BEST OF/20TH CENTURY

Personnel: Pat Travers (vocals, guitar); Pat Thrall (guitar); Peter "Mars" Cowling (bass); Tommy Aldridge (drums). Producers include: Pat Travers, Thom Allom, Dennis MacKay, Emil Zoghby, Jeffrey Lesser. Compilation producer: Mike Ragogna. Recorded between 1976 & 1981. Includes liner notes by Scott Schinder. This is part of "20th Century Masters: The Millenium Collection" series. Personnel: Pat Travers (vocals, guitar); Pat Thrall (guitar); Roy Dyke, Tommy Aldridge (drums). Liner Note Author: Scott Schinder. Unknown Contributor Role: Nicko McBrain. Since Pat Travers managed only two pop singles chart entries in the U.S., reaching number 56 with his live version of Little Walter's "Boom Boom (Out Go the Lights)" in 1979 and number 50 with a cover of Bob Marley's "Is This Love" in 1980, the assemblage of a best-of is more subjective than it might be for another artist. The discount-priced 20th Century Masters collection seems to have been compiled with a view toward demonstrating that, sales notwithstanding, Travers' work was almost equally worthy throughout his nine-album, eight-year career on Polydor Records. One track each comes from Pat Travers, Heat in the Street, Pat Travers Band Live! Go for What You Know, Radio Active, and Hot Shot, while Putting It Straight and Makin' Magic each provide two, and three come from Travers' most successful album, Crash and Burn. Only Black Pearl is left out. Since chronological order is ignored in favor of no particular order in the sequencing, one doesn't get a sense of the development of Travers' music over time, how he moved from a simple boogie rock approach to more generally accessible (or commercially compromised) material. ~ William Ruhlmann