Reviewed by Paul J Zickler
Released: 1981 Diesel Watts In A Tank Genre: Hard Rock Album, Pop Single Rating: 3.3 out of 5 Highlights: Sausalito Summernight All Because Of You Sausalito Summernight. You know this song! “Hot summer night in Sausalito / Can’t stand the heat another mile / Let’s drop a quarter in the meter / And hit the sidewalk for awhile… All aboard! / Sausalito Summernight.” Was this not a hit everywhere? I remember this song so well. It was all over the radio, with that earworm riff and groovy bass voice on the title line. It’s a terrific blast of pop joy, a top ten road trip song: “The engine’s thumpin’ like a disco / We oughta dump her in the bay… / Look out over here / Watch out over there / Can’t afford a blowout cuz we haven’t got a spare.” The album version stretches out for a full five minutes, including a wonderfully weedly guitar solo and extended fade out on the chorus. I even remember the album cover, which I probably looked at longingly at PayLess a few times, deciding whether it was worth buying or not. Surely the band that made such a killer song must have produced a terrific album to go with it, right? OK, first off, I had no idea these guys were Dutch. I really pictured some swell California dudes, riding down 101 in their overheated jalopy, long hair blowing in the warm coastal breeze. Apparently I should have been picturing clog-wearing, tulip waving fellows in a Saab instead. Turns out the lead singer, Mark Boon, who co-wrote it with guitarist Rob Vunderink, lived in California for 5 years as a kid before returning to the Netherlands at age 16. So I guess he had some good memories and just enough expertise to pull off the vibe. I also found out that this was the FOURTH single released from their album. They weren’t even sure they wanted to release it. This is because it sounds almost nothing like the rest of the record, which is mostly an attempt to “rock out” with varying levels of success. Clearly Diesel viewed themselves as rockers, and Sausalito Summernight didn’t really fit the image. Finally, it didn’t really occur to me as I thought about and listened to the song, but even the Wikipedia entry points out that it’s a straight up Steve Miller Band soundalike. That killer riff is basically a slightly longer version of the one from Keep On Rockin’ Me Baby. And then there's that "All aboard," which is pretty much a line from Marrakesh Express. It doesn’t diminish the quality of the song in my mind, but maybe the guys were a little embarrassed by how derivative it was? Anyway, it went to number 25 in the US and number 1 in Canada, which may be why I remember it so vividly, since I spent a lot of the summer of 1981 visiting my cousins in Vancouver. Unfortunately for Diesel, the Dutch didn’t get it. It was never a hit back home. And then there’s the rest of the album. If it didn’t include Sausalito Summertime, I would have approached this review totally differently. I’m going to listen to the other 10 songs and evaluate them on their own merit. Yes, I’m already 500 words in, but nobody’s going to read past the second paragraph anyway, so who cares? Here goes: Diesel were a Dutch hard rock group with a fairly mainstream pop edge. Front man Mark Boon could hit many of the requisite metal high notes, but often favored a less aggressive sound. Their two guitar attack was capably backed by drummer Pim Koopman, and lead guitarist Rob Vunderink doubled on piano and keyboard on the power ballads. Sure, they were never going to give the Scorpions a run for their money, but everybody in the band could sing the harmonies, the guitars could lock in, and the production here is pretty silky. I’m sure they rocked some concert halls in their day and gave the Nederlanders a head banging good time. Watts in a Tank wasn’t released in the U.S. until 1981, but three of the album’s songs were already hit singles in their homeland well before then. Alibi actually came out in 1979, followed by Goin’ Back to China. While neither of these make my highlight list, at least they’re sufficiently rocking tunes. The third single, Down in the Silvermine, is a puzzler. It’s kind of a slowed-down version of Slade’s Run Runaway, and lacks any kind of energy or drive, at least to my ears. Weirdly it was by far their biggest hit. Maybe silver mines were the happening thing that year? As alluded to above, Diesel lacked originality at times: the opening bars of Good Mornin’ Day are literally the opening bars of the Beatles’ Good Morning, with the word “day” replacing the “guh” sound. I mean, they added an extra beat or two at the end, but it’s blatant. The verse melody of Ready for Love is lifted from Led Zeppelin (who of course lifted it from a blues song). That being said, they did a pretty solid job of nailing that European metal-lite sound, particularly on bluesier, AC/DC style slow jams like All Because of You and Bite Back. Only slightly less successful are the mid-70’s sounding hard rock thumpers like Remember the Romans and Alibi. But nothing here is awful. Every song has a decent solo break and/or some soaring harmonies. Even the sappy ballad, My Kind of Woman, avoids total bathos. This ten song debut isn’t very memorable, but if I were a fan of the genre, I probably would’ve appreciated it. OK, so Sausalito gets 5 stars, and the rest of the album gets 3. Not sure how to do the math, but that’s my review.
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