Molly Hatchet - Beatin' the Odds
#369
by Chris Roberts
September 1980
Molly Hatchet
Beatin’ the Odds
Genre: Florida boogie rock
Allen’s Rating: 2.5 out of 5
Chris’ Rating: 2 out of 5
Highlights:
The Frazetta album cover
Double Talker
This is an album, that if I found in a used bin, I would absolutely buy it, unheard. It has a Frank Frazetta cover! (he painted three of MH’s covers). But I realized, I could not name a single Molly Hatchet song. What was I forgetting? The band name is wicked cool. Hatchet? Fun to say. Frazetta art? Killer. I assume this has got to be Heavy Metal Magazine but in album form! I’m a fan of The Metal, so this has to be my jam, right? I expect it will sound like proto-stoner rock. Like, The Sword or Sleep!
Not long into the title track, I knew Molly wasn’t remotely going to beat the odds. The song is fast, fist pumping, truck driving stuff. More “8-Track” than vinyl, I thought, this is the kind of music you buy at the carwash, which is a shame. That Frazetta art would not hold up at that 8-track size. The title song reminded me of Judas Priest’s “Delivering The Goods,” but without the “good.” The singer is no Rob Halford. The only thing MH’s singer delivers is a karaoke Tuesday in the Dallas suburbs.
Second up, “Double Talker”, is a little better. A little more aggressive, maybe on par with some of ZZ Top’s outtakes. Note, this is the last time I will say anything good about this album.
Five seconds into track 3, “The Rambler”, I’m aware it’s their Lynyrd Skynyrd “style” ballad. And again, it would be perfectly fine road-trip background music, something to ignore to while looking at a map, except the vocalist feels like he’s singing in a completely different kind of band. (Which I will later find out—he is!*) I wish MH’d had covered The Gambler instead, because at least it would’ve turn the whole thing into a concept album.
Next we get “Sailor.” That’s when I wonder. Is this even Texas-boogie? (*No!) Where do people sail in Texas? Then I hear a siren. Not a siren like in Homer, but sirens like on a police car, and I get it. This isn’t about being on a boat. It’s about sailing down the road. Of life. Or maybe out the front windshield of your big rig because you didn’t buckle up for safety, eh sailor? Now I question the song title choices. In order, we’ve had a talker, a rambler, and a sailor… what are the odds? Poor, because next up is “Dead & Gone,” which could find a home in the OST to From Dusk Til Dawn 7.
The next three songs are forgettable filler, interchangeable with everything I’ve already heard. This is good compared to Poison Pen, the final track. As the song goes, “Poison Pen, you’re no man’s friend.” So true. I guess MH felt a need to address all internet trolls taking swings at, rather than with, the Hatchet.
*Beatin’ The Odds is Molly Hatchet’s third album, and here they replaced their original singer, Danny Joe Brown, with Jimmy Farrar, which explains ALOT about the weird vocals, and got a lot of studio polish. So for me, I guess this is a little like reviewing 5150 without knowing about VH1 or David Lee Roth. I went back and listened to “Flirtin’ With Disaster,” a song I forgot I knew as MH. It’s an acceptable road trip song, classic rock mix tape filler. If it’s good, it’s entirely because original vocalist Danny Joe Brown has a silly Florida-muppet voice. It’s Florida boogie!
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