Theirs, Yours, Ours

Album: Lowen & Navarro, Walking on a Wire, 1990

Best Track: "Walking on a Wire"

Lasting Memory: I almost saw these guys in concert in 1993, when they came through Blacksburg, Va., and played a very small club. Instead, I went to the mall movie theater and watched Rudy.

Life is a series of bad choices.

Walking on a Wire, on the other hand, is a veritable cornucopia of excellent choices for any rock-leaning pop music artist. In fact, the Lowen and Navarro-penned "We Belong,' which anchors the B side of the this album was a huge hit for Pat Benatar. The L&N version is quite different from Benatar's, but it is easy to hear what drew Benatar and her then-husband/producer/lead guitarist Neil Giraldo to the song. The raw emotion, quiet-loud dynamics, and slow build without true crescendo are perfect for Benatar.

Most of the songs on Walking are perfect for someone, and plenty of those good fits have been found. As L&N write on their official Web site, they are "songwriters of notable cachet ... [whose] works have been recorded by artists as diverse as Pat Benatar ..., The Bangles, The Four Tops, Dave Edmunds, The Temptations and a host of others."

I spared myself and you the tedium of tracking down the other artists' interpretations of L&N's songs, but I bet Edmunds would kill, just kill, "Walking on a Wire" and "She Said No." Luka Bloom was born to sing "Oh Mary."

"What I Make Myself Believe" would sound much worse when sung by an American Idol contestant, but it is aching for some David Archuletta to give it a go.

If these guys would put more of their music online, I'd share it with you. And they would be raking in quite a few more royalties. As things stand though, the bulk of Walking is hard to track down. "C'est la Vie."

Up Next: Meat Puppets, Meat Puppets, 1982 (reissue)


P.S. Two very special people were born on this date -- people who have meant a lot to me throughout my life. Survey says .... this should be a 10 a birthday for Bo Derek and Richard Dawson!