• AllMyVinyl #156
• Band: Pat Benatar
• Album Title: Seven the Hard Way
• Release Date: 30 Oct 1985
• Date purchased: Unknown, but it was in the last five years, see below
• Location purchased: Unknown
• Color of vinyl: black
• Number of discs: 1
• Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs | Band Website | Complete album on Youtube ]

Pat Benatar is always an artist that I liked.  I’ve known about hear since the early 80’s, and through that decade, you couldn’t be a music fan (especially with MTV) and not know about her.  But I think a lot of people got stuck there, because a lot of people tend to think of her for “Heartbreaker” and “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”, and they’re done with her.  That’s a shame, because her best stuff came AFTER the 80’s.  So today I’m going to write a bit about her sixth overall album, “Seven the Hard Way”, released on 30 Oct 1985.  That date is why I’m writing today, because alphabetically this album is out of order on my queue of vinyl to get through, but it *IS* 40 years to the day from it being released.  So it seemed like a perfect opportunity to write something this morning.  This is also my only Pat Benatar album I own on vinyl, so as such I might be a bit more wide ranging about Pat than just this single album.

This is her sixth overall studio album, but the seventh total if you include the 1983 live album “Live From Earth”.  That’s significant, because it’s why the title of this album is what it is.  If you follow her career in detail from start till here, it’s basically album/tour, album/tour, album/tour year after year.  Couple that with the demands that the label put on her for her gender (come on, sex it up), she basically had enough, and it came out in the title of this song and the lead single/first song.  This is laid out pretty well in her autobiography titled “Between a Heart and a Rock Place“.  I have vague memories of hearing that story back when the album was new as well.  After this she finally did get a break before doing her following album in 1988, so that part was good.

Anyway, my memories of this album as I sit here to write today on the 40th aren’t the greatest.  I don’t think Pat’s ever made a truly bad album, but my decades old memories of this one are that I liked the three well known songs on it (Sex as a Weapon, Invincible, & Le Bel Age), and beyond that, little else.  In fact as I pick up the vinyl and look at the tracks, I can’t tell you any one of them by name, so most of this listen will be sort of new, unless things surface in my decade old memories as I listen.  Speaking of this vinyl….

I didn’t buy this copy on vinyl back in the day.  In 1985 I was primarily buying cassettes (CD’s were still a couple of years off for me then) as I was all about the Walkman and boombox at this time. I still bought vinyl as late as I think 1988, but it had to be a band I was deeply into (hello Black Sabbath), but for this one I didn’t buy this on vinyl.  I actually don’t recall buying it on CD ever as well, because of my general apathy towards the album back in the day.  The old cassette no longer survives.  But in an oddity, I can’t tell you where THIS vinyl copy comes from either.  I am sure it’s not from the haul that lived in my mom’s basement for 30 years, because I checked my inventory I made of that when I got it – nope not there.  I do have a memory of getting it recently when I was shopping for something else, happened to find a copy of this cheaply and picked it up WITH something else.  But I checked all the places I’ve bought vinyl from in the last few years (Amazon, Discogs, Tower Records, etc), and I can’t find it.  I PROBABLY happened upon it on a trip to my local record shop (Josey Records) when looking for something else, but forgot to log that.  Oh well, the first of my 2020 decade of record acquisitions that I’ve forgotten the source for.  D’oh.  But it’s here in 2025, so we’ll give it a listen…..

Sex As A Weapon – The second single off the album, and the first track for me is probably my favorite song off the album.  It’s got a catchy hook, some REALLY great guitar work, and lyrics that I can get into.  A strong combination, and a GREAT album opener.  It’s also not written by Pat or Neil either.  It was written by Tom Kelly & Billy Steinberg who were songwriters who wrote a ton of stuff for other popular artists. Couple of examples there are “Like a Virgin” for Madonna, “True Colors” for Cyndi Lauper, “Alone” for Heart, & “Eternal Flame” for the Bangles.  Anyway, no matter who wrote it, this song was damn good.  It does have a few trappings of the era it was produced in (hello synths), but overall it’s a great guitar track.  I previously mentioned the guitar work – the solo from Neil is quite searing – for more hard hitting than a lot of tracks, great sound.  Lyrically I quite love the line from the chorus that says “Love is more than a one way reflection”.  Pat’s delivery of the line “Stop using sex as a weapon” had a nice style to it – she emphasized the “Stop” part of it.  Sadly we as a race haven’t learned jack shit from the message of this song, as it’s still used even more than ever as a weapon.

