Pat Benatar in Concert
A fan's collection of tour photos from various concerts and festivals in 1998 and 1999.
http://hometown.aol.com/EDR60/pat1.html |
Onion AV Club: Pat Benatar
An interview on Pat's attempted comeback. Plus an interview with her husband, Neil Giraldo.
http://www.theavclub.com/avclub3204/avfeature3204.html |
Ev's Benatar Place
A fan's collection of photos taken at various Pat Benatar concerts.
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palace/1713/ |
Artist Direct: Pat Benatar
Biography, tour information, message board, and a listening room.
http://ubl.artistdirect.com/fp2.asp?layout=artist_card&artistid=5084&p_id=P+++++3661 |
Pat Benatar - Dave's Humble Page
A very brief fan page with some info on Pat's 1983 concert at the Newcastle City Hall.
http://www.crakehal.demon.co.uk/pat.htm |
Pat Benatar Fan Club
Pat's official fan club site with news, photos, reviews, band info, discography, and member pages.
http://www.benatarfanclub.com/ |
Pat Benatar
The artist's official site with news, tour dates, album information, audio samples and photo galleries.
http://www.benatar.com/ |
Phil's Benatar Page
A brief Pat Benatar fan page with a couple of pictures and some links to related resources.
http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Quad/3529/pathome.htm |
Le Museum De Benatar
A historical tribute to Pat Benatar, presenting a random overview of her career through collectibles.
http://home.nycap.rr.com/lemuseum/ |
Amazon offers
Seven the Hard Way (Audio CD),25 October, 1990
List price $11.98
Some great songs, some good songs, some weak songs / 3
Pat Benatar's 1986 album, "Seven the Hard Way" was an album that would mark the last of her major hits. The album was Benatar's seventh release (thus the title - "Seven the Hard Way"). Benatar had put together a string of solid albums during the 1980s that would yield several successful and well-known singles. These albums were: "In the Heat of the Night" ("Hearbreaker", "I Need a Lover"); "Crimes of Passion" ("Treat Me Right", "Hell is For Children", "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"); "Precious Time" ("Promises in the Dark", "Fire and Ice", "Helter Skelter"); "Get Nervous" ("Shadows of the Night"); "Live From Earth" ("Love is a Battlefield"); and "Tropico" ("We Belong"). This album "Seven the Hard Way" would bring three more successful singles. Throughout her career, Benatar always remained true to her hard rock roots. On her previous studio album, "Tropico" - Benatar showed signs of moving toward a Top 40 artists while not abandoning her Rock and Roll roots. On "Seven the Hard Way", Benatar's Top 40 direction with hard rock roots will continue. In addition, Benatar explores some other areas that will eventually continue in her post - "Seven the Hard Way" career. The result is mixed - this collection has its ups and it has its downs.
Pat Benatar is one of the great female rock vocalists of all time. Taking nothing away from her vocal abilities, Pat has been aided by some terrific songwriting and guitar work from her husband, Neil Geraldo. (I think Geraldo is one of the music industry's most underrated guitar players). On this album, what you will notice is that Pat will shine on the best written songs. On the weaker songs, even Pat's vocals with some terrific harmonies cannot elevate these songs.
I think "Seven the Hard Way" sometimes gets an unfair rap. The Top 40 success of the three singles released ("Invincible", "Sex as a Weapon", and "Le Bel Age") are definitely more on the "pop" end of the spectrum than many of Benatar's previous releases. However musically, these songs are solid and each show some merit.
The first single "Invincible" was actually a theme song from the movie "The Legend of Billie Jean". The only thing negative about this song is that commercial radio in the 1980s overplayed this song quite a bit. There are a lot of good things about this song. I love the drums that kick off the song - followed by Neil Geraldo's guitar. Once again, the often overlooked Neil Geraldo shines on guitar as he has in the past. Of course, Benatar is the star of the song. She brings the same passion and intensity that she has brought on her previous songs.
One of my personal favorite Benatar songs of all time is the second single that was released - "Sex as a Weapon". This song features some outstanding guitar work by Pat Benatar's husband Neil Geraldo (or Giraldo). Benatar's vocals show incredible range as well as she talks from the female perspective about a male exploting Sex. I was surprised that this became my favorite since this wasn't a Benatar or Geraldo penned song. The third single that was released was "Le Bel Age". This one, like "Sex as a Weapon" is one of my personal favorites. Benatar's vocals are in as good a form as you will hear on this song. Geraldo's guitar is on its "A" game. This song has a very unique sound to it - one that makes it difficult to describe in words. The best way to put it is the song has a retro feel set to some very 80s music (this is evidenced by the music video that was set in a 60s nightclub - even though Richard Beltzer is in it!).
The retro theme comes to the forefront in the song "Walking in the Underground". This song has more of a supper club feel than "Le Bel Age" - although it does have a harder Rock finish. This is a song that show signs of things to come in Benatar's career - exploring future directions. Future -post "Seven" Benatar tunes such as "True Love" and "So Long" (from the album "True Love") have almost a Jazz/Supper Club like feel to it - while "Crazy" (from "Gravity's Rainbow") brings a blues like feel to it.
Another underrated tune on this album is the finale - "The Art of Letting Go". This song maintains Benatar's Hard Rock edge. It has all of the trademarks of a good Benatar song - solid harmonies and excellent guitar work by Geraldo. After the 5 songs mentioned above, the album's remaining tracks get weaker. "Big Life" has a good rock edge, but it is a short track and it doesn't really get me too excited compared to other Benatar tracks. "Red Vision" is the weakest track of the collection - I don't even think Geraldo's guitar work can save this particular track. On "Seven Rooms of Gloom" - while I don't think it is one of the better tracks of the collection, I like how Benatar uses the spoken word vocals (she should do this more often, she's very good at it - similar to what she did on "Love is a Battlefield"). As for the rest of the song, there isn't anything else that impressses me that much. "Run in the Raindrops" is an example of a Benatar song where she has excellent vocals, but the excellent vocals aren't good enough to elevate that particular song.
Despite some of the shortcomings of the last four songs I mentioned, there are still some good tracks on this collection. I also think that two of Benatar's strongest performances ("Sex as a Weapon" and "Le Bel Age") do make up for the weaknesses that are mentioned. Benatar fans will probably still get this collection - and the casual fan will probably still do well picking up this collection for the three hit singles.
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Very Best Of Pat Benatar - Pat Benatar : Read reviews and compare ...
Read reviews and compare prices for Very Best Of Pat Benatar - Pat Benatar.
http://cd.ciao.co.uk/Very_Best_Of_Pat_Benatar_Pat_Benatar__6047729
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Amazon.com: A Glance: Pat Benatar
Best Shots ~ Pat Benatar Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars Release
Date: October 10, 1989. List Price:, $16.98. Price:, $13.98 ...
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/artist/glance/-/125094
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