Having established that Train's engineers aren't living the debauched rock life epitomized by the sordid Led Zeppelin biography ''Hammer of the Gods,'' we can note that Zeppelin covers have been beddy, beddy good to them -- twice.
The first was a decade ago, when a bigger-haired Monahan was singing three sets of hard-rock covers a night in a hometown Erie, Pa., bar, the last one always consisting strictly of Zeppelin chestnuts. Cher was also playing in town one night, and David Shelley, one of her guitarists, popped in just in time to hear Monahan creditably ape Robert Plant. Suitably wowed, Shelley took the young man aside and urged him to go west. ''That was all I needed -- that guy to come in and tell me I was good enough. I bet he doesn't even know he made that kind of impact.'' Monahan indeed moved to L.A., where his schoolteacher wife introduced him to another teacher's husband, Hotchkiss, a guitarist. The two players ended up reconvening in San Francisco in 1994, forming Train with another guitarist, Stafford, drummer Underwood, and bassist Colin.
The group's other lucky Led-based moment came last year. Coming off their self-titled 1998 platinum debut, Train had asked their label, Columbia, if producer Brendan O'Brien (Pearl Jam, Rage, STP) could helm their second album, only to be told he was too swamped. It turned out O'Brien never heard about the request, but within weeks the elusive producer made an inquiry of his own to the label after hearing the band play a live, acoustic cover of Page 'n' Plant's ''Ramble On'' on the radio. Thus did the twain meet, and the partners were shortly at work on ''Drops of Jupiter,'' a sophomore-jinx-beating album that debuted in the top 10 in April and has stayed at least in the top 20 since.
Elton John also inadvertently figured in this good fortune. When recording was wrapping up late last year, O'Brien and Columbia president Don Ienner were discussing the Reginald Dwight-like qualities of ''Drops,'' and Ienner suggested that it could benefit from some Tumbleweed Connection-type orchestration. Said O'Brien, ''Why don't we just get that guy?'' -- meaning Paul Buckmaster, the arranger who helped define the early-'70s period in Elton's career -- and, voilà, one of the year's best singles was born, a string-drenched ballad that's incongruously getting played even on ''rhythmic'' Top 40 stations. Ienner's devotion to the band means a lot, since five years ago the label rejected them after they'd auditioned for him at an enthusiastic A&R underling's behest. ''That was the best thing that ever happened to us, because then we made our own record,'' Monahan says, speaking of their self-financed $25,000 debut, which Columbia, ironically, eventually picked up and rereleased. ''We have a lot of respect for Ienner, because he made the right choice twice -- first by not signing us, then by signing us.''
The debut album's single ''Meet Virginia'' never made the top 10, yet became gradually unavoidable. Says Hotchkiss: ''People were calling in to radio stations, 'What was that song about the girl who exercises in high heels?' It didn't leap out of the box; it was around for a year and a half. We almost tried to get people to stop playing it, because we had a new single, but they wouldn't quit. Other bands that came out the same time as us were on their third single. Meanwhile, this six-week summer tour that we were supposed to be on turned into three years of touring.'' Now they're facing a bit of the same problem with ''Jupiter,'' which some stations are just catching on to even as the band tries to push ''Respect,'' its next single, into the pipeline.
They'll be the first to admit that their lack of a more memorable name or flamboyant image might be part of why these radio hits have such long fuses. In the '80s, Train might have been derided as just another ''faceless'' band; now their mostly unironic, middle-of-the-road rock is so rare that facelessness, such as it is, may actually stand out as a virtue once the hooks sink in. Says O'Brien: ''I think maybe their gimmick is that their songs are great.'' Put that in your crack pipe and smoke it, America.
This article appeared in the July 20, 2001, issue of Entertainment Weekly.
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