The Ian Hunter thread

[Brian]

This month marks the 40th anniversary of Mott the Hoople's founding -- and Ian Hunter's 70th birthday.

I need a space where I can emote. Others create their own video interpretations of his recordings, like this one from his brilliant "Shrunken Heads" CD two years ago:



His 13th solo album, "Man Overboard," comes out on July 21.

[Brian]

Holy freaking cow! I'm astounded by the number of amateur videos on You Tube of Ian Hunter's performance last Wednesday in Rockefeller Park in New York City. And the exceptional quality of two of them. This clip of the title song from Ian's forthcoming album, which inexplicably only had 85 views when I found it, is magic:


They got all kinds of pills for all kinds of ills
But they ain't found a cure yet for me

Wow. And doesn't Ian look -- and sound -- great?

Not to mention the Rant Band, with M.C. Bosch again substituting for Andy York. Here's the show closer featuring Joe Elliott of Def Leppard and, I believe, Ian's son Jesse joining in at the end of an iconic Mott the Hoople medley:


Is there concrete all around
Or is it in my head?

Doesn't matter anymore that Bowie wrote it and Elliott's singing it, the line (and the anthem) have become Ian's -- and just as ageless.

[Brian]

Let the ranting begin: Is there a better first solo album than this?

I'm talking about records by singer-songwriters who were nurtured in groups. Of course, you have to ignore "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band," one of the greatest albums of all time, to say there has been no finer breakaway achievement than "Ian Hunter." But just start listing other band innovators in the late 1960's -- Neil Young, Paul Simon, Janis Joplin, Paul McCartney, Steve Winwood, Rod Stewart and Eric Clapton -- and nobody approaches Ian.

I almost missed my name being called during my high school graduation in 1975 -- I pulled on my gown while running across the football field because I had sat too long in my Datsun listening to Ian Hunter being interviewed live on KROQ about this album. Which I'm now listening to for the second time in a row, 34 years later.

It doesn't get old. Nor does Ian. Only better.

[Jeanne]

Can we include George Harrison's All Things Must Pass in the list?

[Brian]

Jul 4, 2009 18:33:28 GMT -8 Jeanne said:

Can we include George Harrison's All Things Must Pass in the list?

There are so many essential songs on "All Things Must Pass" -- clearly George's best album -- and it would have been flawless as a single disc.

Great thought, Jeanne, and one that hadn't occurred to me last night -- thanks!

[Brian]

I found this You Tube video from German television in April 1980 when I started this thread -- and have been haunted by it ever since:



My heart breaks when Mick Ronson steps into Ian's mic at the beginning of the song -- during the best of their many collaborations! -- duetting on a Sonny Bono cover from Mott the Hoople's debut album in 1969. Not just because Mick was lead guitarist when the band disbanded in 1974. But also because no two artists ever meant as much to each other, or brought forth so much artistry together, as Ian and Mick in 1979-80.

They hit their peak the week they played the Roxy in November 1979. I'm screaming in the audience for two of the shows preserved for posterity on the "Welcome to the Club" live album, which includes a version that sounds very much like this rare and beautiful "Rockplast" TV show tape.

I like to think that Sonny, who broke away from his apprenticeship with Phil Spector in 1965 and established himself as a songwriter of considerable brilliance with "Laugh at Me," raised some of the money from the royalties Ian generated in 1980 to fund his restaurant in Palm Springs. Later he would become mayor, Congressman and just as dead as poor Mick Ronson.

[Brian]

Already, I can tell this is going to be a BIG album. At least artistically -- if not historically.

Still, I have to deal with commerce first, because I worked in the Montrose record store for six years starting in 1973. That's also when I first heard Ian Hunter sing to me in a way that would result in a lifetime of devotion so richly rewarded every time that he's appeared onstage or put out a CD in the past decade.

His previous album, "Shrunken Heads" in 2007, came after a six-year drought of studio CD's. I had to own it by its official release date. So I broke my long-standing policy of never buying anything on the Internets and ordered it -- along with a three-song bonus CD, only available online -- from the record company in North Carolina and a distributor in the U.K., to see who would send it first. Anni and I enjoyed it right out of our mailbox the day before stores were allowed to sell it, and soon we had a second copy from London for the car. I bought a third CD immediately to support the Wherehouse in La Crescenta -- which obviously didn't help since the store closed seven months later -- and gave it to someone semi-simpatico.

