#pat thrall

[musicmags]

[blackros78]

Pat Travers Band

[nofatclips]

Acid Rain by Liquid Tension Experiment from the album Liquid Tension Experiment 2

[vinylspinning]

Pat Travers Band: Crash and Burn (1980)

Well, that title just about sums it up ...

1980’s Crash and Burn is NOT the kind of album you normally associate with top-of-the-bill guitar slingers, but then, Canadian Pat Travers was never your typical, fire-breathing ‘70s guitar hero like, say, Ted Nugent, Frank Marino, Robin Trower, or even the self-effacing Rory Gallagher.

Instead, for the bulk of his career, Travers had put as much emphasis on cutting songs with commercial appeal as tearing into his fretboard; heck, he was even uncommonly generous with the spotlight, or else he wouldn’t have welcomed another six-string hot shot like Pat Thrall into his band.

But, as the ‘70s gave way to the ‘80s, and musical trends evolved apace, Crash and Burn saw a distracting assortment of new, rarely satisfying, and now terribly dated, sonic diversions encroaching upon Travers’ tried-and-tested strong-suit: bluesy hard rock.

If you’re looking for that (as I was), all you’ll get here is the punchy “(Your Love) Can’t Be Right,” a dynamite cover of Albert King’s “Born Under a Bad Sign” and, best of all, the nasty, cocky, self-destructive strutter in “Snortin’ Whiskey (Drinkin’ Cocaine)” (I’ve snorted whiskey in my time, but I’ve never drunk cocaine).

Everything else here pretty much, uh, sucks.

There’s a trio of oh-so-modern 1980s synth nightmares in the lifeless title track, the marginally tolerable “Big Event,” and the idiotic play-on-words of “Material Eyes”; plus, a sappy ballad called “Love Will Make You Strong,” and a completely unimaginative cover of Bob Marley’s “Is this Love.”

Yeah, I fucking hated Clapton’s “I Shot the Sheriff,” too!

And if, in the late ‘70s, Travers’ understated guitar heroics had already seen him getting routinely lapped by stronger, wilder, flashier competition, they had no hope in hell of keeping up with the blinding speed and power exhibited by most ‘80s shredders.

Sure enough, Thrall picked this moment to jump ship and collaborate with Glenn Hughes, while drummer Tommy Aldridge (who’d been with Travers for five albums), moved on to bigger and better things with Gary Moore, Ozzy Osbourne, Whitesnake, etc.

Meanwhile, Pat Travers put out a few more albums for Polydor (1981’s Radio Active and ‘82’s Black Pearl, ‘84’s Hot Shot), each more forgettable (and forgotten) than the last, on his way to increasing anonymity in the ‘90s and beyond.

More Pat Travers: Pat Travers, Makin’ Magic, Putting it Straight.

[luvdriver]

Hughes & Thrall

[rainingmusic]

Pat Travers Band - Crash And Burn

[my-space-and-all-within]

ASIA | 1990

[my-space-and-all-within]

ASIA | 1990