Discovered Mr. Travers debut album during my run as the only rock DJ at WPRK during the Thanksgiving holiday break, 1976 (twenty-three hours by my damn self allowed for plenty of musical research of the thousands of LPs in the library). I played every one of the covers from that album during the weekend; "Magnolia," "Boom Boom...," " Mabelline" and "Hot Rod Lincoln." When "Puttin' It Straight" came out the next year, I was a certified fan. "Life In London" is one of Rock's great opening tracks. Now that I think of it, I've probably seen him in concert more than any other artist, most recently a few months ago at B.B. King's club when he fronted the exceptional house band for an extended set, all for the low, low entry fee of $5. You know, I met a lot of artists during my radio and music retail career, had drinks with several, even caught a buzz with a couple others, but I was never "star-struck." Somewhere around the turn of the century, a good friend was managing a nightclub just a few miles away from my home. He called and said I should come down because a local major-label band I knew was rehearsing for an upcoming tour. The club was closed so he came to the door and escorted us (wifey came along because she liked what I had played for her) inside. He got us a drink and placed us in the shadows to watch for a few minutes. When the band (damn, by now I had hoped I would recall their name...) took a short break we sauntered over to the bar where my friend was speaking with a couple who were seated at the end. "Phil, there's someone here I want you to meet," he beckoned and waved me over. The house lights still weren't up so the place was cloaked in semi-darkness. "I want you to meet my friend, Pat Travers..." and PT sticks out his hand and says, "I understand you've been a fan since the beginning...thank you." I shake his hand and reply, "blee boop greq I hirw osjet whanna molk usef." Yep, start-struck, speechless, embarrassed.
So let's get to this new record. It didn't arrive at my favorite digital music store until four months after its release and I was chomping at the bit. As a follower of PT's Facebook page, I had read all sorts of glowing reviews and comments, trumpeting the return to his late 70's sound. And they were right about the switch from blues (the tack he took in the early 90's to rejuvenate his career) back to rock, but I can't say that "glowing" will be the term I'm going to use to characterize the album, which opens with the title track, and here it is from his New Year's Eve show (with Todd Rundgren, no less...no, I didn't go for 200 reasons) at the same BB King's Club...
The studio version has an gawdawful drum mix. Sounds like the damn snare is wrapped with tambourines. Thankfully, it wasn't that way through the entire record or I would have tossed it out the window. Since the album harks back to the good ol' days, quite a few of the lyrics elude to them, as well....."those were the days," "that was then," "when we were young," "long time gone..."
I used this clip due to its great audio quality (compared to all the other crap out there) and the live performances of the new track and the other two staples. The man's still got it on stage and the other kid on guitar is pretty f*#king good, too. Travers penned ten of the album's twelve tracks. One of the others was written by a member of the Spin Doctors, I think, and the one gratuitous cover, which PT has always done, usually a respectable effort, is an abominable attempt at "Here Comes The Rain Again" by Eurythmics. Whoever agreed with him that this was a wise choice needs to be shot! Almost tossed the disc out the window anyway! I can not express to you how bad it is. You don't do a rock-ish cover of this New Wave synthpop icon.
The final third of the album is what netted "Can Do" a spot in the library. It closed the race with a strong finish, earning a "show" placement....but only by the slimmest of margins.
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