somewhere. Probably true. She heard the song in a special way and wanted to share it with everyone. There were even murmurings of at least partial dishonesty on the part of George Chun about how everything had been handled and that some of what I had heard and believed was not true. George told me that they had inserted Larry as the composer of Molokaʻi Slide, because at the time, they knew it was going to win awards and there had to be a composer listed. I would like to believe that was the truth because I really liked George Chun. Who knows? None of it matters anymore. I always loved George and enjoyed our sometimes long conversations.
I was assured in 2014, by Kaulana Pakela formerly of Ehukai, that Larry never claimed to write Molokaʻi Slide. I have no idea whether that was the case or not, and again, in the big picture, it really doesn’t matter any more. From what I have heard, and many have said, Larry was a good person and I would not want to remember him badly for something that was based on so many foggy details. Things got resolved as far as I am concerned. Larry suffered so horribly with his daughter being killed on that tragic flight 1712 and I am thankful that I was able to know him a little in 1988 before the disaster happened. What I remember, is when we were at the lūʻau, Larry showed us a great time in the spirit of Aloha and that is how I would rather store it in my memory.
Love covers a mess of questionable things….
Larry Helm passed away in 2013 and was well known for promoting help for veterans. Tom Moffatt died in 2016 at the age of 85. He had garnered the love and respect for being a warm and kind person and someone who could make it happen in the music industry. He was not just a promoter, but a DJ and someone who was a celebrity in his own right. Finally in 2020, Kaulana Pakela, formerly of the group Ehukai, drowned in the waters in Hawaiʻi. I hope that in their passing, they were all able, and have rejoined with their respective loved ones. It is a fact; the cycle of life stops for no one.
I look at the fact that I had a song that became a hit as a true gift from God. Before I became a believer in Jesus Christ, I was ambitiously trying to achieve that status but once I surrendered that, God strangely rewarded me with a song that rose in popularity and was a hit success on its own volition. How crazy is that?
Hawaiʻi has and will always have a fond keeping in my heart. It honestly became a deep part of my soul and to have something that I wrote, connect deeply with people there, was, and still is an unbelievable blessed event in my life.
Tad Suckling
Oh… by the way… Did I ever tell you I was the writer of Molokaʻi Slide??
