I just bought tickets to go see The Pat Travers Band at our little suburban club in Vienna, VA. As teenager, I was into this stuff for a short period of time, and it will be a fun retro trip back for me and my fellow-Midwestern buddy. I remember buying his albums, other than his big live album, in the cutouts. He was on Polydor records in the late ’70s, and for some reason a lot of their artists ended up in the $2.99 bin as I recall.
Most of Pat’s music strikes me as just missing the hard rock mark for some reason I can’t put my finger on. Is it because it wasn’t drilled into my head on what became Classic Rock radio?
It’s “off-brand” rock—not quite up to Bad Company or Aerosmith at their best, and probably more than a few notches below. It reminds me of Tommy Bolin solo records or Robin Trower or UFO. Of course, I am probably thinking about this the wrong way—because these folks have their diehard fans, I just grew out of it. Anyway, I am kind of looking forward to seeing what Pat is up to at age 61.
Do you have any “off-brand” rock in your stacks that you listen to?
As I have previously outed myself as a roach-clip-in-the-hair, metal-listening chick for a couple of years in high school, I can attest to quite a bit of “off-brand” rock in my stacks. What I actually LISTEN to is another matter. In honor of HVB and the greatest Christmas motorcycle story ever told, I may have to reminisce and listen to a couple of these golden oldies. Scorpions anyone?
Perhaps my odd love for Be Bop Deluxe falls into this category. They’re not quite glam, not quite prog, not quite proto-New Wave (if that is such a thing).
Be Bop Deluxe is a good one. I think Crack the Sky would be another. Actually I think that’s probably the kind of stuff I actually like the most. The stuff you could hear once in awhile, but wasn’t pounded in to you. I saw Pat Travers way back when. He was a lot of fun.