wings hauser

Perhaps you know him as Arklon, Dar’s half-brother from Beastmaster 2? Or maybe you know him better as the pimp Ramrod: scumbag extraordinaire, from Vice Squad? How about Stoney Cooper from Deadly Force? Perhaps the murderous police officer, Strom in Tales from The Hood? Could it be you know him as The Conners’ neighbor Ty Tilden from Rosanne? Or maybe, just maybe, you know him best as Huck Finney from John De Hart’s Road To Revenge.

Whatever name you know him by, Gerald Dwight “Wings” Hauser is an American actor best known for a slew of 80’s and 90’s Action movies like L.A. Bounty and Street Asylum, and the occasional Horror outing like 1984’s Mutant and Watchers 3.

Wings even stepped behind the camera and directed a few pictures like Cold Fire and The Art of Dying, both of which I highly recommend.

But before all of that, Gerald Dwight Hauser was called Wings Livingryte, a 70’s balladeer somewhere between Billy Joel and Elton John. Shades of Michael McDonald, Joe Cocker, Tom Waits and even a Young American-era David Bowie crop up from time to time.

Now, you might think a guy who’s been writing a music blog for the past 9 years might also be a guy with a pretty serious vinyl collection. Surprisingly, the complete opposite is true. Despite my love of music and physical media (particularly of the analog variety) vinyl was just never something I got into.

This is, until I found out Wings Hauser cut an album under Wings Livinryte called Your Love Keeps Me Off The Streets…

…and it was only available on vinyl.

I couldn’t find this album on any streaming service. There were no YouTube uploads of single songs. There wasn’t even a cassette on eBay. Nope, just a lone 33rpm record. Buy the ticket…take the ride.

So I did. Well, that is, after I unsuccessfully ripped the copy I had purchased for Mikey Rotella. See, he was the only guy I knew with a record player, and I needed to hear this album and make a copy. Problem was, I didn’t have the proper cable or a phono-preamp, so it sounded like complete trash.

Incidentally however, and completely unbeknownst to be, he had already purchased the same album for me some months prior and just forgot to actually give me the damn thing. Nice!

So, with a bunk digital recording and and a perfectly good vinyl copy of Your Love Keeps Me Off the Streets in hand, I did what any red-blooded American would do…I purchased the cheapest record player I could find. Well, the cheapest one with a built-in preamp, a full sized platter, a counter weight, anyway.

And surprisingly, the album’s not bad! Wings has a pretty good voice and the songs aren’t nearly as silly you might expect coming from The Carpenter. In fact, there’s some I rather like.

No sir, this was a bonafide album, and you can almost imagine an alternate reality with Wings making a go for it as a serious Songsman. It was not to be, unfortunately, but we do have this scratchy testament to Wings’ musicality.

So I thought, since I was gonna rip this album anyway, I’d make it available here to anyone else just dying to hear Wings do his thing.

It’s not gonna be for everyone, I’ll say that. Most of the tracks have a quiet, ballad-like quality that’s just not gonna do it for some folk. But cuts like Title Track Your Love Keeps Me Off The Streets and album opener Sunshine In The Rain are worth the price of admission alone. Also, Silver Stallion and his cover of the Randy Newman hit You Can Leave Your Hat On ain’t too shabby either.

So, without any further ado, Halloween Shindig Presents Wings Livinryte: Your Love Keeps Me Off The Streets.