Quick! Rick is on T.V.!!!

by Jeremy Smith

I keep the electric blanket set high enough that when Beth gets out of bed an hour before me I don't notice the loss of her warmth quite as much. Sure I wake up for a minute when she does but it's just a minute or two before I turn back in for about an hour. She wakes me just before she leaves so that I can say good-bye and get ready to trudge off to my own tedious job. This is a normal day.

"Jeremy get up! Rick is on TV!" Beth yells from the living room, and I can just barely hear Vh1 in the other room playing some song that I can't identify.

"Rick is not on Vh1." I called back as I rolled over.

"We'll this guy looks just like Rick. Come tell me who he is!"

"I'd much rather sleep for another hour." I mumble pulling the sheets over my head.

This didn't satisfy my tenacious wife one bit. Her tenacity is a quality that I love unless it is six in the morning and then it's safe to say I don't love it nearly as much. She stormed into the bedroom, and said, "get up." She would not be dissuaded.

"Fine, fine, but I'm telling you it really unlikely that Rick has taken to performing music as his retirement job." I said as I trudge the three-step length of our hallway.
"Then just tell me who it is!" Beth insisted.

I looked groggy in disbelief. Same height, same build, curly shoulder length hair. For a minute I almost believed it was Rick dancing back and forth singing on my television. The performer was wearing the exact outfit that he wore for his Madison Square Garden live performance from the seventies, which was part of the reason I could recognize him as quickly as I did. The only notable difference on my TV between this singer and Rick though, was that the hair was blond, and frankly who knows how wild Rick could have gone in retirement. Then Beth turned up the sound and insisted that I tell her who was singing one more time.

That's Robert Plant." I say slightly amazed to see one my musical idols is again back on TV after a very long run of less than mainstream folk music. It was hard to tell from the voice though, as that the woman he was singing with was some sort of "look at me" pop diva.

"Doesn't he look like Rick?" Beth insisted

"Yeah he does, but Rick would be playing the guitar too, and to the best of my knowledge Robert Plant can't. That's how you can tell the difference in the future."