Night Ranger were one of the Bay Area’s finest AOR bands .. Period. Blessed with two excellent singers in Blades and Keagy, and arguably the best dual guitar pairing in melodic rock at the time with Gillis and Watson.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Night Ranger
ALBUM: Dawn Patrol
LABEL: Boardwalk
SERIAL: 33259
YEAR: 1982
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: Jack Blades – lead vocals, bass * Kelly Keagy – lead vocals, drums * Brad Gillis – guitars * Jeff Watson – guitars * Alan Fitzgerald – keyboards
TRACK LISTING: 01 Don’t Tell Me You Love Me * 02 Sing Me Away * 03 At Night She Sleeps * 04 Call My Name * 05 Eddie’s Comin’ Out Tonight * 06 Can’t Find Me A Thrill * 07 Young Girl In Love * 08 Play Rough * 09 Penny * 10 Night Ranger
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
Night Ranger were one of the Bay Area’s finest AOR bands .. Period. Blessed with two excellent singers in Blades and Keagy, and arguably the best dual guitar pairing in melodic rock at the time (this side of Thin Lizzy) with Gillis and Watson. Riding on the back of a strong surge in AOR and melodic rock coming out of San Francisco during the early 80’s, Night Ranger’s debut came about during the early months of 1982.
Blades and Gillis spent their formative years with the 70’s disco/pop band Rubicon, while Fitzgerald had stints with the red rocker Sammy Hagar and fellow Bay Area luminary Ronnie Montrose and Gamma.
The Songs
There was some pre-release murmurings saying this album ‘Dawn Patrol’ was gonna be a good one, and it proved to be right. The initial single ‘Don’t Tell Me You Love Me’ blasted into the US Top 40. Gillis at this stage was torn between Night Ranger and assisting Ozzy Osbourne, by standing in for Randy Rhoads, tragically killed in a plane crash during early 1982.
Gillis thus appeared on Ozzy’s live album ‘Speak At The Devil’ . However, Bernie Torme was able to fill in not long after and Gillis returned to the fold. ‘Dawn Patrol’ is brimming with class songs all the way, like ‘Sing Me Away’, ‘Can’t Find Me A Thrill’, ‘Penny’, ‘At Night She Sleeps’ and the aforementioned ‘Don’t Tell Me You Love Me’ with that classic Gillis/Watson dual solo.
In Summary
The Jeff Glixman production is great, and IMHO, this album remains the definitive Night Ranger album, as it shows them at a stage in their career where they were not pressured or influenced by media, trends, and record executives! (ha ha). Just pure AOR.
Blazing guitar runs, magical keyboard lines, and lyrically strong AOR material makes ‘Dawn Patrol’ one of the better albums of 1982. They followed this up with appearances on TV’s ‘Solid Gold’ and at Bill Graham’s legendary ‘Day At The Green’. From here, their career was assured with excellent follow up releases over the next few years.
Night Ranger on Video
Don’t Tell Me You Love Me
Entire Album (Select Tracks)
