I’m not sure where my liking for Mott the Hoople came from. It wasn’t an at the time thing as I was so focussed in on Slade back then that I wouldn’t have noticed them. It may be the “All The Young Dudes” Bowie connection that intrigued me. It may well have been at the prompting of my old friend Philip Barlow who is also a massive Mott fan. Whatever it was I’m a big fan of Mott the Hoople and they are possibly not regarded as highly as they should be.

Mott The Hoople released their first album for Island Records in 1969. After three more albums in a heavy rock style, with no success forthcoming, they were on the verge of breaking up. Enter David Bowie who was a fan. He originally offered them “Suffragette City” to record and try and get them a hit. They turned it down (!) so Bowie wrote for them (?)/offered them “All The Young Dudes” which they loved. Bowie’s management, Mainman, did a deal to move Mott from Island to CBS and Bowie and Mick Ronson produced an album of the same title. The single peaked at #3 and the album #21 in the UK. Mott were back.

“Mott” is the follow up to “All The Young Dudes” (the album) and Mott’s 6th album. They were now writing their own material again, singer Ian Hunter being the primary writer. The album features 2 great Glam Rock singles in “All The Way From Memphis” and “Honaloochie Boogie”, hard rock tracks that hark back to their earlier years, “Whizz Kid” and “Drivin’ Sister” and one thing that Mott were really good at, self referential songs. On this album those would be “Hymn For The Dudes” and "Ballad of Mott the Hoople (26th March 1972, Zürich)”. “Hymn For The Dudes” possibly includes a couple of digs at Bowie (“You ain't the nazz, You're just a buzz, Some kinda temporary”) and “Ballad…” is the story of the band set to music

“Buffin lost his child-like dreams, And Mick lost his guitar

And Verden grew a line or two, And Overend's just a rock'n'roll star

Behind these shades the visions fade, As I learn a thing or two

Oh but if I had my time again, You all know just what I'd do”

The line about Mick losing his guitar even refers back to “All The Way From Memphis” (“Forgot my six string razor, Hit the sky, Halfway to Memphis ‘fore I realised” also telling of the time guitarist Mick Ralphs lost his guitar on tour). The other great song on “Mott” is “Violence”, a real theatrical piece about the sort of guy who likes, well, violence. The album ends on “I Wish I Was Your Mother” an almost Irish Folk ballad, it’s great BTW.

Bowie had given Mott their mojo back and “Mott” gave them another pair of hit singles. Said to have been a great live band in their pomp (I only saw them once in 2013 and sadly they were bloody awful !), they were the only band that Queen ever supported. If you’re not a fan I don’t think we can be friends. They deserve to be remembered as a great 70’s rock band.

Ballad Of Mott The Hoople (26th March 1972, Zürich) - https://youtu.be/sJeU37u6kU8?si=N646kU5rTBIc0MZo

Happy Birthday to me !

My parents were coming around for dinner one Sunday and I was fretting about what music to play. I decided on Van Morrison, his music is reasonably inoffensive and it’s kinda tinged by Jazz so I thought my Dad would be OK with it. When he arrived and settled in my Dad asks “Is this Van Morrison ?” I answered in the affirmative, pleased that he’d noticed. Then my Dad says “Oh turn it off would you. We saw him at the Brecon Jazz Festival, can’t stand the cantankerous old bugger” !

Stories are legend about Van The Man’s miserable stage presence and his sometimes less than polite interactions with his musicians (I once saw him stop mid song to make the drummer apologise for a mistake that none of the audience had noticed. All this time his organist, the great Georgie Fame, was sat behind his Hammond roaring with laughter). But that confrontational side of him doesn’t reveal itself in his music.

At this point Van was making a hybrid Celtic Soul tinged with Jazz. Think of the title song, one you’ll undoubtedly have heard at some point, yet another that’s been done to death at open mic’s, and that’s a pretty good baseline for the album as a whole. After the failure, sales wise, of his previous album  “Astral Weeks” Morrison moved to the Catskills Mountains to write “Moondance” as a more structured, song based album rather than “Astral Weeks” more improvisational Folk-Jazz. He said of the two albums later on  "I make albums primarily to sell them and if I get too far out a lot of people can't relate to it. I had to forget about the artistic thing because it didn't make sense on a practical level. One has to live.", a statement I’m quite surprised he would make.

“Stoned Me” and “Into The Mystic” are the  most perfect examples of Celtic Soul. the lyrical themes are pastoral and folky but in the background you have a horn section sounding like it arrived straight outta Memphis. “Into The Mystic” sits at the very heart of “Moondance” and is one of its best known songs. Lyrically it’s very clever, is that opening line “We were born before the wind” or is it “We were borne before the wind” ? There are other lines like that throughout the song. It’s been covered many many times, most notably in my world by the Icicle Works and Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit.

It’s not usually the sort of thing I buy but I heard final track “Glad Tidings” in an episode of The Sopranos (for those that know it, it’s the episode where Tony Soprano kills his cousin Tony Blundetto played by Steve Buscemi) not only did I figure it would sound good played on a big system it’s a great example of the attention to detail the Sopranos production crew put into the tiniest details. The lyric you hear when Tony S shoots Tony B is “And we'll send you glad tidings from New York” which when you know why Tony S shoots Tony B is as pertinent as pertinent can be. So I bought this album and I was right, it sounds great on a DJ rig and I’ve spun it a few times since.

The more I’ve listened to “Moondance” recently the more I’ve come to like it. I used to fall asleep listening to “Astral Weeks” on tour busses (pronounced buzzes, I’m a Brummie), I found it very soothing and never got through the second track before I was spark out. “Moondance”s mix of folk, soul and jazz is much more engaging.

Glad Tidings - https://youtu.be/EW2TfQsSA7Q?si=3TBthnq-TdrIrG3Y

It had been many years since I’d bought a John Mellencamp album. I read about this one in an interview with Bruce Springsteen who had contributed guitar and vocals to 3 of its tracks for his long time friend (who knew ?). So I thought I’d take a chance on it.

It’s a quite different John Mellencamp from the one on “Scarecrow”. His voice has deepened and roughed up, he now sounds not unlike Tom Waits. It took me a while to get into this album but the wait was worth it. It’s very, very good. 

I like first song “I Always Lie To Strangers”…a lot. It’s taken at a beautifully world weary, sedate pace. You’re introduced to that gritty new voice (he may have been singing like this for years, I don’t know, I haven’t been listening for a long time). There’s a sense of “don’t blame me, you (the world around us) made me this cynical”

“I always lie to strangers, I am a man of low degree

This world is run by men, Much more crooked than me”

Once he started writing Mellencamp said he realised the songs were all coming from one character, one voice, so he continued with that in mind which gives the album a real consistency. The sedate pace continues through the whole album, we’re not rockin’ in the USA this time, it’s music made by an older man for an older audience that has grown with him.

The music itself is American roots, Americana whatever you want to call it. Miriam Sturm’s fiddle is prominent throughout. “I Am A Man That Worries” has a great Dobro/slide/barroom feel to it, “Sweet Honey Brown” is a life lost to Heroin, “Wasted Days” with Bruce Springsteen is very much in the vein of the Boss’s previous album looking back on life and willing yourself to make the most of what’s left of it. Springsteen also adds guitar and backing vocals to “Did You Say Such A Thing”.

This one may not be for all of you but it’s an album I’ve played a lot over the past year or so. I think it's the grumpy old man-ness of it that appeals, I wonder why that could be...

I Always Lie To Strangers - https://youtu.be/_1CtmRdvxXY?si=uB4-_GYJpazsX_D8