Lightning Strikes Twice

Molly Hatchet | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 30, 1989)
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B000008IJX
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #378,935 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

German reissue of their 1989 album, released &deleted by Capitol. Crank it up with Danny Joe Brown & co.while they rip through 10 pieces of Southern fried rock. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is a different pace, missing Hlubek's influence, but good!, September 9, 2005

By 

Jason Horstman (Lima, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lighting Strikes Twice (Audio CD)

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.

1.0 out of 5 stars It's A Real Hatchet-Job, June 29, 2010

By 

Mr Freeze "MPd" (Lewisburg, TN) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lighting Strikes Twice (Audio CD)

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.

1.0 out of 5 stars Lightning Strikes Twice... and takes out Molly Hatchet!, June 20, 2010

By 

D. Mccarthy - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lighting Strikes Twice (Audio CD)

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.