Flirtin' with disaster --- Molly Hatchet --- 1979 (Epic)
(Ahem. Excuse me just one moment...) YEEEE-HAAWWWW!
Sorry, just had to get that out of my system.
I LOVE southern rock! You can't get much more honest than the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd, 38 Special, Blackfoot and of course these guys, Molly Hatchet. “Flirtin' with disaster” is their second album, released in 1979, and it's chock-full of hard-drinkin', poundin', smokin', down-home heads-down rock and roll! Yeah! Just looking at the lineup tells its own tale: vocals, guitar, guitar, guitar, bass, drums. No synthesisters or drum machines here! There are some keyboards, but then, where would southern rock be without a pianner?
Things get going with “Whiskey man”, and right away you know you're in Jack Daniels country. Grinding, growling guitars, thumping drums, and the raw, whiskey-honed vocals of Danny Joe Brown --- this is what it's all about! Next up is a seriously kicked-in-the-head cover of the Stones' “It's all over now”, which makes Jagger sound like a boy soprano; great honky-tonk piano from Jai Winding really gets this song rockin', and you feel it could have gone on for a lot longer than the just over three and a half minutes it lasts for, but then we're into a serious bassline and slide guitar for “One man's pleasure”, triple guitar attack making this one monster of a song.
There is, as I said, one word which describes southern rock, and that is honest, but there's another too, and it's fun. You can't help tapping your feet and even shaking your head while listening to any of these tracks, and it's clear the band too are having a good time. Guitarists Dave Hlubeck, Steve Holland and Duane Rhodes take it in turns to shine, creating a veritable wall of guitar sound that somehow never drowns out the songs, or indeed the singer, although with a voice like Danny Joe has, it'd take a 747 to drown him out!
I first heard “Boogie no more” on one of those rock compilation albums --- think it was called “Killer Watts” --- and I loved it right away. It's pure southern rock from its screaming guitar opening to the growly bass vocals, right to the inevitable guitar boogie ending. It's a great song, starting slow but quickly picking up tempo as the band really get into the groove. A real vehicle for the axemen – it's hard to know who's playing, with three guitarists, but they all put in a great shift. It's six minutes of pure southern rock power, and great fun: YOU try sitting still while listening to it! My feet are dancin' even as I'm typing this!
The title track, the next longest at just barely under five minutes, is another solid rocker, verging into heavy metal territory, with great guitar licks and stomping drumming by Bruce Crump. There are places, admittedly, where the triple guitar attack is a little overkill, and some piano would have been welcome, maybe even some fiddles, but Molly Hatchet found a style that worked for them, and they stuck to it, and I can't really fault them for it. The only thing I would say is that there is very little variety in the tracks --- not so much that one blends into the other, but “Flirtin'” is remarkably similar to the melody of “Boogie”, and so on. But then, southern rock ain't about innovation, clever lyrics or intricate passages of play. It is what it is, like it or not, and no bad thing say I.
“Good rockin'” has a certain ZZ-vibe about it, while “Gunsmoke” recalls Bob Seger at his best, with some really cool piano there. There's a real lookback to their country roots for penultimate track “Long time” before the album closes appropriately with “Let the good times roll”, a real heads-down boogie with what sounds like fiddles but I think is just clever guitar at the beginning, and an almost Beach Boys sort of melody, but suitably rockin', of course!
If your only experience of southern rock is “Free bird” or “Sweet home Alabama”, you need to check out Molly Hatchet. This is only one of thirteen albums they've released to date, so grab your shotgun, jump on your hog and head off down south, where the welcome is warm and the rockin' is hard!
TRACKLISTING
1. Whiskey man
2. It's all over now
3. One man's pleasure
4. Jukin' City
5. Boogie no more
6. Flirtin' with disaster
7. Good rockin'
8. Gunsmoke
9. Long t ime
10. Let the good times roll
Suggested further listening: “Molly Hatchet”, “Beatin' the odds”, “Take no prisoners”, “No guts... no glory”, “Lightning strikes twice”