The 1981 Listening Post - Lake - Ouch!

 Reviewed by Jim Coursey

Released: June 3 1981 Lake Ouch! Genre: Jazz Rock Rating: 2 out of 5 Highlights: Come On Home Amigo “Ouch” was the fourth album by Lake, an German-English band, based in Germany. Produced by James William Guercio, who had worked on a string of Chicago albums previously, “Ouch” has notes of Steely Dan, Supertramp, Michael McDonald, and Journey. It’s almost like the 70s never ended here, and this one skews polite and polished like contemporaries who spanned into the early 80s. The songs are often funky, with jazzy harmonics, alternately tense and breezy and slightly more complex than your average pop, and totally serviceable if not terribly memorable. There’s a few mild surprises therein. “Amigo” had me expecting something more like Fairport Convention with its haunting folky intro, but quickly cheeses it thanks to the unnecessary addition of Rhodes piano. “Jamaica High”, their take on reggae, is more lighthearted, but would be better served in an ad for a travel company than a rock album. Any goodwill I had for the band disappeared when I got to “Hit Your Mama”, whose absurdly dated lyrics are about as deplorable as the title implies. Hit your mama, hit her again til she say ‘I love you’ Hit your mama, hit her again and again Do… cause she’s counting on you. The singer is giving advice to his friend, whose girlfriend - the “mama” in question – is insufficiently doting. Now imagine that gleefully sung to a perky 70s pop rock tune. While Lake aren’t my thing by any stretch, musically they deserve a higher rating. It’s just hard to overlook the awfulness of that one track.

The 1981 Listening Post - Lake - Hot Day

 Reviewed by Paul J Zickler

Released: 1981 Lake Hot Day Genre: Rock Rating: 3 out of 5 Highlights: Sanford And Son Escape (which really should be titled “Hot Day”) The Sound Of America Band At The Top Lead singer: “Here we go! / 9 o clock local time / You see ‘em on the screen / It’s gonna make you scream!” Full band in unison: “Sanford and son / Sanford and son / Sanford and son / Sanford AND SON!” Guitarist: "Weedly weedly weeee!" That’s how you start a record if you’re a German rock band with a British lead singer. Write a song about an American TV show you like and play it at full volume. Later on, you can add a mid tempo rocker that goes “All day / Through the night / You were the sound of tomorrow / No skylight / Out of sight / You were the sound of America.” What does it mean? It means you can play for five minutes and solo four times, that’s what. Formed in 1973, Lake played hard rock, paying little attention to what was musically fashionable. In 1978, they opened for Lynyrd Skynyrd, Black Oak Arkansas, Neil Young, and, at one notable Dutch music festival, Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan. Their peak years featured two keyboard players and lots of screeching lead guitar from “the legendary Alex Conti” (as per their website), with aforementioned Brit James Hopkins-Harrison on vox. By 1981 they had lost their American record deal, but they still knew how to rock in a manner that probably made a lot of European fans happy, and obviously they were still interested in what was going on across the pond. Yeah there were a whole bunch of bands who probably did this schtick way better than Lake did. What difference does that make? They were able to put out nine studio albums, a double live LP, and three greatest hits collections. That’s a successful career! They even reunited with most of their original lineup in 2003, minus Mr. Hopkins-Harrison, who “found himself lost in a fog of drugs” and sadly passed away in 1991.” The new Lake went on to release three more records before finally petering out around 2018. Somewhere in Germany, they’re probably somebody’s favorite band to this day. “Band at the top / Rock till you drop / Just one silly mistake / And you’ll soon be forgot / Got a hit / Now you gotta follow it / Don’t change the sound / Move it around / Don’t let them down / And you’ll stay / Maybe forever…” These are the lyrics of a determined group of men. Or they’re just some words they threw together that sound cool. Either way, I’m good with it. Rock on, Lake.