Pat Benatar - Crimes of Passion
#328
by Luca Barnacles
August 5 1980
Pat Benatar
Crimes Of Passion
Genre: Radio Friendly Unit Shifter, before we had the term
Allen’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Luca’s rating: 2.5 out of 5
Highlights:
Treat Me Right
Hit Me With Your Best Shot
Hell is For Children
Wuthering Heights
Obligatory 80s Covers:
The 60s "You Better Run" (The Rascals)
The 80s “Wuthering Heights”
His white Rickenbacker bass slung low, Bob looked like he should be in The Pretenders.
Jeff, a long dark wavy shag framing Steve Perry’s nose, had a Mesa Boogie Mark II-A that sounded massive.
I had a huge Tama kit in “white satin”with single headed toms, a massive 8 inch deep Ludwig snare, and Laura.
Laura sang.
We were dating, so I suppose the band was inevitable.
Laura’s father had a nice clean warehouse space in an office park where we would meet at night to rehearse. The repertoire wasn’t anything I was actually into, but what the hell, the players were great. Our set list was exactly like our rehearsal space, suburban and nondescript. We never played out before we broke up. The two songs I really remember rehearsing were Toto’s “Hold The Line”, which I still hate, and Pat Benatar’s “Treat Me Right”, the Crimes Of Passion album opener.
This album must be fantastic. It’s quadruple platinum, it spent over a month at the top of the charts blocked from the #1 slot only by John & Yoko’s postmortem Double Fantasy sales surge, and yet aside from knowing a few of songs that thoroughly saturated the airwaves I really couldn’t recall *feeling* anything about this record.
It’s not bad. Better than I remembered, in fact. The production doesn’t sound terribly dated and horribly 80’s. The songwriting (mostly by others) is often better than good, the instrumental performances are solid if unsurprising and never inspiring, and the woman can certainly sing. But – a dear friend once summed up the banality (in his opinion) of U2 by observing that nobody ever cranked up a U2 album & danced their ass off. Did anybody actually dance to this shit? Were there unnoticed legions of young Americans inspired by this album to the radio up all the way and pre-create a Wayne’s World Worthy scene? Crimes of Passion – much like Benatar’s image at the time - wants to be edgy, tough but pretty, a Leather & Pinky Tuscadero hybrid. Ultimately, it’s a sheep in wolf’s clothing. It’s a Delorean – on the surface, sleek, innovative and sexy – underneath utterly conventional and a disappointment in the horsepower department.
Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights” was a daring and inspired choice (and I really wonder whose choice that was & what directions Pat might have taken were it a voice more often listened to), but aside from that & the three hits there’s not much worth revisiting here. It’s not a bad record, it’s just not worth getting dressed up for the reunion. A radio friendly unit shifter before we had the term. After 38 years Pat Benatar is still married to Neil Giraldo, and there’s a lot to say for an enduring relationship like that. Her last charting album, Innamorata, peaked at #171 in 1989.
Bob, who still has that white Ric, became an EMT.
Jeff suffers neurological damage from an accidental overexposure to methyl ethyl ketone.
I never played in a cover band again.
Laura married the unbelievably nice owner of a chain of wicked cool record stores.
I’m sure he Treats Her Right.
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