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Post by Brian on Aug 2, 2009 1:17:09 GMT -8
Andy York and Ian in studio, 2006Time to confess my man crush on Andy York. I first laid eyes on him in March 2002, seated on the little stage at Amoeba Records in Hollywood, playing a short in-store set to promote Ian Hunter's finest effort in a dozen years, "Rant." Andy, who both co-produced and played lead guitar on the album, had toured with Ian for 16 dates the previous autumn, another tour that never reached further west than Chicago, much like Ian's first solo outing with Mick Ronson in 1975. Two months earlier, Andy had played at two concerts with a symphony orchestra in Oslo, Norway, filmed for Ian's "Strings Attached." Anni and I watched the set from the stairs in back of the store. When Ian called out for requests, I shouted "Roll Away the Stone" -- it's Our Song, you know! -- and Andy took Ian's cue and instantly rearranged the anthem for inner peace, love and understanding on acoustic guitar. Our mouths were already open, so most of us sang along. Ian didn't return to Los Angeles with his Rant Band until March 2005, but M.C. Bosch substituted for Andy, who had commitments with John Mellencamp. Instead, I had the "Strings Attached" CD and DVD by then, followed by two more packages of the Astoria gig in London in May 2004, which included Mick Ralphs. I already knew that it was York hitting the notes achieved previously only by the immortal Mick Ronson on "The Truth, the Whole Truth, Nuthin' but the Truth." But because the CD came out first, I assumed that the amazing solos on Mott the Hoople classics like "Rock 'n' Roll Queen" were by Ralphs, their originator. Seeing the DVD was yet another revelation of Andy's prowess. I finally caught Andy on an L.A. stage again in March 2007, when Ian and the Rant Band performed at the Music Box in Hollywood, just before the release of "Shrunken Heads." Anni and I lucked into first row, stage left, right in front of him. He might have noticed me trying to bury my head into his monitor when everyone rushed the stage during "All the Young Dudes." The concept of six degrees of separation was made famous by a movie, if not by Kevin Bacon. You'd think I'd be able to meet Andy if there were only three. One of my best friends this decade is Mike, who's married to a musician in Mellencamp's band. Mike even accompanied them when they played in New Zealand last November. He said he'd arrange a dinner with Andy when he came through town, but didn't. Apparently, Mrs. Mike and Andy aren't very close. All I could ever get was some news about the making of "Man Overboard" last fall, which I published on a now defunct message board as a worldwide Internet exclusive. Few will read this love letter here either, thankfully. Yes, Andy, that was me who left those curly hairs on your monitor, but I'm not a stalker. I just appreciate whatever artistic alchemy you've provided to Ian's songwriting, recordings and performances in this most wonderful decade of his career. You are short and very cute. And you have my eternal love and gratitude. Just look at you at the end of Ian's autobiographical song "23A Swan Hill" from Astoria!
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Post by Brian on Aug 9, 2009 0:47:50 GMT -8
What a valuable thread this must be when it gives you direct access to the five best songs from Ian Hunter's new album, the certifiable instant masterpiece "Man Overboard." You can hear two of them, "Arms and Legs" and "Up and Running," streaming on his My Space page, along with three other goodies from the archives: www.myspace.com/ianhunterbandI've already embedded two of Falke58's videos from You Tube here -- the utterly freaking brilliant title song and the beautiful anti-war "Flowers." My third choice from our friend in Sweden, "River of Tears," evokes "The Outsider," the closing song of Ian's classic 1979 album, another piano-based, historical epic: I've had 30 full years to evaluate "You're Never Alone with a Schizophrenic," Ian's pivotal album with Mick Ronson, and sort out its place in history and his career from my own attachments to it and growth since. But I've only had two years since "Shrunken Heads" came out, which I suspect, yes, am afraid to admit, may be his finest achievement. That is, until "Man Overboard." It's the Rant Band. Their integration with Ian's recording and performing for nearly a decade now begs to be compared to Neil Young and Crazy Horse or Bob Dylan and the Band. Tightly integrated, organic units that power songwriting and light sparks every time they plug in, sending messages and spirit into the future.
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Post by anni on Aug 10, 2009 17:11:25 GMT -8
Not that I'm unduly influenced by loving you, but, I think you should be writing for Rolling Stone AND the Montrose Peace Vigil. I guess we're the lucky ones...ehhh!
