Back in the mid '80s when I was working downtown I'd often spend my lunch hour rummaging through the racks at A&B Sound, or if I was in the mood to dumpster dive Sam the Record Man had row after row of discount records. I picked up a lot of questionable stuff, like Stephen Still's
Thoroughfare Gap and Dan Fogelberg's
Captured Angel ... don't ask why I remember those two in particular. It's not like I remember anything from them. I'm not shitting on the records, I just don't remember them, but I remember buying them. I don't think I played them more than once or twice. I also remember one album I kept seeing and ignoring: Coney Hatch's
Outa Hand.Over the years I'd see the Carl Dixon's name pop up. Sort like a Canadian Waldo. Oh look, there he is with April Wine ... oh man, that's cool. Hey Aldo Nova is covering a Coney Hatch song written by Carl, "Hey Operator" nice. Look there's Carl on the Speed Channel doing music for Pinks ... oh wait, that was Max Carl. Dang, well I just unravelled that conceit in a hurry. Yeah, well let's just move on.
Let's just say that back in '80s I knew the album existed and it looked cool but I can't remember hearing anything but I never forgot ... and I finally picked it up when I was wandering through a second hand shop in Victoria. I also finally figured out the cover image. I know it's pretty obvious looking at it, but I had decades of Mandela Effect where I was convinced the cover image was a singer screaming into a microphone. It's a chick with lipstick biting off the cap on a long neck ... yup. Beer, beer is good.
I was really curious about this one, and from the opening salvo "Don't Say Make Me" I was paying attention. This was an absolute cracker. Carl Dixon's voice carried the swagger of Sammy Hagar with a dash of Myles Goodwyn. It wasn't really a distraction, but for whatever reason I started played the home version of Who Does He Sound Like? Carl has a great radio friendly rock voice. Not quite generic, but that distinctive either. I still hear Sammy, Myles and a wee bit of George Belanger from Harlequin ... but after a couple of plays through Carl sounds like Carl.
The music here was pretty stock early '80s hard rock, but man it hit all of the sweet spots. This was still hard rock and hadn't yet devolved into parody rock with tight pants and blown out hair. Lead guitar player Steve Shelski displayed just enough fret pyrotechnics to be flashy while maintaining a sense of melody and taste. He's great throughout.
There was one jarring moment when I first heard "First Time for Everything" that featured backing vocals by Peter Fredette (who also lends his voice to the albums closing track "Music of the Night"). Holy cow pies there are bits and pieces that sound like they were lifted from "Rock You Like a Hurricane" by Scorpions ... except Coney Hatch did theirs first. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that Scorpions could have heard this ...
Outa Hand was produced by Max Norman who had worked with Ozzy on
his first four solo albums. He would also co-produce with Mick Ronson
Ian Thomas'
Riders on Dark Horses in 1984.
Outa Hand is a
pretty good sounding record, and the songs are cohesive if not
memorable. That wasn't meant to be a shot. I really enjoyed the record, and
if I can find the band's debut and their '85 follow up
Friction I'll get buy them.
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