![]() The older people, who were there back then, have brought it back, not the kids. Today, Southern Rock has made a bit of a comeback. They kept Southern Rock alive in Europe but it changed here in the United States. That's where the gigs are.' So, there was a big shift. Musicians would say: 'I can't make any money playing Rock and Roll anymore so I'm going to join this band playing Country because that's where the crowd is. I'd go into a club and they'd be playing Disco and they'd have a drummer on a set with a pair of headphones playing along with the damn record! 'What is this?.What the hell is this?' Then after Disco, Country really came on strong, on the scene, and people started moving, including a lot of the players, to Country music. When we came back home, after ten years on the road, the clubs weren't even hiring live bands anymore. The Bee Gees had a big part in changing that. And then, after that, Rock and Roll, in general, and the music we enjoyed listening to on the radio changed. At the time,'' Buzzy Gruen told me, ''Southern Rock was happening and I think, first of all, the first big slam to Southern Rock was the death of Skynyrd. Most notably, among these exceptions, was the Ian Gillan (Deep Purple) 1971 penned “Highway Star” which appears on POINT BLANK’S MCA album “The Hard Way” and clearly has the POINT BLANK signature sound written all over it-despite being a cover song. It was not often the group chose to cover the material of others. Both Arista albums and all four MCA albums were chalked full of self-composed songs which were consistent rockers in the field of Southern Boogie Woogie, for which the band became known. Finally, after four albums, and hundreds of arena concerts under their belt, the American public was definitely listening! Obviously, a lot of this had to do with the band’s relentless touring schedule, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the fact that this band simply knew how to write, knew how to rock, and knew how to roll their way into the hearts of their Dixie-Fried fans in the Southern Rock arena. It was during this period in my professional life, while on the air working at an AOR Rock radio station, in Ohio, that I did everything I could do to promote these Texans both on the air and off. While the Arista years defined the group, their switch to Skynyrd’s record label, MCA, gave them their fifteen-minutes of fame on the Billboard charts with a #20 hit single, “Nicole”, from their “American Exce$$” MCA record album. This would include fellow Texans Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill, and Frank Beard, better known in the industry as ZZ TOP, with whom the band shared the same management and still remain friends with today. They played with virtually every known act in the entire genre-becoming close friends with darn near all of them. It was not unusual for the band to play in excess of two-hundred concert dates in a fifty-two week year. POINT BLANK would become one of the most booked, and therefore, one of Southern Rock’s all time most consistent touring acts ever. Not only did the Southern Rocking, hard-driving, record-buying, public finally take notice…but so did the concert promoters and live bookers worldwide. “Uncle Ned” raced out of the Texas dirt track gate and forced the listener to give this Southern Rock band their just due. ![]() The band’s first introductory LP would, from the moment it was released in 1976, proudly take its place in the annals of Southern Rock recordings and indelibly define what was to come from The POINT BLANK Boys for the next thirty plus years.įollowing their self-titled debut, the band’s “Second Season” album gave rise to the story of a good man, with a pea coat on his back, named “Uncle Ned” and, if there was ever an open question concerning the validity of the full-tilt Southern Boogie created by POINT BLANK, then one listen to this tune on the band’s second Arista release quickly ended any such speculation once and for all. He quickly proceeded to sign the company’s very first Rock act to the label, a Tampa, Florida group called THE OUTLAWS but it was the pure consistency of the southern fried, hard drivin’ sound of these proud Texans that kept my attention focused on another Arista Records signing…those POINT BLANK Boys. Arista, which was formerly known in the industry as Bell Records, had recruited former Columbia Records chief, Clive Davis, to run the brand new label. From the time I heard song one, on side one, “Free Man” I knew this act would soon become a force to be reckoned with in the field of Southern Rock. The head of publicity for Arista Records had sent this album to me for review. ![]() Behind it was the solid white background of what was the first self-titled national release of another ''Little Ole’ Band From Texas” called POINT BLANK. Twin barrels of a shotgun stared me right in the face.
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