Tag: Let It Ride

The Collection: Ep. 53 – Paul Laine (Danger Danger, The Defiants and so much more)

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This week on The Collection, we are talking one of my all time favorite singers and one of the nicest guys in the world…Paul Laine. I’ve followed Paul since his debut solo album in 1990 all the way to today through his bands Danger Danger, The Defiants, Dark Horse, Shugaazer and everything else. We go through his catalog so join me and I hope you discover something you’ve been missing.

So go check it out as it will be live tonight at 7pm, April 21, 2025 on YouTube. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.

And if you want to watch the Interview I did with Mike Ladano 4 years ago with Paul Laine, check it out below…it was a blast!!

My Sunday Song – “Goodbye” by DarkHorse

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For My Sunday Song #414, we are going to go a little country with Paul Laine’s band called DarkHorse. The song is called “Goodbye” and is off the album called “Let It Ride” which was released in 2014, almost 25 years after his rock debut album. This is Paul’s first dive in to the Country genre and saw him head to down to Nashville and work with Steve Ohe. I don’t think the song was a single and the album didn’t do much in the charts here in the States, but it was a country album that country fans missed out on for sure.

The song is a love letter to the woman who left him for another man. He’s heartbroken and looking for closure but doesn’t know how to get that closure as she is gone and he hasn’t been album to properly say goodbye. He loved her so much that the fact she left has scarred him deeply. He wants to see her one more time even if it is just to say goodbye, but he can’t do that if he doesn’t know how why she left and if it isn’t truly over.

The song is a ballad and yes there is a country twang to it, but at its heart, the song is still a melodic rock love song. It has that 80’s rock, ballad sound with a few country guitars such as a slide and steel guitar. Paul’s vocals are so tender and heartbreakingly sad that the emotion from those lyrics oozes out. You can feel the pain he is feeling. His vocals never age and he can still hit these high notes that most artist would kill for. As far as ballads go, they don’t get much better than this. You will see it leans less country and more rock if you listen to the heart of the song.

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My Sunday Song – “Let It Ride” by Big Sugar

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For My Sunday Song #379, we are talking about “Let it Ride” and not the BTO version, but the cover by Big Sugar. Deke’s choice is another Canadian band, but he is mixing it up by picking a cover song. The song is off this Toronto band’s 1998 album ‘Heated’ which went platinum in Canada with over 100,000 album sold.

The song has a great story with it as it was inspired by a bus touring traffic incident with Bachman-Turner Overdrive. While driving from one town to the next, the band got boxed in between some 18 -Wheelers and when the trucks and the bus pulled over at the next rest stop, they actually confronted the truck drivers. And truck drivers being as cool as they normally are, they told the band to basically calm down and let it ride. The song itself is about a guy that apparently has lied to his girl and he is telling her to forget about and move on…yeah…I am sure that went over well.

Big Sugar has taken this song and really changed it up. The guitars don’t sound like this 70’s hit did, no. They brought some crunchy guitars and then there is almost a swagger to it with a reggae vibe. The vocals aren’t full of harmonies, now they have a darker edge that only Gordie Johnson can do. They have brought the song in to the 21st Century in a big way. Heck, they even added another 1:20 to the song with more guitars and well more everything. A totally different vibe, they made it their own song. Which I like to see they put in a lot of effort thinking how they wanted to present this song.

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Paul Laine – The Albums Ranked Worst to First

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After doing the Danger Danger Album Ranking, I thought why not continue and do all of Paul Laine’s albums as well.  So, here we are with Paul Laine’s albums ranked Worst to First!.  Who is Paul Laine you might ask?  I will tell you.

Paul is a singer, songwriter, musician, producer from Vancouver, Canada.  He started out as a solo artist way back in 1990 and later joined the band Danger Danger as their lead singer.  He also formed a band called Shugaazer, a band called Darkhorse and a band called The Defiants.  He likes band names that start with “D” except for Shugaazer so not sure what he was thinking there.

Paul is a gifted singer and sings mostly Rock and his voice has matured nicely over the years.  It has gone from a wild-untamed sound to a more controlled, smooth instrument.  And he has even delved into Country music (more on that later).

I have followed his career from the beginning thanks to working at Sam Goody back in 1990.  His CD came in to the store as a promo copy (and I played it a lot) and when it was time for that CD to retire from the playlist, yours truly got to take it home with him.  It was from that point on, that Paul could do no wrong (even though he has had a few missteps).

It is out of that fandom, I bring you this list.  Enjoy!!

THE WORST – ANDERSEN, LAINE, READMAN – THREE (2006):

This is an interesting side project from Andre Andersen.  Andre is the keyboardist and composer in the band Royal Hunt.  Andre brought in two sensational voices to split the songs.  You have David Readman of Pink Cream 69 and Paul Laine.  They each get 5 songs and for the most part the songs rock and as a set is pretty cool.

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