Musically Target should hit most of the right buttons for Southern rock fans with a hard rockin’ mixture of Point Blank and Hydra influences peppered with pop.
Written by: Eric
ARTIST: Target
ALBUM: Target
LABEL: A&M
SERIAL: SP-4607
YEAR: 1976
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: Jimi Jamison – lead vocals * Buddy Davis – lead guitar, organ, vocals * Paul Cannon – lead guitar * Tommy Cathey – bass, vocals * David Spain – drums, percussion
TRACK LISTING: 01 Love Just Won’t Quit * 02 Bad Boy * 03 Let Me Live * 04 Just A Little Too Much * 05 Can’t Fake It * 06 99 1/2 * 07 You Need A Woman * 08 Let Me Down Easy * 09 Workin’ Song * 10 Are You Ready
Background
A product of Memphis, Tennessee’s trendy Overton Square music scene, early pre record deal live recordings show a band steeped in the blues although that’s not what they finally put to tape which we’ll get to in a second. Now we’ve covered Jimi Jamison’s career extensively here at Glory Daze and unlike his previous vocal outing in the wonderful D. Beaver, in Target he was the main man.
Thumbing through the trusty reference files it’s obvious there was a good deal of promotion and high hopes for Target from A&M as well as some serious concert dates with Black Sabbath, Head East, Bob Seger and Black Oak Arkansas.
Times were good although A&M’s numbers didn’t jive and Target lasted for just two albums with Jamison moving on to Cobra and eventually fame and fortune with Survivor which has been documented endlessly, but I thought I’d bring it up again.
The Songs
Musically Target should hit most of the right buttons for Southern rock fans with a hard rockin’ mixture of Point Blank and Hydra influences peppered with pop. On the downside as with many mid-70’s albums, the production is painfully dull and lifeless and some of the songs are just not up to snuff.
On the upside ‘Love Just Won’t Quit’, ‘Bad Boy’ and the typically Dixie styled ballad ‘Let Me Live’ was tailor made for FM radio back in the days when it was adventurous and worth listening to. Unfortunately mediocrity reigns on tunes like the Aerosmith styled ‘Can’t Fake It’ and side two is pretty much a wash with the exception of ‘Let Me Down Easy’ which comes across so much like Mama’s Pride.
’99 1/2′ sounds unbelievably like a prototype for the Black Crowes if you ask me but again, it’s Jamison that pulls Target out of the bar band AOR category into something worth a spin or two.
In Summary
Target became the subject of a CD reissue program in 2016 from Rock Candy Records and despite the inconsistencies of this and the follow-up ‘Captured’, Target are definitely worth a re-evaluation as more than just a blip on the ye-haw Southern rock scene and with Jamison’s pipes front and center, who could argue?
Target on Video
Click to go to YTM album page.
