Flirtin' With Disaster
View on Discogs
Album Summary
Flirtin' With Disaster came roaring out of Jacksonville, Florida in 1979 on Epic Records, and baby, it hit like a freight train with no brakes. This was Molly Hatchet's second studio album, riding the wave of momentum built by their self-titled debut, and the band came back with something fiercer, tighter, and meaner than before. Producer Tom Werman stepped into the studio with the classic lineup — the powerhouse voice of Danny Joe Brown out front, and the holy trinity of guitarists Dave Hlubek, Steve Holland, and Duane Roland locked in behind him — and together they captured something that the stage had been promising all along. That triple-guitar attack, those rolling Southern rhythms, that raw and unapologetic energy — Werman and the band bottled it and pressed it to wax, and the world took notice.
Reception
- The album climbed to number 19 on the Billboard 200, a genuine commercial breakthrough that proved Molly Hatchet was no one-album wonder and that Southern hard rock had a hungry audience well beyond the regional faithful.
- The title track 'Flirtin' With Disaster' became the band's signature song, earning heavy rotation on rock radio stations across the country and driving the album to platinum certification.
- Critics received the record as a sharper, more focused effort than the debut, singling out the muscular interplay between the three guitarists and the raw authority of Danny Joe Brown's vocal delivery as particular strengths.
Significance
- Flirtin' With Disaster stands as one of the defining records of late 1970s Southern hard rock, sitting at the crossroads where the blues-soaked tradition of Lynyrd Skynyrd meets a heavier, proto-metal ferocity that pointed the genre forward into the decade ahead.
- The title track grew far beyond its album origins to become a genuine piece of American rock culture, appearing in films, television programs, and video games — a testament to how deeply that riff burrowed itself into the collective consciousness.
- The album's triple-guitar architecture and high-voltage production carved out a harder-edged lane within Southern rock, setting Molly Hatchet apart from their contemporaries and leaving a blueprint that bands chasing that sound have been studying ever since.
Tracklist
-
A1 Whiskey Man 144
3:38
-
A2 It's All Over Now 206
3:40
-
A3 One Man's Pleasure 105
3:25
-
A4 Jukin' City 146
3:49
-
A5 Boogie No More 161
6:05
-
B1 Flirtin' With Disaster 179
4:56
-
B2 Good Rockin' 126
3:16
-
B3 Gunsmoke 129
3:10
-
B4 Long Time 89
3:16
-
B5 Let The Good Times Roll 149
2:56
Artist Details
Molly Hatchet burst out of Jacksonville, Florida in 1975 like a thunderstorm rolling in off the Gulf, bringing with them a raw, hard-driving brand of Southern rock that hit harder and faster than most of their peers, blending blistering guitar work with the kind of rebellious spirit that made the South proud. They rode that sound all the way to platinum records with hits like Flirtin' With Disaster and Dreams I'll Never See, cementing themselves as one of the heaviest and most electrifying acts the Southern rock movement ever produced. Their legacy stands as a testament to the untamed energy of the late seventies and early eighties rock scene, keeping the flame of Southern rock burning long after many of their contemporaries had faded from the airwaves.
