MARAUDER
Marauder is the fifth studio album of Southern rock band Blackfoot, released in 1981. The album continued in the same vein as their previous successes, Strikes and Tomcattin’. Opening up with the heavy “Good Morning”, and including the ballad “Diary of a Workingman”, Marauder also sported the hit “Fly Away”, which reached No. 42, and another Shorty Medlocke appearance on the “Rattlesnake Rock n’ Roller”, this time with a spoken introduction and banjo solo. Marauder was the last of their albums that were purely hard, driving, rock – they unsuccessfully introduced synthethizers to their sound through the 1980s, and their popularity waned. Eduardo Rivadavia describes Marauder as “. . . one of the band’s best hard rockers to date”, and “the last great Blackfoot album”. (More from Wikipedia)
Blackfoot front man Rickey Medlocke’s grandfather, bluegrass musician Shorty Medlocke (Blackfoot) wrote the band’s biggest hit single from their most successful album Strikes, “Train, Train” and played harmonica on the song. Another track from this album, “Highway Song” was a hit later in 1979. Shorty Medlocke wrote and also performed on several other songs for the band – “Railroad Man” (on No Reservations), “Fox Chase” (on Tomcattin’) and “Rattlesnake Rock ’n’ Roller” (on Marauder).
(August 2013)