The video is somewhat comical. It was a bunch of random imagery loosely connected to the lyrics, but again from 1985, the effects are comical now 40 years later.  Great song, slightly dippy video – I’ve embedded it below if you’ve never seen it.

Le Bel Age – First off, until today I always thought it was “La Bel Age” – the memory cheats. :)  It starts off with a cool sounding guitar riff that feels like something I’ve heard before.  Granted, I could be thinking of *THIS* from the past, as it is 40 years old – again the memory cheats.  This is the longest song on the album (at 5:11).  Musically, this isn’t my favorite song, but I have always loved Pat’s vocal delivery here.  It’s a pretty quiet song – Neil is quite restrained on this one, almost non existent for most of the track.  My memory has it filed under “big hit”.  It was the third (of three) singles off the album, but as I listen to it here, it’s definitely not the most “out there” track – it starts in that lower gear and never escapes from it.  Pat’s vocals are of course excellent, but I wish there was a more active song  behind her.  Another song not written by Pat or Neil as well.  This is kind of a theme for this album.

Walking in the Underground – We finally get to a track written by the band (Neil & the drummer Myron Grombacher).  It’s also in the same kind of lower gear as Le Bel Age, but has more guitar to it.  The guitar solo in the middle is pleasant, if not in your face like Sex as’s solo was.  Yeah, this is kind of a forgettable track.  Even Pat’s vocal delivery which is normally a highlight is unremarkable.  Not bad, but not the usual Pat Benatar vocal beatdown a lot of her songs are. Although once we start on the fadeout, there’s some vocal gymnastics, but a little too late.  One positive is there’s some nice bass guitar work more in the front than bass usually is in Pat’s material. Overall, a fairly forgettable track – the kind of track that shows up on the back half of side 2 not third on the album.

Big Life – Second in a row written by the band (Giraldo/Grombacher), starting off with a big drum intro.  It’s got a bit of that 80’s electronic drum sound, but I can live with that.  It’s a way more lively track than the last two were.  Drums and guitar work are WAY more the dominant factor here.  So much so it feels more in front in the mix than Pat’s vocals.  Very enjoyable song – enjoyed the entire vibe from start to finish. It’s the shortest track on the album at 2:42.  But it’s a powerhouse of a track, one I’ve totally forgotten about.

Red Vision – Third in a row written by Giraldo/Grombacher.  It too starts off with a drum intro similar to Big Life.  This shares a similar sound to Big Life in that the drum/guitar work is more in the front over Pat’s vocals in the mix.  I do quite like the guitar sound here, this is more of a harder edge song.  Not quite like something like Heartbreaker, but the guitar sound feels in that vein to that to me.  I quite like this as I did Big Life.  I wonder why I’ve forgotten about both, as they seem to be the kind of tracks I’d be into.  I really dug the outro as well, which has a great sound to it, and goes on longer than the usual outro, but not so long it outstays its welcome.  Good stuff.

7 Rooms of Gloom – This is a cover of the 1967 song of the same name from the Motown group “Four Tops”.  The original doesn’t sound a ton like this version.  In fact the original doesn’t sound a ton like Motown either – it’s a faster paced song, but the Benatar version sounds more like it’s her own mid 80’s song than a Motown cover.  I like the faster pace of the song, but overall, another somewhat forgettable track.  When I saw this was a Motown cover, I thought it could have been a precursor to what we got on Pat’s most excellent 1991 studio album “True Love“, but this wouldn’t fit on that album stylistically.  Still, an enjoyable listen, just one I wouldn’t revisit if I wasn’t taking in this entire album in one go.  The closing guitar work on the album was nice – but not from the Motown original. :)

Run Between the Raindrops – Back to a band written song (Giraldo/Grombacher), and this has a different sound.  It’s got the bass guitar out front along with Pat’s more restrained, higher vocal range lyrics.  It’s a killer combination.  As I sat here listening to it, I just enjoyed the aural soundscape I was hearing.  Didn’t want to put much thought into it, I was enjoying what I was hearing.  It’s one of those “close your eyes and enjoy it” kind of tracks for me.  So much so that when I finished it and glanced at the lyrics, I had no idea what any of them were.  Definitely an “aural soundscape” kind of track for me.   Enjoyed it very much, but can’t tell you why.

My research tells me this was used in a 1987 horror film called “The Stepfather“.  I’m unclear if it was written FOR that film, or just used in it.

