October 27

Hello all you people!

For this, the 300th day (and 300th post) of Mark’s 365 Days Of Vinyl, I thought I would break out the debut album from my favorite high school band:

Rail – Arrival:

In high school there was nothing cooler than being in a band. Myself, being a talentless and stage frightened goof, I never made the attempt. Others did and I respected every one of them. But I was doomed to exist only in the audience.

The absolute coolest band that came through my hometown in those years was Rail. They were four guys from the Seattle area who toured regionally in the late seventies and early eighties. They were a dual lead guitar band and the drummer played a double bass kit, which I had never seen or heard before.

The elfish lead singer and bass player, Terry Young, was a fantastic frontman with an operatic delivery.

This debut album opens with punch to the gut hard rockers that deal with all of the important issues of the day; love, loss, and belonging.

The flip side gets a little heavier and more fantasy-like with songs that elicit far off lands and journeys yet to be undertaken.

Rail played the all ages clubs in my area and other live music venues throughout the region. They had two claims to fame in the era:

One was they were selected as the opening act for a leg of the ongoing Van Halen tour and the second was they won the very first MTV Basement Tapes contest for emerging rock acts.

My cassette copy of Arrival rarely left the tape deck of my High School hot rod. That cassette traveled the world with me only to eventually succumb to overuse.

I have talked about this band to everyone I’ve known since my high school days. I’ve been keeping an eye out on the interwebs for a CD replacement to my old battered cassette. But, until recently, the master tapes of arrival had been lost and a CD would not be forthcoming.

When we moved back to Spokane there was a local festival within the first few weeks of our return. Lo and behold the headliners for one night of live music in the park was the band Rail!

Now my wife could finally see what all the fuss was about.

I think she enjoyed it more because I was into it, but none the less she has now become a fan. She even ventured out and found an original pressing of the Arrival album and gave it to me as a gift one Father’s Day.

Looking back, that was probably the impetus for my renewed connection with vinyl records. Unable to obtain this album on CD I had no choice but to set up with turntable and the rest, as they say, is history.

Here’s the video they made that won them the Basement Tapes title in 1983:

Here’s the result of their grand prize:

And some other live footage and interview material: