After Molly Hatchet's Flirtin' with Disaster Danny Joe Brown left the band and ventured out on his own and released his one and only solo effort as the Danny Joe Brown Band. The album was produced by the legendary Glyn Johns and was mastered by George Marino at Sterling sound. By all accounts it would seem that the folks at Epic put some budget behind the band and if it wasn't for the changing musical landscape I wonder if this wouldn't have been bigger.
1981 was the changing of the guard with a new decade underway and rock was becoming more polished and the hair wouldn't get longer, but it was going to get bigger. New wave and techno were just on the horizon, and the three guitar attack of bands like April Wine, and Molly Hatchet - who would release their second album Take No Prisoners with Danny Joe Browns replacement Jimmy Farrar also in 1981, were on way out. Although April Wine's '81 release Nature of the Beast was huge, so there goes that theory. As revered as Lynyrd Skynyrd were, they hadn't been heard from since 1977, although the Rossington Collins band released two overlook albums, and their final album "This is the Way" came out in the fall of 1981 and no one noticed.
Molly Hatchet and Danny Joe Brown were on Epic, and both of
their albums were recorded at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas. I can't
find the release date for Danny Joe Brown, but I suspect he was there first. I
guess Epic got them a deal on accommodation. I had mentioned earlier it looked
like Epic was behind the band, but I read an interview with Danny Joe Brown
prior to his passing where he mentions that Epic did little to push his album,
and they didn't do much in the way of promotion for the '81 Molly Hatchet
release either. Apparently they wanted the Danny Joe Brown back with his former
band and by tanking both albums was one way to force the issue.
Enough of the preamble, today is about The Danny Joe Band. Considering I'm coming into this after over forty years, I have the benefit of hindsight and can be as Ian Thomas once eloquently sang, "A retrospective genius." To be honest, I expected this to be a shitty album. Don't know why, I just thought, "This can't be any good." So of course I bought it. Boy was I wrong. It's a great piece of Southern Rock, and a worthy addition to my collection and is fitted nicely with those two overlooked Rossington Collins albums and my Molly Hatchet records.
Danny Joe Brown assembled a great band, and they created an album was balls to the wall* and the band channels the Outlaws and Skynyrd and Blackfoot with their submission to the rock guitar hall of fame "Edge of Sundown" an awesome three guitar attack that you'd think would at least get some love on classic radio - but no.
This was just plain old rock and roll with that southern twist, and the only thing I kind of hoped for, and hoped I wouldn't hear was Danny Joe Brown doing a horse whistle before a guitar solo kicked in. I guess he saved that shit (although it's cool the first time you hear it) for Molly Hatchet.
I came into this with my knives out looking for a way to take little pithy shots at an album that came out forty years ago and kick a dead horse. This was a real surprise, and honestly its a mystery as to why this didn't catch on. I wonder if a cover by Boris Vallejo would have gone over better than Danny Joe Brown in a blue sweater. Heck Molly could still have Frazetta, and both would be cool.
Sadly it wasn't to be, we got a picture of the sweater which just screamed rock and roll. The white loafers and blue jeans on the back cover didn't help, although I'm sure they were comfy. Timing is everything, and without a lot of push from the label the album hit the charts but didn't crack the top 100.
- Kenny McVay - guitar
- Jimmy Glenn - drums
- Steve Wheeler - guitar, slide guitar
- Buzzy Meekins - bass, backing vocals
- John Galvin - keyboards, backing vocals
- Bobby Ingram - guitar, slide guitar, backing vocals
- Danny Joe Brown - lead vocals
After the album failed to do much, Danny Joe Brown would rejoin Molly Hatchet whose last album didn't do as well as expected, and the hope was the reunion would propel the band back into platinum territory.
Yeah, that didn't work out as planned. Too bad things never panned out for The Danny Joe Brown Band, as this album was a keeper, and maybe it really was just bad timing. This is a really solid album, and there wasn't a dud in the bunch and like I said earlier, "Edge of Sundown" is a killer song.
Sadly Danny Joe Brown would pass away at the age of 53 from
complication due to his diabetes. Oddly both John Galvin and Bobby Ingram would
be the ones to carry on the Molly Hatchet legacy and are still with the band to
this day.
* Balls to the wall. Have you ever thought about what that means? It's perplexing and I cannot fathom how this came to be an expression. So let me picture this, you have some guy pulling on his ballsack trying to stretch it out from between his legs and hold them again a wall, and somehow this means maximum effort or whatever. I'm sure there's a better explanation. I just don't feel like looking it up.
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