Bradley's Buzz

Today's Bubbatune - Pat Benatar

There has been a war waging inside my head since I was a little tyke. Who do I like better, Pat Benatar or Deborah Harry? Who will reign supreme as the rock and roll queen? The first record I ever got was Blondie’s Parallel Lines and then the second was Pat’s In The Heat Of The Night. I don’t think there are any albums I’ve listened to more in all these years. I have found through my constant, “Who is better? Who do I love?” struggle, that whoever I am playing at the time takes the cake as my favorite, so with this compilation, Pat Benatar’s The Singles 1979-1981 it looks like Pat Benatar is my favorite singer EVER – today.

PAT BENATAR – THE SINGLES 1979-1981 (bub03)
Album design by Bradley Jacobson

Track List:
1. I Need A Lover (a Side)
2. Rated X (b side)
3. If You Think You Know How To Love Me (a side)
4. So Sincere (b side)
5. Heartbreaker (a side)
6. My Clone Sleeps Alone (b side)
7. We Live For Love
8. You Better Run (a side)
9. Out-A-Touch (b side)
10. Hit Me With Your Best Shot (a side)
11. Prisoner Of Love (b side)
12. Treat Me Right (a side)
13. Never Wanna Leave You (US b side)
14. Hell Is For Children (UK b side)
15. Fire And Ice (a side)
16. Hard To Believe (b side)
17. Promises In The Dark (a side)
18. Evil Genius (b side)

THE STORY
There are so many stories that involve a certain blonde boy named Brad and a spandex inclined wearing diva known as Pat Benatar. Our lives were first entwined when my Aunt Carol came trotting on into our house one night carrying a record album. (For those who don’t know - prior to cassette or Compact Disc, there were these 12” cylinder things made of wax, we would put them on a “record player” and music would come through the speakers. They are often referred to as “records”, “12””, “vinyl” or “LP”… there were also 7” records called “45”s.. this will come in handy later.)

The record Aunt Carol was clutching was In The Heat Of The Night by some chick named Pat Benatar. I had never heard of her but the picture on the cover certainly had me intrigued. Carol told me she had ordered it from Columbia House and they had sent her two and she figured I would like it since I liked that Blondie chick.

So my cousin Paula and I ran up to my blue and white Snoopy stereo and put this Pat Benatar on. The first beat of “Heartbreaker” hit and I realized the song seemed familiar to me. After listening to the intensity of the first side and falling in love with this woman, we played side two which started out with “We Live For Love” – another song I was somewhat familiar with from our radio. I was in Heaven, this chick rocked and she was going right next to my Blondie album.

A few months later my pal Bobby Hallas (yes, I once hung out with boys) came over with his brand new 45, Pat Benatar’s “Hit Me With Your Best Shot.” I was thrilled with it. I couldn’t get enough and wanted my own copy of the single. I asked my mother why it was that everyone in the world seemed to have everything and I couldn’t have anything. It was an ongoing struggle I had with her.

One day we went to Prange Way, a generic little department store before the days of Target or Wal Mart. We went in and as my mother disappeared to try on endless outfits made of polyester, I hit the music department. I was bound and determined to get my hands on the new Pat Benatar album. I figured if I clutched it tight enough I could own it. My mother was in a particularly good mood that day so I knew I could get the record if I asked nicely enough. But there was drama about to brew at the Prange Way.

As I entered the music department I searched and searched and could not find the Pat Benatar album Crimes Of Passion. They had In The Heat Of The Night, but I already had that. I was ticked off beyond belief. I asked to speak to a manager immediately for I couldn’t believe that someone would run a business in this manner.

The manager informed me that they did have a number of copies but they had sold out. They did have the cassette and the 8 track. Well I had never heard of this crazy cassette thing and my mother did have an 8 track player in her old Chevy, so maybe this was fate stepping in. With an 8 track I could listen to the album everywhere I went. What a brilliant idea!

I thanked the manager, ran to the information booth declaring I was a lost child so my mother would emerge from the dressing room and we were on our way to the checkout.

