CoronaVinyl Day 102 (Badass Album Cover): Molly Hatchet by Molly Hatchet

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is "badass album cover," and there have been a lot of badass album covers over the years, particularly in the metal genre.  I'm going with a group that was known for its badass album covers, Molly Hatchet, and their eponymous 1978 debut album.

Southern rockers Molly Hatchet picked up where fellow Jacksonville natives Lynyrd Skynyrd left off, a year after Skynyrd's tragic plane crash that killer several members of the band.  They named themselves after a 17th century Salem prostitute that allegedly decapitated her clients with a hatchet.  While their signature sound was their three lead guitars, their other main signature was their awesome heroic fantasy cover art on their albums by the likes of famed fantasy artist Frank Frazetta and famed rock/metal album cover artist Paul R. Gregory, featuring medieval horseman and warriors and such.

Molly Hatchet has a place in my heart going back to the mid '80s.  When I was in second or third grade in the Chicago burbs, I had the good fortune that the husband of one of my dad's co-workers happened to be a guy named Paul Korzilius, who had been involved in rock and roll management in one way or another for about a decade at that point, with bands/artists like Queen, Cheap Trick, Billy Squier, and the Alarm.  In addition to fostering my burgeoning love of football by showing me the NFL Crunch Course video one night when they had us over for dinner, Paul had acquired lot of awesome band t-shirts, many of which were far too small for him (a former college football player) or his wife, so I became the beneficiary, even though the shirts were too big for me.  I don't know if he was involved with Molly Hatchet in any way, but one such t-shirt was a Molly Hatchet The Deed is Done tour shirt from 1984-1985.  The front of the t-shirt featured the album cover:

It came down to my knees, but I wore it as a pajama shirt for several years.  One of my biggest regrets in life is that I didn't hold onto that shirt and an old Cheap Trick tour shirt he gave me.

Shortly thereafter, Paul became involved in Bon Jovi's management (and I believe he has remained involved in Bon Jovi's management to this day), just about the time Slippery When Wet came out.  Needless to say, they moved out of their suburban ranch house and away from the Chicago area, and even though I only knew him for a couple years, I'll be eternally grateful to Paul both for introducing me to the fine art of big hits in football and to the fine art of rock t-shirts.

But back to the music.  The Molly Hatchet was pretty straightforward southern rock.  It's got a good groove to it, and the triple lead guitars sometimes give a Thin Lizzy-esque feel to some of the solos.  The album did pretty well.  While it only reached #64 on the Billboard album chart, it did go platinum in the U.S.  The band had middling success over the next seven years or so, going through some lineup turnover in the process.  Their next album, 1979's Flirtin' With Disaster was their highest-charting album (#19), and the title track to that album was their highest-charting single, reaching #42 on the Billboard Hot 100 (and probably the song you're most likely to hear on classic rock radio), while several of their other songs got some AOR play.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Bounty Hunter"
The first track is a foot-stomper that starts of will a swampy guitar riff and then lead singer Danny Joe Brown yelling "helllllll yeaaahhh!"

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Cheatin' Woman"
I like this one because, musically, I think it's the most "metal" song on the album, while at the same time, the title and subject matter is the most "country" on the album.