"Just For A Moment (The Best Of)" RONNIE LANE – Tracks from 1972 to 1989 on GM, Island and Atlantic Records with Guests Ron Wood, Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton, Members of McGuinness Flint and Gallagher & Lyle, Alun Davies, Steve Simpson of Meal Ticket, Billy Nicholls, Carol Grimes, Charlie Watts, Kate Lambert and more (May 2019 UK Universal Musical Operations (UMC) CD Compilation – Jon Astley Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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1974

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"...Found My Peace..."

There is a moment as I play 1974's "Roll On Babe" when I well up. It happens every time I play "Debris" by the Faces too from 1971 – both stunning Ronnie Lane ballad moments. I've often wondered why and especially why more so of late. 

Ronnie Lane was like this. There was just something utterly Fab about him. And his songs were often so deceptively simple too, yet the melody and joyous-spirit embedded in the lyrics had that uncanny way of making you feel better - lifting you up above the cruelty of life and city grime. Plonk (his nickname) was Small Faces infectious – rammed to the gunnels with British melodic brilliance - and that almost childlike smile of his somehow seeped into the Acoustic Guitars and Mandolins and Accordions in every one of his songs. Which brings us to this ludicrously cheap and beautiful sounding round up of his Acoustic and Folk Rock softer side. Some factoids first...

16 May 2019 saw the Universal Music Operations motherlode arrive in the shape of "Just For A Moment (Music 1973-1977)" - a 6CD Box Set in 10" x 10" packaging on UMC 675593-9 (Barcode 602567559399). It contained all four of his studio albums from the Seventies and beyond, album outtakes, BBC live stuff and some tasty unreleased. It also had a 72-page booklet and JON ASTLEY Remastering - a name associated with much-praised Remasters of The Who and Pete Townshend solo material. 

Released on the same day (18 May 2019) was this - "Just For A Moment (The Best Of)" by RONNIE LANE - an 18-track 1CD Best Of on UMC 00602577211263 (Barcode 602577211263) - culled from the bigger 6CD Box Set.  

It also has a VINYL 18-Track 2LP variant on UMC 00602577211270 (Barcode 602577211270) that comes with a Download Voucher. 

Best Of CD compilations are often a sort of poor man's exercise in recouping dosh or tapping latent affection towards an artist and his time. But whether you're a Lane fan or not and despite the last two songs from 1989 where his health, voice and even diction was failing him (so they are good rather than inspirational) - "Just For A Moment" may be one of the most perfectly sequenced single-disc Anthologies I've ever heard. Covering late 1973 through to the last two previously unreleased tracks from early 1989 – this Best Of plays so well – a genuinely deft sequencing of what made his music so loveable. Let's roll on babe to the details (62:45 minutes, total playing time)...

1. Just For A Moment
2. The Poacher 
3. Anymore For Anymore
4. How Come? (Single Version) 
5. Tell Everyone 
6. Roll On Babe 
7. Little Piece Of Nothing
8. Anniversary
9. Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?
10. Don't Try 'n' Change My Mind
11. One For The Road
12. Annie 
13. April Fool
14. Kuschty Rye
15. Barcelona
16. One Step
17. Spiritual Babe 
18. Strongbear's Daughter

NOTES: 
Track 1 by RON WOOD and RONNIE LANE - from the September 1976 UK LP "Mahoney's Last Stand - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" on Atlantic K 50308 – also featuring Bruce Rowlands of The Grease Band on Drums. Recordings made in 1972. 

Tracks 2 and 3 by RONNIE LANE and THE BAND "SLIM CHANCE" - from the July 1974 UK Solo Debut LP "Anymore For Anymore" on GM Records GML 1013

Track 4 by RONNIE LANE Accompanied by the Band "Slim Chance" - December 1973 UK debut solo 45 on GM Records GMS 011, A-side, 3:08 minutes (not on the "Anymore For Anymore" album)

Tracks 5 and 6 by RONNIE LANE and THE BAND "SLIM CHANCE" - from the July 1974 UK LP "Anymore For Anymore" on GM Records GML 1013 – Track 5 also one of two B-sides on the "How Come" single; Track 6 is a Derroll Adams cover version

Tracks 7 and 8 by RONNIE LANE - from the February 1975 UK LP "Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance" on Island ILPS 9321