All that spring, Bobby Hallas would come over to my house and we would play my 8track as I acted out every song pretending I was Pat Benatar. I dubbed Bobby, “Neil Geraldo” that spring just so he wouldn’t feel left out.

Somewhere around this time, my mother and father had a fight and Karen decided she was an abused wife. Now there's two weird things about this story (just two?) 1) I don't remember my parents fighting that particular day so I think Karen was just watching Phil Donahue and decided she was abused and 2) normally when my Mom was mad at Big Jim Daddy we would go to my Nauntie Dianne's, but I think this time Dianne was taking a sabbatical at Toots and Jim's bar in Merrill, WI. so she was unavailable for comment.

So my mother decides to call this 1-800 number where they will hook up abused wives with some other woman who will put you up for the night to get away from your stinking man. So my mother packed up a laundry basket full of clothes and we trotted out the door of our abusive surroundings.

This really had no effect on me apparently because I remember as soon as we got to the woman's house I propped my butt down in front of the TV. Wizard of Oz was on so it must've been around Easter time because they used to show that movie every year around that time, and then at 10:30 Fridays was on. Fridays was essentially a Saturday Night Live rip off though I always thought it seemed a little more hip. These days some of those actors actually amounted to something including Michael Richards (Kramer – Seinfeld), Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm – creator Seinfeld) and Melanie Chartoff.

Anyway, this particular Friday, the Friday my mother became an abused wife was also the Friday Little Miss Benatar was the musical guest on Fridays. Apparently being a child from a broken home had its advantages cause I got to stay up to watch it.

I was so excited, I remember my mother telling this lady that I just loved Pat Benatar. So Patty Patty came on in all of her leather pant and red fringed glory. Her Pat Benatar eye makeup all-fabulous. She belted out "You Better Run" while I paraded around all sultry and hard ass as only an effeminate young boy can do. Then she sang her child abuse anthem "Hell Is For Children." That's when I decided I was an abused child. I immediately went to talk to our hostess to find out what my 1-800 number was.

The apple falls far from the tree for the Jacobsons.

That summer, one more spectacular thing happened to me. I was at the Mosinee Municipal Pool swimming my little heart away. Actually, I was at the shallow end of the pool because no one had ever bothered to teach me how to swim.

So as I lounged around holding my cocktail in the shallow end, the radio was playing in the background. WIFC 95.5 FM, the coolest rock station in Wausau Wisconsin and all the nearby communities. The announcer said, “And now the new Pat Benatar,” and out poured “Fire And Ice.” It was the debut of the new single and it was almost like it was dedicated to me!

I knew it was fate that I happened to be lounging around near the radio that day. Otherwise who knew when I would’ve heard about this new song. No one ever kept me informed of such things.

At the time, I was bound and determined to learn how to swim. I wanted to be cool and jump off the diving boards like all those hot teenage boys I saw. But without the ability to swim to the other end of the pool it didn’t seem possible. So instead I learned the best way to be cool and swim in the deep end of the pool was to jump off the edge, turn mid air and grab the side of the pool before plunging into the depths and drowning.

My mother and the life guards were apparently not too aware of this little trick or I’m sure the horrible incident that happened would’ve been nipped in the water logged bud.

As it was, no one knew what I had been up to or that I had perfected this little trick. So it was my big debut to show my mother the newest thing her multi talented little boy could do.

I yelled to her, “Look Ma! I can swim in the deep end.” I jumped off the ledge, I turned mid air, my mouth came crashing down on the edge of the pool shoving my bottom teeth practically through my chin. There was blood and screams and fast reactions and my utter embarrassment that my big debut did not go as planned.

After that, my mother took me to swimming lessons and it only took two lessons and I was swimming harder and faster than any of those 3 year olds in the class. Since that summer, I became a very good swimmer; I was even on the high school swim team for about two seconds.

I still have a little scar from that swimming debacle but even better; I still have all the Pat Benatar memories and songs to go along with it.