With the July 21 release date of "Man Overboard" approaching, I took the time to register myself, my mailing preferences and my credit card with Amazon. No bonus tracks were being offered this time. This is no surprise to most of the Western world, but Amazon does things right. (Except for it being my responsibility to fork over the California Use Tax directly to the state.) They sent me an e-mail Wednesday saying the CD was on its way and I could track its journey. Sure enough, it appeared Saturday afternoon and has been in constant rotation ever since.

Anni asked while we listened to it for the first time if this album could possibly be better than "Shrunken Heads." To me, that's a scary thought. We couldn't get enough of that CD. Already, the title cut of the new one, "Man Overboard," is my new Favorite Song. Clearly, we're going to need another copy Tuesday. Will the independent shop in Burbank or one of the last remaining FYE chain stores bother to stock it?

Meanwhile, you can hear "Arms and Legs" and "Babylon Blues" on Ian's My Space page:

www.myspace.com/ianhunterband

[Brian]

Don't ask me who's this guy Falke58 on You Tube. Was he was born in 1958 like me? That's the median year for Ian Hunter fanatics. Falke58's computer-generated titles imply he's a Swede of enormous goodwill who loves the man almost as much as I do. He certainly works harder at it. He's posted at least half a dozen homemade videos of studio recordings -- crossfading, wiping and sometimes digitally wiggling obscure old and recent photos of Ian along with original paintings reflecting Falke58's interpretation of the songs.

The record album "Man Overboard" came out officially last Tuesday worldwide on something called a CD. Both of those things may die long before Mr. Hunter, age 70. I've been besotted with the title song since I found Ian's live Rockefeller Center performance last month on You Tube. Falke58 put this up Thursday with excellent sound. It has only 176 views now:



Ian Hunter's empathy has always powered his songwriting. "Man Overboard" is sung -- better than ever, don't you agree? -- from the point of view of a skid row alcoholic:

Reality this, reality that
I been there once and I ain't going back
They squeezed me 'til I fell apart at the seams
Now I'd rather dream drunk and disorderly dreams

The harmonica invokes his near contemporaries Bob Dylan and Neil Young. But they can't write a song as far outside themselves as Ian, nor can they create a goddamn instant anthem like him. Only John Lennon could do as well. What if John were still living a life that began in 1939-40 in England until 2009 in the U.S.A., just like Ian? Would he have been this good?

The next subgeneration -- Steve Earle, Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp (primary employer of Ian's co-producer and lead guitarist Andy York) -- aspire to be the kind of man and songwriter Ian is now, some 15 years their elder.

Man overboard, straight into the deep end baby
Sometimes it's a treacherous sea
If I'm going down it can't hurt anymore than what you did to me

[Jeanne]

Beautiful song. Thanks for broadening my sometimes narrow Dylan colored horizon, Brian.

[Brian]

To cap off this first page of the Ian Hunter thread, let's put a cap into the retail angle.

I finally bought "Man Overboard" at Backstreet Records in Burbank, ten days after I got my first copy in the mailbox from Amazon. I interrupted the owner's cellphone call on the day of its release to ask for it, and he said it might be in Friday. Then he told me that he hadn't sold enough CD's that week to make another order but maybe he'd have it by Tuesday. So I had to go back, of course. On my third trip, he recognized me, split open the box on the floor and sold me the disc for $15.99 plus tax, still less than Amazon with shipping (and, don't forget, I'm required by law to fork over 9.75% on next year's Form 540 or via a voucher to the State Board of Equalization).

I won't turn this into the Falke58 thread, but I wanted to post another of his videos of songs from Ian's new album. While choosing my next favorite on You Tube, I read this by our man in Sweden:

The shop has ordered one copy, my copy. They said that I'm the only one who like this old stuff. Even if I think Hunter is Hotter than for twenty years. The problems is to get out with the record. This is the reason why I do five videos, to help Hunter out with his magnificent rockmusic. He deserve all credit he can get, so I hope that you everybody go out and orderer and buy this album in your closest recordstore, so they unterstand that this is something interesting and really good.