Invincible – We get to the first single from the album, and probably the most well known track to anyone from the album.  It was put out a few months before the album came out (which usually wasn’t done in the mid 80’s – unlike now).  The song came out that way as it was the big track from the movie “The Legend of Billie Jean“.  Arguably a fairly bad movie, but the song was EXCELLENT.  It was co written by Simon Climie & Holly Knight.  Knight co-wrote Pat’s earlier big hit “Love is a Battlefield”.  Knight also co-wrote a popular hit around this time called “The Warrior” by the band Scandal, but I digress.

Invincible is a full band rock track – every instrument is well engaged, nobody’s held back.  Very radio friendly track, which sometimes can be bad news, but the whole damn thing works.  The chorus is super catchy – in fact I kept hearing it in my head when the song was over and I broke for a minute to write all this stuff.

The music video is filled with a bunch of clips from the movie, which I’d wager is probably the only thing from the movie that 99% of the people watching the video ever saw of it. I can definitely say that’s the case for me.  The video has the band playing on some odd looking stage setup – I have to imagine that has something to do with the movie.  Anyone who actually knows the movie have anything to say about that point?   I also really love Pat’s look in this video.  I’m well known for disliking women with short hair, but this is one of the few looks that works – hair, makeup, clothes – yes!  The picture of Pat above is from the video.  I sent it to my wife and asked if she remembered this.  As part of her reply she said “That orange eye shadow is screaming 80’s”.  You’re not wrong dear, but that look totally works for me – let me know if you want that color.  :)

The song was also apparently used in the 2002 film “Hysterical Blindness” with Uma Thurman, but I didn’t know that until today.

The Art of Letting Go – This last song on the album leans more into what a sound I’ve heard from Mk III of Deep Purple – it’s got a bit of a funk sound to it, and a VERY strong electronic drum sound that dominates the track.  I’ve never been a huge fan of that drum sound, it kinds of turns me off.  I do like a bunch of Neil’s guitar work in this, but the rest of the song doesn’t do a lot for me.  Probably to do with the dominance of the electronic drum sound.   Pat’s vocals show some nice range, but yeah – this song doesn’t do a ton for me beyond the guitars when they get a chance to shine.   The fadeout is musically uninteresting, I actually stopped it once it started fadeout.  :(

Overall, I found this to be better remembered album than I thought from the past (which was the three singles and nothing else).  A handful of tracks I VERY much enjoyed, one or two were meh, but overall, I discovered an album that I’ve overlooked.  I think part of the issue is because when I think of Pat Benatar anymore, I gravitate towards her later material.   As I said before she’s someone who I thin if you ask the random rock fan about what Pat Benatar tracks you’d like, they’ll remember the big ones.  Heartbreaker, Love is a Battlefield, Hit Me With Your Best Shot.  Maybe Shadows of the Night or Hell is for Children. Because that’s her stereotype, but man she’s so SO much more than that.  (This is where I’m writing about the rest off Pat’s career since I own just one of her albums on vinyl – it’s my only chance).

At this point (counting just studio albums) she’d have put out six studio albums.  They are In The Heat of the Night (1979), Crimes of Passion (1980), Precious Time (1981), Get Nervous (1982), Tropico (1984), & Seven the Hard Way (1985). I bought all of them.  Enjoyed them all.  But I think it was the two-ish year break she took after the Hard Way tour that recharged her, and introduced the concept of experimentation.  The albums I listed above, while not sounding similar were all cut from the same cloth.  Excellent stuff, but they collectively all go together.  It was her next album – 1988’s “Wide Awake in Dreamland” that I felt she turned the corner to her more mature era.  I mean things like “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” while popular were not really awesome pieces of music – was a radio hit.  It was on Dreamland that I think she cracked the code on writing catchy songs that say something and sound more mature.  Dreamland also came out during the time my wife and I first met.  I don’t like it for THAT reason, just a marker of time.  Dreamland has some really good rock out stuff (All Fired Up, Cool Zero), but also has more thoughtful stuff like “Too Long a Soldier” & “Let’s Stay Together” – not to mention “Cerebral Man“.  It’s a killer album.  I have many memories of listening to this with my then girlfriend (now wife) in her bedroom back in the day.  Perhaps it has a connection because of that, but I legit do really love the music on that album.

