Rock Music

Turntable Tuesday! Molly Hatchet’s debut album.

March 15, 2022

It’s Turntable Tuesday because life is too short not to listen to great music! This week on Turntable Tuesday I am pulling out the 1978 platinum debut album from Molly Hatchet and I am going to take you back to that time with a story or two. This is one great album so read on for more details.

You may ask where did my podcast go? No where! I am taking a production break to work on some other projects but the podcasting will return as it fits into the schedule. Meanwhile my podcast downloads are still happening daily so go catch up on some episodes as time permits. “They” tell me the podcast is successful as it is in the top podcast rankings per my download counts. I’ll take the consultant’s word for it. You can find the podcast by searching on your device using “Andrew Talbert” in the search bar anywhere you get your podcasts.

The cover of the 1978 self-titled debut album from Molly Hatchet. The cover of this album was painted in 1973 by Frank Frazetta. The title of the painting was “The Death Dealer.”
The band photo on the back cover of the album with the track list at the top. Sadly all of the band members in this photo have now passed away although a band still tours under the name of “Molly Hatchet.” Side two starts off with a great cover of the Allman Brothers classic “Dreams I’ll Never See” written by Gregg Allman. All of the songs on this record are fabulous Southern Rock songs that really are a great listen when you are ready to rock.
From the back cover you can read some of the notes from the days of the album.
From the back cover of the album: The band member listing and a mention of the Peavey amplifier company from Meridian, Mississippi where I spent some time as a kid on my almost non-stop house moving experiences of those days. I should mention I moved 13 times before I graduated from high school as my Dad would re-locate from town to town and state to state in the banking and finance business.

Early fall 1978. I had just relocated to Starkville, Mississippi to attend Mississippi State University to attempt some engineering courses which I wanted to add to my growing college resume. My thought at that time was I wanted to work in a recording studio and learning engineering would be a great way to start. Meanwhile on September 1, 1978 Molly Hatchet released their brand new music and it hit the FM dials on the rock stations all over with lots of airplay. You have to think about what was happening in the late 1970’s. Southern Rock was very popular in the South and in the rock and roll markets of America. The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Marshall Tucker Band, 38 Special, Charlie Daniels, I could continue but you get the point.

Out of nowhere this band called Molly Hatchet covering “Dreams” from the Allman Brothers and songs like “Gator Country” and “The Creeper” appears and I am an instant fan. It was not long before I was headed over to the local vinyl shop which was called “Elysian Fields” to buy a copy of this album. Now I to this day do not know why this record shop was called by this name. Elysian Fields was a ghost town in Amite County, Mississippi and it is located way south almost in Louisiana. The town was established in the 18th century and today could possibly be found in some ruins in the woods down there.

All that said, I barely remember the shop at this point but I do remember it was not far from where I had a part-time job at a grocery store which enabled me to buy vinyl as a college student. They also had a very cool baseball jersey shirt which I wore many times over that period that had green sleeves. Given that was roughly 44 years ago as I write this I am guessing the rest of the details of that vinyl shop will have to come from another source.

A rare concert film of Molly Hatchet in late fall 1978.
From the concert ticket collection – 1979 and 1980.

By the time the fall of 1978 was winding down I was listening to the cassette tape I had made from the debut Molly Hatchet album in my car along with some of my other favorites mostly thanks to the Columbia House Record Club 99 cent mailings to my dorm room. I decided to move out of Starkville as my attachment to MSU and my girlfriend had ended with the warm weather. I loaded all my stuff into my Toyota and headed towards North Carolina to start another chapter.

It was not long before I found a new girlfriend and a couple of tickets to go see Rush except I wasn’t going to really see Rush I was going to see the opening band…Molly Hatchet! In fact our concert that night was over not long after Rush started to play! It wasn’t long before I was back in the same place to see Molly Hatchet headline the show as they exploded in popularity in a few short months and started recording even more hits. I am not sure if I have photos of this band as if I do they are in 35 mm prints in storage and that project is for another day. I have thousands of concert photos from that time even before digital existed. Concert photography has always been challenging due to low lights and fast action but the film days were even tougher!

From the record sleeve…all the lyrics are included for all the songs as it should be! There is nothing like music on vinyl!

This is one great album and I cannot believe it is over four decades old at this point. Time flies! Enjoy each day folks as another day is not promised and the good times are now. Make the best of everyday.

Until next time I’ll see you, down the road.