The Pirates

Guitarist Mick Green, who died of heart failure in 2010, was still a member of The Pirates in the late 90’s, long after pirate founder member Johnny Kidd had expired in 1966, following a car accident. Pirates with a curse attached? This re-mastered album originally was recorded in 1996, with three live bonus tracks recorded in Finland during the same year.

With a pedigree that stretched back as long as British Rock and R&B had been around, Mick performed as a Pirate since 1962, becoming somewhat of a guitar hero and inspiring three generations of musicians.
The Pirates’ sound encompasses genres as varied as rockabilly, R&B, punk and rock, which made them somewhat of a cult band.

On this mid-90’s offering, Green shares vocal duties with bassist/second guitarist BJ Anders, while Romek Parol was responsible for drums. The result is a treasure chest full of mixed booty, containing some genuine gems as well as more insignificant pebbles.

Opener ‘Underground’ is solid rock fare with scorching guitar solos, and ‘Wood In You Fire’ with its Stones-inspired touch and intense backing vocals by Sussi Sörensen is a number not to be missed!
The slower ‘Shattered Glass’ is fairly average, although some up-temp guitar solos and keys by Richard Larsson provide the uplift factor. The choppy and pacey ‘Let’s Eat’ brings pub rock bands like Dr. Feelgood to mind - with added handclaps but minus the unpolished attitude of Canvey Island’s finest.
Simplicity is the key on ‘Danger Zone’, played to great effect courtesy of Mick Green’s slide guitar, and a matching rhythm & bass guitar by BJ Anders.

Title songs should be the crowning glory on every album, but sadly, ‘Land Of The Blind’ has got to be amongst the worst… thanks to a programming machine that makes the track sound like a techno-remix contender for a disco chart parade. What were they thinking?
The Billy Fury cover ‘Wondrous Place’ isn’t half bad, although I have to say that Alice Gold has done a more impressive job with her 2011 version of the song! Not that those actual styles should be compared, but hers is simply the more delicate version and works better.

‘Maybe’ takes us back to R&B with a hint of country. Once again, great riff work, and same goes for the additional Fender Rhodes spiel by keyboardist Larsson.
‘Lover and Fighter’ is classic rock but not original or unusual enough to push it above average, while Cyril Neville’s much-covered R&B number ‘Fortune Teller’ gets more of a rock oriented make-over.

The catchy, and in fact rather poppy ‘My Old Radio’ makes you hollering along to its chorus, but sadly, ‘Sex On Legs’ does not. If the overall sound were harder, I’d say it’s a typical number by bands like Mötley Crüe. But this is executed kind of straight, and not hard enough to give male listeners an erection. As for the lyrics: “You’ve heard of Cleopatra and Helen Of Troy / This one makes them look like a couple of boys / With dresses so short you are in heaven / Just a half inch below C-level.” Had to pinch myself in the arm to check I’m not dreaming, pain tells me NO, I’m not dreaming!

First bonus track ‘Rock Bottom’ (I think the title refers to the aforementioned ‘Sex On Legs’…) stays in familiar rock territory, while ‘I Can Tell’ and ‘Lindy’ thunder across hard and sweaty. Here, the beast is finally unleashed, and with killer solos in abundance.
As I said, a mixed bag of booty… Worth checking out, if only for nostalgia’s sake.