The next one after that was 1991’s “True Love“, and man this was a departure.  It was not a rock album, it was what I’ve seen described as a “jump blues” album.  It was a mix of covers and original tracks in that style.  It was received poorly, got a lot of negative reviews, but fuck it – I ADORED this album.  I loved the experiment, and I LOVED the execution.  I’m a huge fan of this album. Tracks like “Bloodshot Eyes“, “True Love“, “So Long” are some killer shit.  I was overjoyed when I saw Pat Benatar at my only time in 2003 that they did True Love from this album.  To this day, I see this album is a career highlight – not a negative like so many people have.

Following this were the album Gravity’s Rainbow in 1993, and Innamorata in 1997.   These two are for me excellent examples of music that an artist is known for one thing for doing something different.  Sadly almost nobody seems to know about these albums but FUCK is that a shame, cuz there’s some great stuff on these two that I’d wager unless you’re a Benatar hardcore you have never heard.  Take a stab at these tracks:

Gravity’s Rainbow: Everybody Lay Down, Somebody’s Baby, Disconnected, & Crazy.
Innamorata: In These Times, River of Love, Angry, Papa’s Roses, & Strawberry Wine.

Both of these two albums are for me an artist who has fully matured, and can still write a killer song.  She doesn’t need to do the style of stuff she did in the early 80’s anymore.  Rainbow & Innamorata are albums by someone who is fully in command of what they can do musically.  They know their sandbox, and play in it well.  These albums have held up well in the 30 years since they came out, too.  They don’t sound dated like some stuff from earlier in the catalog.  These are timless classics, that sadly hardly anyone knows about (beyond Benatar hardcores).

One other thing – my wife absolutely adores the song Strawberry Wine – I’m not 100% sure if it’s her fav overall song, but it’s easily one of her fav Benatar tracks in general.

UPDATE: I asked my wife before I published this if it was Strawberry Wine.  She said this..  “No it’s We Belong” and then added “Go and Cerebral Man are other favorites, as is strawberry wine, but We Belong is #1”

… and then we get to “Go”.  Go is sadly to date Pat’s most recent full studio album,.  It was released in 2003.  I wish I had this album to write about in my series here, but I don’t.  It was never released on vinyl.  Of all of Pat’s studio albums, it’s the only one never pressed on vinyl on original release.

It’s also peak Pat Benatar.  Of all of her eleven studio albums, it’s so far head and shoulders above her other material, it’s not even remotely funny.  Go is an 11 out of 10.  There’s not a single song that’s a skip – it’s almost the perfect album for me.  Nothing I skip, nothing I don’t love, it’s simply stellar.  The styles range from mellow to hard rock, although as a whole, the album tends to skew to the harder side of things.  When it goes more mellow it knocks it out of the park.  The song “Out of the Ruins” for me is the top of the heap about the “mature songwriting” that I referenced earlier.  Girl, Have it All – all of this stuff smokes.  It’s why I want it on vinyl, I could write 6,000 words about this album easy.

The most maddening part of this is is that of all eleven studio albums, it’s the ONLY one that is not available anywhere at this point. The CD is long out of print, and since it was never printed on vinyl or cassette, nothing there.  But the most egregious part of this is that it’s not available for purchase or streaming digitally.  That’s a major offense IMO.  It’s the most killer album she has ever done, and the only one that’s not (legally) available anywhere.  The absolute worst part of this is that if you read her autobiography I mentioned earlier, she spends a lot of time talking about how she worked to gain control of her own destiny.  That finally was achieved in the years between Innamorata and the Go album.  So guess what album isn’t available?  The one that was produced and released fully under her own control.  I don’t get that.  If anyone from the Benatar camp reads this (yeah, right but who knows?), y’all really need to get Go out there.  If it were up to me, it would be pressed immediately on vinyl – I’d buy three copies.  One to play, and two to stash away lest the first one gets damaged.  It’s really f’in annoying.  The album is certainly out there – but not legally.  I just wish I could direct people to a place to buy this legally, but I can’t.

My wife and I saw Pat Benatar in concert in 2003 about a week or so before the Go album came out.  I wrote about that elsewhere on this blog – including us meeting her before the show that night.

Since Go, she’s released a handful of singles here and there, but no full albums in 22 years and counting now.  I wish she’d do something new – in all these years there has to be a killer album built up and not released.   I want to hear THAT.

Oh yeah, this started talking about Seven the Hard Way.  It was a decent album if not her best.  Better than I remembered.  Not sure what least to add about Hard Way that I haven’t already said, but I probably shouldn’t finish this talking about a completely different album.  :)