The Ballad of Mott the Hoople and Ian Hunter - Album by Album thread

Was fine buying vinyl if it had a download code, when that stopped cd’s made a rebound in my purchasing. Not buying two copies of anything!

 

Right. We now have the CD, red vinyl, and the RSD yellow vinyl.

 

This is what ADCs are for (but in this case the Vol 1 lp did not sound very good, likely no better than the cd so certainly not worth the trouble to needledrop).

 

Unless you want a portable version.

 

Well, yeah, I did needledrop it for that purpose. I’m saying I should have bought the cd instead of the lp and saved myself some trouble

 

Let me add that the old defective vinyl issues contributed to my ceasing along with absurd pricing and ridiculous color variations

 

Finally reading Ian's book now--very entertaining, goes fast

 

Which book ?

 

We'll have to wait for The Panda to confirm this but I would bet he means this:





Diary of a Rock'n'Roll Star - Wikipedia


I have a really really old one with a different cover. Think it has been re-released a couple times over the years with different covers btw. Actually mine has a different title (Reflections of a Rock Star). I believe they are the same book though:




Whatever it's called it is an excellent read. It's basically a "diary" of life on the road for about 2 months. I vaguely remember part of it being about him in a hotel/motel not far from here which became kind of a pilgrimage spot for some fans long ago. I need to read the book again, it's really cool!

 

That's what my copy looks like. I bought it way back in the day not long after it was first published.
Yes an excellent read & really shows him as a very much to not act like a rock star.

 

yep that's the one Creem had excerpts way back when

 

No UK outlets showing anything except the RSD at the moment. The whole bonus tracks thing is a pain but I am prepared to spring for a regular vinyl release if they are on it. I'm certainly not doing RSD and definitely not at £40.

 

Something's fishy.....

1. Sun Records has the red, regular vinyl with 13 songs listed.

2. RSD has the yellow vinyl with 3 bonus songs. 13 total.
RSD '24 Special Release: Ian Hunter - Defiance Part 2: Fiction (Deluxe Edition)
"this Deluxe Edition 2 LP set contains three exclusive bonus tracks and is pressed on translucent yellow vinyl for Record Store Day."

3. Ian's site says:
"The 10-song collection will be available on standard vinyl, CD, and digital download. A limited edition 2LP vinyl edition of DEFIANCE PART 2: FICTION featuring 3 bonus tracks will be available exclusively on Record Store Day, set for Saturday, April 20."

My question: is the Sun Records release 10 or 13 songs?

 

Never liked it when bonus tracks were only put on CD, cassette nor do I like it with vinyl. Just put all the music in one place. I love Ian but I may have to pass to see if another version is released with the bonus tracks.

 

I have found one European outlet which is listing a single disc vinyl edition with just 10 tracks. The red version doesn't seem to be anywhere on this side of the pond yet and postage rates to this side of the pond are prohibitive to order it from Sun.

They are making a bit of a mess of this and I have always thought Ian was above these sorts of games.

 

That's so strange. I haven't even seen a listing for a single vinyl. Bizarre, and unnecessary.

 

That's what I'm gonna do. Maybe some day I'll pick this up on this CD bonus tracks or not. And if I miss out oh well. I blame this bonus track shenigan b.s. which I'd prefer to not support (costing them perhaps my CD purchase in the first place, not that that does anything other than prevents me from hearing new Ian).

 

This is from Morgan Fisher on Facebook.