THE SONGS
Now you know how I discovered each of Pat’s first three albums. Those albums – In The Heat Of The Night, Crimes Of Passion and Precious Time are what spawned the songs that make up The Singles 1979-1981.

There are a number of Pat comps out there that usually include most of the songs here, but I wanted a full on singles compilation. The problem with that is Pat has had about 32 singles and that just doesn’t fit on one disc. Plus like most of the other people who I have made comps on, there are so many great songs that aren’t singles, and in Pat’s case some of my favorite songs from those albums ended up as the B-sides to the singles. So with that in mind, I began putting together a compilation that would include the A side and B-side of the single. I figured since I would already have to make multiple discs I might as well make them interesting. So in all there are four of the Pat Benatar The Singles compilations – this one, 1982-1985, 1985-1989 and 1993-2003. This is, of course the first.

“I Need A Lover” was the very first single ever released by our Patty Patty. It’s a John Cougar song and he actually released it at about the same time as she did. It’s so strange to think I used to sing along with this song and had absolutely no idea what it was about or even what she was saying in the verses. Thankfully, I grew up and now really understand the song; “I Need A Lover that won’t drive me crazy/someone who knows the meaning of ‘Hey hit the highway’”. Pat apparently loved the song as it was something a woman wouldn’t normally sing and it definitely had the hard-edged attitude she was trying to get across.

“I’ve been walking the streets in the evening/racing through this human jungle at night/I’m so confused my mind is indifferent/hey I’m so weak won’t someone shut off the lights/electricity comes through the video/I watch it from this hole I call home…”

The imagery of the song and of the whole In The Heat Of The Night album is that of deep dark sultry city nights where love or a hot stranger is right around the corner. I loved it! I wanted to live in that little apartment shown on the album cover. Incidentally, it was actually Pat’s apartment at the time. Who knew?

The great thing about making The Singles 1979-1981 is being able to hear the B-sides along with the singles. It feels like a night of sipping wine and playing 45s only I don’t have to get off my fat ass to turn the records over.

One of my all time favorite songs on In The Heat Of The Night is “Rated X” and that was the B-side chosen for “I Need A Lover.” The combo is one kicking debut single. “Rated X” is a cover of Nick (“Hot Child In The City”) Gilder. Nick had the ability to turn in some of the most sexually blatant new wave of the late 1970s. The song is all about a porn star and her quest for some real loving and Pat’s delivery is great. The song changes pace in the middle as Pat screams, “She wakes up and breaks up/and wonders why love is unkind/she wakes up and makes up/and looks in the mirror to find…” but it’s that killer chorus that sticks to you, “Drinking champagne is a pastime/ making hot love is the main line/money buys love and a white tie/drinking champagne is a past time.”

The second single chosen was the very smoky Smokie cover, “If You Think You Know How To Love Me” written by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, it was the Chinnichap Team personified. Dark imagery of passionate nights spent on a beach and the endless search for someone who can really love you. Pat uses her best scratch voice to create a whole world in just a few lines, “Breathless strut on the downtown street/motor bike ride in the midday heat/the dust that hung from the depth sky/run, though we’d run/it still burned our eyes.” The chorus is just as long in length as the verses (and title) as Pat leads up to “If you think you know how to love me/and you think you know what I need/and if you really really want me to stay/you’ve got to lead the way.”

My favorite lines occur in the second verse, “We spent the night in a nameless town/then we moved out of sight with a silent sound/the beach that wept the deserted waves/that’s where we slept/knowing we’d be safe/now you may think you can walk on the wild, wild side with me…” and my favorite, “but there’s a lot I’ve learned/and there’s a lot I’ve yet to see.” This song never even cracked the top 100, but it has some real power behind it. When the chorus hits and the cymbals crack on every other note, I am transported to that deserted beach.

