Garage Sale Vinyl: Pat Travers Band
Heat In The Street / Polydor / 1978
by Christopher Long
Oh, the things that teenage boys have done through the ages just to impress teenage girls. In my dopier days, I was one of the most desperate and shameful of these hormone-fueled offenders.
But this particular girl wasn’t just a local beach beauty or a high school hottie. At 15 or 16, she was downright sexy. Relax, I was only 15 or 16 years old myself at the time. Jeanie wasn’t just stunning. She was also super-cool. This rather alluring combination put her completely out of my league, and I knew it. However, that didn’t stop me from at least trying to make a connection.
Jeanie seemed to attend every major rock show that came through Central Florida in those days, and she was always ahead of the curve when it came to discovering cool new bands. As a result, I hung on her every rock-related recommendation and observation.
It was around this time when Jeanie began cooing praises for a particular new rocker on the rise — 24-year-old Canadian singer, songwriter, and guitarist, Pat Travers. As a front seat passenger on the Travers bandwagon, Jeanie made clear that I really needed to check out his (then) current record, Heat In The Street, pronto. As you wish, my fair maiden!
By 1978, Pat Travers’ career was zinging along, having released three previous modest-selling records worth of compelling guitar-driven cock rock — an impressive brand of blues-based bar band boogie. But what made Travers’ fourth LP, Heat In The Street, superior to his past efforts was that it was the record where all the dots connected — musicianship, production, arrangements, and songs.
Additionally vital, the moniker pasted on the album cover now read “Pat Travers Band.” Not only had Travers established an acknowledged rep as an ace guitarist, but he also possessed one of rock’s most powerful voices. His songwriting chops had become razor-sharp, and his gift for crafting a magical melody was undeniable. But the project was now being billed as a band. And what a band it was!
Prodigy Pat Thrall proved to be a perfect guitar partner for Travers. While Travers and Thrall both also contributed keyboard tracks to Heat In The Street, they were cool keyboard tracks. Before moving on to Ozzy’s band, and then to Whitesnake, one-time Black Oak Arkansas drummer Tommy Aldridge had already become a recognized heavy hitter. And bassist Peter “Mars” Cowling provided an extra of measure of secret sauce.
As a 16-year-old underachiever, my typical weekends were spent doing much of the same stupid stuff that teens (still) do. Then, come Sunday night, I’d be holed up in my bedroom with my head buried in my hi-fi headset as I struggled to complete my neglected homework assignments before the Monday morning school bell. The soundtrack to those Sunday night cram sessions always featured Heat In The Street — on vinyl, of course.
I even had the good fortune of seeing Pat Travers Band LIVE on the Heat In The Street tour — one of my all-time most memorable concert experiences. The band was a ball of fire and fury — Aldridge’s tuft of red hair bouncing about just over the top his massive white Sonor rack toms, bashing away, bare-handed during his punishing drum solo, and Travers punching out his mic, knocking it, stand and all, to the ground during the brutal set-closing, “Boom Boom (Out Go the Lights).”
A red-hot, eight-song assault, Heat In The Street has aged beautifully over the years. In 2019, I discovered and scored a reasonably clean and quiet replacement copy at a local thrift-type joint, dirt cheap. However, we wouldn’t truly consummate our (re)union until I purchased and set up my new personal home hi-fi (with turntable) in 2023. Bathed in warm, mild crackle, the vinyl version sounded even bigger and badder than I had remembered.
While much of that credit certainly is owed to renowned producer Jeffrey Lesser (listed on the back cover as Jerry Lesser), I point the finger of blame for that badass brutality directly in the faces of Tommy Aldridge and the late Mars Cowling. Not only was their musicianship superb, but their individual sounds were freaking lethal. In fact, based simply on the drum and bass sounds, I’d still put ALL of my money on Heat In The Street to win any bar fight against any rock contender, particularly from that era.
Although my original vinyl copy of Heat In The Street had vanished over the years, I’d picked up a Japanese import CD edition in the early ‘90s. I also bought a digital copy from iTunes in the 2000s. Despite the digital perfection of those formats, as I mentioned before, you can NOT beat Heat In The Street on vinyl.
The title track and “Killer’s Instinct” were both mighty rib crackers. And while it owned distinctive estrogen-injected backing vocals, “Go All Night” was another skull crusher, along with the instrumental “Hammerhead.” Conversely, the keyboard-driven “One For Me And One For You” was a bona fide, pop-rock clock cleaner.
Truth be told, if forced at gunpoint to make a decision, I’d take Heat In The Street over Van Halen I, any day. Crazier still, an actual former Pat Travers Band member once questioned my mental stability for making that statement. Nearly 50 years later, I’m still standing by that statement. I’m also still standing by, waiting for Jeanie to call me back.
5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Heat In The Street Track List
SIDE ONE
1. Heat In The Street (Travers, Lesser) – 4:28
2. Killer’s Instinct (Travers, Lesser) – 5:10
3. I Tried To Believe (Travers) – 5:06
4. Hammerhead (Travers, Cowling) – 3:05
SIDE TWO
1. Go All Night (Travers) – 3:57
2. Evie (Russell, Van Horne) – 4:14
3. Prelude (Travers) – 3:42
4. One For Me And One For You (Travers) – 6:18
