My first album on Rodneytown's Pet label took off recently, and now I'm a local celebirty. I didn't recieve any calls or fan mail yet, though.
In the meantime, I started listing to The Who's "Tommy" album, and that was one awesome rock opera. I felt like I should lay off the Greenwich Village music for a while.

Anyway, over at the recording studio, the clients were all shaking hands with me, and I felt really happy about myself. I head over to my soundstage, where my producer, Jack Smash (the pumpkin-headed guy) was playing the master tape.
"Great work, Tom," he said, "I'll bet your friends in the Village are flockin to their music store to get a kick outta you!"
Then the phone rang, he answered it.
"Jack Smash. C'mon up!" he said, hanging up. I was speechless.
"Who was that?"
"I dunno!" (cue laugh track).

There was a knock on the door. It was Teriyaki Yoko (the bug).
"Jack, honey. When's my next gig?" she said
"A few weeks from now. I'm giving you a break."
"Good, cause we need time to record that single."
My master tape was still playing. Teriyaki stopped to listen.
"So this is the new sensation?" she said, turning to me.
"Uh... yeah," I stuttered nervously, "Do you like?"
"Fine. If it was worse, I'd ban you from every video game..."

Just then, MilkCan (Lammy, Katy, and Ma-San) walked into the studio.
"and that would go for you too!" Teriyaki finished.
"Hi, Tom!" said Katy, "You finished?"
"Yeah. We're just hanging."
"MAMAMAMAMAMAMA," said Ma-San (Good, because we're gonna record now.)
"MAMAM," I replied (Okay. Can I watch?)
"AMAMAMAMAMAMAMA!" (NO! We use our time alone!)
The dynamite on her head exploded from her fury. Teriyaki's dress almost caught fire, but didn't.
"AM," I said (Okay. I'll leave you be.)
Jack turned to me and said "Maybe we should relocate ourselves to Teriyaki's soundstage so we don't bother the others."

So we got up and leave, leaving MilkCan in the studio. Ma-San flicked on the red light switch after we left, then turned on the recorder and ran downstairs to her drum kit.

Teriyaki's soundstage was larger than mine. It had one large room for orchestras and musicians, and two small booths: One for the producer and other staff, and the other for the singer (Teriyaki). The room was empty, and the bug went to her booth. Jack sat down at the tape recorder.

"This is how professionals do it," he explained, "A couple of session musicians came here to record the instrumenal accompniment, and now all we need is the vocal track."
"I experimented with this back in the city," I said, sitting down next to him.
Jack turned on the intercom, "Okay, this is a take. You ready in there?"
She nodded, then Jack pressed the record button.
"Now I'll see if she's really a bad singer."
"I HEARD THAT!" she yelled, zapping me long-distance with her antennae.

The instrumental began. She actually sang pretty good! I didn't know why she was said to be horrorable. The phone rang again.
"C'mon up!" said Jack, who didn't care who was downstairs.
The song finished, and Jack stopped the recorder. Teriyaki went back to the main booth.
"That was pretty decent!" he said, "I can see your name in the charts...for once."

There was a knock on the door. This time, it was Rammy, but she didn't seem pretty happy (That's weird, as I thought she got on my good side in Chapter 3!)
"VILLAGE BOY!" she yelled, "How DARE you make a gold record out of music that I don't even like!"
"Why, Rammy!" I said nervously, trying to change her mood, "It's good to see you again...back to your old self!"
It didn't work.
"My Lammy troubles are over, but my watch is broken, my guitar strings broke, and I STILL don't get any messages on my BEEPER! All because of YOU!" She flipped me off!
"For one thing, we don't use beepers anymore," said Jack, "Ever heard of cell phones?"

Rammy turned and walked away.
"Well, nice try, Ram-a-lam-a Ding-dong!" I insulted.
"That's it! Let's see who's the better guitarist!"
After seeing where this was going, I made a break for the door, down the stairs, and to the teleportation machine outside the building.

I retreated to my pad and took a breather in front of the TV, and put on a VCD (Video CD, imported from the Phillipenes) of Happy Gilmore. Then I heard the phone. I paused the movie, and picked up the handset.
"Hello?"
"Hi Tom. It's me, Teriyaki Yoko."
"Oh, hi! What's goin' on?"
"Listen, I'm sorry about what happened today with you and Rammy."
"Does Lammy know yet?"
"No. I didn't see her yet."
There was a pause.
"Listen," she continued, "I'm gonna be at the Element tonight, so I'm not comin' down for tacos or anything."
"That's okay. I'll just call the gang and tell 'em"

So I did that. I called PaRappa, Sunny, the MilkCan band, and Paula Fox about the relocation to the Element.

