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Leaving Trains–364

ALBUM: Kill Tunes

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$

This was not one of my usual purchases. Meaning back in 1986, I was not a big punk fan. But I learned to love the Clash and later in the 1990s I really enjoyed Rancid after discovering their music while living in the SF Bay Area.

But SST-labeled Leaving Trains leaned more to Black Flag and the Dead Kennedy’s, which usually for me fell on deaf, and I mean deaf, ears. So even though Leaving Trains was perhaps closer to Black Flag than the Clash, they lightened it up a bit and played power chords with a Power Pop sensibility — like the Beat or the Nerves.

Led by semi-maniac Falling James Moreland, their album ‘Kill Tunes’ is considered — from what I’ve read to be their best. I remember having to order this, Chuck @Wuxtry Birmigham set me up,

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David Lasley — 365

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.

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Ronnie Lane–366

ALBUM: Slim Chance

MVC Rating: 4.5/$$$$

On any given day, this album may be my favorite and this underrated British musician may be my favorite rock ‘n roll character.

Check out a documentary on this lovable guy on YouTube and learn about how he bought a rundown farm and began traveling to gigs in a dilapidated travel camper only to miss said gigs because it broke down. Took him days to travel to venues.

Lane died too early of multiple sclerosis on 1997 at age 51.

He was born in 1946 on April Fool’s day.

He wrote a song about being an April Fool.

I have Ronnie Lane all over the place, my Small Faces and Faces records, a collaboration with Pete Townshend (see Annie) that’s excellent and collaboration on a movie soundtrack with Ron Wood. Love all the above. Except for Faces, the other albums have not yet been reviewed in my alphabetical countdown. (I’ve just started the L’s).

Lane first gained attention in Small Faces and Faces where they came up with ”Ooh La La’ and ‘Itchykoo Park.’

Lot of videos in this post but they work better than my words in explaining this whimsical Leprechaun. RIP Ronnie.

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Lake–368, 367

ALBUMS:: Lake (1977); Paradise Island (1979)

MVC Rating: Lake 4.0/$$$; Paradise Island 3.5/$$$

This is a German band (sang in English) that had some minor success on the radio with a couple of songs, including ‘Time Bomb.’ My knee-jerk reaction would be to say they are Yes-lite. But the better description would be Styx’s German cousin.

So what’s the difference between Lake and Styx, Asia, or Toto? Record sales is about all I can see. Lake has the same skill-set: highly professional musicians who can put a polished sheen on a radio-friendly sounding tune.

They definitely were aiming for the radio, unafraid to lop a healthy dose of syrupy strings over there rock balladry — see ‘Do I Love You.’ Or is that keyboards?

My wife enjoyed this band, more than me. And that’s how I came to have these.

The band did receive an honor from MyVinylCountdown by being named by me as a band that should have had a bigger hit in the song ‘Jesus Came Down.’ It’s about Jesus coming back and being disappointed in what we’ve been doing. Now who might be behind this little outcome? I don’t know, who could it be? Ummm, SATAN. (Thanks for pointing that out church lady.

Both the albums I have, their debut and the second one, are almost interchangeable. They are both good solid examples, of the polished guitar and keyboard rock that came out of car radio speakers in the late 1970s and 1980s.