Published on May 28, 2004
Strange. Molly Hatchet is celebrating its 25th anniversary
together, and the present lineup (or, as I call them, the second
iteration of the band) has three studio albums under its belt, all
recorded as Bobby Ingram and company try to find their own unique
voice. So what would compel them to re-record a whole slew of songs
from the Danny Joe Brown era of Molly Hatchet?
25th Anniversary Best Of Re-Recorded most certainly lives up
to its name, taking songs from every studio album up to
Lightning Strikes Twice (the last featuring Brown as lead
vocalist) and gives them the new lineup’s spin on them. There are
no surprises here, and the covers of these songs are respectable
enough. But one does have to wonder just what the entire point
was.
Vocalist Phil McCormack, the hand-picked successor to Brown in
Molly Hatchet, sounds uncannily like Brown on these tracks, even if
he doesn’t have the vocal range for some of the higher notes. (In
his defense, he compensates well for this.) Ingram is undoubtedly
the flashiest guitarist the band has ever had, and that’s not a bad
thing, for he keeps the band’s heart pumping.
Long-time Molly Hatchet fans will undoubtedly hear differences
between the re-recordings and the originals, but even the diehards
among the crowd will have to admit that the covers are delivered
quite well. Sure, tracks like “Flirtin’ With Disaster” and “Whiskey
Man” are familiar opuses, but the level of respect the newer
incarnation of the band has for the material is evident. And it is
pleasing to hear such favorites as “Fall Of The Peacemakers,”
“Bounty Hunter” and “Dreams I’ll Never See” again, even if two of
the three were given the acoustic treatment by this lineup not
terribly long ago.
There are some stumbling blocks, as well. The version of
“Satisfied Man” doesn’t quite measure up to the original from
The Deed Is Done, while “25th Anniversary Song” is an
absolute throw-away number which should have been left in the
vaults. Likewise, “Goodbye To Love” doesn’t spark the excitement
that one would have expected, while “Beatin’ The Odds,” a marginal
song in its heyday, doesn’t leave the starting gate.
Yet one has to wonder why Molly Hatchet chose to revisit the
past so blatantly on
25th Anniversary Best Of Re-Recorded instead of offering up
a platter’s worth of new material. After all, the band had just
delivered the live set
Locked And Loaded, which covered some of these bases
already. Molly Hatchet’s place in the annals of rock history is
secure, even if they haven’t made it to the main hall just yet.
Wouldn’t it have been great to hear McCormack, Ingram and crew to
put out a disc featuring material which flirted with those glory
days, rather than continue to re-tread the same paths?
Don’t get me wrong,
25th Anniversary Best Of Re-Recorded is a pleasurable enough
disc, and it should have the power to draw in new fans as well as
re-introduce older fans to some material they may have forgotten.
But the cynic in me is thinking that this disc is the ultimate
experience for those who don’t want to leave their homes to see
Molly Hatchet in concert, since all the tracks you’d want to hear
are on this disc.