Great Rock Albums of 1979: Pat Travers- Live, Go For What You Know

Raise your hand if there has been a musical artist you like who you hadn't t listened to in many years where when you finally do get around listening to them again, you remember how much you really liked them. I put up my hand to Pat Travers. He was another musical great who never made it onto being played on the old AM clock radio. I first heard about him when I saw this album advertised in a music catalog. Back in the late seventies, they use to have these record clubs where you get an initial offer of buying six albums for a penny to join but you had to buy so many albums in two years. It was such a catalog where I discovered Pat Travers.

Once again, it was my military experiences of widening my musical horizons where I finally got to listen to this great artist and it was this live album. "Live! Go For What You Know" was the perfect album to showcase all of his great songs and guitar talents. The most noted song from this album is "Boom Boom, Out Go the Lights" which many of the bands playing to bars and clubs in North Carolina seemed to play. I also really like "Hooked on Music," "Go All Night" and "Heat in the Street" but all of the songs here are some powerful, blues based, kick ass rock and roll.

Often have I mentioned the ever growing list of underrated guitarists from the seventies and recently, I have consciously been more picky about who I add to the list. However, Pat Travers is one guitarist who definitely belongs on the list. I might even go as far as to equate him with the likes of some I've already mentioned like Gary Richrath, Craig Chaquico and Rory Gallagher, ok I can't leave out Brian May. Travers can definitely bend the six string to his will and a listen to this great live album will confirm it.

Track Listing:

1. Hooked on Music

2. Gettin' Betta

3. Go All Night

4. Boom Boom, Out Go the Lights

5. Stevie

6. Makin' Magic

7. Heat in the Streets

8. Makes No Difference

Pat Travers

Pat Travers- guitar, vocals

Mars Cowling- bass

Pat Thrall- guitar, backing vocals

Tommy Aldridge- drums

The moral of the story here is don't go a long time without listening to someone you know is good. I made that mistake here with Pat Travers and my excuse of not owning any of his material doesn't cut it. So, I'm going to have to go out and buy this fantastic live album. Praise the Lord for Amazon! I think you should give it a listen too, I guarantee you won't regret it. I am wondering and my buddy Stone started my mind rolling on this one, if Pat Travers is yet another great artist the numpties at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame have ignored.

Next post: Olivia Newton John- Totally Hot

To buy Rock And Roll Children, go to www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/RockAndRollChildren.html

Also available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Froogle and on sale at Foyles Book Shop in London

Great Rock Albums of 1979: Todd Rundgren- Back to the Bars

It has been said that Todd Rundgren released this 1979 live album in an attempt to cash in on the success of other live albums such as "Frampton Comes Alive" and Bob Dylan's "Hard Rain." I'm not completely sure that I agree with that premise because of the content of the songs on this album. While "Back to the Bars" concludes with one of Rundgren's greatest hits, "Hello It's Me," it doesn't include some of his other noted songs. Furthermore, when he was preforming the live shows in 1978, it was around the same time his studio album "Hermit of Mink Hollow" was released.  So, if he wanted to cash in on a live album, surely he would have included a few songs from the new album, especially "Can We Still Be Friends."

Enough speculating for now because "Back to the Bars" is actually a pretty good album. A good way to reminisce over Todd Rundgren's creative days of the seventies. What I have always liked about him is the fact that you can't completely pigeonhole him. Yes, many of the more known songs are in the progressive rock vein and he has his share of Top 40 singles but he is also capable of laying down some rocking jams as well and there are some on this album. Most notably, two songs from the "Something/Anything" album: "Black Maria" and one I've always really liked, "Couldn't I Just Tell You."

Track Listing:

1. Real Man

2. Love of the Common Man

3. The Verb To Love

4. Love in Action

5. A Dream Goes On Forever

6. Sometimes I Don't Know What to Feel

7. The Range War

8. Black and White

9. The Last Ride

10. Cliche

11. Don't You Ever Learn

12. Never Never Land

13. Black Maria

14. Zen Archer

15. Medley: I'm So Proud/ Oh Baby Baby/ La la Means I Love You/ I Saw the Light

16. It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference

17. Eastern Intrigue

18. Initiation

19. Couldn't I Just Tell You

20. Hello It's Me

Todd Rundgren

Todd Rundgren- lead vocals, guitar, keyboards

Mark"Moogy" Klingman- keyboards

Kasim Sultan- bass

Roger Powell- keyboards

John Willie Wilcox- drums

Additional appearances by Rick Derringer, Stevie Nicks, Daryl Hall and John Oates

For Todd Rundgren fans and novices, this album is a good way to reminisce or explore the mid seventies period of Todd Rundgren with some classic songs. Now, one or two people have said that he isn't too good live, but listening to this album, I can't agree with that sentiment. If Todd Rundgren isn't in the Rock Hall of Fame, then it's just another proof that the people who run that institution are just plain idiots.

