"Mott The Hoople" November 1969 UK Debut Album on Island Records
June 1970 US Debut LP on Atco Records
Inside "Mental Train: The Island Years 1969-1971"
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"...At The Crossroads..."
I was both looking forward
to and in some ways dreading this MOTT THE HOOPLE Box Set - an odd thing to say
when you're spending over £40 of your pensioner’s pre-Brexit allowance. And
typically "Mental Train..." both delivers and disappoints is several
weird ways.
What’s good - the new Andy Pearce
and Matt Wortham Remasters have massively improved on what went before - as
their skills always seem to do (see my reviews for Free, Budgie, Rory
Gallagher, ELP – a very long list of
great work). Some of the unreleased stuff is shockingly magnificent - check out
Take 6 of "Angel Of Eight Avenue" on Disc 5 mixed from faders-up
multi-tracks - whilst Kris Needs once again nails it with wickedly insightful
liner notes that feature new contributions from key players (Campbell Devine
and Kris Needs compiled the set). But there's fluff too aplenty, the mock
distressed look card artwork is horribly presented and the actual albums
themselves have always left so much to be desired – piano-plonking tedium often
sitting uncomfortably alongside thundering Rock brilliance. Guy Stevens would
have been proud even if the band weren't selling jack for four whole LPs.
There's an absolute ton of
detail to crawl through, so Mad Shadows and Willard Manus paperbacks ahoy (they
took their name from one of his novels) – let's get Overend Watts on this huge
haul (don't you just love that name)...
UK released Friday, 2
November 2018 - "Mental Train: The Island Years 1969-71" by MOTT THE
HOOPLE on Universal/Island MOTTBOX 001 (Barcode 602547869623) is a 89-Song 6CD
Box Set of New Remasters (30 Previously Unreleased) with a 52-Page Hardback
Book, Single Sleeve Mini LP Artwork for all Six Discs and a fold-out Colour
Poster all housed in a 10x8 Box with Ribbon. It breaks down as follows:
CD1 "Mott The
Hoople" (79:13 minutes, 17 Tracks):
1. You Really Got Me [Side
1]
2. At The Crossroads
3. Laugh At Me
4. Backsliding Fearlessly
5. Rock And Roll Queen (Full
Album Version, 5:10 minutes) [Side 2]
6. Rabbit Foot & Toby
Time
7. Half Moon Boy
8. Wrath And Wroll
Tracks 1 to 8 are their debut
album "Mott The Hoople" - released 22 November 1969 in the UK in
Stereo on Island Records ILPS 9108 and June 1970 in the USA on Atlantic Records
SD 8258. Produced by GUY STEVENS - it didn't chart in the UK but peaked at No.
185 in the USA in July 1970.
BONUS TRACKS:
9. If Your Heart Lay With
The Rebel (Would You Cheer The Underdog) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED INSTRUMENTAL
10. Rock And Roll Queen
[Single Edit, 3:20 minutes] - October 1969 debut UK 7" single on Island
WIP 6072, non-album version
11. Road To Birmingham -
non-album B-side to their October 1969 UK debut 7" single on Island WIP
6072
12. Road To Birmingham (Guy
Stevens Mix) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
13. You Really Got Me (Full
Take, 11:14 minutes) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
14. You Really Got Me (Guy
Stevens Vocal Mix, 2:51 minutes) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
15. Rock And Roll Queen (Guy
Stevens Mono Mix, 3:21 minutes) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
16. Rock And Roll Queen
(Kitchen Sink Instrumental, 5:22minutes) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
17. Little Christine [Recorded
24 June 1969] - first UK released March 1981 on the Mott The Hoople compilation
LP "Two Miles From Heaven" on Island Records IRSP 8
MOTT THE HOOPLE was:
IAN HUNTER (Ian Hunter
Patterson) – Lead Singer, Piano
MICK RALPHS – Lead Guitars
and Second Lead Vocals
VERDEN ALLEN (Terence Allen)
– Organ and Other Keyboards
OVEREND WATTS (Pete Overend
Watts) – Bass
DALE “Buffin” GRIFFIN
(Terence Dale Griffin) – Drums
The box looks the part and
ribbon allowing you to access the six single card sleeves in the inner well is
a nice touch – but as already said and noted by other buyers – none of the card
sleeves actually reflect the original British albums. The gatefolds for the
first three are gone – removed to the book. The five pinched faces on the inner
debut gatefold is spread across the back pages of the hardback, the child and
lions photo inside "Mad Shadows" is on the inside of the front, the
live shot of the band on the inner gatefold of "Wildlife" is behind
text on Pages 36 and 27 and the airplanes inner for "Brain Capers"
and the gimmick mask appear at both ends of the book too. The colouring of the
CDs reflects the original British LP pressings - the Pink Island 'Pink I' Logo
for the first two – the Palm Tree Pink Rim Logo Label for the other two and so
on...