The Element was less crowded then the last time. I saw Teriyaki Yoko and the house band over on the bandstand. Then I saw my party over in one of the booths, and sat down.
"So, what's new?"
"Nothing," they all said.
"I've got something. Lammy, remember when you 'stole' Rammy's position at Teriyaki's gig on that island? She demanded a guitar duel, remember?"
"Yeah..." she muttered.
"Well, she's out to get ME."
"Why can't you believe?" said PaRappa.
"She plays lead guitar, and I'm rhythm guitar, so I don't have high hopes about this."
Teriyaki finished her performance and head over to the booth.
"Hey. I told them about my Rammy problem."
"What're you gonna do, hon?"
"Who do you think I am? Gitaroo Man?"
"Somebody call me?" said a guy nearby.
He was dressed like a flying robot, and had a strangely-shaped guitar in his hand. It was U-1, or Gitaroo Man to his buddies. I ran into him when the moving truck rested somewhere in Chicago.
"Nah. You must've heard things."

U-1 sat down next to me.
"Thought you'd never see me again, eh?" He asked, giving me a noogie.
"No. U-1, this is PaRappa, Sunny Funny, Ma-San, Katy Kat, Paula Fox, and Teriyaki Yoko."
"I know her. Her last album sold out at the music store."
"How many copies were there?"
"Just two. I'm tellin' you, she's a bad singer."

Teriyaki zapped U-1, but it bounced off the helmet and back to the bug, shocking herself.

"I'm gonna leave you guys to it," I said, getting up.
I quickly jerked down. Aura was in the cage, and she was stripping again.
"Aura bugging you?" said Paula.
"Yeah. I forgot why I didn't want to come here again in the first place."
I waited for a few minutes, then looked up. Aura was down to her undies.
"WOW!" I squealed too loud.

She took off her undies and turned toward me.
"Didn't get enough, Village Boy?" she teased.
I groaned, and got up.
"If you need me, I'll be over by the pinball table."
I walked past the nude Aura, averting my gaze to the floor.
"OH! Chicken, are we? Care to take a peek?"
"No. One time is enough. Don't ever dance here again," I said quickly.
Aura just flipped me off, and put her clothes back on.

The coin slot on the pinball machine was broken, so that meant I could play for free. I played five balls. By the time I finished the second ball, Teriyaki and Ma-San joined me at the table. They both saw me rack up to 5,000,000 points
"MAMAMAMAM" said Ma-San (I've heard of computer cheat codes but this is rediculous!)
"MAMAM" I asked (Why? You think you could do better?)
I finished my last ball, then the mouse pushed the start button. She only got 50 points. Then Teriyaki Yoko had her turn. She racked up 10,000 points.
"So close," she muttered.
Then a blind man walked up to me. He was also deaf, so he had to communicate in sign language. I pulled out my translation book.
Let's see...
The gestures indicated he wanted a turn, so I looked up the counter gesture for the situation.
The deaf, blind man pressed START, and using the five balls, reached the maximum of 999,999,999,999 points.
Wow, I thought, Just like in "Tommy"!

That moment gave me an idea. I spoke it over with Teriyaki the next day at the studio. I said we should do a duet cover of "Pinball Wizard," using her practice of studio musicians doing the instrumental. I told her we could use this as the flipside of her next single.
"All right," she said, "It's a go."

So for the next few days, I gathered my pals to record tracks for the song. These included:
Rhythm guitar - Thomas Fay
Lead Guitar - Lammy
Gitaroo - U-1
Drums - Ma-San
No bass player. Who needs 'em, anyway?
I did all this and narrowly avoided Rammy in the process.

The instrumental was finished, and all we needed was vocals from me and Teriyaki. We got in the singing booth together. The harmony definately sounded better than singing seperately.
Next day, Jack Smash pieced together the single for release, and came out the day after.
"Taste of Teriyaki" on the A-side, and "Pinball Wizard" on the B-side.

At the studio, all my friends were at the reception party in the studio lobby. Jack Smash came in with the Rolling Stone charts.
"Get this, guys!" he announced, "'Pinball Wizard' is number 3!"
Everyone cheered.
"What about 'Taste of Teriyaki'?" said the bug.
"It's 40."
Furious, she zapped Jack.

I sat down in the corner to write a postcard.

Dear U-1,
It's been great having you over here in Rodneytown. I want to thank you for playing on "Pinball Wizard". It's a smash hit! I wanna let you know that I've been admiring your gitaroo, and I'm interested in learning how to play it. Can't wait to see you again if I end up moving out!
Thomas Fay

Then I heard a loud guitar riff. It was Rammy again.
"VILLAGE BOY!" she said, "So, you thought you could get away with it by going on her side! That's the last straw for you. Now it's time for the challenge..."

I sighed. I didn't know what to do.
"Believe!" said PaRappa.
I smiled. I took a guitar from Lammy and began to play.