Expect No Mercy

These Scottish bagpipe-poppers scored two huge hits in 1975 with their acidic update of an Everly Brothers classic about painful passion and a proto-punky warning against antagonizing a canine’s male offspring, then knocked out two wimpy albums in short succession unsuccessfully chasing that success. They returned to their hard rock roots on on 1977’s Expect No Mercy. While it didn’t give them the hits they wanted, it’s an underappreciated shot of dog hair. Dan McCafferty’s Axl-inspiring sleazebag snarl gives the Stones-y swagger of “Gone Dead Train,” the glammy “Revenge is Sweet,” and extra-crispy “Kentucky Fried Blues” an edge a lot of their peers lacked. The title track, a disco-destroying street fighting anthem, best demonstrates why these sons of bitches were still worth messing with.