38 Special - Tour de Force

I was thinking about bands with two drummers (mainly because I'd just finished listening to Dickey Betts & Great Southern) and 38 Special popped to mind. It was them or Adam Ant, and at the moment (because, well, you never know) I don't have any Adam Ant. So it was 38 Special, and as I'd recently found a mint copy of Tour de Force I figured this was worth a spin and a reminisce.

My first introduction to the band was through a cassette copy of Wild-Eyed Southern Boys my little sister was given by someone she babysat for ... I think that's where it came from ... who knows maybe she stole it. As she didn't have a cassette player and I did, I "borrowed" it - forever (until I lost it). I seldom made it past the first song - "Hold on Loosely" blew my mind, and it didn't take long for me to get the triptych of releases from 1981 through 1983. Each album had something special, but honestly trying to remember any of the deeper album cuts eludes me, but when they were good they were spectacular - all of these albums were produced and engineered by Rodney Mills. The man had the golden touch.

38 Special also had a (not so) secret sauce and that was the guitar prowess of Jeff Carlisi who would structure mini songs within the songs. They would act as a counterpoint to the more straight ahead AOR that was born out of a southern rock tradition.

Tour de Force is somewhat misnamed, but it is a decent album with a few really bright spots. The band's two vocalists, Don Barnes and Donnie Van Zant worked really well together, although it was Don Barnes who fronted the big hits here, ""If I'd Been the One" and "Back Where You Belong" they are also the first two songs on the album and lead things off and after this it's pretty much standard fare - good songs but nothing that really stands out to that same level of awesomeness. Although I will say that "Twentieth Century Fox" gets close, as does "One of the Lonely Ones" that was written by Barnes, Van Zant and Larry Steele - it's a very good tune. The only real dud on the album is the odd "I Oughta Let Go" which is a strange. I'd forgotten how strange - not necessarily terrible, just out of place.

Gary O'Connor (Gary O') wrote "Back Where You Belong" and "One Time for Old Times" that was sung by Donnie. It's a nice song for all that, and would have been right at home on his 1984 release Strange Behaviour. Gary O should have had a better career ... too bad.

As to the two drummers, honestly I still can't figure out what this added to the band's sound - perhaps in a live environment it was the spectacle of having two drummers on stage. I can say from having seen The Grateful Dead years ago watching the interplay between Mikey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann was pretty dang cool so I guess the pairing of Jack Grondin and Steve Brookins was a something they wanted to have, rather than something they needed.

After this album the band take a few years before releasing Strength in Numbers in 1986, and that would be the last album I'd get of theirs back in the day. They're still kicking around but the sole remaining member from the classic era is Don Barnes.