I am not sure what even prompted me to buy Jane’s Addiction’s second album, Ritual de lo Habitual.

Maybe because they had sort of been hyped, I bought the disc to prove to myself that they were crap. That is because the one song that got airplay–Been Caught Stealing–was but nothing special at the time.

Maybe it was because the sexually ambiguous cover is so intriguing. Maybe, after finding myself single after 12 years of marriage where I never really felt like myself I just wanted to explore and listen to shit that was not just Bruce Springsteen (not knocking the Boss, just wanted some new direction) and ugh, not having my family play Journey’s Escape and 90125 endlessly. Both of which I hated, but my newly adolescent step sons loved.

But, somehow when I went to the record store, Ritual found its way into the bag.

I did not listen to the disc right away, and as my life had changed, one of the other things I had started doing back in the early 90’s was running.

So, one Sunday, when I had completed a 10K and gotten back home, I decided to soak in the tub, and with a mineral water, a doob, and some candles lit (how trippy) I put the disc on the player and slid into the hot water.

I am not sure I knew at the time just how appropriate the candles and joint were since I didn’t know the Jane’s were really a neo-psychedelic band, but I don’t think I could have put together a better confluence of items than I did.

The album just killed me right away, and it even found its way onto a cassette (the old days, and I still had a Walkman) with Joe Satriani’s Surfing With the Alien on the flip that I used for downhill skiing music for a couple of years.

Back then I was also just starting to play guitar seriously, and I found the basically simple E-A-D-E progressions of the Jane’s easy to figure out, and extra easy to practice to (Cheap Trick is pretty good for this too).

Anyway, Three Days from the album hopped out of my shuffle the other day, and though I love that song (it really belongs somewhere with Steve’s best songs over seven minutes), I chose something a little shorter, but no less great.

That song is Obvious. Note that I did search for a live version and though there are a few out there on You Tube, the sound quality for all of them was stretched. Too much bass, too many highs, or something, but the mix on the original studio piece I originally fell in love with worked the best.  BTW, Been Caught Stealing has proved to be my least favorite song on the disc.

So, here it is!