Hank Laake Band – Life and Death – 1983

This 1983 release from The Hanke Laake Band definitely had a Hard rock edge. Though I’ve seen the comparisons to Def Leopard I don’t quite agree. The vocals do get a Def Leopard sound in production, but the music itself is far more rock and roll than heavy metal. Hanke Laake was from Iowa, but he chose to record and release his albums through Tunesmith Records from BC Canada. Hanke Laake was the lead singer and drummer which wasn’t that common. Point of trivia is that Hanke Laake has since converted to Judaism and moved to Israel. He no longer performs music.

Track Listing:
1 – Time To Rock – Written-By – Hank Laake, Terry Fitzsimmons – 4:05
2 – What’s Wrong With Me – Written-By – Hank Laake – 3:45
3 – Sin’s A Losing Game – Written-By – Dan Brown , Hank Laake – 4:12
4 – Life And Death – Written-By – Hank Laake – 3:55
5 – Don’t Walk Away – Written-By – Hank Laake, Terry Fitzsimmons – 4:15
6 – Celebrate – Written-By – Hank Laake – 3:42
7 – We Are Free – Written-By – Dan Brown, Hank Laake – 3:48
8 – I’m In You – Written-By – Hank Laake – 4:42
9 – For Free – Written-By – Hank Laake, Terry Fitzsimmons – 4:25
10 – New Freedom – Written-By – Hank Laake, M. Donner – 3:53

Credits:
Bass – Dean Stokka
Cover – Mason Bros. Studio
Drums – Hank Laake
Guitar – Dan Brown, Terry Fitzsimmons
Lead Vocals – Hank Laake
Photography – Mason Bros. Studio
Producer – Hank Laake, Josef Laake
Vocals – Dean Stokka, Terry Fitzsimmons

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Author: Ray Mansfield

One of the founding cowboys of Real 80s CCM. Been listening to this stuff since 1978.

5 thoughts on “Hank Laake Band – Life and Death – 1983”

  1. Hello I am Hank Laake. For the record I would like to correct something you said in your description of this album. I did not “convert to Judaism”. I had a Jewish mother and a Catholic father. As a teen I rejected both my parent’s religions. I was a wild partying rocker on the road in the late 60s and 70’s. My bass player became a Christian and I saw him change and was looking for help to stop my serious drug and alcohol. I became a Christian. My mother immigrated to Israel with my sisters. I had the band you are featuring here. It’s true I left the Christian faith sometime in 1988. Much like Bob Dylan who did 3 Christian albums in his “Christian phase”. I have never stopped playing music. I was in a band called Dirty Finger in the 90’s. I tried to start a band with Corey Taylor (Slipknot/Stone Sour) for 10 months in 1992. I moved to Israel in 2006 and became a citizen like my mother and sisters. I am not religious. I am secular like the majority of Israelis and I live on a kibbutz. I speak Hebrew. I did one album here in 2011…6 songs in Hebrew 4 in English called Lazuz Kadima. It is on YouTube and Spotify https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL777A301BA947F999 https://open.spotify.com/album/6X5aacuQ6Yxfu196KOmVOW

  2. Hank Laake again. I wasn’t quite done but accidentally posted the previous comment. For the record I have never done this with any other Christian site or media outlet. I’m pretty sure no one cares and that’s fine…this is all part of my past. A couple more things that might interest you…I met Larry Norman soon after I became a Christian….played him some demos and he signed me to a record contract. He was in North Hollywood at the time at Street Level and used to write me letters of encouragement. I recorded an album for him and he never released it. It was never released. I have since lost those master tapes. Larry was all talk with me and no actual action. This happen to others as well. Larry once said to me. “Paul Yaroshuk (owner of Tunesmith label) is not a Christian”. He was right about that. Paul was a church goer and active in the Christian community. When I visited the record pressing plant in Vancouver he offered to take me for a hooker. I of course turned him down but I did continue to make records for him. He did take me for a tour of the famous Little Mountain Sound. He went to church with the owner. I met Bob Rock who was an engineer at the time there. He went on to do lots of really famous rock bands like Metallica and Aerosmith etc. Yaroshuk sold way more of my records than he reported. I know for a fact he sold thousands in Canada that I never got payed for. He never gave me a budget either. I paid for all three of my Tunesmith albums myself. For the second one. Life and Death I recorded it myself in our practice room with our live sound board and stage mics. I payed $400 to rent a local studio to mix it. In The Spirit of the King cost me $6000. I did that one at Triad. I recorded How Laake Can You Get on the same 8 track Tascam reel to reel as Life and Death but in a local basement studio. The recording was free but for the mix I went to Triad where I did Spirit of the King. Barnabas also did their records at Triad with Tommy Tucker during this same time. For the mix of How Laake Can You Get I had to pay Tommy Tucker to fly back from Minneapolis where he had just moved to begin working for Prince. He was Prince’s personal recording engineer for a number of years till he died from a heart attack in the 90’s. So the budgets for these three records was $6000 $400 and $800. I still think they are pretty good records for what I had to work with. Barnabas and I were label mates and friends as they were living and recording in Des Moines at the time. I was there in the studio for some recording sessions of one of them…can’t remember if it was Approaching Light Speed or Feel The Fire. I am still friends with Nancy and Kris from Barnabas. I talked a bunch with Kris just this afternoon. Ok…that’s enough. I was feeling loquacious this evening. I don’t care if you share any of this with people. I am good with my past and who I am now. It would be accurate and professional of you to use this information to rewrite the introduction of all three of my albums that you have here. Especially the part about me converting to Judaism (I was always considered Jewish by Jews because I have a Jewish mother) and the part that I stopped doing music. That would be fine with me and in fact I would appreciate it. And don’t spell Hank “Hanke” *lol* So Shalom ve lihitraot from Israel. שלום ולהתראות

    1. Hi Hank. First of all thank you so much for the music. My small circle of friends loved your music and I have fond memories of listening to it back in the day. Thank you for offering up more information to me. I will be rewriting all of your album reviews to reflect the proper information. As far as your 2011 album goes I just gave it a listen and quite enjoyed it. Obviously I don’t understand the Hebrew tracks but I know good music when I hear it 🙂

      1. WOW
        The band sounds alot like Stryper and could have taken off like the yellow and black.
        Definitely the kind of Christian rock I been searching for!

  3. Did Barnabas lose interest in Christ also? I’ve lost much interest myself and have been very disillusioned. Christian rock is an industry, not part of a faith. With what little faith I have, I appreciate the old hymns written by people who have been dead for decades and centuries. They can’t disappoint me as much. I see Christian rock as a notsalgic thing now.

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