Mott The Hoople Mott CD

Mott The Hoople: Ian Hunter (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Mick Ralphs (vocals, guitar); Overend Watts (vocals, bass); Verden Allen (keyboards); Dale Griffin (drums).
Additional personnel includes: Graham Preskitt (violin); Paul Buckmaster (electric cello); Andy Mackay (saxophone); Thunderthighs (backround vocals).
Engineers: Bill Price, Alan Harris, John Leckie.
Recorded at Air London Studios and EMI Abbey Road, London, England, from February-April 1973.
Digitally remastered by Larry Keyes (CBS Records Studio, New York, New York).
Includes four bonus tracks.
Mott the Hoople: Dale Buffin Griffin, Ian Hunter, Mick Ralphs, Overend Watts.
Additional personnel: Andy McKay, Paul Buckmaster, Morgan Fisher, Graham Preskett.
All the Young Dudes actually brought Mott the Hoople success, but you wouldn't know that from its sequel, Mott. Ian Hunter's songs are a set of road tales fraught with exhaustion, disillusionment, and dashed dreams, all told with a wry sense of humor so evident on Mott's earlier work. This is no ordinary road album where a band whines about the perils of traveling -- it's more of a wry commentary on rock & roll itself, which, as Hunter notes, is a "loser's game." Mott doesn't sound that way, though -- it's as winning and infectious as rock & roll gets. Even with the undercurrents of ironic despair and restrained hostility, this is a fun record (partially because of that despair and hostility, of course). This sounds better, looser, than All the Young Dudes, as the band jives through "All the Way from Memphis" and "Honaloochie Boogie," beats the living hell outta "Violence," swaggers on "Whizz Kid," and simply drives it home on "Drivin' Sister." Apart from the New York Dolls (who, after all, were in a league of their own), glam never sounds as rock as it does here. To top it all off, Hunter writes the best lament for rock ever with "Ballad of Mott the Hoople," a song that conveys just how heartbreaking rock & roll is for the average band. If that wasn't enough, he trumps that song with the closer "I Wish I Was Your Mother," a peerless breakup song that still surprises, even after it's familiar. It's a graceful, unexpected way to close a record that stands as one of the best of its era. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Mott The Hoople are often associated with the '70s glam movement, but their only real connection to that style was their involvement with David Bowie. In fact, the band was much more closely tied to the post-folkie work of Bob Dylan. Singer Ian Hunter had his British version of Dylan's transcendent moan down to a science. Though they were essentially a pure rock & roll band (and one of the main influences on the Clash), Mott sported detailed lyrics informed by the Dylan school, almost to the point of self-consciousness.
One of the band's great strengths was its knack for self-mythology, as borne out by "All The Way From Memphis," a Chuck Berry-ish number about the travails of the road. "Ballad of Mott the Hoople" is an ironic but poignant look at the way the band failed to meet the expectations of both themselves and their fans. Amidst all this heady introspection, there's plenty of arresting hard rock guitar courtesy of Mick Ralphs. Things end on a quirky, oddly sentimental note with "I Wish I Was Your Mother," a folkie, idiosyncratic love song colored by chiming mandolin, and marked by some of Hunter's most inspired writing.Rolling Stone (p.70) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[I]mmortal....Mott's forte remained the elegy, none greater than the self-mythologizing 'Ballad of Mott the Hoople'..."
Q (p.125) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] vivid, bittersweet dissection of life on the road in a middling rock 'n' roll band."
Q (5/95, p.127) - 3 Stars - Good - "...remains a peak in the careers of both Mott The Hoople as a band and leader Ian Hunter as a songwriter..."