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Post by Brian on Aug 16, 2009 1:26:05 GMT -8
The century didn't really begin for me until I saw Ian Hunter and Andy York play at Ameoba in March 2002. They were promoting an album recorded before 9/11 but still relevant and prescient at the end of this first decade. Ian was only 62 when he directed "Rant" at his homeland, England, and released his best work in 23 years, thanks largely to co-producer/collaborist Andy York. Amazingly, they've delivered two even better albums since. On the song "Death of a Nation," Ian sings and plays piano with Mickey Curry on drums while Andy gives us everything else -- groovebox, chamberlains, autoharp and electric guitar. This is an early Falke58 video tribute using the U.K. version of the "Rant" CD: Everything's illusion now - nothing's what it seems Money isn't everything - when you're closing the door on a dreamI won't embed another video of Ian and the Rant Band's show at Rockefeller Park on June 24, even though it's a different song from "Rant," "Dead Man Walking," it was posted only one week ago and it had only 52 views when I found it. That would be going overboard. The quality's decent but the audio's not good enough to hear the lyrics. Bosch always makes you forget York is elsewhere. He looks like incandescent hell but plays like an angel. For fans only? You can decide: And here's a slow You Tube slide show set to the album version of "Dead Man Walking," not by Falke58 this time:
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Post by Brian on Aug 30, 2009 0:03:48 GMT -8
Surprisingly, we didn't listen much to Neil Finn on the CD player while driving around town with Martine when she was here last week, despite the two amazing and personal shows he gave us at the Largo. But we heard most of the "Man Overboard" and "Mott" albums three times each -- and Martine singing "All the Way from Memphis," which she has somehow missed for 36 years, even on the main titles of Martin Scorsese's "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore," although she admitted the song sounded familiar. I came across another quality video of Ian and the Rant Band in Rockefeller Park on June 24, only recently added to You Tube, and registering just 76 views when I found it: For comparison, here's the link to what looks like a kinescope of Mott the Hoople breaking in Ariel Bender on lead guitar -- and Hunter shoving Bender away from centerstage at one point -- from British or European television in the autumn of 1973: During Martine's visit, Ian sat for an interview on the grand old syndicated FM show "Rockline" to promote the new album. I just caught up with it online -- it's still available for a few more days: www.rocklineradio.com/replay/replay.phpBut here's the headline: Ian and the Rant Band will tour in November and December, after the Mott the Hoople reunion shows in London in early October. Perhaps Martine would consider returning all the way from Winnipeg to hear "All the Way from Memphis" in person in L.A.
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Post by Brian on Sept 6, 2009 0:27:24 GMT -8
The 30th anniversary edition of "You're Never Alone with a Schizophrenic" is overdue, since the actual date was in April, memorably a few days before my 21st birthday. I've been fervently anticipating this two-CD set because it features heretofore unreleased studio outtakes and cobbles together live performances by Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson (and that incredible road band) in the summer and fall of 1979, when I saw them four times at the Roxy and the Santa Monica Civic and once at Licorice Pizza on Sunset. The original album is one of the finest achievements of human civilization. Now it has been remastered: www.townsend-records.co.uk/product.php?pId=6753519&pType=1Townsend Records in England was the first to contact me about buying it. The package is being released by EMI only in the U.K. Would Amoeba have it anytime soon after Sept. 21? I checked Amazon, which promises a copy Oct. 6 for $39.98 with no shipping charges. But I punched in the credit card number with Townsend because they only wanted a total of $21.28. As they say on the Internets, WTF? Meanwhile, I'm playing "Man Overboard" and feeling better about things than I have since...the last time I heard this album.
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Post by Brian on Sept 27, 2009 0:51:22 GMT -8
I've harbored the ambition to write a formal review of "Man Overboard" here since it came out in July, despite how daunting the project is. Can I convey my love of the album -- and Ian Hunter's artistry and achievements -- in words? Meanwhile, this two-CD set arrived in our mailbox Wednesday in a bent but USPS-proof envelope from the Royal Mail in the U.K.: I've been listening to "You're Never Alone with a Schizophrenic" for 30 years and five months today, exactly. The album captured a moment in time yet it has become timeless. Rebounding from a horrible album that his U.S. record company refused to release in 1978, Ian reunited with Mick Ronson, his previous co-producer and arranger, best friend and the greatest guitarist who ever lived, then gathered Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band for a series of studio sessions in New York. Flush on the success of Meat Loaf's "Bat Out of Hell" album, the Cleveland International management company signed Ian, got him a contract with Chrysalis Records, a prestigious label in those days, and staked him, Mick and another band of geniuses through two tours of the U.S. and a trip to London in the summer and fall of 1979. The tours were very successful, and the five shows at the Roxy in November (two of which I saw) produced a live double-album, "Welcome to the Club," which might have sold as well as "Schizophrenic." Ian had no hit singles, although "When the Daylight Comes" charted modestly in the U.K. He certainly made more money from Barry Manilow's hit cover of "Ships" that year and, much later, the use of "Cleveland Rocks" as the theme song of "The Drew Carry Show," a version by the rock group the Presidents of the United States of America that tried to ape the original. Although no one was crying for a remastered version of the original CD -- on my limited equipment, I hear no sonic revelations as I did when the Japanese virgin vinyl disc of the Beatles' "Revolver" came out in 1978 -- Ian Hunter's 30th Anniversary Special Edition bends my perceptions of the creative process and life in the studio and on the road more than the Beatles' "Anthology" packages in the mid-1990's. The five bonus tracks include a demo of a song that only appears in Ian's catalog on the live set from Oslo in 2002 and a Jerry Lee Lewis rave up. But the three outtakes from "Schizophrenic" offer alternate arrangements and lyrics that take you to the roots of the songs and his thinking. The second disc, a mash of three live performances, may add up to a better set than the one assembled for "Welcome to the Club." All right, I said it. (Some of those songs come from a show broadcast in Cleveland and a DVD that Martine mailed to me years ago, courtesy of her beautiful bootlegging brother.) This post has gone on too long already. I'll just close by asking: What other album can delight and surprise you as much -- 30 years later?
