Wildeyed Southern Boys Hold On Loosely 38 Special

Wildeyed Southern Boys
Hold On Loosely Album: Wild-Eyed Southern Boys (1981)
by .38 Special

Wild-Eyed Southern Boys is the fourth studio album by American Southern rock band .38 Special, released on January 3, 1981, by A&M Records. Recorded and Mixed at Studio One, Doraville, Georgia.

To that end, the members of .38 Special and producer Rodney Mills set about refining the double-drum boogie rock approach they'd taken with the first three albums. Tightening up their arrangements while stepping up their focus on songcraft, they no longer sounded like a Southern band as much as a band that happened to be from the South — a move that, as Barnes explained, was entirely deliberate.

"You can't sing about whiskey and alligators forever," he told the Morning Call. "We used to be looked at as bad boys. Bikers with guitars. But we're people with sensitivities, too."

.38 Special had released two albums and were about to issue a third when they got a rough mix of a song by the band Survivor called "Rockin' into the Night," which became their first hit when it was tacked on to that third album.

That song was written by Jim Peterik and Frankie Sullivan of Survivor. After it became a hit, John Kalodner, who signed Aerosmith, Genesis, Survivor and .38 Special, had Peterik write some songs for .38 Special in addition to his work with Survivor. In a 2004 interview with Peterik, he explained: "That was a major moment for me. It was my first foray into co-writing. Kalodner said, 'You did great with 'Rockin' into the Night,' I want to put you together with Don Barnes and Jeff Carlisi of .38 to see what you can do.' That first night, Jeff and Don are at my house in La Grange, Illinois and we're sitting around the kitchen table. Writing sessions are always like blind dates: It's like making love without the foreplay. Suddenly you're sitting there face to face, and you're thinking, 'OK, what do we do now? Am I going to embarrass myself? What if my ideas suck?' So we're sitting there nervously, just making small talk, and all of the sudden Jeff says, 'I've got this lick,' and he starts with the opening lick of what became 'Hold on Loosely.' I go, 'That's really neat,' and Don says, 'I've got this title - 'Hold On Loosely,'' and I go, 'Yeah, but don't let go.'

My wife of 32 years now, this is what broke us apart when we were teenagers - I was getting too close. I was getting too serious for her. She didn't say, 'Hold on Loosely,' but that's what was in her heart. So when Don said 'Hold on Loosely,' I immediately knew what he was talking about. He wasn't even talking about that exactly, he told me later, he just thought it was a cool title.

I immediately saw a story, and it was really my own story. I said, 'Jeff, play that riff.' He plays the riff, and I start singing: 'You see it all around you, good loving gone bad.' It just started coming. I turned on the tape recorder and said, 'Guys, I think we have something here.' We got the stalk of the song in the next two days, then I fine-tuned it in the next two or three weeks. I flew down to Jacksonville where the band was rehearsing and basically worked out the song with them down there."

Speaking about the range of influences that show up in Hold On Loosely, Jim Peterik told us: "The bridge was straight out of the Doobie Brothers songbook. If I look at that song, it's kind of a meld of a lot of influences of mine from that time. The eighth notes are very Cars-like from that time and the bridge was 'What a Fool Believes' upside down. It was a great moment and led to a series of .38 Special songs that I wrote with them. After that came 'Caught Up In You,' 'Fantasy Girl,' 'Wild-Eyed Southern Boys' and all of those. It was a great run."

Hold On Loosely caused considerable consternation within the group Survivor, whose keyboard player Jim Peterik co-wrote it. Survivor was still looking for their first hit, and Peterik writing hits for another artist didn't go over well with their guitarist Frankie Sullivan, who from that point forward refused to share a dressing room with Peterik.

Don Barnes of .38 Special came up with the title. It was something he heard Dinah Shore say on her talk show when she had a guest on talking about giving her husband space in their relationship.

Donnie Van Zant – lead vocals (2–4, 7–9), backing vocals
Don Barnes – rhythm and lead guitar, piano (3), lead vocals (1, 3, 5, 6), backing vocals
Jeff Carlisi – lead and rhythm guitar, steel guitar
Larry Junstrom – bass
Steve Brookins – drums
Jack Grondin – drums