RIP Steve Martin Caro.

When I was around 25 and just starting to record with my band The Woods, Robin Crutchfield of DNA and "No Wave" fame (whose band Dark Day I was playing cello, badly, in), told me that my voice sounded like Steve Martin, the lead singer in The Left Banke, which I'd never heard of.

The 2nd track of the Left Banke's classic debut album. Walk Away Renée/Pretty Ballerina is an album by New York quintet The Left Banke, released in 1967. Although not widely popular upon its release, it is now viewed as perhaps the definitive example of "baroque pop" music.

The Left Banke is best remembered for their hit single "Walk Away Renee", written by the group's then 16-year-old keyboard player Michael Brown (real name Michael Lookofsky). The song is best remembered for its terrific melody.

I still don’t know a lot about Martin or The Left Banke, except this album, which might be their only one, which I wore out on cassette, and which is sublime. Martin’s voice is transcendent, one of my favorite pop voices of all time, based on a really small body of work. I continue to be massively flattered to be compared to him. I’ve always strived for that kind of clarity, but needless to say I’ve never reached such heights. My favorite tune was always She May Call You Up Tonight. I used to poo-poo Walk Away Renee because it was more famous and I was a snob, but looking back I can see how of course it was the biggest hit. It’s undeniably gorgeous.

Steve Martin Caro (he added the surname later because of confusion with the more widely known comedian/novelist/Broadway musical writer) died this week. A funny coincidence is that members of The Left Banke (though not Martin) went on to form another band, Stories, whose big hit Brother Louie was the first record I bought with my own money, a 7” 45 I got at the record store in the Devington Shopping Center on Arlington and 46th St. in Indianapolis. I rode my bike there to buy it when I was 12.

BEST QUALITY SOUND AND VIDEO. :)