For the bside, “So Sincere” was chosen. It’s one of only two songs on the debut album co-written by Pat Benatar and it is my ultimate favorite song on the whole thing. The song begins with this wild new wave guitar repeat before the keyboards kick in and the drums hit, “You say I love you and we’re so sincere/I look in your eyes and it becomes quite clear/you want what I want/you need what I need/when I turn to leave/you bleed and bleed and bleed and bleed.” It is so powerful and so catchy.

Again my favorite lines come in the second verse, “we’re living so fast/we’re not living at all/two sparrows tied together/will always fall/we know we love each other/so there’s nothing to prove/but I’m going to smother/ if somebody don’t move.” Love it!

In very exciting news, my pal Louis from Tiki Lab who did a bang up job of remixing “Debbie Doesn’t” has written music for a “So Sincere” cover so hold onto to your wigs and keys cuz a Swivek version is just around the corner.

Finally, the single that broke our girl into the mainstream. Da da da da da da da da bom bom, that’s my interpretation of the thunderous beginning to “Heartbreaker.” What can be said about this song, other than “sheer brilliance.” One of Pat’s signature tunes, I had never heard a woman sing like this before. Bellowing, screaming, singing notes never heard on rock radio. In fact, radio didn’t want to play it saying it was too “hardcore”. Can you imagine?

“My Clone Sleeps Alone” is one of those uber fantastic songs that could’ve only happened in the late 70s or early 80s. Crazy lyrics and crazy theme but excellent tune. The song begins as a piano ballad and Pat’s high octave, “You know and I know my clone sleeps alone/she’s out on her own forever…” You’re left thinking, “What?” but I guess at the time cloning was in the news. The song ends up with hilarious lyrics like, “No VD, no cancer/on TV’s the answer/no father, no mother/she’s just like the other/no loud cloned ladies allowed in the 80s/no bad names/no sex games/just clone names and clone games/and you know and I know/my clone sleeps alone.” Can you even imagine? Pat has said this is the very first song she ever wrote… now there’s something I’d kill to have on MY resume.

“We Live For Love” is another classic that was released as a single. The song has been accused of being a Blondie clone but besides the “aaah” backing vocals, I don’t notice it all that much. It is very new wave as Blondie was doing at the time, and it’s a little less rock than you would imagine Pat would be doing but it’s downright catchy. Perhaps with Mike Chapman and Peter Coleman (who worked with Blondie) creating the backdrop for the album, there was bound to be some comparisons.

When you hear “Rated X”, “My Clone Sleeps Alone” and “We Live For Love” you can easily recognize the debut album wasn’t the hard rock that Pat would be known for. It’s more new wave rock but Pat was going to cultivate the rock and roll album the next time around. (Note: The B-side to “We Live For Love” was “So Sincere.”)

The first single from Crimes Of Passion, was Pat’s version of the Rascal’s “You Better Run.” This song is the Pat Benatar image personified - killer guitar licks, feisty attitude, “You Better Run, you better hide, you better leave from my sight..” It was the second video ever to be played on MTV and in the video Pat is her pissed off, short boy haircut, 80s stripe wearing, leather pant loving best.

The flip side of “You Better Run” is one of my all time favorite songs by Pat ever… “Out-A-Touch.” On Crimes, Pat wrote more than she had on the previous album and this is one of the songs she co-wrote. It is so sublime in its lyrical kiss off. The music blends together the best of both of her albums, the chord changes and drama are very new wave while the guitar solos and drum rolls are rock and roll. Pat changes keys and chords so often it could’ve ended up a big mess but instead it’s ferocious and fun.

“I’ve seen your picture in the paper/on the front page of magazines/I pull the trigger right at you on billboards and movie screens…” Again, it ends up having some corny lyrics but I think in 1980, it was the coolest thing in the world, “Can’t you see I’m obsessed/I do anything/I’m obsessed/I’m in a constant rage/ an illuminary stage/I need you…” and the ultimate, “When I look it’s in your eyes/and I know you’re looking from hypnotize/how long does it have to last like this?/the kodachrome kiss?”

