Junk shop search yields legendary music discovery

Last winter I was in a junk shop, rummaging through a stack of records that were strewn in a corner, when I happened upon a record by the Faces called First Step. On the cover there were some names and faces that I recognized, such as Rolling Stone guitarist Ron Wood and Rod Stewart, and some that I didn't: Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan and Kenney Jones. I liked the cover art and the record was only a buck so I took a chance and bought it.

The song started as a slow blues number, with Wood playing delicate guitar lines over a soft Hammond organ.

By the time Stewart's vocals kicked in, I was paying full attention to the opening words:

It's good to be back with your friends/ back with the people who know you/ It's good to hear the things they say/ My strength is growing day by day.

The words were simple, but with Stewart's grave voice and the soft guitar and organ, they had an honesty and depth about them.

When the instruments dropped out midway through the song, all that remained was Stewart and a second voice that was nasal and frail, harmonizing the chorus "a cappella." The Faces had me. Lane, to whom the frail voice belonged, had me.

As soon as the song ended I checked the writing credits on the record to see which songs Lane had written.

And, as any self-respecting record junkie would do, I went out and bought every Faces record I could find.

Soon a pattern emerged: While the Stewart/Wood songs were usually loud and often mediocre, the Lane songs were understated and had a real depth of feeling.

Songs such as the folky "Richmond" (from the album Long Player) and "Debris" (from A Nod Is As Good As a Wink To A Blind Horse) show a songwriter with real understanding of human relationships.

And the sentiment is captured even further when it is Lane who sings his own material, rather than Rod the Mod.

After years of suffering with the disease, Lane died this past year of multiple sclerosis, though you would never know it.

While music business deaths such as that of the Notorious B.I.G and Michael Hutchence were prominent in music magazine "Year in Reviews," Lane's death was barely noticed in America.

I was saddened to hear the news at a time when I was just beginning to discover and appreciate the music he had written. I was saddened even more when the reporter from MTV said that Lane had been a member of the Faces, "Rod Stewart's backing group."

To call Lane a member of Stewart's "backing group" is to seriously underestimate both his place within rock music and his talent as a songwriter.

Lane began as a songwriter and founding member of The Small Faces, one of Britain's most successful mod groups, when he was still a teenager.

And later, when the group evolved into the Faces, a band more famous for their hard-drinking exploits and tight trousers than their music, he continued to write thoughtful, lyric-driven songs.

"For me, Lane was the Faces," Stewart once said in an interview. "When he left, it took the ass out of it for me."

Lane left in 1973 and went on to record successful albums with Pete Townshend (Rough Mix) and Ron Wood (Mahoney's Last Stand).

He also fronted a folk rock outfit, Slim Chance, and organized a traveling rock n' roll circus before he was diagnosed with MS.

Lane is quite possibly one of the most underrated figures in the history of rock music.

It is a tragedy that he was unable to continue writing and playing because of the debilitating nature of MS.

And it would be a further tragedy if he were not given the credit and remembrance he deserves.

Perhaps the chorus of "Devotion" can serve as a fitting homage:

I try by remembering/ All the things that you said to me/ From within all you did for me.