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TODAY, MARCH 29, IS THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE RELEASE OF "THE HOOPLE" ALBUM - the most creative, powerful and fun album I was ever privileged to play on.
6 years ago noted journalist Max Bell asked me for detailed comments on The Hoople, so here they are (long). I don't know if this was ever published (if anyone does know - please comment!):
THE HOOPLE Album - info & my comments.
A1 - The Golden Age of Rock’n’Roll
Ian wanted to play piano on this as he is good at this kind of rock’n’roll. I asked him to give me one crack at it. I did. He said he liked it. Done. So I ended up playing piano and all the keyboards on this album. Howie Casey (who goes back to The Beatles in Hamburg) and Andy Mackay (from Roxy Music - renamed Jock MacPherson due to contractual obligations) played great saxes on this. Sue & Sunny did back vocals - I knew them from The Love Affair recordings 6 years earlier. Two marvellous Indian ladies.
A2 - Marionette
Apparently this was an inspiration for Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.
It starts with an organ run through my VCS3 synthesizer - I was the first to play synth on a Mott record (except for Ralpher's synth on Whizz Kid). These days a track of this complexity would require a click track to keep everything in time. Not then - we just did it. Graham Preskett arranged the strings on this album. The cellist on this track was so unused to playing on a rock track that I had to conduct him! Among various mix ideas on this track, I suggested lowering the pitch of the “Marionette - Teacher’s pet” vocal on the chorus, to make them sound unnatural. It was done by speeding up the tape about 15% while recording the vocals - something like what The Beatles often did.
A3 - Alice
I was certainly inspired by Garth Hudson of The Band in the organ improv that goes over the last section of this song. Done in one take - I felt I was flying. Helped of course by imbibing a few beers in the pub on the ground floor of AIR Studios.
One day in the pub I ran into Viv Stanshall of The Bonzos. He fixed me with an accusing stare through his yellow octagonal glasses and tested me by demanding, "What - is a CLONE???" Not many people could answer that in 1974, but I did correctly, so we had a few beers and a chat re our respective projects. The weird bass bit in the middle with whistling synth and striptease sax - my idea.
A4 - Crash Street Kidds
Originally Bash Street Kids from 1956 to NOW (!) in the comic book The Beano (first published in 1938 - a year before Ian was born - doubtless he read it as a kid), but copyright law forbade us from using this title. In 1974 punk hadn’t quite arrived, but inspired by the bad boys in the comic, we felt very punky doing this. I remember when Ian recorded the lead vocal he was punching himself in the chest throughout, hard, to get more power in his delivery - impressive.
The weird fade-out in the middle with looped guitars through my synth’s filter - my idea. Ditto Ian’s mad screaming ring-modulated voice at the end. We had a long, heated discussion re the machine gun FX at the end. Buffin hated them. Ian won in the end. Bowie had put a lot of such sound FX on the Dudes album - I never liked them much.
B1 - Born Late ‘58
Written by Overend and recorded while Ian was away in the US doing some promo. We had already made a quite good demo of this with some nice slide guitar from Ariel. I remember we still needed some lyrics at the time we recorded the lead vocal and Overend was desperately scrabbling for rhymes, which we all chipped in. After the false start, Overend shouts, “More treble! This is Manfred Mann’s bass!” It’s a jokey, raunchy song and I love the way it starts to cruise at the end, like the joy of taking a pink 1958 Cadillac out on the highway.
B2 - Trudi’s Song
One of Ian’s sweetest romance ballads, about his wife of course (now married at least 45 years). I ran my piano through a Leslie speaker (normally used with Hammond organs) to give it a swirling, lilting effect. George Harrison often did the same with his guitar.
B3 - Pearl’n’Roy (England)
Another nostalgic link to Love Affair, because on one of that band’s album tracks, A Tale Of Two Bitters, we also started with what sounds like a rowdy drinking session in a pub, followed by my shuffle-beat piano - and for the same record company. That’s part of the fun of recording - you can redo ideas you’d done before, and improve on them. Like Marionette, this has some of Ian’s most unusual chord sequences ever, yet it all flows quite naturally. Great political lyrics too!
B4 - Through the Looking Glass
Another of those epic Hunter ballads, like Rose and Rest in Peace, with a quiet intimate verse and suddenly a deafening high-powered chorus. Much like grunge bands did years later. Fabulous arrangement by Graham Preskett - which he told me he wrote on the back of a fag packet on the tube to the studio. Sure, Graham! Tubular bells at the end seal its status as an epic!
B5 - Roll Away the Stone
We’d already recorded this as a single while Mick Ralphs was in the band. For this album version we just got Ariel to redo the guitar. The lady who named him - the divine, lovable Lynsey de Paul - came in and redid the chat bit in the middle.
General stuff:
George Martin, who owned AIR Studios, had obviously taken pity on the children of The Goons (who he had produced) and given odd jobs to Sean Milligan (son of Spike) and Michael Sellers (son of Peter). They were funny, charming lads and basically hung around enjoying the music and occasionally making (and smoking) tea.
Joe Brown dropped by as he was recording in one of the other three AIR studios.
Roxy Music were recording their Country Life album in the next studio, and me and Overend walked in there dressed as a safari hunter and a cricketer, to the great amusement of Bryan Ferry.
PS: The Hoople album cover featured Kari-Ann Moller (who married Chris Jagger, Mick's brother); she also appeared on Roxy's first album cover.
Robert Fripp dropped into AIR to remix a King Crimson track and while doing so, gave me and Overend a scholarly lecture on how each key in music had an associated colour and mood. He was actually a Mott fan!
Marc Bolan and John McLaughlin were spotted drifting down the corridors of Air studios.
We set up a microphone in the toilets to record claps (the tiled walls made them sound much livelier). Thankfully, their cleaning staff were very thorough!
RIP Pete and Buff

 

That was a fantastic read! Thanks for sharing.

 

Seconded! Thank you!

 

This is great - thank you for sharing it. I feel like The Hoople sometimes get knocked as a lesser LP, but I've always enjoyed it just as much as its two RCA predecessors. In fact - I'll spin it today!

 

This was the first Hoople album I actually owned, so it has a special place in my heart. Hope this reissue turns out well.

 

Another big thank you………. full of good information.

 

My copy of this 50-year-old classic from 1974………… I couldn’t even tell you how many times I listened to this LP.