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Post by Brian on Oct 4, 2009 1:17:34 GMT -8
I searched You Tube for the essence of Mick Ronson's guitar playing and the synergy of Ian Hunter's touring band in 1979-80. It's right here in this clip from the German "Rockpalast" TV show with everybody but Ian playing the traditional show opener "F.B.I.," a hit by the British instrumental group the Shadows in 1962: The biggest revelation of the just-released 30th anniversary edition of "You're Never Alone with a Schizophrenic" audibly does not involve Mick at all -- the booklet only notes that this early version of "Just Another Night" was mixed recently in North Hollywood. Clearly, E Street Band keyboardist Roy Bittan was in control of the session -- the arrangement sounds more like Bruce than Springsteen himself. But Ian's lyrics are entirely different than the album version, except for the refrain: Hear the church bells ringing out through the haze To lie in this story I got to be crazed And it's just another night on the other side of life
I got got ice in my eyes, blood in my hair Feet getting swollen from going nowhere And it's just another night on the other side of lifeIt's mindbending. The song we all have adored as a concert staple for 30 years about Ian's stint in the Indianapolis City Jail during a Mott the Hoople tour in 1973 was originally written from the same skid row point of view of the guy who showed up again in "Man Overboard" in 2009: "I tasted life so much I think I drank myself right through it." Why did it take so long for this version to be released? According to Campbell Devine's liner notes in the booklet, Mick reminded Ian that he originally composed "Just Another Night" as the rocker we all know and love, but had forgotten about it when he got drunk. Ian gave Mick half of the publishing credit.
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Post by Brian on Oct 25, 2009 1:42:32 GMT -8
I almost went. Last January, I had great freaking seats reserved online for one of the Mott the Hoople reunion concerts in October at the Hammersmith Apollo until I failed to input my credit card data quickly enough. It was 1 a.m. so I gave up, doubting the wisdom of planning a trip to London with the U.S. and all of us at the brink of a depression. Tonight, I settled for ordering the CD set from their Oct. 1 show for about $40 American. Martine told me via e-mail from Canada that her brother has recordings from Oct. 2 and 3. From what I hear, they were glorious. Concert Live's website in the U.K. has samples of three songs: www.concertlive.co.uk/tour.php?id=80You Tube uploaded 176 Mott the Hoople videos this month, most of those I've seen so far taken by cellphones. This clip has the most exceptional quality and it captures one of my favorite all-time songs with the arrangement Ian Hunter perfected in his solo peformances with the Rant Band this decade: After 35 years, Mott the Hoople proved that a successful reunion was not only possible, but beneficial to their passionate fans, men in their 50's who could still think while feeling. After that achievement, would it be too much to expect nuclear disarmament, an accord between Israel and Palestine and withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan?
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Post by anni on Oct 26, 2009 14:02:56 GMT -8
After 35 years, Mott the Hoople proved that a successful reunion was not only possible, but beneficial to their passionate fans, men in their 50's who could still think while feeling. After that achievement, would it be too much to expect nuclear disarmament, an accord between Israel and Palestine and withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan? You are so right on, Brian. Everything seems possible, after that! That and the uplifting time spent with our fellow Peace-niks at: The Intersection of Islamophobia and U.S.-Sponsored Torture Sunday, Oct. 25 St. John's Cathedral, 514 W. Adams (at Figueroa) Los Angeles
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