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Maggie Bell and Midnight Flyer - 1981

gassy goon | 12/05/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Maggie Bell's one and only album with the band MIDNIGHT FLYER sounds clearer than the original album that Swan Song released back in 1981. This CD sounds remastered and really brings out the music much better than the LP. Maggie formed the group with musicians from bands like Foghat, Whitesnake & Savoy Brown. This was her return to making albums after 2 solo albums in 1974-1975, so the wait was long , but worthy. All the members wrote original material and Maggie is captured in her prime vocally. The band rocks, with many guitar crunching songs matched by Maggie's vocals. The sound could be described at times as a mix of AC/DC , Bad Company and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Mick Ralphs of Bad Company produced it. Rockers such as the opener HEY BOY, OVER AND OVER, and MIDNIGHT LOVE are fast paced and energy driven. Songs like IN MY EYES and LAST RESORT provide more melodic rock that differentiate for a nice balance. Maggie really gets to work out vocally on SWEET LOVING WOMAN and FRENCH KISSES - songs that are more earthy and bluesy that she can really wail on. The best song they saved for the closer. ROUGH TRADE is a piano laden ballad rocker that is one of the high points in Maggie's canon of classics. It is reminiscent of the great Stone The Crows ballad SUNSET COWBOY with it's use of piano, but the lyric & emotion are more to the point. Definitely a great song that stands out on this CD. There are also 2 bonus tracks that were released on a mini-LP in 1982 - ROCK AND ROLL PARTY and WAITING FOR YOU [ the other 3 songs from this EP were taken from this album ]. So, you get the complete MIDNIGHT FLYER studio work , and it's definitely a must for every Maggie Bell fan.



The packaging is also elaborate, with a huge booklet containing many rare photos, full biographies on every member of the band, and the history of the group. This corrects the problem of the original album release more than 2 decades later. The original album had a photo of a big rig truck adorning the cover, with a gatefold cover and inner sleeve, with not one photo of the band anywhere. It showed truckers, gamblers & models. All that packaging made it look anonymous or a Southern Rock release. They should have capitalized on the return of Maggie Bell to recording, with a brand new band. I remember the only mention was a sticker on the original shrinkwrap that stated " featuring Maggie Bell ". This was a big return to recording, so how Swan Song & management didn't convey that this was Maggie Bell with a new rock band really missed out on the opportunities to let the public know. This album should have had airplay, especially since female led artists like Heart, Pat Benatar and Pretenders were all having huge airplay, platinum albums and hits. Part of the reason for being overlooked was that Swan Song was Led Zeppelin's label and with the death of John Bonham, the manager for both Zep & Maggie - Peter Grant -lost his friend & biggest act, as well as interest in the music business. Midnight Flyer played many concerts , opening for AC/DC for months. Eventually things just slowed down & Swan Song closed down. But here is the official document of Maggie's time with a hot rockin' band. It deserves it's place alongside her classic QUEEN OF THE NIGHT and SUICIDE SAL albums, and with STONE THE CROWS as well."