“Keep Me Turning” is a 1970s gem from Rough Mix, the album Pete Townshend made with Ronnie Lane.
Townshend was the reason I bought the album when it was released in 1977. But Rough Mix introduced me to another side of Ronnie Lane, the former bassist and songwriter for the highly influential Small Faces and Faces.
Although the album carries both men’s names, they mostly wrote their songs separately and then contributed to one another’s recordings. “Keep Me Turning” was written by Townshend, but it benefits from the album’s loose, collaborative atmosphere. John “Rabbit” Bundrick’s organ and Henry Spinetti’s understated drumming help give the song a warm, unhurried quality.
This is Townshend without the Who’s volume and aggression. The melody is gentle, the performance feels intimate and the lyric searches for something steady enough to provide direction when the surrounding world becomes uncertain. It is modest music, but not minor music.
During the making of Rough Mix, Lane was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis—the disease that had also affected his mother. He continued to write, record and perform whenever his health permitted, but gave his final public performance in 1992. He died in 1997.
I originally bought Rough Mix for Pete Townshend. Ronnie Lane became an equally important reason to keep returning to it.