Published on May 13, 2004
By the time of their fourth album,
Take No Prisoners, Jacksonville, Florida-based Molly Hatchet
was undergoing their trial by fire. They had experienced the
departure of vocalist Danny Joe Brown after
Flirtin’ With Disaster, and new vocalist Jimmy Farrar seemed
to polarize Molly Hatchet’s fans. Add into this the fact that
Southern rock was quickly fading in popularity (at least in terms
of being the next big flavor of the month), and you had a band who
needed to re-position themselves on a course of success.
This is where things are a little confusing, at least for me.
Take No Prisoners is a definite improvement over their
previous disc
Beatin’ The Odds, and when Molly Hatchet succeeds, they do
so with flying colors. But their missteps are spectacular failures,
leaving this disc (which is currently out of print) a decidedly
mixed bag.
First things first, though. Farrar has definitely shown that he
was able to grow in his role in the band, as his vocals show marked
improvement over
Beatin’ The Odds. (Too bad this disc would be his swan song
with the band.) Listen to tracks like “Lady Luck,” “Power Play” or
even the all-out rocker “Bloody Reunion” which opens this disc, and
you’ll know that Farrar feels more at home with this material.
In fact, the material on
Take No Prisoners which stands out is truly amazing —
making one wonder why this disc is not available at this particular
time. Check out songs like “Dead Giveaway” or “Loss Of Control” and
you’ll quickly come to realize that Molly Hatchet was most
definitely back on track.
Yet despite all of the advances in the music, there are two
instances of weakness — and oh, how weak they are. “Respect Me In
The Morning” starts out promising, but quickly dissolves into a
he-said-she-said mush of pop tripe, not even worthy of your time.
Likewise, I don’t know who thought it would be a good idea to start
out “Long Tall Sally” as a slow-tempoed plodder, but all interest
is lost by the time the band finally kicks this song into
high-gear. In retrospect, this was probably not the best cover
choice for the band — in fact, four albums into their career, why
did they even need to resort to cover versions of songs?
Yes, these two weak songs threaten to derail the whole album,
but the fact is that
Take No Prisoners is a more solid effort than these two
misfires. If anything, this disc not only cements Molly Hatchet’s
reputation as a solid rock outfit, but it also should have removed
any misgivings about Farrar’s position in the band. Regrettably,
the latter would not prove to be true, as Farrar left following
this disc — leaving the door open to Brown’s return.