Published on Mar 8, 1998
A long time ago… well, okay, just over a year ago… we looked
at Heart’s 1977 release
Little Queen. On that disc, Ann & Nancy Wilson found
themselves torn between the worlds of folk and rock. One year
later, the world was treated to two Heart records – one of which,
Magazine, was the cause of a couple of lawsuits against
Mushroom Records.
The other record,
Dog & Butterfly, was further evidence that the Wilson
sisters wanted to keep their feet in both the folk and rock camps –
only this time, they enjoyed much greater success in doing so,
though their folk work still was better hands down.
An incredibly short disc (eight tracks clocking in at just under
40 minutes), the disc kicks off with a live performance from
Memphis, “Cook With Fire”. The track itself is nothing special, and
one wonders why they bothered to feature a live version instead of
trying to wow the listener with a live number. (Then again, I seem
to recall that “I’ve Got The Music In Me” off
Magazine was also a live number; maybe this was their answer
to that track.)
Probably the best-known song off this disc is “Straight On,” a
funky rocker with a powerful syncopated beat. Despite its being
overplayed by classic rock stations around the country, the track
still maintains a lot of its power and charm – and when heard in
the context of the whole album, still sounds fresh.
The title track holds some very special memories for me. I can
still remember a friend of mine in college teaching me how to play
“Dog & Butterfly” on the guitar – afterwards, we performed it
together in a coffee house on campus. But listening to the original
version almost ten years since that night, I realize just how
intricate the acoustic guitar work on this song really was (and how
far I was from playing the actual guitar chords). Both Ann and
Nancy’s vocals shine on this one, though I would now question if
Michael Derosier should have played drums on this song – it sounds
so much better with just guitars, bass and vocals.
The folk aspect of
Dog & Butterfly makes up the best portion of the album;
both “Lighter Touch” and “Nada One” stand out among some of the
group’s best work. But the merging of folk and rock finally
succeeds on “Mistral Wind,” a song which starts off in a softer
vein and gradually builds to a more powerful conclusion.
Like on
Little Queen, the rockers suffer a bit – “High Time” is an
okay song, but not one I’d want to write home about, while “Hijinx”
isn’t worth the time to check out.
But by no means is
Dog & Butterfly a bad album – this was Heart’s strongest
album to that point, and is one of their albums I’d call criminally
ignored. With the exception of “Straight On,” I’d be hard pressed
to hear any of the songs on this album played on the radio. (I do
remember a few years back hearing a live version of “Dog &
Butterfly” which was absolutely beautiful – though I have no idea
where it came from. It was no bootleg – the quality was too
good.)
Dog & Butterfly is a great illustration of the musical
struggle that Heart was facing in the late ’70s – and it ranks as
one of my favorite albums.