dog & butterfly (1978) - heart: portrait records, FR-3555

Despite all the lip-service given to the various “rights” movements in the late 60’s and early 70’s (women, minorities, gays, etc), Rock continued to be the domain of the hetero white male. Sure, there were exceptions like Janis or Jimmy, but those merely served to prove the rule.

That’s not to say there weren’t successful bands featuring women . Fleetwood Mac had a couple of women and they were pretty popular. Jefferson Airplane featured a woman as the prominent member. And Carly Simon, Joan Baez, Carole King, and Joni Mitchell were all quite successful.

However, in all of those cases, the women were featured as singers, didn’t play guitar, or they played a softer, more folksy type of music. They weren’t bona fide rockers with a capital O, complete with screaming guitar and that metal intensity. But Heart was a different matter. Heart had a gyno-double, with Ann belting out the vocals and Nancy shredding on guitar.

And Nancy did shred. The band’s first two albums featured songs that have aged into hard rock standards: Barracuda, Magic Man, Crazy On You, and Little Queen. This combination of legitimate hard rock chops along with a sexy woman playing guitar with the ferocity and aggression of a man was at once confusing and mesmerizing. It played with gender roles and the sexual energy of hard rock musicians, and brought a lot of adolescent boys to their concerts.

 Dog & Butterfly was their 3rd album

Dog: Cook With Fire High Time Hijinx Straight On
Butterfly: Dog And Butterfly Lighter Touch Nada One Mistral Wind

Now, I have not listened to this album in close to 30 years, other than hearing Straight On a few times on the radio or on random playlists/mixtapes/CD compilations. Of all the albums I own – whether on vinyl, CD, or digital - I think this one may well be the most neglected. In all honesty, I had actually forgotten that I owned it until I started this project and took an inventory of what I’ve got.

Seeing it sitting there on the shelf between Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and the Hoodoo Gurus was weird. Pulling it from the stack felt weird. Opening the gate and looking at that incredible cover felt weird. Taking the disc out of the sleeve felt weird. Placing it on the platter, cleaning it, and setting the needle felt weird.

As you can imagine, hearing it felt weird, too.

Dog & Butterfly was Heart’s attempt to smush two albums into one. Side one (Dog) was their intense
rock album, complete with intense electric guitar, intense drums, and intense vocals. At least as intense as a corporate hard rock band could manage. Side two (Butterfly) was their softer ballad album, with the softer acoustic guitar, softer rhythm, and softer vocals. At least as soft as a hard rock band could manage.

The result was what you’d expect: despite having some very solid and listenable songs (Straight On, Dog and Butterfly) there was too little cohesion resulting in a bit of a disjointed experience. It never really got as hard as it should, nor ever really became as mellow as it might have. And the result is an album that never really fits any situation. At least not for me. But clearly, I am in the minority, because the album spent 36 weeks on the charts, peaked at #17, and reached double platinum in 1992.

I think it's safe to say that I may not be the guy from whom you want to take musical advice.

Honestly, for me the only thing that really stands out about this album is the cover. This is another example of the magic of full-sized, gatefold album covers. The concept and artwork are just great. The outer cover mimics a Chinese painting in both form and style, even opening vertically, rather than horizontally. And if nothing else, it reminded me that the main reason I bought this album in the first place was because I thought the cover was cool.

Up next: Natty rocks Babylon