Track 9 by RONNIE LANE - March 1975 UK Non-Album 7" single on Island WIP 6229, A-side

Tracks 10 and 11 by RONNIE LANE'S SLIM CHANCE - from the January 1976 UK LP "One For The Road" on Island ILPS 9336

Tracks 12 and 13 by PETE TOWNSHEND and RONNIE LANE - from the October 1977 UK LP "Rough Mix" on Polydor 2442 147 - featuring Gallagher & Lyle and Eric Clapton

Track 14 by RONNIE LANE - from the August 1980 UK LP "See Me" on Gem Records GEMLP 107 - featuring Alun Daves of Cat Stevens Band and Sweet Thursday, Steve Simpson of Meal Ticket with Bruce Rowland and Henry McCulloch of The Grease Band

Track 15 by RONNIE LANE - October 1979 UK 45 single on Gem Records GEMS 12, A-side - also on the August 1980 UK LP "See Me" on Gem Records GEMLP 107 - featuring Eric Clapton on Guitar, Carol Grimes on Vocals, Steve Simpson of Meal Ticket with Bruce Rowland and Henry McCulloch of The Grease Band

Track 16 by RONNIE LANE - from the August 1980 UK LP "See Me" on Gem Records GEMLP 107 - featuring Cal Batchelor of Quiver, Charlie Hart of The People Band and Slim Chance, Alun Daves of Cat Stevens' Band and Sweet Thursday with Bruce Rowland of The Grease Band

Tracks 17 and 18 by RONNIE LANE are Arlyn Studio Sessions from January 1989 – exclusive to the May 2019 "Just For A Moment (Music 1973-1977)" 6CD Box Set and this single CD compilation

The 16-page booklet features track-by-track writing credits, but don’t tell you who played on what (as I have done above). And while there are acknowledgements and 'with thanks' credits – there are no new liner notes which is such a damn shame. This is offset by 10 pages of unpublished photos from the 1974 'Passing Show' tour through to his rehabilitation stay in America in the late Eighties where his Multiple Sclerosis had begun to really ravage him (he'd lived with the disease for 20 years and it took his mother before him). 

But what blows you away is the Audio – JON ASTLEY Remasters that are amongst the loveliest I've heard of this material. The other Ronnie Lane set to compare notes with is the March 2014 Universal/Island double-CD anthology called "Ooh La La: An Island Harvest" (see separate review) and I feel the audio is even better here. 

The first thing that hits you as you play song after song is that those looking for Classic Rawk should look away – this is Acoustic Guitar Folk Rock, Mandolins and Accordions aplenty and often at times feeling like McGuinness Flint mated with Gallagher & Lyle and then asked Ronnie lane and his band Slim Chance to join them under the giggling sheets. The only time I feel the audio lags a tad is on the Single Mix of "How Come" but other than that songs like "Tell Everyone", the pastoral charm of "The Poacher" and the beautiful cover of the Derroll Adams Country tune "Roll On Babe" are revelatory. The two from the fabulous "Rough Mix" album with PT of The Who are gorgeous – beautifully produced Dobro notes flying around your speakers with sparkling clarity. People sort of slag off the 1980 LP "See Me" but again, two clever mellow choices from it do that forgotten album proud. And the final two are growing on me but his obvious failing health makes me sad. 

You do wish maybe they had included the gorgeous "Tin And Tambourine" from the February 1975 LP "Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance" (included the melody to "Devotion" on the first Faces LP from 1970) or more of the Pete Townshend, Ian McLagan and Kenney Jones contributions to the "Mahoney's Last Stand" soundtrack recorded in 1972 but not released until 1976. That album features an "Ooh La La" sessions-vibe and was only reissued on CD properly by Real Gone Music of the USA in 2018 - that digital hardcopy already a bloody rarity in Autumn 2020. In short, more Plonk material could have been fitted in especially with only 62 minutes playing time used, but actually sometimes less is more. 

I have seen this compilation on offer for under a fiver, but as October 2020, "Just For A Moment (The Best Of)" by RONNIE LANE is still available for less than seven quid new (including P&P) and what a bargain that is (best I ever had as his buddy Pete would say). 

"...Just for a moment, I found my peace... ", Ronnie sang almost 50 years ago on this compilation's title track. And I hope in your low moments, you find the same on this beautiful CD...