ALBUM: Raindance (1984)
MVC Rating: 4.0/$
David’s 1984 solo album, Raindance, is a tantalizing mix of soul, doo wop, hip hop and balladry.
And as vinyl on the used market it’s about $3 — a big bargain. <NOTE: This has probably gone up since writing this several years ago.>
His cranky rap song “Don’t Smile at Me” (warning language)* still makes me smile all these years later. I’m pretty sure I bought this after seeing James Taylor at Auburn University in like 1983 but the album says 1984 – and I was gone from AU by then.
He tackles all styles here, maybe too many, as if he finally gets to be a frontman and decides to show everything he has got. And he’s gotta a lot, this blue-eyed falsetto soul singer. Note: Don’t really know if he has blue eyes — that’s just the industry’s way of saying they are white singing soul. Like Hall and Oates.
Besides Taylor, Lasley has been back-up singer for a whole host of artists, including Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Aretha Franklin and Luthor Vandross.
He is listed in the credits of this blog’s countdown artist Garlland Jeffries.
*Now guaranteed higher clicks.