The ending of the song has Pat chanting, “I need you, I need you,” raising an octave with each plea until the drum kicks its last beat and Neil strums his last guitar lick, and Pat’s echoed voice is left hanging, “I need you…” It was the last song on the album and a perfect way to end it.

The second single from Crimes Of Passion was the song that pushed the world into full on Benatar mode. “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” has been on the radio since its debut in October 1980. “You’re a real tough cookie with a long history/of breaking little hearts like the one in me…” If “You Better Run” didn’t solidify Benatar’s image as a hard ass bitch, then this was the song that was definitely going to do it. It was her first gold single, her first top 10 hit and it sent Crimes Of Passion into multi platinum status.

The song most people hear isn’t all that hard edged, but the single version has a different guitar intro than the album version. I hadn’t really noticed since I didn’t listen to the 45 since I was a little kid, but every single version of the song that’s ever been on any compilation is the album version. I recently bought the UK version of Best Shots (Pat’s first greatest hits collection) and they included the single version, which is so much tougher.

It is also the version I used to perform at my Nauntie Dianne’s house. But that’s another story….

The B-side to that 45 Bobby Hallas brought over all those years ago, is a fun little pop confection called “Prisoner Of Love.” The song was written by Scott Sheets, the second guitarist in the Benatar camp. The lyrics are all in accordance to match up with the title, there’s images of jails, chains etc. all incorporating the prisoner theme. But it’s a very catchy little number and probably one of Pat’s more overlooked songs. I always liked it, unfortunately on my 8-track it was the song that would fade out in the middle and then pick up on the next channel .. (I know some of you have no friggin clue as to what I’m talking about, you’re better off.)

“Cold hard labor/it’s the labor of love/convicted of crimes, crimes of passion/caught in a chain gang/the chain of fools/solitary confinement/confined by the rules..” to the chorus, “I’m just a prisoner/an inmate of love/oh I’m a prisoner/captured by love/with no escape/no where to go/no place to hide/hey, I’m a prisoner/I’m just a prisoner.”

The images continue through the next verse and chorus into a pretty killer guitar solo and onto my favorite verse of all (the third), “find an escape/a key to the door/gotta get out/can’t take anymore/make a clean break/to bury the past/I’ll shed these chains/and be free at last/I’m just a prisoner/a prisoner of love/hey I’m a prisoner!”

The final single from Crimes Of Passion is the very first song from the album, the kick you to the curb “Treat Me Right”. It’s another Benatar co-written song and it’s another of those “don’t mess with me” songs she was so apt to do at this time. It has some of the best beats and best lines of all the songs on Crimes Of Passion.

“You want me to leave/you want me to stay/you ask me to come back/you turn and walk away…” Pat declares she’s no martyr and she’s no saint but if you know what’s good for you, you will treat her right. The coolest part of this song is the guitar solo which starts at the exact note Pat sings and goes from there. Apparently this is the first song where Neil took that idea and went with it. For some reason, it’s very remarkable to me.

The UK and the US released different b-sides for the “Treat Me Right” single. Here we got the Neil Geraldo/Pat Benatar penned “Never Wanna Leave You” which is an excellent little foray into new wave rock. The jittering guitar through out the song as Pat sings in her high octave is excellent, “never could say what I wanna say/never could do what I wanna do/never could believe you/if it’s true/never would/never could you make it so hard/I never wanna leave you…” and then the song has a bridge. I love bridges and I think I learned to love them by listening to Pat’s songs as she usually has some killer ones thrown in.

In “Never Wanna Leave You” she lowers her register and I’m finally able to sing along with her, “Move in together/coming apart/you’re what I need/I’m what you want/never could refuse you from the start/never could/never would/never could you make it so hard…”

The song ends with Pat echoing “Never wanna leave you, never wanna leeeeave you, never wanna” and a winding guitar through to the end which sounds like someone just turned off the tape. In fact when I heard this song on my 8 track I was sure I had got a bum version. That is until Bobby Hallas informed me his vinyl copy ended the same way.

