» Listings for 2023

1. 2023 Albums Thing 235 - Mott The Hoople “The Hoople”

   Posted on 9:45am Saturday 16th Dec 2023

   “The Hoople” is Mott The Hoople’s follow up to “Mott” (see what they did there). Between the recording of “Mott” and “The Hoople” guitarist Mick Ralphs left the band (to help form Bad Company) to be replaced by former Spooky Tooth guitarist Luther Grosvenor who, for the purposes of this gig, changed his name to the much more Glam Ariel Bender (allegedly because he had a habit of bending the ariel’s on cars when drunk). It was also the last Mott The Hoople album to feature singer Ian Hunter before he embarked on a solo career.

   Hunter delivered two more top 20 singles in “Roll Away The Stone” (#8) and “The Golden Age Of Rock ‘n’ Roll” (#16). This album version of “Roll Away The Stone” has Ariel Bender on guitar whereas the single version was Mick Ralphs final contribution before leaving. Oh and the girls voice responding to  the spoken “There’s a Rockabilly party on Saturday night…” part on this album version is future failed UK Eurovision entrant (OK she finished 2nd) Lynsey De Paul who was probably more famous for her beauty spot than any of her music.

   Hunter wrote all but one song (“Born Late ’58” was written by Overend Watts) and supplies songs across his whole range of styles. We get the two Glam singles we already mentioned, the theatrical set piece of “Marionette”, proto-punk in ”Crash Street Kids” and I’m pretty sure many a BritPoop combo was more than familiar with “Pearl ‘n’ Roy (England)” and its barroom swagger.

   Rolling Stone magazine (I think I’ve made my views on them clear before) panned this album calling these songs “debased replicas” of those on previous album “Mott”, once again they were so spectacularly wrong it’s a wonder the rag lasted this long ! “The Hoople” is a glamtastic British Rock record and not many have ever been able to do it as well as Mott the Hoople did.

   (Artwork trivia…the girl on the cover is Norwegian model Kari-Ann Moller (with the bands faces in her hair) who also adorns the cover of Roxy Music’s debut album. These days she is married to Chris Jagger, Micks bro’.)

   Pearl ‘n’ Roy (England) - https://youtu.be/cD0OkfuyhyY?si=LfFXQc7mNU4dVI9B

2. 2023 Albums Thing 234 - Mott The Hoople “Mott”

   Posted on 9:50am Friday 15th Dec 2023

   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

3. 2023 Albums Thing 233 - Van Morrison “Moondance”

   Posted on 10:00am Thursday 14th Dec 2023

   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