A long time ago… well, okay, just over a year ago… we looked
\nat Heart’s 1977 release
\nLittle Queen<\/i>. On that disc, Ann & Nancy Wilson found
\nthemselves torn between the worlds of folk and rock. One year
\nlater, the world was treated to two Heart records – one of which,
\nMagazine<\/i>, was the cause of a couple of lawsuits against
\nMushroom Records.<\/p>\n
The other record,
\nDog & Butterfly<\/i>, was further evidence that the Wilson
\nsisters wanted to keep their feet in both the folk and rock camps –
\nonly this time, they enjoyed much greater success in doing so,
\nthough their folk work still was better hands down.<\/p>\n
An incredibly short disc (eight tracks clocking in at just under
\n40 minutes), the disc kicks off with a live performance from
\nMemphis, “Cook With Fire”. The track itself is nothing special, and
\none wonders why they bothered to feature a live version instead of
\ntrying to wow the listener with a live number. (Then again, I seem
\nto recall that “I’ve Got The Music In Me” off
\nMagazine<\/i> was also a live number; maybe this was their answer
\nto that track.)<\/p>\n
Probably the best-known song off this disc is “Straight On,” a
\nfunky rocker with a powerful syncopated beat. Despite its being
\noverplayed by classic rock stations around the country, the track
\nstill maintains a lot of its power and charm – and when heard in
\nthe context of the whole album, still sounds fresh.<\/p>\n
The title track holds some very special memories for me. I can
\nstill remember a friend of mine in college teaching me how to play
\n“Dog & Butterfly” on the guitar – afterwards, we performed it
\ntogether in a coffee house on campus. But listening to the original
\nversion almost ten years since that night, I realize just how
\nintricate the acoustic guitar work on this song really was (and how
\nfar I was from playing the actual guitar chords). Both Ann and
\nNancy’s vocals shine on this one, though I would now question if
\nMichael Derosier should have played drums on this song – it sounds
\nso much better with just guitars, bass and vocals.<\/p>\n
The folk aspect of
\nDog & Butterfly<\/i> makes up the best portion of the album;
\nboth “Lighter Touch” and “Nada One” stand out among some of the
\ngroup’s best work. But the merging of folk and rock finally
\nsucceeds on “Mistral Wind,” a song which starts off in a softer
\nvein and gradually builds to a more powerful conclusion.<\/p>\n
Like on
\nLittle Queen<\/i>, the rockers suffer a bit – “High Time” is an
\nokay song, but not one I’d want to write home about, while “Hijinx”
\nisn’t worth the time to check out.<\/p>\n
But by no means is
\nDog & Butterfly<\/i> a bad album – this was Heart’s strongest
\nalbum to that point, and is one of their albums I’d call criminally
\nignored. With the exception of “Straight On,” I’d be hard pressed
\nto hear any of the songs on this album played on the radio. (I do
\nremember a few years back hearing a live version of “Dog &
\nButterfly” which was absolutely beautiful – though I have no idea
\nwhere it came from. It was no bootleg – the quality was too
\ngood.)<\/p>\n
\nDog & Butterfly<\/i> is a great illustration of the musical
\nstruggle that Heart was facing in the late ’70s – and it ranks as
\none of my favorite albums.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5634],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-38815","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-heart","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38815","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=38815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38815"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}