Denny Laine - Ahh... Laine 1973

Denny Laine did not know this album was released on Warner Bros until 1989. He surmised that the late Tony Secunda, manager for the Moody Blues when Laine was in the band, sold the U.S. rights to Warner Bros. (The original pressing was released in 1973 on Wizard Records in Europe.) Laine is wearing a Wings T-shirt on the front cover and it is amazing that he didn't perform some of these songs with Paul & Linda McCartney when they were all together. "Find a Way Somehow" has that "Let Me Roll It to You" sound from Wings' Red Rose Speedway. But the best track here is "Baby Caroline," which rivals a song called "Blue Nights," not on this collection, and one of Laine's most perfect moments. His voice is in great shape -- bluesy, defined, and in sync with the tunes. "Havin' Heaven" bops and is a good departure from the mellow leanings Laine's music gravitates toward. As a founder of the Moody Blues and singer of their first hit, "Go Now," Laine, like Chad Allen of the Guess Who, found himself shifting gears after finding success. Allen's music is also substantial, and although Laine penned "Say You Don't Mind," a hit for Colin Blunstone, this album is very much like Allen's work on Brave Belt: underrated and underappreciated. "On That Early Morn" has a tasty guitar and a '50s feel. It really is astounding that while his band was hitting number one with Band on the Run, Laine had no idea he had an album out in America (which was one of Warner Bros' biggest failures of that year). Laine performing "The Blues" and "Sons of Elton Haven Brown" on stage, maybe as the opening act for Wings that year, could have changed rock history. This is music straight from the heart. AMG

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