Night Ranger - Dawn Patrol

Night Ranger released Dawn Patrol in the waning months on 1982. The band would pull three singles off the album with the last one dropping in the summer of 1983. The album was slick as snot, with a twin guitar assault that was more than capable of melting faces. Jeff Watson on one side with his mind bending dexterity and Brad Gillis, fresh off a stint with Ozzy was on the other. Brad was also on Mr. Osbourne's Speak of the Devil - also released in November of '82. I suspect Brad's departure was amicable as Ozzy & Sharon got a shout out on the back cover.

 Night Ranger found their voice early on with bread and butter slick rock and roll. This was '82 and hard rock was coming into the mainstream. The band also managed to pull off the two lead singer trick and make it look easy. Bassist Jack Blades and drummer Kelly Keagy took turns singing their own songs while occasionally writing together. Their voices were similar but different enough to give the album a nice back and forth.

The album opens with one of my favourite tracks by the band, "Don't Tell Me You Love Me" which was fronted by Jack Blades. It's a killer song and the guitar work is astounding. It was followed by a power ballad that was all power written by Kelly Keagy, "Sing Me Away" doesn't feel like a slow song because it isn't. This one two punch set the tone for the rest of the record.

The band didn't mess around stylistically. They had a style and they mined the same vein over and over. Big guitars, check. Big vocals, check. Hooks, check. Bake, rinse and repeat. It may not have been a formula but dang the boys were onto something. It was catchy, and the songs were good.

The songs are all rock, but there are little nods to the 80s with Alan Fitzgerald's keyboard work that were so tasty. Night Ranger wasn't a '70s hard rock band trying to transition into the '80s they were a rock band setting out to define the '80s. Which they would do, building on the foundations they were putting in place with Dawn Patrol. People were paying attention and the album would go gold. Things would only get better ... right?

Dawn Patrol was an album I wanted to find for a while. I wanted to go back to the beginning. I wanted to imagine them before the backlash that followed the release of Midnight Madness in '83 with the success of "Sister Christian" that seemed to erase any of the credibility the band had earned. It didn't matter the opening track "(You Can Still) Rock in America" was the awesome, the band had turned into a bubble gum act. At least that's how I remember it. The music press had a field day shovelling shit on the band. If you were serious about music you could not seriously like Night Ranger. It may have sold a million copies, but the band had sold out.

The reality was they just did what they did. They were the real deal and had the audacity rock and write catchy music.