No Guts...No Glory (Molly Hatchet album)

No Guts...No Glory
Studio album by
ReleasedMarch 1983
Recorded1982
StudioBee Jay Recording Studios, Orlando, Florida
Record Plant Studios, Los Angeles, California
GenreSouthern rock, hard rock
Length41:22
LabelEpic
ProducerTom Werman, Dave Hlubek, Duane Roland
Molly Hatchet chronology
Take No Prisoners
(1981)
No Guts...No Glory
(1983)
The Deed Is Done
(1984)
Singles from No Guts...No Glory
  1. "Kinda Like Love" / "Sweet Dixie"
    Released: 1983

No Guts...No Glory is the fifth studio album by American southern rock band Molly Hatchet, released in 1983. Original vocalist Danny Joe Brown returned for this recording, with a new rhythm section composed of bassist Riff West (ex-White Witch) and drummer Barry Borden (ex-Mother's Finest). It is Molly Hatchet's only album not to feature an epic, fantasy themed cover. The cover photo for the album was reportedly shot at Six Gun Territory, a now defunct theme park in Silver Springs, Florida.

The album contains the popular song, "Fall of the Peacemakers", which includes overt references to John Lennon. During the tour to support the album, guitarist Steve Holland left the band to be replaced by keyboard player John Galvin.

"What's It Gonna Take", written by Gary O'Connor, was also recorded by the band Fast Forward and appears on their 1984 album Living in Fiction.

Reception

[edit]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal6/10[2]

Mark Mehler of Record summarized the album as "mainly a routine blend of hard-core southern rock ("Sweet Dixie", "Ain't Even Close") and mainstream pop/rock ("What Does it Matter?", "Kinda Like Love"). ... The use of keyboards provides a nice change of pace, but there is really very little here we haven't heard many times before, done a lot better." However, he made special mention of "Fall of the Peacemakers", describing it as "an eight-minute-plus song that purports to lament the murders of John F. Kennedy and John Lennon, but actually is an excuse for an extra six minutes of macho boogie riffing. ... a stale, southern-style rewrite of "Abraham, Martin & John."[3]

In a retrospective review, AllMusic's Michael B. Smith praised Molly Hatchet for the "return to the powerful sound that was so prevalent on its debut effort" and compared it to "the best Lynyrd Skynyrd record" and to a "hard rock vein reminiscent of Mountain or early Grand Funk Railroad". He gave credit for the increased power to the addition of Barry Borden into the lineup and the presence of Dru Lombar.[1] Canadian journalist Martin Popoff noticed how the sound of No Guts...No Glory is "remarkably consistent" with the preceding album, although cleaner and "a little less metal". He praised the "dark epic ballad 'Fall of the Peacemakers'" and scorned "Kinda Like Love", the band's "first pop country rock song."[2]

Track listing

[edit]
Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."What Does It Matter?"Danny Joe Brown, Duane Roland, Riff West3:33
2."Ain't Even Close"Brown, Roland, West4:35
3."Sweet Dixie"Dave Hlubek, Steve Holland3:54
4."Fall of the Peacemakers"Hlubek8:03
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
5."What's It Gonna Take?"Gary O'Connor3:59
6."Kinda Like Love"Bobby Allison, Mac Elsensohn4:09
7."Under the Gun"Hlubek, West3:54
8."On the Prowl"Barry Borden, Brown, Hlubek4:07
9."Both Sides"Hlubek5:08

Personnel

[edit]
Molly Hatchet
Additional musicians
  • Dru Lombar - additional guitar on tracks 8 and 9
  • Scott Shelly - additional guitar on track 6
  • Jai Winding - keyboards
  • John Galvin - piano
Production

Charts

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Year Chart Position
1983 Billboard 200 (USA)[4] 59

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Smith, Michael B. "Molly Hatchet No Guts... No Glory review". AllMusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 2011-07-02.
  2. ^ a b Popoff, Martin (November 1, 2005). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 2: The Eighties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 228. ISBN 978-1-894959-31-5.
  3. ^ Mehler, Mark (June 1983). "No Guts... No Glory review". Record. Vol. 2, no. 8. p. 29.
  4. ^ "Molly Hatchet Awards". AllMusic. Rovi Corporation. Archived from the original on 7 April 2016. Retrieved 2017-01-20.