The UK put “Hell Is For Children” as the Bside to “Treat Me Right” which is probably good as it’s one of Pat’s most famous songs and I was then able to put it on this singles collection. Personally, I’m a tad sick of hearing the song but that’s only because I’m a Pat nut who can’t go three days without listening to one of her CDs, and this song is everywhere. If it’s not a live version, then it’s the recorded version or she’s performing it somewhere on television.

The song is about child abuse and the title was actually the title of an article bassist Roger Capps was reading describing the child abuse situation in the US. This was 1980 and the whole abuse thing wasn’t really talked about and no one seemed to be aware of the real problem. Pat and Roger wrote out the lyrics while Neil came up with a pretty haunting melody that breaks into a full on rage by the end of the song with Pat screaming, “Hell is for Hell! Hell Is For Children!” To this day, it’s still a pretty chilling number and one Pat performs every single time she performs.

Then the summer of ’81 hit with the album Precious Time. The first single, that single that made me bite into my lower chin and cause unnecessarily damage was “Fire And Ice.” The first thing you notice is the song has a different feel than any of the singles that came before it. The whole Precious Time album actually has a different feel. Where In The Heat Of The Night was steamy and dark, it had a certain airiness to it; Crimes Of Passion was full of hard guitar riffs but was filled with enough pop hooks to breeze by rather fast. Precious Time on the other hand was dark and dirty.

Featuring a cover of “Helter Skelter” and a 6 minute title track, the guitars were grungier, the drums heavier and the lyrics darker.

By now you’re all thinking, but “Fire And Ice” isn’t so dark.. and that’s true. It’s also the one song Chrysalis Records insisted Pat put on the album. Apparently our girl was never too fond of the lyric, “ooo you’re giving me the fever tonight/I don’t want to give in I’d be playing with fire..” but the record company knew a single when they heard one and so there you have it.

The flip side to “Fire And Ice” blew me out of the water (blood soaked and all that it was)when I first heard it. Pat had never really done anything like “Hard To Believe” before. It had remnants of “Never Wanna Leave You” with melody changes and all but there was something different about it. I didn’t know what to think when I first heard it. But now it is one of my all time favorite tracks Benatar has ever done.

The first co-writing partnership for Neil Geraldo and drummer Myron Grombacher, it’s filled with breezy lyrics, “Yesterday’s a by line/words upon a page/tomorrow is a deadline/sudden and it’s strange” and then changes melody pumping hard rock, “Hard to believe you ever could leave but you did/hard to believe you ever could leave” then back to breeze, “Nowhere to go/can’t sit still/look for motive/ in the time that I kill/thinking of ways/to fill up my empty days/to fill up my empty days” and then a third change as the music becomes a mellow drum and guitar roll, “Hard to believe/you’d leave when I need you/I need you so/it’s Hard to Believe…” and the whole thing begins again, with an ending rolling those drums and Pat’s “Hard to believe/you’d leave when I need you/I need you so/Hard to believe” and the music gets harder and harder until it ends in the same way as “Never Wanna Leave You”, a guitar left mid-air wondering what happened to the song it was playing in.

Then it’s onto my ultimate favorite single Pat has done; “Promises In The Dark.” This song being my favorite was not always the case. In fact, like I said I found Precious Time to be a little less than a worthy successor to the brilliance of In The Heat Of The Night or Crimes Of Passion (which I had dubbed as the closest thing to Heaven you would ever find down here on Earth).

The song seemed so long to me in my little brain. Clocking in at 4:48 it is a five minute single which wasn’t too popular at the time. Most songs at 3:30 are a little long winded for radio, but by this time Pat could do what she wanted.

