In 1980, the fates were beginning to smile upon Donnie Van Zant
\nand .38 Special. Their third album,
\nRockin’ Into The Night<\/i>, had brought them their first hit in
\nthe form of the title track. If they thought that life was starting
\nto get good, then their follow-up,
\nWild-Eyed Southern Boys<\/i>, would blow the doors off for
\nthem.<\/p>\n
Looking back at it today, this record is notable for three
\nsongs, not the least of which is “Hold On Loosely”. There’s a
\nreason this track became a hit for the band, and that this song
\nsounds as good today as it did 21 years ago. It was well-written
\nand well-performed – and these are the things which can help a song
\ntranscend time.<\/p>\n
Long-time followers of the band will also recognize two other
\nhits in the form of “Fantasy Girl” and the title track, both of
\nwhich are just as enjoyable as the hit single. Van Zant and
\nguitarist\/vocalist Don Barnes work some absolute magic on these
\ntracks, making sure they would have lasting power far beyond
\nsomeone’s car stereo or their home component system. If there’s any
\ndoubt to their power, compare these versions to the ones on
\nLive At Sturgis<\/i>, and try to pick which versions are more
\npowerful. You can’t do it… more signs of a damn good song.<\/p>\n
Of course,
\nWild-Eyed Southern Boys<\/i> is more than just these three songs
\n– and while the bulk of the material on this album is superb, there
\nare occasional signs of filler. Tracks like “First Time Around,”
\n“Back Alley Sally” and “Hittin’ And Runnin'” are all killer
\nmaterial, making me wonder why they weren’t considered as having
\nsingles potential.<\/p>\n
But there are one or two weaker moments on this disc – not that
\nthe songs are bad, but that they don’t live up to the higher
\nstandards the majority of the album set. Songs like “Honky Tonk
\nDancer” and “Bring It On” (the latter having little to do with the
\nLynyrd Skynyrd song on their album
\nTwenty<\/i>) have their moments, but they just don’t deliver the
\npayload like you would expect them to. As a result, they end up
\nfalling a bit flat.<\/p>\n
Of course, .38 Special was still developing as a band, and were
\njust getting used to the tastes of success.
\nWild-Eyed Southern Boys<\/i> made sure they got a big drink from
\nthat well – and it rightfully deserved all the success it earned.
\nLast time I checked All-Music Guide, this is the earliest of .38
\nSpecial’s albums that are still in print – and it’s most definitely
\nworth searching out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6547],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-36985","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-38-special","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36985"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36985"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}