FIRE, WATER, EARTH & AIR

In 1976 I was a 21 year old keyboard player and first heard Jane on a German compilation album (the song "Comin' Again", probably the most noteworthy song from Jane III, unless you're bothered by guitar tremelo). Something about their sound really blew me away. The sound was firmly rooted in the hook-laden hard rock thunder that I had loved as a teenager, but Jane also knew how to stretch out and get trippy. Listening to more of their work, I found songs that I loved, and the organ-synthesizer riffs and washes were like fresh air. Mind you, none of it is particularly sophisticated. A lot of the hooks and riffs sound so familiar that you'd swear they were copying someone, but I don't know of anyone else who put it all together like this. So, to me, having a collection of Jane albums is like having a library of classic rock technique. These albums also contain some of my favorite rock songs ever, particularly every song on the 1976 album "Fire, Water, Earth and Air". I don't care if it's a lame concept ("Between Heaven and Hell" came closer), the songs are just melodically magnificent. The "At Home Live" album from that same year has a lot of good stuff too. I think both of these albums should be on every progressive rock fan's record shelf. In comparison, when I heard Jane's first two albums, they didn't interest me much - too much stomp and not enough keyboard. Even so, that handful of Jane albums in the mid to late seventies helped make it a not-so-bad decade for music, if you knew where to look.