Denny Laine "The Rock Survivor" 1980-1990(rec) 1994(comp)**

I was recently reading a piece on Paul McCartney & The Wings on Mojo magazine, when I suddenly remembered that I have a CD by the recently deceased Denny Laine, which I hadn't listened to for what seems like forever. It still has a £1 price sticker on it, so I probably bought it from a London charity shop - my guess is that it was during my second visit there, almost 20 years ago. Knowing of Laine's contribution to The Moody Blues and Wings, I must have been curious about his solo work but not impressed with what I heard here, or I wouldn't have forgotten about its existence until now. The majority of the tracks here come from his then latest, All I Want is Freedom (1990). The eponymous song that opens this collection is an upbeat number, followed by the mid-tempo "On The Radio" - both pleasant enough as far as 80's commercial pop rock goes. 7 more tracks come from that LP - I rather like the more R&B flavored "Light on the Water" and melodic "Rescue My World";  not that there's something wrong about the rest, but neither are there any standouts. The production is busy with a lot of synths, backup vocals, horns etc. but also sounds horribly faceless and dated. It seems to emulate the commercially successful 80's work by Steve Winwood, Phil Collins, or Robert Palmer, but doesn't work as well. Whatever the reason, All I Want is Freedom failed to get noticed, but instead of giving up Laine repackaged it with a few older tracks in the form of this compilation. This time the selling point were some well-known titles - even though these weren't the original versions but re-recordings taken from the Japanese Tears LP (1980): R&B cover "Go Now" was the big hit of his Moody Blues days (a UK No.1 in early '65), reprised here with minimal changes. "Say You Don't Mind" was a solo single from '67 that bears the mark of that period - it charted later, in an orchestrated version by Colin Blunstone, so listeners would be familiar with it. "I Would Only Smile" was included in a similar, if slightly superior, version in The Wings' Red Rose Speedway (1973), also sung then by Laine rather than The Wings' lead singer Paul McCartney. Beatle Paul appears, as bassist and co-writer, on the fine country number "Send Me the Heart". From Laine's next solo LP Anyone Can Fly (1982), we get only 3 entries: the eponymous folky track, reggae-ish "Running Round in Circles" and standout "Who Moved the World?" with its tasteful guitar and rich Philly sound orchestration. Closer "Bad Boy Makes Good" seems to be a new (or, at least, hitherto unreleased) track; it has an organic sound similar to Nilsson or Billy Joel. I find it strange that almost all of  All I Want is Freedom was included here, when all of the tracks from the older albums are obviously superior in quality; furthermore, 6 other solo LP's recorded by Laine between 1973-1990 are completely ignored, as are his contributions to The Moody Blues, Wings, and Ginger Baker's Air Force. All this makes The Rock Survivor a seriously flawed introduction to the artist even though, as a result of it being endlessly repackaged and re-released, it's his most ubiquitous release. This CD made for pleasant enough listening, but it goes back to the shelf to gather dust for another couple decades - or maybe forever, considering the limited time and sheer volume of music in my collection.

**** for Go Now, I Would Only Smile, Who Moved the World?

*** for All I Want Is Freedom, On the Radio, Rescue My World, Send Me the Heart, Light on the Water, Running Round in Circles, Say You Don't Mind, Anyone Can Fly, Bad Boy Makes Good

