1973 and Terry is living in the high desert landscape of the Santa Monica Hills a semi wilderness utopia north of Los Angeles.
After a brief spell in a temporary home he moved on to stay at the ranch belonging to Tony Duquette .
Tony Duquette was a world renowned designer and sculptor with past commissions for Paul Getty and The Duke and Duchess of Windsor amongst others.  His property was like a cross between a sculpture park and a design Museum with dozens of buildings and sculptures made from found objects. There are a couple of pictures of Terry at that time posing in front of some antique furniture ( see the gallery pages ). All this set in the hills with breathtaking views west to the Pacific Ocean and spectacular sunsets night after night.
Sadly this unique place was largely destroyed by fire in 1993. 
Properties in the hills were much sought after and people often drove along the narrow roads looking out for potential homes.  One day, one such person found his way up the ranch inquiring about places that might be available.  This particular person a popular songwriter and one-time protest singer, pleased to find a fellow musician, spent a happy couple of hours discussing music, songs and the like.  Bob Dylan, for it was he, didn’t quite make it up into the hills to live, ending up nearer the coast in Malibu itself.

Needless to say it was the ideal environment in which an artist could relax dream and create.  It was here that Terry would mostly write the songs that would form the basis of his next album, Seed of Memory.

Having written a load of new songs Terry was unsure about how to record them and recalled in a magazine interview at the time” I went to Graham with the songs and said, I don't know where to go at this point, in a sense that I want to get a person who will read into the songs, I wanna get someone on the other side of the window who understands what I wanna do.  I wanted somebody that's just going to totally lift the responsibility off my shoulders of having to make sure a things plugged in just so I can sit in the studio and loosen up just like I'm sitting on the front couch at home and sing a song”. Graham proved to be the perfect person to go to and readily agreed to work with Terry on the songs.
Rehearsals began at Graham's home and were recorded in part at the studio, Rudy records in L.A., which Graham had set up and owned.  Graham used to have a lot of equipment at his own home but seeing it unused a great deal of the time decided to move it to a proper studio in downtown L.A and allow others to use it.
With the album well underway Terry moved to a completely different environment from the high desert hills and resettled in a beach community at Oxnard. This was a predominantly poor Spanish-American enclave further north, with a thin strip of apartments strung along the beach.  The area had become popular particularly with the Hollywood film set following the making of silent film classic, The Sheik. Needless to say Terry was not content with living in just any of the beach apartments and soon took possession of the very one that Rudolph Valentino had lived in whilst filming.
It was here in Silver Strand Oxnard that Terry was interviewed in the early 70s by Bob Harris of BBC's old Grey Whistle test the premier serious music rock show of the time.  Terry was filmed cheerily leading Bob and cameraman in through the window, explaining that it was easier than trying to open the sand blocked door.
In Oxnard Terry put the finishing touches to Seed of Memory including drawing the outline art work of the view from the Santa Monica Hills that he just left and which would be included on the album sleeve.

Apart from Graham and David other players on the album were long-time Terry associate Lee Miles on bass and another former Ike and Tina Turner stalwart Soko Richardson on drums ( see album page for full listing).
 Probably the most polished and coherent of Terry's albums it is definitely a good introduction for a newcomer.  The album was released under the ABC label with plenty of airplay and positive reviews, it should have been a hit. Unfortunately ABC , in financial difficulties, was in the process of being taken over by MCA resulting in lacklustre promotion and initial sales that didn’t reflect the commercial appeal of the album.
Always popular it has had something of a renaissance recently due to the inclusion of three songs on a recent film soundtrack (more of that later in the biography).

Terry now effectively a permanent Californian resident played various gigs with the core of the band that he'd assembled for seed  of memory. David by this time was heavily committed to other work particularly with James Taylor and was unable to tour with Terry, they did though manage fairly frequent acoustic gigs in places like McCabe's in Santa Monica. MCCabes is a famous guitar shop with a small concert space, sells all manner of string driven things and no doubt a favourite haunt of David Lindley's.
Sadly the mess with ABC meant that Terry could not afford to keep the band going very long and people soon went their separate ways.

Resilient as ever, Terry carried on writing, storing up songs playing whenever the opportunity arose.
After the country influenced sounds of Seed of Memory Terry had a yearning to return to a more hard rock orientated style of music.  To that end he assembled a new band comprising Lee Miles on bass Doug Rodríguez on guitar and John Siomos on drums and percussion. John had previously been best known for his work with Peter Frampton on the immensely successful Frampton Comes Alive.
The band rehearsed and played over a two-year period until Terry was ready to take them into studio to record his next album, Rogue Waves.   
The album was recorded at the Beach Boys Brother Studios in Santa Monica, the studio that they had set up in 67 and in which they recorded smiley smile. After only two days of rehearsal,  they had planned longer but the producer, Chris Kimsey, was anxious to get them in the studio before their playing got stale. Terry was particularly keen on using the Beach boys studio as it was quiet with just one studio not a lot of people around and few distractions. The whole process a complete change from the protracted sessions undertaken for River the memory of which was maybe at the back of Terry's mind.
On first listening you might be forgiven for thinking that the album was a result of the usual umpteen takes per  track Not so, virtually all of the songs were recorded live apart from some of the backup vocals and a small part of the guitar work.  The assistant engineer Alex Vertikoff had his work cut out but Terry recalls he rose to the occasion, producing a polished album that nonetheless keeps the vibrant sound of a live recording.
Terry was pleased with the resulting recordings, rough edges and all, remarking at the time that the album was produced with ordinary people in mind listening on car radios and home stereos not $12,000 systems.

There are five new songs from Terry and four reworkings of classic tunes.  Two of them Terry’s take on well-known Phil Spector songs and, in the opening bars, an almost unrecognisable version of the Everly's  ‘All I Have To Do Is Dream’.
Considering that Terry was still in his beach house with the sound of the mighty Pacific Ocean ever in the background the choice of title for the  album, rogue waves is no great surprise. The term rogue waves refers to the huge unpredictable and dangerous waves created when opposing ocean currents are pushed together by storms.  Transferring the metaphor to human relationships, makes it an appropriate title for an album brimful of ballads that reflect the stormy waters frequently whipped up as people fall in and out of love.
Oh and for the guitar fans amongst you the axe that Terry is so dramatically wielding on the album cover was a customised 61 Les Paul with a host of modifications to suit Terry’s playing style.
Although one of the least referred to of his albums, Rogue Waves has on it some of my favourite Terry songs particularly the lush and emotionally powerful title ballad.

Being underwritten by the venerable record label Capitol you'd think it was in a safe pair of hands but fate was about to take on another unpleasant turn for Terry.
With the album ready Terry undertook a small amount of obligatory touring and promotion including a long overdue return to England and a gig at the Venue in London.