← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · il ragno
Thread ID: 17345 | Posts: 15 | Started: 2005-03-16
2005-03-16 16:34 | User Profile
[QUOTE]Molly Hatchet Lead Singer Dies at 53
DAVIE, Fla. (AP) - Danny Joe Brown, the lead singer of the Southern rock band Molly Hatchet, died of complications from diabetes, his family said Monday. He was 53.
Brown died Thursday at his home in Davie, a suburb of Fort Lauderdale, his sister Lyndia Brown said.
He had been in the hospital for about four weeks before he died, and he wanted to come home and he was home for 30 minutes when he died,'' Lyndia Brown told The Associated Press.He was surrounded by his children and his wife.''
In 1975, the Jacksonville native joined Molly Hatchet, named after a Southern prostitute who allegedly beheaded and mutilated her clients. Brown was frontman for its self-titled album in 1978, which went platinum. In 1979 the next album, ``Flirtin' With Disaster,'' sold over 2 million copies.
Brown left the band in the early 1980s because of his diabetes.
[B]After creating his own group, the Danny Joe Brown Band[/B], he rejoined Molly Hatchet in 1982 to participate in the album ``No Guts ... No Glory.'' The album had limited success and the group eventually disbanded. [/QUOTE]
I kind of figured Molly was a favorite of many of OD's Southrons.
I bought that solo album of his: "Danny Joe Brown and the Danny Joe Brown Band" was its unwieldy title. In every respect, it was both superior to - and more "Southern" - than any of Molly Hatchet's albums. When he rejoined MH, they added a few of his solo tunes to their setlist, most prominently the Dixie classic "Edge of Sundown". Long out of print and unavailable on cd, perhaps this tragedy will compel some reissue label into a posthumous rerelease. Really a fiery, first-rate recording.
And RIP to DJB, gone much too soon.
2005-03-16 16:43 | User Profile
Farewell, Danny Joe. 53 is way too young...
2005-03-16 17:01 | User Profile
My older brother had a couple of Molly Hatchet albums on vinyl when I was a kid. I remember getting them out just to look at those Frank Frazetta album covers. Who has cover art like that anymore?
[img]http://www.nehrecords.com/shop/Covers.US/MollyFlirtin.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.ancientspirit.de/covers17/mollyha1.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.lyred.com/covers/molly_hatchet_-_devil%27s_canyon.jpg[/img]
2005-03-16 17:12 | User Profile
Quantrill, you wanna hear something really amazing? Frazetta had a series of strokes which impaired his right side, leaving him unable to hold a pen or brush. So, at age 70 or thereabouts, he began relearning how to draw with his [I]left hand[/I].
He's now so adept from the other side he's recently taken to repainting his old canvases!
PS - "Devil's Canyon" and possibly one other MH cover was actually done by preeminent Frazetta imitator Boris Valejo.
2005-03-16 17:27 | User Profile
[QUOTE=il ragno]Quantrill, you wanna hear something really amazing? Frazetta had a series of strokes which impaired his right side, leaving him unable to hold a pen or brush. So, at age 70 or thereabouts, he began relearning how to draw with his left hand.
He's now so adept from the other side he's recently taken to repainting his old canvases!
PS - "Devil's Canyon" and possibly one other MH cover was actually done by preeminent Frazetta imitator Boris Valejo.[/QUOTE] That is amazing. I loved his art when I was younger. You're right about the art on 'Devil's Canyon.' Only the first three albums actually had Frazetta covers, but I wasn't sure which ones those were, so I just pasted links to Hatchet cover art indiscriminately.
2005-03-16 17:48 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Quantrill]My older brother had a couple of Molly Hatchet albums on vinyl when I was a kid. I remember getting them out just to look at those Frank Frazetta album covers. Who has cover art like that anymore?[/QUOTE]
When I was watching the film High Fidelity a while back it occurred to me how much the entire experience of buying and owning music changed with the upgrade from vinyl to CD ROM.
The vinyl LP was a big thing, and so it could handle fancy artwork. The design of the album cover was part of the pleasure of owning the album. Some of them were beautiful (like the Frazetta stuff on Molly Hatchet's records) and in general the scuttlebut on the album covers were part of the folklore. I remember all the chatter about the design of the cover of the latest Led Zeppelin or Stones album.
