Of Indians, Italians, Germans And Pirates: Terry Dolan's Later Adventures Revisited

Making a hackneyed joke about how all the Germans love the music of David Hasselhoff is akin to maing a joke about Nickelback being the bane of any real fan of rock music - there is some truth to it but boy, is that joke worn out. Oh, also: Did you lnow that Germans love The Hooters more than almost anyone else? And, since you've read the title and checked the artwork, you'll probably know where this is leading. One country loved the best bar band ever - or at least the most accomplished bar band ever - more than any other country, although Italy fought them really hard/ Why it's ze Germans, of course. You might or will hopefully remember Terry Dolan from making one of the all-time great one-offs (or rather none-off, but that's another matter) with his shelved self-titled debut. Having given up on a solo career, Terry Dolan formed Terry & The Pirates, a.k.a. the best bar band ever. 

Led instrumentally, as Terry Dolan originally had been, by the twin-guitar attack of Greg Douglass and John Cipollina, Terry & The Pirates became a local legend in the Bay Area and consistently drawing in its musicians. But being a great bar band with a really good songwriter like Dolan and a guitar player extraordinaire like John Cippolina didn't mean that the record comapny industry had a use for an aging (urban) legend like Dolan, and his merry band of pirates. They could fill the local bars and watering holes around, but despite Cippolina's somewhat legendary West Coast status and Dolan's proof of talent, they couldn't get a record company to bite on them, after Warner Brothers ditched Dolan. Enter ze Germans. Though to be fair, and chronologically correct, entra en scena: gli Italiani. 

Now that's some pirate crew ya got there, Terry...

Why exactly Germans and Italians latched onto Dolan's good-natured Westcoast rock, while the band couldn't make an impression anywhere else, is a mystery. But Italy and Germany it was to get Terry & The Pirates a forum. The Italians were first with a live album (1979's Too Close For Comfort), but to bring out an honest-to-goodness studio album, Terry & The Pirates had to cross the Rubicon Rhine. Their 1980 debut The Doubtful Handshake and 1981 follow-up Wind Dancer were only issued in Germany, 1982's Rising Of The Moon was at least also issued in Italy a year later. Given their popularity in Germany, it's not surprising that the band was flown over for a very short visit in the same year, but long enough to show up on Germany's legendary Rockpalast concert series, that were televised.    

I mentioned this towards the end of my write-up on Terry Dolan's classic that never was, that his music career didn't end there, and that I might look at his later career a little further on. Well, the time is now. Native American Trilogy is inspired by the artwork of those three albums - as well as the content of a number of songs - and compiles the best moments of those records, which for all intent and purpose are the only records the band did during the Eighties, arguably their high-time as a performing outfit. By the time of Rise Of The Moon, the band had shed their late 70s West Coast rock sound for a typical 80s production, ultrasynthetic and booming-sounding. That's why the title song of that album is here in a nicer, tougher-sounding live version from that Rockpalast concert, together with an instrumental Cippolina showcase called "Cobra". 

Notice ze German-speaking sticker on ze album cover, ja?!

As for the songs, most of them are good old fashioned rock songs, some with a country feel, like the ballad "Montana Eyes" that he cut two times across these three albums, and both versions are equally good, so I kept both. Also on board of this pirate ship is the first issued studio version of Dolan's classic "Inlaws And Outlaws", that had been in his repertoire for the past seven years or so, before making its debut on Too Close For Comfort and, in a muscular version, its studio album debut on The Doubtful Handshake. While not earth-shaking or suer-innovative, these are very fine songs that deserved to be heard by more people than just ze Germans et gli Italiani. 

And now of course you can be some of the lucky non-German and non-Italian folks listening to more Dolan, as we all should. 

P.S. For more John Cipollina, check out Jim Murray's The Ladies Man, if you haven't already...