Next post: Pat Travers- Live! Go For What You Know

To buy Rock And Roll Children, go to www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/RockAndRollChildren.html

Also available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Froogle and on sale at Foyles Book Shop in London

Great Rock Albums of 1979: Pat Benatar- In the Heat of the Night

It's still fresh in my mind thirty-three years later. I remember that day in late 1979 after having to get up at the ungodly hour of 3:30 in the morning because the company XO had volunteered our platoon for mess duty. Gee, that was nice of him. Anyhow, having to clear the early morning cobwebs from my head, I had the radio on when a new fresh rocking sound came blasting out of it. First there was the drum intro, followed by accompanying rhythm guitar and bass. At the end of the line came that little canny lead guitar riff, all of which set the stage for the mind blowing vocals that came along  and completely blew me out of my combat boots. A female voice, clear and powerful, totally rocked my world that day. The song was "Heartbreaker," and I would learn sometime later, that the voice belonged to Pat Benatar.

"Heartbreaker" is still my all time favourite Pat Benatar song and it is fitting one for her first album, "In the Heat of the Night." This album established her as the female face of rock, more rockier than Blondie and even Heart, not that I want to take anything away from either of those. For me, this album was different, in my mind, a new even raunchier hard rock and I absolutely loved it, still do.

While, "Heartbreaker" was the break through single for Pat, the rest of the album is still a good rocking listen. I also love the song "I Need a Lover" and even prefer it to the John Cougar Mellancamp version. The other songs also give it credence, like "My Clone Sleeps Alone," which I find to be rather amusing as well. "In the Heat of the Night" thrust Pat Benatar down our throats and we haven't been able to get her out of our systems ever since.

Track Listing:

1. Heartbreaker

2. I Need a Lover

3. If You Think You Know How to Love Me

4. In the Heat of the Night

5. My Clone Sleeps Alone

6. We Live for Love

7. Rated X

8. Don't Let it Show

9. No You Don't

10. So Sincere

Pat Benatar

Pat Benatar- lead vocals

Nick Geraldo- lead, slide guitars, keyboards

Scott St Clair Sheets- rhythm guitar

Roger Capps- bass, backing vocals

Glen Alexander Hamilton- drums

Maybe my old company XO did me a favour back then when he volunteered me for mess duty. Sure, I would have eventually heard the song "Heartbreaker," but I question if it would have had the same impact as it did then. That was the song that made me go even harder into the rock and where I would one day discover the delights of heavy metal. Pat Benatar was a true rock icon from 1979 through to 1983 and it was this album that launched it.

Next post: Todd Rundgren- Back to the Bars

To buy Rock And Roll Children, go to www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/RockAndRollChildren.html

Also available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Froogle and on sale at Foyles Book Shop in London

Great Rock Albums of 1979: Gillan- Mr Universe

For me, after he left Deep Purple, Ian Gillian kind of dropped off my radar throughout the rest of the 1970's. This is mainly owing to the fact that none of Gillian's songs ever got played on that old AM clock radio of mine. Therefore, this is yet another album that I listened to after the fact. What I know now that I didn't know back then was that Gillian continued to rock on with his own band for the rest of the decade and was very successful in the UK.

Listening to "Mr Universe," I get the feeling there's a similar sound to the Deep Purple reunion album "Perfect Strangers." The sound is more keyboard oriented but there is nothing wrong with that on this album. However, I do like the more rockier tracks "Vengeance" and "Puget Sound" as they have more harder sound. Furthermore, the guitar work of Bernie Torme, someone I would eventually come across when I got to London in 1986, is more present on those tracks. The other tracks are in no ways weak and all together this is a fine album.

Track Listing:

1. Second Sight

2. Secret of the Dance

3. She Tears Me Down

4. Roller

5. Mr Universe

6. Vengeance

7. Puget Sound

8. Dead of the Night

9. Message in a Bottle

10. Fighting Man

Gillian

Ian Gillian- vocals, harmonica

Bernie Torme- guitar

Colin Towns- keyboards, flute

John McCoy- bass

Mick Underwood- drums

Ian Gillian has always been one of my favourite vocalists and I will forever be blown away when I heard him sing "A Child in Time" live. His vocals are no less formidable on "Mr Universe." One thing that has been said of singers who surround themselves with good musicians is that they do so to compensate for their limited vocal ability. Yeah, that's certainly true with Jedward and some say it about David Lee Roth. However, Ian Gillian is not the case and his vocals and band has me wondering why I never heard of them in the US back then.

Next post: Pat Benatar- In the Heat of the Night

To buy Rock And Roll Children, go to www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/RockAndRollChildren.html

Also available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Froogle and on sale at Foyles Book Shop in London