“Promises In The Dark” starts with Pat singing over a piano and quiet guitar swirl, “Never again/isn’t that what you said/you’ve been through this before/and you swore this time/ you’d think with your head/No one would ever have you again/and if taking was going to be done/you’d decide where and when/just when you think you’ve got it down/your heart securely tied and bound/they whisper promises in the …. And the guitars and drums kick in as Pat sings, “daaaarrkkk…”

The second verse is done in the same melody but it’s now a balls out rocker with Pat growling the same thing she just whispered about. And then it’s the bridge.. oh the bridge, where the band switches melody, Pat switches keys and keeps getting higher and higher then growls, then sings high and then growls, and then high, high, high until only dogs and Mariah Carey could hear her…

“But promises you know what they’re for/they sound so convincing but you’ve heard them before/talk is cheap/and you gotta be sure/and so you put up your guard/and you try to be hard/but your heart says tryyyyy agaaaaaaaaaaaaiiinn…” as it fades into one kick ass rock and roll guitar solo.

The final verse is filled with anger and passion and sends me into a flurry ever time I sing it, I mean hear Pat sing it, “You desperately search for a way to conquer the fear/but no line of attack has been planned to fight back the tears/where brave and restless dreams are both won and lost/on the edge is where it seems it’s well worth the cost/just when you think you’ve got it down/your heart’s in pieces on the ground/they whisper promises in theeeeee….” And the whole thing goes silent… until Neil yells, “1,2,3,4” and Pat hits octaves only a pro like she could, “daaaaarrrkk…” before another killer break out guitar solo and a drum roll ending. It’s truly one of her hardest rocking songs and now that I’m older and can relate to the shit bag she’s singing about, I am in love with the song.

In real life, the shit bag in the song is Neil and was written at a time of turbulence between the two, but to me it represents just about every shit bag I've ever known. Isn't that just a dainty little term. Anyway, "Promises" was originally intended to be a ballad the whole way through but apparently anger overcame and it became the powerhouse it is. A side note should also be mentioned that Pat, still sketchy about her own writing, slipped the lyrics to this song under the bedroom door for Neil to read.

The Singles 1979-1981 ends with the strange little ditty known as “Evil Genius.” The B-side to “Promises In The Dark” it’s the tale of an evil little genius who takes a gun and murders someone. I recall seeing an interview of Pat around the time she was recording this album and they were saying the new album was going to be called “Evil Genius.” It’s probably best this song is only an album/b-side cut and didn’t become an actual album title thus reminding everyone of its existence.

The song begins with Pat singing to a quiet keyboard, “They were so ecstatic when the letter arrived/a certified genius at the age of 5/they planned his future so carefully/he was everything they’d hoped he’d be…”

The drums and guitars kick in as Pat tells the story of this boy genius that lived his life in a “video fantasy” until that day when he went into hiding “cause there’s fingerprints on the gun.” The guitars churn up and Pat goes from growl to high octave in each line, “Why’d you have to do it Evil Genius/was it justified in your mind/Why’d you put us through it Evil Genius/was it justified in your mind anytime you held a grudge?”

Now the thing with “Evil Genius” is it’s not really a bad song. In fact, musically it’s one of the most interesting songs in the Benatar catalog. There are horns, there’s a great guitar solo, Pat’s vocals are tight – rough and sweet just like we like her, and the middle break with all the horns and guitars playing off each other is excellent.

So I think it’s the lyrics that put many a critic into a tailspin. In the review of Precious Time in Rolling Stone (entitled “Spandex Ballet”) the reviewer says both Pat and Neil (the writers) should be embarrassed by the song. I think that’s a tad harsh, but I guess it’s not necessarily a song they should run around bragging about either.

These days, I really get into the song. The music is so excellent and its something that wasn’t really done at the time, particularly by Pat and the boys. Plus her voice is so powerful through out the track she could be singing the phone book and it would still be . the best thing you ever heard.

But I do have to admit, as a kid, the song did creep me out a little and even now, if you turn out the lights and listen to it, you will probably look around the corner of the sofa to see if that little evil boy is coming after you.

Stay tuned for tomorrow when we look back at the smoke filled voice of Kim Carnes and a little bitch named Beth who got me suspended in middle school….

posted by swivek @ 6:05 PM