1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 284. Mott The Hoople – Mott (1973)

 

Here’s another album that I listened to quite a lot, a very long time ago, but unlike Dark Side Of The Moon it only really came back to me as I was listening. Apart from a bit of All The Way To Memphis (which is the one track off here that I’ve heard get radio play), I’d largely wiped it from my conscious memory. 

In part, perhaps, because some of the more mawkish tracks (I Wish I Was You Mother and Hymn For The Dudes) invoked memories of an unrequited crush long forgotten. So, ouch. Thankfully I’m older, wiser (ha!), and wrinklier than I was then, so in a way it was quite cathartic to bring those feelings out, acknowledge them, and move on. Such is the power of music, however, to lock straight into the old limbic system and pull out memories and emotions. 

What I also recall of Mott The Hoople is that I wished Ian Hunter had a better voice, there’s a very strained quality to it that some of the more dramatic songs may have benefitted from somebody with a more rounded timbre. However, coming back to it, he’s better than I recall, which was as being relatively tuneless. No, he’s perfectly capable, even able to belt out some power notes in Hymn For The Dudes and Ballad Of Mott The Hoople. 

The music is kind of glam, especially the rockier numbers like All The Way To Memphis and Driving Sister, veering into more classic rock and roll elements with tracks like Honaloochie Boogie (this, and Memphis, featuring the honking sax of Roxy Music’s Andy Mackay).  
Best track, for me, is Violence (which features “insane violin”, as it’s called in the credits, from Graham Preskett). The chorus of “violence, violence, it’s the only thing that will make you see sense” sung in exaggerated Received Pronunciation, the politeness at odds with the message, and the track descends into a glorious mess of noise with the band threatening to take it outside, great tongue-in-cheek fun. 

This is the last but one album recorded by the original line-up (Hunter, “Overend” Watts, Dale “Buffin” Griffin on drums and the under-rated guitar work of Mick Ralphs). At one time they were big enough that Queen were *their* support act, and David Bowie was offering them songs – they turned down Suffragette City but scored their biggest hit with All The Young Dudes. Ian Hunter not long after ran off with Mick Ronson to form their own group, and it doesn’t seem that things ever quite gelled when he was replaced. 

Thankfully none of the other albums that I owned during that period of my life have made me think what a callow fool I was, and hopefully there won’t be too many others that do. On the other hand, maybe if this experiment mutates into therapy it won’t be too bad.