Customer Reviews

Double Trouble

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ahh... Southern Rock. Breathe deeply and you can smell it. Well, not the music, but you can sure fill your nostrils with the heavy aroma of Jack Daniels. Southern Rock comes in many different packages, like Little Feat, very funky; the Outlaws, country influence; Blackfoot, who veered heavily towards hard rock; the Allman Brothers, carrying the flag for the blues; and of course Lynyrd Skynyrd, the ultimate Southern rock band. Molly Hatchet are the Stones and rhythm and blues influenced Southern rock band. What all the bands have in common is gruff vocals, a penchant for guitar solos, and no regard to dress sense as long as it?s blue jeans and cowboy boots, topped off by a Stetson hat. Also scant notice is taken of expanding waistlines and certainly no regard is wasted in keeping a stable line-up. Molly Hatchet are true to form in all these elements.

This album catches Molly Hatchet in fine form with the great Danny Joe Brown out in front with his hard living attitude and great diction. He sang and lived the Southern attitude to the maximum, a great focal point, charisma just oozed from this man, his vocals completely dominate these recordings, which is no mean feat considering what is behind him. Danny Joe Brown can be heard at his absolute best on Hatchet?s tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd, when they break into a eleven minute version of ?Freebird? in the middle of this set. The song is given an emotional introduction before the band came crashing in. What a band, too. By now and after six years on the road, when this concert was recorded on a home coming gig in Dallas, Texas and a sultry night in Jacksonville, Florida, the Hatchet had reduced to a twin lead guitar attack (there had originally been three) comprising of Dave Hlubek, who turns in a fine display of slide playing, and other original Hatchet man Duane Roland. Backing them up are Bruce Crump on drums and the marvelously monikered Riff West on bass. Sitting quietly at the side of the stage was the recently acquired John Galvin on keyboards, but there really isn?t much room in Southern Rock for tinkling of the ivories with all the guitar and vocal action going on.

All the classic Hatchet songs are featured here in all their glory. (One glance at the song titles will tell you what they are about.) The band takes most songs on the gallop and only occasionally swaggers into a canter. Certainly do not bother looking for any ballads here; not an album to sit down to. Instead, turn up the volume to eleven and do some grotesque gurning down at the front of the stage. Every song here would go down well at the front in Tahitian Queens famous rock ?n? roll Happy hour on Friday evening.

Molly Hatchet is now embarking on their 25-year anniversary tour. But, is it really Molly Hatchet you may ask? After this long life span all of the original members of the band have left. Even this line-up, which played together six years after the band?s conception, only contained three originals, and none of these guys are presently with the band. Over the years new guys arrived to fill the shoes of those who left and Southern Rock is an attitude, not a line-up. So what the heck, if it sounds good and feels good, love it. Deep Purple have only got the drummer left from the original quintet, and they make Spinal Tap look like a stable animal.

So then, why only three Stars? Well, two songs have been left off from the original release to make it possible to fit onto one C.D. When it comes to releases, this dog wants it all. Then the transfer over onto C.D. from the tapes is appalling, losing an awful lot of the bottom end. If ever a collection of songs needed the double C.D. re-mastered, made over with additional tracks, etc., this is it. Warner Brothers have already done a marvelous job of re-vamping Little Feats live album "Waiting for Columbus". Com?on, Epic Records, the Hatchet job?s awaiting.

Scratched by Mott the Dog
Re-assembled by Ella Crew

I have the original album, the 2 tracks missing are Walk on the side of the Angels Walk with you

This album is really southern rock at it's finest. A must have for any collection

I can't count the number of speakers that I have blown through the years of listening to this album. It's just that good, you can't listen to it at a low volume. Just listening to the crowd explode during Freebird will give you goosebumps. Although Skynyrd will always be known for Freebird, Molly Hatchet's version will make you slam the gas pedal even further through your floorboard! Great Live album from start to finish, and great price too!

Powerfull, molly hatchet in thier prime - a must have for molly hatchet fans

If You can find The original vinyl or cassette, You will get the entire recording, as this CD is missing some tracks that I've never heard elsewhere. Although this is a very good album on CD, I was VERY disappointed to see that there are songs missing. hgr 12/05/99

This album kicks booty! Molly Hatchet was the first big rock act I ever saw, opening for Riot and AC/DC (on the Highway to Hell tour! Little did I know Bon Scott would soon pass away!). Songs like Flirtin with Disaster and Beating the Odds sound great, but their version of Freebird really gets me going! Even my THIRTEEN year old daughter likes it! I cannot believe the great job they did on this song and I would definitely recommend this album to any rock fan! Funny thing is, I never knew they ever released this album until I saw it on Amazon.com!

Close as I can tell, the two omitted songs for space were chosen because they never did end up on a studio album; they're introduced as being new material, but didn't show up when Lightning Strikes Twice came out. Combine that with the fact that the Southern Rock era was basically over when this came out, and you get a crappy CD reissue. It must still sell well enough for Epic since it's still in print, though. So how about remastering it, putting the missing songs on and giving us some alternate tracks? One More From The Road has been reissued this way what, 3 times now on CD? Plus bonus tracks from those sessions on other compilations. Obviously it should sell enough to make some money with it. --- This isn't too hard to find on vinyl - the missing songs are good, worth the trouble if you're a fan. At least they stay true to form, unlike bands who went to that synth-pop kind of sound blend (Doc Holliday - Modern Medicine, The Outlaws - Soldiers Of Fortune, or Van-Zant's self-titled Geffen flop).

This is the best live CD from the 1980's--period. Molly Hatchet's popularity may have been waning by the mid 80's, but they were certainly going down fighting, judging from the intense performances on this CD--amazing! One great song and performance after another. The Freebird cover was awesome--Danny Joe Brown sang it perfectly! Ronnie would be proud (he was planning on producing Molly Hatchet before the Skynyrd plane crash occurred)! The guitarists are on fire throughout! Boogie No More is incredible!

The sound quality (EQ'ing, specifically) is great on some songs, OK on others, and lousy on one or two. Apparently it's tough to capture a live CD from analog tapes soundwise, because Skynyrd's One More From The Road was spotty with the EQing as well. But the quality of the performances completely cancels out the weaknesses in the sound, as far as I'm concerned.

This CD is a MUST HAVE for any guitar-rock enthusiast, and especially for any Southern Rock fan!

DOUBLE TROUBLE LIVE is one of Molly Hatchet's five best albums. It contains hot live versions of the best songs from their first six albums, plus a couple of surprises. This is one of the few great live albums of the 80s, an era when rock music became much more studio-bound.

This is an excellent performance by an excellent band. However, whoever mixed this cd should be shot!! The quality is very muddy. You can hardly hear the keyboards. You can't hear them at all at times. There are also some painfully obvious rhythm guitar overdubs. There is little or no stereo separation on the 2 guitar players. I can't listen to this cd. It just sounds too bad. And it's a real shame, because the band sounded great that night. Somebody did them real wrong. Try to find it used.