The Molly Hatchet Story - Page 3
In 1979, Flirtin with Disaster was released and it took off far more quickly than "Molly Hatchet" did, going platinum within a couple of months. Flirtin' With Disaster also made the top 20
In 79 Hatchet also recorded Live At The Agora Ballroom 1979 but it wasn’t released for years afterwards.
Lead singer, Danny Joe Brown left the band in 1980.
Danny Joe Brown left, officially for health reasons because he is a diabetic. Danny later confided that he was unhappy at the direction the bands management was taking. Danny contacted Bobby Ingram, the guitarist from his former band "Rum Creek", and they started to build what was to become Dannys solo band "The Danny Joe Brown Band", which included future Hatchet keyboard player John Galvin. "The Danny Joe Brown" cut a self titled album in 1981, in the Bahamas. and the band toured until 1982. However, they weren't being effectively promoted by the record label, and sold only a few hundred thousand copied of the album, disappointing compared to the two original Hatchet albums. As Steve Holland said: "Danny just said that Molly was an original home barbeque sauce--if you drop out one ingredient then it is not the same"
Meanwhile, Hatchet recruited LaGrange, Georgia native Jimmy Farrar to take Danny's place as lead vocalist. He cut two albums with Hatchet - "Beatin' the odds", and "Take no Prisoners". Beatin' The Odds sold over two million, and both Beatin' The Odds and Take No Prisoners peaked on the Billboard album chart at number 25 and 36, respectively . Like the first album, a live disc was given away with promotional copies of "Beatin' The Odds": Recorded 31 December 1980 at Lakeland, Florida. The tracklist was :
Beatin' The Odds, Few And Far Between, Penthouse Pauper, Dead And Gone, Double Talker, Sailor.
Its still available to buy at http://www.lost-horizons.com/
An "official" live album, Astral Game, was also recorded but only released as an Italian import.
The single "Bloody Reunion" received lots of airplay. Indeed, it stayed in the Hatchet set even when Farrar had gone. He performed his debut gig on May 8 1980, and his last one two years to the day later, May 8 1982. Again, Hatchets sales dropped off in this period due to lack of promotion by the record label.
The song "Loss of Control" was the first Hatchet duet, featuring Farrar and Joyce Kennedy of Mother's Finest. When the band toured the album, they had Katey Sagal on backing vocals, who went on to play Peg Bundy in "Married with Children".
During the 1982 Take No Prisoners world tour, Banner Thomas left, and was replaced by former "White Witch" bass player Riff West (b April 13, 1951, Corpus Christi, TX). Dave Hlubek laughs at the memory of TNP's album cover;
Yeah, but if you look at me, I'm wearing Porsche Carrerras [sunglasses] on this dinosaur. I paid the guy extra to make me look like a had a big dick. (laughs) My loincloth was full.
Danny made a triumphant return with Hatchet (now minus Banner Thomas and Bruce Crump, who were replaced by Riff West and BB Bordan) for 1983's "No Guts No Glory".
One notable difference was the style of the album cover. Molly Hatchet had always used Frank Frazetta for the covers, but this time an actual photo of the band was used.
The album produced the hit single "Fall of the Peacemakers". When this great album unexpectedly flopped, Dave Hlubek insisted on a new direction for the band.
Bruce Crump rejoined for 1984's "The Deed is Done", together with former "Danny Joe Brown Band" keyboard player John Galvin. However, Steve Holland decided he'd had enough and quit. "The Deed is Done" was a shock for Hatchet fans, as it followed a more AOR path, with ZZ Top engineer Terry Manning replacing Tom Werman as producer.
John Galvin made his live debut with the band on June 2 1984 at Orlando's Central Florida fairgrounds. The bill was opened by "The Outlaws", "Pat Travers" and "Stranger". At this period, the band were using two female backing singers on their live shows; Beth Lockamy and Pam McBeth.
"The Deed is Done" produced two singles, "Satisfied Man", and "Stone in your heart".
The album came out during the beginning of the MTV era. Because the previous two albums (Take No Prisoners and No Guts No Glory) hadn't performed well, the band started to be pressurised by the label;
They would tell us to “bend with the times. Get your hair style
changed. We have some material for you that we think is more in keeping with
today”. On “No Guts, No Glory” (was actually The
Deed is Done - KK) with “Satisfied Man”. They would bring in
“ringers” (to write songs). What happened was…the label forgot a small
detail. They forgot that the core group of your “bread’n’butter” fans
think that you just now “sold out”, because you “bent” your sound. The
fans let us know by the (record) returns. Lots and lots of returns, saying
“You suck”! Yeah, there was pressure and it was detrimental to Molly
Hatchet. - Dave Hlubek
With this pressure to produce more commercial music, came the need for the band to make video's for MTV;
It did nothing for Molly Hatchet at all. I’ve never liked MTV and I
still don’t. I think myself, personally from my own point of view, that it
hurt the industry. The “LIVE” performance industry. It made availability for
people to watch the groups right in their homes. That’s a good thing in some
people’s perspective, but it never did anything for us. We were caught in
something that we didn’t know how to deal with. We were right there when it
was brand new. Now they’ve got it down to a fine science. Maybe because it was
a new medium and we didn’t know how to handle it, but it didn’t serve us
well at all.... Dave Hlubek