Customer Reviews

Lighting Strikes Twice

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

 

 

This album was the first for Bobby Ingram, and first for Molly Hatchet without Dave Hlubek. The album takes on a more traditional approach to Southern Rock. Gone are the heavy sound of the triple guitars, but there are still some harmony leads. What this album has done is put keyboardist John Galvin on a pedestal, and takes on more of a blues based Southern "boogie woogie" feel, more like Skynyrd. I know a lot of people do not like this album, because it doesn't sound like the traditional heavy Molly Hatchet of the first 4 albums, but songs like "There Goes the Neighborhood" and "I Can't Be Watching You" are actually quite good. Probably could have pulled this off more effectively with less horns and female background vocals, but it's fun to listen to.

Lightning Strikes Twice came out when real rock was in repose, or at least retreat. Like their previous studio effort (The Deed Is Done), LST found the Hatchetmen trying to widen their fan base by changing their musical style. A thousand bands have tried this but only three have ever done it successfully! Not actually three, but you get the point. Even judging from their clothing in the picture on the booklet, they were clearly swampers gone to the city (and they didn't look all that comfortable being there). And what a shame. They made an effort to find a bigger audience so as to remain relevant in a shifting musical landscape and forgot that they were still relevant to a million southern-fisted rockers like me. What they did, instead of widening their fanbase was ensure that they had reached their pinnacle some years past. This is not to say that LST or The Deed are bad albums, they are just not true ones. For the real meat and bones of Molly Hatchet you'll have to go to their earlier stuff. But I don't blame them for LST or The Deed because sometimes integrity "don't put food on the table," but neither could M H out-do the MTV-posers at posing. That said, I never bought LST when it was first released because I'd moved past Modern Hatchet (or rather, they'd moved passed me). So, I bought this disc now for two reasons: 1) I still love MH and Danny Joe Brown, and 2) I wanted to hear their version of the the Paul Stanley (KISS) song "Hide Your Heart." And to be honest, I can't offer a fair review of LST as a set of songs (except to note that like The Deed, most of the songs are not Hatchet-written songs but cubical-written compos) because the version that I have is the SPV pseudo-remaster which makes it unlistenable to me.

Like SPV's hatchet-job they performed on MH's No Guts...No Glory, the audio on the SPV version of Lightning Strikes Twice is severely compressed and sounds absolutely horrible. If LST was a great album, you'd never know it by SPV's rubbish. I purchased the SPV version against my better judgment (I had already experienced their expertise with their issue of No Guts) but I tried to persuade myself that their previous efforts were the exception. What I discovered is that THIS is obviously the rule. I will not any SPV remaster again--of anything. Buy the orginal 1989 Capitol version if you have no other choice because, as sterile and flat as the original 80s disc sounds, it will be a 100 times better than this SPV rip.

Again, DO NOT BUY THE SPV 'REMASTER' VERSION. Seek out the original issues instead. ROCK CANDY, BGO, AXE KILLER, MAJESTIC ROCK, and RHINO all do good remasters. Look for these but please avoid SPV remasters. If Spv is the only option you have, I'd say do without because you still won't have much even if you get it! DON'T BUY THE SPV VERSION.

WOW...A lot can happen to a band in 11 years, that's the amount of time from their first, self-titled release in 1978 (which, by the way, was perfect), until the release of this album in 1989, which is in almost every respect, the polar opposite. To put it plainly, THIS ALBUM SUCKS.

Which explains the disbanding of Molly Hatchet right after this and the subsequent release of the Greatest Hits record. 1996 saw the release of Devil's Canyon, but that had only 2 songs with DJB's name on on them and no participation from any original members. So technically this was the Swan Song of the once mighty Molly Hatchet, and boy did they go out with a whimper.

Almost every song here sounds about the same; piano-laden, fifties sounding,old man rock. They all have the same structure and virtually sound the same with different stupid lyrics. 5 out of the 10 tracks were written by people NOT EVEN in the band. There's hardly any guitar other than a few spirts of rock a billy/ Chuck Berry sounding canned solos. Gone are the triple guitar, southern-fried solos. Gone are the jams, the hooks, the leads, the riffs, the grit. This is recycled, lame, boring crap. How any fan of the former Hatchet can say this is good, I don't know.

And the cover of the Paul Stanely song Hide Your Heart? Absolutely embarassingly hideous.

There is one song, I can't be watching you, which has some value. It has a little soul and a Stevie Ray Vaughn quality to it, and the cover art is OK. 1 star is too much.

This is one of their best recordings, and should have been given more PR. Ironically, it's also the last one where DJB is on the lead vocal. While missing the "three guitar attack", John Galvin puts his own stamp on the music, with great keyboard arrangements. From great soulful ballads, to the hardest of rock, Molly Hatchet are the only heavy band in Southern Rock, period.

Danny Joe Brown and Jackson Spires, you're missed brothers (RIP).

Keep Rockin'-*

LIGHTNING STRIKES TWICE is yet another great CD by Molly Hatchet, and the first with Bobby Ingram replacing Dave Hlubek on guitar. Many people dislike this album because of the first five albums, and because this one has a lot of outside material, but their kids should pay the price by being loaded down with homework in school, because even though some trademark elements of the band's sound are gone, and pianist John Galvin has a more prominent role, many other key parts of what made this band special remain. The fact that the surviving members of Molly Hatchet, past and present, advocate sanctions against Indonesia in retaliation for that country's trumped-up 2005 drug-smuggling conviction of a young Australian tourist, increased funding for law enforcement, and capital punishment for kidnappers, makes LIGHTNING STRIKES TWICE an essential purchase for both your ears AND your conscience.

When I got this CD, I couldn't take it out of my player. Every tune is a gem. It's not as gritty as some of the earlier releases, and doesn't have the triple guitar sound of the earlier albums, but it is very polished sounding and is definitly the most melodic of all of their work, in my opinion.

John Galvin get put way up front in the mix with his keyboards and gets to sing with the amazing Danny Joe Brown, on Goodbye To Love. Bobby Ingram and Duane Roland do some great guitar work in tunes such as There Goes the Neighborhood and Take Miss Lucy Home.

There are a couple of ballads, but for me, the highlight of the album is the tune I Can't Be Watching You. It has some great piano work by John G and has a very jazzy feel to it.

To me, this is what southern rock is all about, guitars, a great singer, awesome piano work, and mostly, the story that is being told.