‘Flirtin’ With Disaster’ is the second studio album by Jacksonville favourites Molly Hatchet, and by my reckoning, it’s the creme del la creme of their discography.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Molly Hatchet
ALBUM: Flirtin’ With Disaster
LABEL: Epic
SERIAL: JE 36110
YEAR: 1979
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: Danny Joe Brown – vocals * Dave Hlubek – guitars * Steve Holland – guitars * Duane Roland – guitars * Banner Thomas – bass * Bruce Crump – drums
Additional Musicians: Max Gronenthal – vocals, backing vocals * Tom Werman – percussion * Jai Winding – keyboards
TRACK LISTING: 01 Whiskey Man * 02 It’s All Over Now * 03 One Man’s Pleasure * 04 Jukin’ City * 05 Boogie No More * 06 Flirtin’ With Disaster * 07 Good Rockin’ * 08 Gunsmoke * 09 Long Time * 10 Let The Good Times Roll
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
‘Flirtin’ With Disaster’ is the second studio album by Jacksonville favourites Molly Hatchet, and by my reckoning, it’s the creme del la creme of their discography. It seems the stars aligned for Hatchet during 1979, as this LP went platinum in a very short space of time, and contains zero filler and all killer.
Though the debut album was also a great record, it just had a tad too much satin for me, this one has definitely had a swag of sawdust and crunched up grit added to the mix. Tom Werman was retained, and obviously knew what to do second time around.
The band was proving to be a big drawcard in the South, what with the demise of Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers on the wane, Hatchet now part of a trio of Blackfoot and The Outlaws who were delivering prime-time southern rock.
By this stage, everyone was remarking on how good the Frank Frazetta album covers were looking, this one in particular a striking cover. Frazetta would have his works appear right throughout Hatchet’s career. ‘Flirtin..’ was released in September 1979, and I do remember buying the LP soon after, and getting down to some serious boogie-fied southern rock!
The Songs
Hatchet lead off with the hard driving antics of ‘Whiskey Man’, with mouth harp and twin (or is triple) guitars wailing away in typical southern rock fashion. Next up is one of my fave Hatchet moments, the fantastic boogie of ‘It’s All Over Now’, a cover of a Bobby Womack song, also covered by the Rolling Stones at one point. This version is the best of the lot!
On an album full of highlights, ‘One Man’s Pleasure’ continues to keep the quality on the high-side, another man’s loss is another man’s gain, one man’s pleasure is another man’s pain..’. No truer words have been spoken in the ways of love, haha! Love the slide guitar on this one too!
‘Jukin’ City’ is a fun time romp, it’s followed by the all time classic ‘Boogie No More’, considered the Hatchet equivalent of Skynyrd’s ‘Freebird’ or The Outlaws ‘Green Grass & High Tides’. The lead guitar work on this 6 minute rush is just astounding! Over the years, this track has been one of the stalwarts of their live set.
The title track is next, and it too is a tremendous listen, and apparently is still an often played track on classic rock stations across America. It went to #42 on the Billboard singles charts back in the day. ‘Good Rockin’ is a punchy little number, and I swear I can hear traces of Boston in the guitar harmonising.
The cowboy theme is continued through from the debut-album with ‘Gunsmoke’, a boogie tune with barroom piano and lyrics straight out of a TV Western! ‘Long Time’ dabbles in a southern rock ballad, not far removed from what compadres The Outlaws were doing at the time. The finale is the good time RnR of ‘Let The Good Times Roll’, sparked by some six-string antics by Messrs Hlubek, Holland and Roland.
In Summary
The success of this album was made apparent by its place on the Billboard charts, getting to #19. It also went platinum five weeks after release (selling a million copies in the USA), the band hitting the road in tandem with Bob Seger and Cheap Trick among others.
By 1980, Molly Hatchet were one of Epic Records star attractions, but the first wheel would come off the MH train with the departure of Danny Joe Brown due to a Diabetes issue. He would eventually head out with his own Danny Joe Brown Band in 1981, Hatchet bringing in Jimmy Farrar as a replacement.
This album was reissued in 2001 by Legacy, with four additional bonus tracks (‘Silver And Sorrow’, live versions of ‘Flirtin’ With Disaster’ and ‘One Man’s Pleasure’, plus ‘Cross Road Blues’). We hope to complete the entire picture of this band’s studio albums up to 1985, dangerzone having reviewed a couple of them already. Watch this space, click on the reviews (tag) below.
Molly Hatchet on Video
Click to go to YTM album page.
