Molly Hatchet - Take No Prisoners
#614
By Geo Rule
November 1981
Molly Hatchet
Take No Prisoners
Genre: Southern-Fried Shred
Allen’s Rating: 3 out of 5
Geo’s Rating: 3.75 out of 5
Highlights:
Respect Me in the Morning (A Hatchet duet ballad!?)
Loss of Control (sue me, I love the line “The only thing to blame it on is filthy rock ‘n roll”)
All Mine
Power Play
Dead Giveaway
We’ve talked about Molly Hatchet here at LP in the past, mostly tangentially to other aspects of the project, like Southern Rock, One-Hit Wonders, the power of marketing over substance, and what a kick-ass cover-artist Boris Vallejo is.
As we’ve also mentioned previously, there was something in the water in Jacksonville, FL in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s producing long-haired boys who could play a guitar like nobody’s business.
Flirtin’ With Disaster, in 1978 had produced the title track that is arguably the greatest one-hit wonder song of all time. It’s that good for its genre. In that era of the band, they toured with absolutely everybody you’d want to tour with if you were a hard-rocker. I won’t give you the list; if you imagine it, you’re close.
Now it’s 1981, so let’s check on the context. Well. . . first, the lead singer has now departed (temporarily, at least). Danny Joe Brown is no longer fronting. Jimmy Farrar is behind the mic and doing a lot of the song-writing. Strong, gravelly voice, but no Danny Joe. Otoh, he enunciates a lot better, so you can actually hear a lot more of the lyrics now. Secondly, this is clearly not as shred-tastic as the earlier version of the band, and the R&B influence is much stronger. Trust me, they can still play, and the drumming is still strong and insistent, but it’s not overwhelming the actual lyrics as much as it did before. There’s a duet with a guest artist (Joyce “Baby Jean” Kennedy). There’s a HORN SECTION even. And fun trivia –Katey Sagal is singing backup. So, clearly this isn’t your older brother’s Hatchet.
So, what does all this do to the music? Surprisingly (and I wasn’t familiar with this album before doing DD for this review), I rather like large parts of it. Allen and I once had a conversation about could you put together a decent mix tape of 10-12 songs with Hatchet that wasn’t just a loop of Disaster, and after listening to this, definitely a few would make the cut.
The album leads with “Bloody Reunion”, and it’s probably the closest to “the old Hatchet” on the list. Maybe that’s why it’s leading. Genre-wise, it’s solid, and really, “Flirtin’ With Disaster” and this song are in that sub-genre of Molly Hatchet that could be described as, “Music to Rob Banks With”.
The obligatory cover is Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally”, and it’s not bad. They start it slower than I liked, but about half-way in they kick on the after-burner and it delivers reasonably well. I really liked “Loss of Control” even if it is sort of the obligatory “we made it big now, but we paid our dues on the road” song. “Power Play” checked my solid rocker boxes as well.
The commercial reception is pretty adequate. #36 on the Billboard 200. Three singles, with “Bloody Reunion” (eh) reaching #31 in Mainstream Rock.
This album changed the way I think about Molly Hatchet a bit. I rather liked it. Sure, there’s a good bit of trite (Hello, “Lady Luck” and “Don’t Leave Me Lonely”, I’m looking at you), and no actual spark of genius. Having said that, for a full album, I’ll take it over anything 38 Special produced. I may have to go make a mix tape now. . .
https://open.spotify.com/album/0FbF1bZuBhLnw6ASbkFBYo?si=ETOOw-WHTjKs1B7cIQG8cQ
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