DRAGON AND THE DREAMS OF ORDINARY MEN

For all my american and european readers, the 1986 album DREAMS OF ORDINARY MEN from New Zealand-Australian pop/rock band DRAGON was released under the name of HUNTER, not DRAGON. The band's record company felt it made commercial sense to try and market the band with a metal-ish sounding name to cash in on the popularity of pop metal in the mid 80`s. So dont try and find a DRAGON album by that title, because you wont find it, not unless you get your hands on an australian copy of the album like i obviously did. DRAGON on record could be what you might call a little insipid, better known for their 70`s boogie output, including the funk influenced APRIL SUN IN CUBA, the band re-invented their sound during the 80`s, a direction which reached its zenith with the DREAMS OF ORDINARY MEN album. The title track is an inspiring upbeat pop rock anthem, sung with gutso by vocalist MARC HUNTER, but spacey and not cluttered with excess production. The more rock heavy SPEAK NO EVIL is about as close to heavy metal that DRAGON, or should i say HUNTER, ever got to sounding like. The addition of australian guitar virtuoso TOMMY EMMANUEL into the ranks of DRAGON for the DREAMS OF ORDINARY MEN album obviously had a lot to do with the heavier sound on offer in comparison to the band's previous releases, particularly with these two standout tracks.