No. 939 – Trick of the Light

Performer: The Who

Songwriters: John Entwistle

Original Release: Who Are You

Year: 1978

Definitive Version: None

When we moved into the condo, as I mentioned earlier, Scott and I got one bedroom, and Jin got the other. They were in the front of the building over the garage, and we had a scenic view of the construction across the street where more condominiums were built.

Jin, being a girl, had her bedroom decorated like you would expect: bright pink carpeting and white wallpaper with reddish-pink rose-adorned stripes. It fit with her white, girly furniture, which actually was pretty cool in retrospect. She had a four-poster bed that at one time had a canopy. I suspect that all of that stuff has long since been scattered to the four winds.

And we had dueling stereos. More often than not, they were playing The Who, although when I’d had enough of Jin’s music, I could retreat behind closed doors to my trusty headphones.

As I mentioned, Jin got Who Are You and played Side 2—Trick of the Light, Guitar and Pen, Love Is Coming Down and Who Are You—to death in late 1979, early 1980. I have a clear vision of sitting in her room talking about something, although that detail eludes me, with this song on, and there’s just this pink glow from the unrelenting carpet.

It’s one of the few good memories I have of the time when Jin still lived with Mom at the condo before everything blew up—not much longer after this.