Music: Re: [Classic_Rock_Forever] Mott the Hoople

"The Hoople" was their 1974 follow up to their finest moment, "Mott". If you like Mott the Hoople at all, you should check out "Mott", which was the follow up to "All the Young Dudes" album. That one isnt bad either but the depth of writing, the playing and the recording of "Mott" is a real step up from everything before that.

"The Hoople" followed the departure of Mick Ralphs to Bad Company and Hunter drafted ex-Spooky Tooth guitarist Luther Grovsvenor and renamed him "Ariel Bender" to play guitar. Supposedly Bender was a hot player but when they got into the studio, he had very few ideas of his own and Hunter took the proceedings over. Previously with Ralphs, there was a real give and take, and that was gone. "The Hoople" sort of suffers from that, its all Hunter gone wild with no restraint, but there are some great moments, Alice, Crash Street Kidds, and Overend Watts funny Born Late 58.

a side story about Ralphs; he had already written "Cant Get Enough of Your Love" while he was in Mott, and he tried to sing it and couldnt do it, Hunter tried and he couldnt do it. There was a demo floating around and somehow Peter Grant of Led Zep got ahold of it. Swan Song records had just been formed and Pagey and the boys were looking for new British bands to manage and publish. Ralphs was contacted but couldnt sign due to contractual obligations with Motts management. Pagey said, "no problem, as I think I know a guy to sing on this,Paul Rodgers". Page and Grant bought out Ralphs contract and put him together with Rodgers and BLAM Bad Company was more or less formed, with some other bits of the story.

Another must have Mott album is "Live", which was recorded on their famous "Broadway tour" in NYC just after the release of "The Hoople". Its absolutely fabulous. I dont know how "clean" it is in terms of studio stuff afterwards, but its a great listen. Highly recommended. In the olde days it was a single vinyl release; these days its a double CD, with all the original tracks, PLUS lots of extra songs from the same concerts that didnt make it on the original version; plus a written introduction by Brian May (Queen opened for Mott on many of those concerts and May has often said it was truly a wild time)

From: Cfh <cfhiebert@sasktel.net>
To: Classic_Rock_Forever@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 12:22 PM
Subject: Re: [Classic_Rock_Forever] Mott the Hoople - Mad Shadows

No Waterlow on this one. I read that it is the 2nd album. I can verify that its very 'rough and tumble' to quote you. I enjoyed it much more than the 'The Hoople' album, where the glam seemed to be kicking in a bit more. Not that I don't like Glam, but the Mad Shadows album just seems to fit them better.

track list:

"Thunderbuck Ram" (Mick Ralphs) - 4:50
"No Wheels To Ride" - 5:50
"You Are One Of Us" - 2:26
"Walkin' With A Mountain" - 3:49
"I Can Feel" - 7:13
"Threads Of Iron" (Ralphs) - 5:12
"When My Mind's Gone" - 6:31

Clint

On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:48:01 -0800 (PST), howl dog wrote:

thats a very old Mott album, possibly one of the first two or three, I forget the running order. Back then Mott was a rough and tumble band playing mostly covers. Does it have "Waterlow" on it? Hunter says thats the best thing he's ever written.

From: Cfh
To: Classic_Rock_Forever@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2012 3:14 PM
Subject: [Classic_Rock_Forever] Mott the Hoople - Mad Shadows

...so I'm on a roll here. Decided to stick to a theme and dig into the Mott the Hoople catalogue. This one is much rougher around the edges that Shouting and Pointing, and probably the better album. Granted there's some serious lineup changes, but I can't say I was ever passionate about the members, so I'm coming at this with a fairly open mind.

Thunderbuck Ram is a damn good opener!

Clint