LOST TREASURES
DENNY LAINE
“Ahh…Laine!“
By Peter Marston
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Denny Laine is no stranger to pop music fans. He was the lead singer on all the Moody Blues’ early R&B numbers (before the arrival of Justin Hayward), including the hit “Go Now.” He was also the only member of Wings—other than Paul and Linda McCartney—who was in the band through all of its various line-ups. Anyone with a radio in the ’60s and ’70s is at least somewhat familiar with his work. Still, many pop fans aren’t aware that just around the release of Wings’ second LP, Red Rose Speedway, Reprise released a solo album by Laine, titled Ah . . . Laine! In fact, Laine himself claims that it wasn’t until 1989 that even he became aware of the albums’ release. It’s not the great lost Wings album (that honor goes to Mike McGear’s McGear), but it’s a charming, homespun LP that displays Laine’s talents in full force.
Laine was born Brian Hines and was first inspired to take up the guitar by the recordings of jazz great Django Reinhardt. By the early ’60s, however, Laine was playing rock ’n’ roll in Denny and the Diplomats, a band that featured both Bev Bevan and Roy Wood, later of the Move. In 1964, he was asked by Mike Pinder to join the just-forming Moody Blues. In 1967, Hayward replaced Laine and between his stints in the Moody Blues and Wings, Laine formed the Electric String Band (aka the Denny Laine String Band) and recorded two singles, including “Say You Don’t Mind,” later covered by Colin Blunstone. Near the end of these wilderness years, Laine recorded the material that would eventually be released on Ahh . . . Laine!
When the album was released some two years later, the cover featured Laine wearing a Wings t-shirt, which seems to be misleading at best, as the album has no connection whatsoever to Wings. The opening track, “Big Ben” is a brief instrumental piece that moves from musique concrete to a series of primitive synthesizer sound effects. It’s rather pointless on its own, but does set the stage for the album’s first proper track to break through with rocking abandon. That song is “Destiny Unknown,” a shambling midtempo tune with a great loose feel that reminds me a little of Canned Heat and Brinsley Schwartz. It’s one of the highlights of the record, to be sure. “Baby Caroline” is a soulful ballad with a memorable melody that is echoed by the lead guitar in the intro and solo sections. “Don’t Try, You’ll Be Refused” is a slow jug band blues that sounds like a little like the Lovin’ Spoonful on Quaaludes. It has some very loose, but charming backing vocals. “Talk to the Head” is similarly bluesy, but less playful, with fairly impenetrable lyrics. “Sons of Elton Haven Brown” is a traditional narrative folk song—all verses, no choruses. The only nod to pop music is a key change right before the last verse.
Side two opens with “Find a Way Somehow,” a very slow blues that bears some rhythmic similarities to Wings’ “Let Me Roll It.” “Havin’ Heaven” is a ’50s-style raver that, apart from a syncopated intro and bridge, is quite similar to Dave Edmunds’ work from around the same time. “On That Early Morn” is another blues tune, this time in a boogie-rock vein, complete with vocals drenched in slapback. Lead guitar and harmonica duel throughout. “Everybody” is a Buddy Holly-esque ditty that features a wild pennywhistle part in the breaks between verses. (It is, in fact, the inspiration for my own use of pennywhistle’s on Shplang’s “Sucker” from our second album, Self Made Monk―the part is, indeed, almost identical). The closing track is “Move Me to Another Place,” with an arrangement that tacks back and forth between the feel of “Hotel California” and the straight eighths of a ’50s 12-bar.
“Find a Way Somehow” b/w “Move Me to Another Place” was released as a single in the UK (on Wizard), but the neither the single nor the album charted. Laine went on to play and record with Wings until the band’s ultimate demise in 1980. He has since sporadically released solo albums, along with countless repackages of a well-known set of Wings’ leftovers, most commonly titled Japanese Tears.
Some discographies list a CD reissue of Ahh . . . Laine! on BGO in 2007, though I have never seen a copy, even posted on the various second-market sites. That said, the original album is not too hard to find and not prohibitively expensive. If you think you’re a Wings fan and haven’t heard this one, think again—and get your hands on a copy!
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Pop Pioneer and “Lost Treasures” writer, Peter Marston is the leader of long-running power pop band, Shplang, whose most recent album, “My Big Three Wheeler” has been described as “the Beatles meet Zappa in pop-psych Sumo match.” Peter has a new project in 2015 under the name MARSTON. They will have a track on the upcoming “Power Pop Planet – Volume 5” compilation due in March, 2015.
You check it out at this link: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/shplang
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LINKS:
Denny Laine Home page: http://www.dennylaine.com/
WIKIPEDIA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denny_Laine
AllMusicGuide: http://www.allmusic.com/album/aah-laine-mw0000841714
Interview w/ Denny Laine with Rundgren Radio: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/runt/2008/09/24/rundgren-radio
VIDEOS:
Say You Don’t Mind & Baby Caroline
GO NOW – w/ Wings
Interview w/ Denny Laine:
