(MOTT's second album not so much...but they came on strong with WILD LIFE!)
Angel Of Eighth Avenue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC4bX3KptXY
They lost me when everyone else turned on to them and bought their records with Bowie's "All The Young Dudes" . Ian got rather tired of playing the Glam star eventually, going home to wife and family, and the regular guy he was, between gigs. Not GLAM at all.
But I still had...
WILDLIFE 1971...Allmusic 4 out of 5 STARS
Full Album play
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdQejC5Uz8s
Track listing:
Side one...so nice
1. Whiskey Women (0:00-3:41)
2. Angel Of Eighth Avenue (3:42-8:14)
3. Wrong Side Of The River (8:15-13:33)
4. Waterlow (13:34-16:36)
5. Lay Down (16:37-20:49)...what an anthemic cover!!
Side two
6. It Must Be Love (20:50-23:13)
7. The Original Mixed-Up Kid (23:14-26:53)
8. Home Is Where I Want To Be (26:54-31:05)
9. Keep A-Knockin' (31:06-41:17)
The album was originally released in 1971; in the UK by Island Records (catalogue number ILPS 9144) and in the US by Atlantic Records (cat. no. SD 8384). It was subsequently re-released by Angel Air in 2003 (SJPCD159. After the edgier rock of their first two albums this record has a softer feel (leading to its nickname "Mildlife" among band members). Even Ian Hunter's trio of compositions are introspective, though disarmingly beautiful. For the first (and only) time Mick Ralphs' contributions predominate, leading to an almost country-rock feel for much of the album.
"Keep a Knockin'" is a shambolic live version, all that was deemed salvageable at the time from a prospective live album recorded by Mott's original producer Guy Stevens at Croydon's Fairfield Halls in 1970.
MOTT THE HOOPLE-st 1969. Four out of five STARS.
My favorite album cover of the day.
Mott the Hoople is the debut studio album by the band of the same name. It was produced by Guy Stevens and released in 1969 by Island Records in the UK (cat. no. ILPS 9108), and in 1970 by Atlantic Records in North America (cat. no. SD 8258). It was subsequently re-released by Angel Air in 2003 (SJPCD157).
Stevens, the group's initial mentor and guide, wanted to create an album that would suggest Bob Dylan singing with the Rolling Stones. This was partially achieved, with the album including several Dylanesque cover versions along with aggressive rock originals. Years later, vocalist Ian Hunter - who had only just joined the band prior to Mott the Hoople's recording and had yet to play live with them - would insinuate, in an August 1980 Trouser Press magazine interview, that the Stones' 1971 track "Bitch" bore more than a passing resemblance to this album's "Rock and Roll Queen." (Both songs are in the key of Am, and use the pentatonic scale.)
An instrumental version of The Kinks' "You Really Got Me" introduces the album, though a vocal version was recorded and is available on Mott's compilation release Two Miles From Heaven. Doug Sahm's "At the Crossroads" (originally recorded by Sahm's Sir Douglas Quintet in 1968) and Sonny Bono's "Laugh at Me" (originally issued by Sonny & Cher on their second full-length album in 1966, but without vocals from Cher) are suitably reminiscent of Bob Dylan, as is Hunter's "Backsliding Fearlessly."
Initial copies of the album were wrongly pressed with the song "The Road to Birmingham," the B-side of their debut single, replacing "Rock and Roll Queen."
The album's cover is a colourised reproduction of M. C. Escher's lithograph "Reptiles." In an interesting coincidence considering Guy Stevens' desire for Mott to sound like the Rolling Stones, in early 1969 Mick Jagger had approached Escher wanting to commission a painting for the cover of the Stones' upcoming album Let It Bleed; Escher declined the request.
"You Really Got Me" (Ray Davies) 2.55
"At the Crossroads" (Doug Sahm) 5.33...just perfect
"Laugh At Me" (Sonny Bono) 6.32...a brilliant cover of Bono's classic
"Backsliding Fearlessly" (Ian Hunter) 3.47 a favorite indeed!
"Rock and Roll Queen" (Mick Ralphs) 5.10
"Rabbit Foot and Toby Time" (Mick Ralphs) 2.04
"Half Moon Bay" (Mick Ralphs, Ian Hunter) 10.38
"Wrath and Wroll" (Guy Stevens) 1.49
2003 CD bonus tracks[edit]
"Ohio" (Neil Young) 4.26
"Find Your Way" (Mick Ralphs) 3.30
MOTT THE HOOPLE 1969
Full album play
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4Pctiw7ABY