** for Game Set & Match, Bad Money, Talk of the Town, Heart for a Ride, I'll Stay

The Moody Blues "Days Of Future Passed" 1967*****

Another concert I recently saw in Amsterdam was that of the Moody Blues. The audience in these two concerts (The Who and Moody Blues) had an average age of 60+, quite the opposite from what happens in Greece where, regardless the kind of music, concert-goers are mostly young with the odd middle-aged person here and there (Of course, the crisis may have changed that, too). Why that happens in The Netherlands, I don't know. Is it a sign of youth turning away from rock? Of the deep influence pop music had in Sixties' Holland? Or of the Dutch baby boomers being really active and immersing themselves in all kinds of activities when Greeks of their generation mostly just go to the tavern? Anyway, it made for an enthusiastic audience. The band featured 3 members from the classic line-up, Justin Hayward (guitar & vocals), John Lodge (bass, guitar, vocals) and Graeme Edge (drums, though a second drummer was required as he couldn't physically pull off the whole gig). The other two played with undiminished prowess, while the rest of the musicians were also very good - especially the two ladies contributing vocals, flutes, saxes, keyboards and more. My only objection is the "psychedelic" screen projections, obviously meant to replicate a 60's light show but actually looking like a Windows Media Player visualisation. The music was a melange of pop and progressive rock drawing from all stages of their career. Not that I'd mind had they stopped in 1972, when they took a break after a string of 7 masterful albums which began with this one, arguably one of the cornerstones of pop and rock music.

The Moody Blues at Heineken Music Hall,
Amsterdam 25/6/2015

Funnily enough, the original idea behind it belonged to a member of that most maligned profession, a record company executive. Having devised a new enhanced stereo recording technique, Decca Records sought for the right sound to showcase the new technology and came up with a (previously unimaginable) mixture of pop and classical music. They even chose the piece, Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 and enlisted a pop group to play. Only they had other ideas. Instead of working on their symphony parts, they hijacked the orchestra and had them play their own music, a song suite replicating the different hours of a typical day. The result was so good that no-one was upset by their mischief and the album was released with much fanfare, Despite the fact that neither album nor single bothered the Top-10 at the time, it signalled the opening of new horizons and the birth of the Progressive Rock genre, The orchestra bridges the songs together and takes the spotlight on the symphonic opening and closing parts, but the Moodies' sound is in itself very rich, as it's embellished with flute, sitar and, most notably, mellotron - a tape-replay synthesizer emulating the sound of an orchestra which came to dominate prog rock in the 70's. The album begins with "The Day Begins", an orchestral piece cleverly previewing some of the themes that will follow, in symphonic form. A spoken intro and instrumental bridge are followed by the majestic ballad "Dawn Is a Feeling" and the playful "Another Morning" evoking vivid images of children playing. Another orchestral interlude is followed by psychedelic rocker "Peak Hour". The Afternoon is comprised by Hayward's lyrical "Tuesday Afternoon" and Lodge's "(Evening) Time to Get Away". The first part was also released as a single and is a beautiful melody with great vocals, acoustic guitar and mellotron. "The Sunset" somewhat echoes The Beatles' flirtation with Indian music while Evening's second part "Twilight Time" is an upbeat psychedelic rocker typical of the late 60's. Which leads us to "Nights in White Satin", one of the all-time greatest ballads in the history of music. It's impossible to calculate how many couples have slowdanced to this song holding each other tight, how many lovestruck youths have written it on cassette compilations for their loved one or dedicated it to them on the radio. Emotive vocals, majestic strings, breathtaking melody: no wonder it's never off the airwaves - just turn the dial long enough and it'll pop out. I'll hazard a guess that, as long as there are lovers and music, it'll keep getting played. The original album ends with a short narration by Edge, but this edition adds no less than 10 bonus tracks: Alternate versions of "Tuesday Afternoon", "Dawn Is A Feeling", "The Sun Set" and "Twilight Time" prove that the songs work fine even taken out of context, while a live version of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" provides a link to their R&B roots. Single tracks "Fly Me High", "I Really Haven't Got The Time" and "Leave This Man Alone" are fine specimens of Beatles-y pop, while "Love and Beauty" and "Cities" veer closely to the more intricate sound of the album. All in all, an influential bona-fide classic - no record collection is complete without it...

***** for Dawn Is a Feeling, Forever Afternoon (Tuesday?), Nights in White Satin, Tuesday Afternoon (alternate version)

**** for Another Morning, Peak Hour, The Sunset, Twilight Time, Fly Me High, Love and Beauty, Cities, Dawn Is A Feeling (alternate version), The Sun Set (alternate version),Twilight Time (alternate version)

*** for The Day Begins, Morning Glory, Lunch Break:Intro, (Evening) Time to Get Away, Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, I Really Haven't Got The Time, Leave This Man Alone