Props to the band Orleans

Ok, I know some of you out there are going “Orleans, that cheesy band from the 70’s?”  Well, say what you will, but from a guy that admitted to liking disco back in the day, Orleans is just another gem from my past that still delivers years later.

I guess as a person gets older, they don’t worry about what others think about their musical choices, or maybe some people never worried, it doesn’t really matter. I recall hearing Talking Heads frontman David Byrne saying he liked to listen to all types of music, one style in the morning, another in the afternoon, another while driving… you get the point. The beautiful thing about music is there is no rules or criteria for ones enjoyment, just the act of listening.

As is common for a guy like me who actually prefers Internet radio to my own iPod playlists, I hear tracks that I haven’t heard for years and it takes me back and puts a smile on my face. That happened a few days ago while listening to a station when “Love Takes Time” came on, the 1979 hit from Orleans.

Now I don’t know much about the band, I’ve never owned an album I have to admit though I loved some of their stuff, the song mentioned above as well as their popular hits “Dance With Me” and “Still the One”, classics that every time I hear them put me in that place and I would sing along.

As I listened to “Love Takes Time” I realized that we didn’t have that in our 70’s collection of tunes and I began to search it out online. Much to my dismay, the only version I could find on iTunes or Amazon was a remake version, not the original. I dug and dug, but no luck. So I found the band’s website and finally their blog and I posted the question as to what happened to this song and why it wasn’t available online? And here is where the story turns into a gem. They answered back… not in a week or a month but in hours after my post. Lance Hoppen emailed me back with where to go to get the song and just like that, I became a Orleans fan all over again.

Not like I wasn’t before mind you but because of this class act, I am going to download some songs that I don’t have just to show them my support all these years later.

I know to some this borders on the melodramatic or silly, but to me it shows the power of the web and the generosity and class act of a band to one of its fans miles and years apart.

Rock on world, love takes time… and you gotta take some time to make love grow!