Denny Laine
Japanese Tears

THE REVIEW

Denny Laine had the opportunity of a lifetime in 1971 when his friend Paul McCartney invited him to join the fledgling Wings. Before that, he had played in various beat groups and the very first lineup of the Moody Blues, the one with the hit "Go Now". The 1980 was a watershed year for many, especially for Paul McCartney and those around him. After the British tour ended in December '79, the new decade saw Wings scheduled for the eagerly anticipated Japanese tour, 11 dates planned not without problems because McCartney was not well-regarded in the land of the rising sun due to a domestic drug possession conviction in 1972. The '75-'76 tour hadn't stopped in Japan for this reason, but in '80 things changed, and the Wings could land in Tokyo in January. However, at customs, an officer found a whopping 250 grams of marijuana in Paul's suitcase, result: immediate arrest and a sentence of only ten days in jail when the penal code prescribed seven years of hard labor, but the tour was canceled, resulting in significant economic losses.

"Japanese Tears," Denny Laine's third solo LP, was born from the bitter disappointment of the Japanese events. It's an interesting work because it brings to light some previously unreleased Wings compositions by the guitarist like "Say You Don't Mind" (performed during the '72 tour) and forgotten, plus a handful of songs from the last period of the group. The title track deals with the disappointment of a Japanese girl over the canceled tour, though many saw it as an attack on McCartney for his irresponsibility. Years later, Paul would admit in an interview with his daughter Mary that he had been a real idiot. The song is pleasant, with oriental flavors seasoned by the voice of Denny's wife, model Joanne la Patrie, stage name JoJo. The album continues with a good track, "Danger Zone", and a series of lesser songs barely sketched like "Clock On The Wall". "Same Mistakes" is a ballad entrusted to JoJo's singing, "Send Me The Heart" a song written with McCartney intended for "Red Rose Speedway" but then shelved, Paul appears on bass and backing vocals like the rest of the band's lineup at the time. From '79 comes "Weep For Love", an interesting unreleased track from "Back To The Egg," and better than "Again And Again And Again" which ended up on the LP.

The record flows well, it has more historical than artistic value, framing a very chaotic period for Wings, who indeed spent all of 1980 and part of '81 working on a considerable amount of material composed by McCartney for the new album, which at that time was set to be a double LP. That work would be released under Paul McCartney's name in 1982 and would be called "Tug Of War," meanwhile, Wings would disband in April 1981 following Laine's departure.