The book may seem a little
slight at first but there's a lot of info inside and period stuff to peruse (a
fab promo photo on Page 13 for the Doc Thomas Group which featured a young Mick
Ralphs and Pete Watts before Guy Stevens altered their names for Mott).
Renowned writer KRIS NEEDS provides the tangled and at times chaotic history of
the British Band – informative and entertaining reading, as always. The uber-rare British picture sleeve for the 1969 "Rock And Roll Queen" single
in on Page 48 as is the front sleeve for the final Island album from the period
– the 9-Track "Rock And Roll Queen" compilation from 1972 on Island
ILPS 9125. It was issued to cash in on the success of the "All The Young
Dudes" single and LP on CBS Records (their first chart single courtesy of
a song gifted to them by David Bowie). The LP is pictured on Page 48 (along
with other European single picture sleeves) and if you want to sequence the
popular "Rock And Roll Queen" compilation as a CD from this Box Set
use the following tracks:
Side 1:
1. Rock And Roll Queen (Disc
1, Track 5, Album Version)
2. The Wheel Of The
Quivering Meat Conception (Disc 4, Track 8)
3. You Really Got Me (Disc
1, Track 1)
4. Thunderbuck Ram (Disc 2,
Track 1)
5. Walkin' With A Mountain
(Disc 2, Track 4)
Side 2:
1. Death May Be Your Santa
Claus (Disc 4, Track 1)
2. Midnight Lady (Disc 3,
Track 10)
3. Keep A Knockin' (Live,
Full Album Version) (Disc 3, Track 9)
The Audio is fabulous and as
these hirsute/girl-leering gents were prone to Rocking out big time like Spooky
Tooth with spiked Vodka or a demented Free in a graveyard after dark – both
Pearce and Wortham capture all that bottled power so well. The listen is also
surprisingly downbeat – way too many slow ballads – ill-advised Country Rock
stints on "Wildlife" and a 15-minute outtake from Hunter that will
test his mother’s patience. Having said that – I actually think that Disc 5
with the Previously Unreleased material is one of the strongest discs on here –
fantastic alternate versions – that Take 6 of the Manhattan morning ballad
"Angel Of Eight Avenue" brought a tear of joy to my
demonically-possessed elderly-person's eyes and "The Journey"
extended to over ten minutes is a dark, slow, brooding beast of a thing for a
band so intent on ripping up the stage with Rock 'n' Roll.
Let's get to the
beginning...
The self-titled debut "Mott
The Hoople" always felt to me like a rudderless beginning - the opening
three covers "You Really Got Me" by The Kinks, Doug Sahm's "At
The Crossroads" and Sonny Bono's "Laugh At Me" – displayed a
band that seemed to be recording whatever they liked as they were rehearsing.
For sure there's power in the sheer riffage on offer as they turn the Kink's
proto-punk anthem into an instrumental - whilst Hunter's "Backsliding
Fearlessly" sounds like a bad Dylan cover. The first sign of a genuine Rawk hit comes with Mick Ralphs "Rock And Roll Woman" presented
here in two variants - the full and clear stereo album cut at 5:10 minutes and
the severely muffled single edit of 3:20 minutes that sounds like it was
mastered in a bucket. "Rabbit Foot And Toby Time" is another rockin'
Ralphs tune, but it's an instrumental of two minutes duration that goes
absolutely nowhere.
Side 2 and the album in general is dominated by the 10:39
minutes of Ian Hunter's "Half Moon Bay" - a slow boiler with great
organ playing from Verden Allen that at times feels both epic and indulgent
with just the right measures of both. The debut ends with a mad Guy Stevens
contribution called "Wrath And Roll" (a habit they would repeat again
and again) and unfortunately you can't help thinking it might have been a
better idea to include something possibly resembling a tune. Way more
interesting is the Previously Unreleased and catchy-titled "If You Lay
With The Rebel (Would You Cheer At The Underdog)?" - a riffage
instrumental with better Production values than some of the album tracks.
Die-hard fans will appreciate 11:17 minutes of "You Really Got Me"
where the take descends into guitar mayhem and the fruity "Little
Christine" from the "Two Miles..." compilation actually feels
like the Faces circa their debut.
For sure "Mental
Train..." is not for the casual browser and it would take until album
number five and a Bowie-gifted anthem ("All The Young Dudes") to awaken record buyers to MOTT
THE HOOPLE in general. But there's a strange kind of bloody-minded heroism on offer here
- a time when bands were allowed to sound nuts and grow with each release until
that initial magic that someone saw before they signed them - finally broke through.
Leaping lizards, but it's
astonishing that any of them survived given the times and acrimony within the ranks.
Ralphs would go on of course to form Bad Co. with Paul Rodgers of Free, whilst
Ian Hunter would enjoy a massive solo career and aged 79 in 2018 is still
rocking, touring and writing.
Always nuts but glam
lovable - on the musical evidence presented here - you may find yourself
seeking out Mott The Hoople and "Death May Be Your Santa Claus" this
Christmas...