In contrast the CD is too small to accommodate nice artwork like that. It's no longer part of the experience, at least not much. I don't pay much attention to the inserts, that's for sure. It's just too small for me to enjoy reading or looking at. And the music download is competely devoid of all that good visual stuff.
I think that was part of the reason I liked the film High Fidelity. I'd forgotten what that whole vinyl album experience was like. There's a great moment in the film where the Jack Black character hands a customer his first copy of Dylan's Blonde on Blonde in vinyl and hugs him while he says nearly in tears "it's going to be okay, it's going to be okay." I know exactly how he feels.
2005-03-20 07:41 | User Profile
I was a big Molly Hatchet fan back then (hell, even my dearly-departed bluegrass-loving daddy liked 'em). Danny Joe Brown could really sing, and Dave Hlubek was a pretty good lead guitarist, too.
I remember reading an article in Hit Parader when Brown left the band. Hlubek was very callous in his remarks about Danny Joe: "It's no good for a hard-partyin' rock band like ours to be touring with a pincushion for a lead singer....."
2005-03-20 12:11 | User Profile
Beggin' the General's pardon (and how is the General these days, anyway?) but he's thinking of Jimmy Farrar, the giant-sized replacement for Brown. (A lot of people, seeing 'dead at 53 of diabetes', assume it's The Fat Guy who passed on this week.) Farrar trook over for BEATIN' THE ODDS and hung on for at least another album after that.
Brown was more the lean, bearded, Confederate-officer type with the walrus mustache...he looked more like a figure out of a Matthew Brady daguerrotype. (That fat guy could [I]sing[/I], though! )
2005-03-20 13:55 | User Profile
[QUOTE=N.B. Forrest]I was a big Molly Hatchet fan back then (hell, even my dearly-departed bluegrass-loving daddy liked 'em). Danny Joe Brown could really sing, and Dave Hlubek was a pretty good lead guitarist, too....."[/QUOTE]
Hey, where've you been, youngster?
It's great to have you back!!
2005-03-21 07:41 | User Profile
[QUOTE]Beggin' the General's pardon (and how is the General these days, anyway?) but he's thinking of Jimmy Farrar, the giant-sized replacement for Brown. (A lot of people, seeing 'dead at 53 of diabetes', assume it's The Fat Guy who passed on this week.)[/QUOTE]
Did Farrar have sugar, too? Coulda swore it was Brown Hlubek was cold-shouldering.
The Gen'l is still kickin', all things considered. And how's the Sharpest Knife in the Drawer? I had to come back to get my daily fixes of arachno-genius.
C'mon, man.....I-I'm hurtin, hurtin' real bad......
QUOTE[/QUOTE]
Damn right he could. They were both excellent.
2005-03-21 07:47 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Walter Yannis]Hey, where've you been, youngster?
It's great to have you back!![/QUOTE]
Hello, Walter! Great to hear from you again. I've been spending most of my time at VNN - DON'T SHOOT!! :biggrin:
2005-03-21 17:09 | User Profile
I second Walter, General, 'tis good to see you again.
I trust you're well, and if the worst comes to pass, I hope to see you on the front lines our backyards become. Should you need the services of an Old Man Hinson at that time, I'd be more than willing to help you at Fort Pillow II. :thumbsup:
2005-03-22 08:32 | User Profile
Howdy, MST. When the Day arrives at long last, I'll do my small part to "put a skeer" on the bastards. I only hope it arrives before I have to lead the charge mounted on Rascal.... :whlch: :biggrin:
2005-03-22 14:13 | User Profile
[QUOTE=N.B. Forrest] I only hope it arrives before I have to lead the charge mounted on Rascal.... :whlch: :biggrin:[/QUOTE]
I second that.
2005-03-22 21:18 | User Profile
[QUOTE=N.B. Forrest]Howdy, MST. When the Day arrives at long last, I'll do my small part to "put a skeer" on the bastards. I only hope it arrives before I have to lead the charge mounted on Rascal.... :whlch: :biggrin:[/QUOTE]
Agreed. :thumbsup: I was voicing the same sentiments to the Missus last night, remarking that I didn't want to it to come down when I'm too old to hold my water and have to tell the kiddos, "Sorry we screwed it all up, now you're stuck with the mess."