"...Thunderbuck Ram..."
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
Buffin details 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
mental on this huge haul...
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
CD2 "Mad Shadows"
(73:24 minutes, 15 Tracks):
1. Thunderbuck Ram [Side 1]
2. No Wheels To Ride
3. You Are One Of Us
4. Walkin' With A Mountain
5. I Can Feel [Side 2]
6. Threads Of Iron
7. When My Mind's Gone
Tracks 1 to 7 are their
second studio album "Mad Shadows" - released September 1970 in the UK
on Island Records ILPS 9119 and October 1970 in the USA on Atlantic SD 8272
(didn't chart in either country)
BONUS TRACKS:
8. Thunderbuck Ram - BBC
Session, Top Gear, 21 February 1970 [John Walters Producer]
9. Thunderbuck Ram (Original
Take with Organ Solo, 4:50 minutes) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
10. No Wheels To Ride (Demo
Version, 6:29 minutes) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
11. Moonbus (Baby's Got A
Down On Me) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
12. The Hunchback Fish
(Vocal Rehearsal, 6:01 minutes) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
13. You Are One Of Us (Take
9, 5:12 minutes) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
14. Going Home [recorded 16
Jan 1970] - first UK released March 1981 on the Mott The Hoople compilation LP
"Two Miles From Heaven" on Island Records IRSP 8
15. Keep A Knockin' (Studio
Version, Take 2, Little Richard cover, 2:30 minutes) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
CD 3 "Wildlife"
(73:30 minutes, 17 Tracks):
1. Whiskey Women [Side 1]
2. Angel Of Eight Avenue
3. Wrong Side Of The River
4. Waterflow
5. Lay Down
6. It Must Be Love [Side 2]
7. Original Mixed Up Kid
8. Home Is Where I Want To
Be
9. Keep A Knockin' (Live
1970 at The Fairfield Hall, Croydon in London)
Tracks 1 to 9 are their 3rd
studio album "Wildlife" - released 19 March 1971 in the UK on Island
Records ILPS 9144 and April 1971 in the USA on Atlantic Records SD 8284 (didn't
chart in either country); the Live Version of "Keep A Knockin'" also
includes an uncredited version of "What I’d Say" by Jerry Lee Lewis
BONUS TRACKS:
10. Midnight Lady – 9 July
1971 UK 7" single on Island WIP 6105, Non-album A-side
11. The Debt – Non-album
B-side of "Midnight Lady"
12. Downtown – 17 September
1971 UK 7" single on Island WIP 6112, Non-album A-side (B-side was the
Mick Ralphs album track "Home..."); A-side is a Crazy Horse cover
version originally written by Danny Whitten and Neil Young on his backing
band's self-titled debut album from 1970
13. Brain Haulage (Whiskey
Women) (3:55 minutes) – PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
14. Growing Man Blues (Take
10, 3:40 minutes) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
15. Long Red (Demo, 3:53
minutes) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
16. The Ballad Of Billy Joe
(3:38 minutes) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
17. Lay Down (Take 8, 5:08
minutes, Melanie cover) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
CD4 "Brain Capers"
(68:58 minutes, 16 Tracks):
1. Death May Be Your Santa
Claus [Side 1]
2. Your Own Backyard
3. Darkness Darkness
4. The Journey
5. Sweet Angeline [Side 2]
6. Second Love
7. The Moon Upstairs
8. The Wheel Of The
Quivering Meat Conception
Tracks 1 to 8 are their
fourth studio album "Brain Capers" - released 19 November 1971 in the
UK on Island Records ILPS 9178 and January 1972 in the USA on Atlantic Records
SD 8304 (didn't chart in either country)
BONUS TRACKS:
9. Mental Train (The Moon Upstairs)
(5:16 minutes) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
10. How Long (Death May
Be...) (4:10 minutes) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
11. Darkness Darkness (3:04
minutes, Jessie Colin Young song, Youngbloods cover) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
12. Your Own Backyard
(Complete Take, 4:12 minutes, Dion Cover) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
13. Where Do You All Come
Front? (Backing Track, 3:16 minutes) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
14. One Of The Boys (Take 2,
4:22 minutes) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
15. Movin' On - first UK
released March 1981 on the Mott The Hoople compilation LP "Two Miles From
Heaven" on Island Records IRSP 8 (mastered from a cassette)
16. Black Scorpio (Mamma's
Little Jewel) - first UK released March 1981 on the Mott The Hoople compilation
LP "Two Miles From Heaven" on Island Records IRSP 8 (mastered from a
cassette)
CD5 "The Ballads Of
Mott The Hoople" (Exclusive compilation, 73:18 minutes, 12 Tracks):
1. Like A Rolling Stone
(Fragment, 1:29 minutes)
2. No Wheels To Hide (Live, 1st House Fairfield
Hall, Croydon, 7:25 minutes) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
3. Angel Of Eight Avenue
(Take 6, Mastered from faders-up multi-tracks) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
4. The Journey (10:24
minutes) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
5. Blue Broken Tears (3:11
minutes, Mastered from faders-up multi-tracks) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
6. Black Hills (Full Ralphs
Version, 4:07 minutes) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
7. Can You Sing The Song
That I Sing (15:54 minutes) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
8. Till I'm Gone - first UK
released March 1981 on the Mott The Hoople compilation LP "Two Miles From
Heaven" on Island Records IRSP 8 (mastered from a cassette)
9. The Original Mixed Up Kid
- BBC Session, Mike Harding, 16 March 1971
10. Ill Wind Blowing - first
UK released March 1981 on the Mott The Hoople compilation LP "Two Miles From
Heaven" on Island Records IRSP 8 (mastered from a cassette)
11. I'm A River (Rehearsal,
10:40 minutes) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
12. Ride On The Sun (Sea
Diver) - first UK released March 1981 on the Mott The Hoople compilation LP
"Two Miles From Heaven" on Island Records IRSP 8 (mastered from a
cassette)
CD6 "It's Live And Live
Only" (Exclusive Compilation, 78:18 minutes, 12 Tracks):
1. Rock And Roll Queen
2. Ohio
3. No Wheels To Ride/Hey
Jude
4. Thunderbuck Ram
5. Keep A Knockin'
6. You Really Got Me
Tracks 1 to 6 recorded 1
September 1970 at The Fairfield Hall in Croydon, London
"Ohio" is a Neil
Young song - a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young cover; "Hey Jude" is
a Beatles cover; Keep A Knockin' is a Little Richard cover and "You Really
Got Me" is a Kinks cover
7. The Moon Upstairs
8. Whiskey Women
9. Your Own Backyard
10. Darkness, Darkness
11. The Journey
12. Death May Be Your Santa
Claus
Tracks 7 to 12 recorded 30
December 1971 for the BBC's Radio 1 "In Concert" programme (produced
by Guy Stevens)
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
Guests:
Guy Stevens – Production,
Song Contributions
James Archer of the LSO –
Violin on "Angel Of Eighth Avenue"
Jess Roden (of Bronco) –
Backing Vocals on "Lay Down"
Stan Tippins (of Doc Thomas
Group) – Backing Vocals on "Lay Down"
Jerry Hogan – Pedal Steel
Guitar on "It Must Be Love" and "Original Mixed-Up Kid"
Jim Price – Trumpet on
"Second Love"
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 4
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. Let’s get to the content...
The self-titled debut always
felt to me like a rudderless beginning - the opening three covers (The Kinks
"You Really Got Me", Doug Sahm's "At The Crossroads" and
Sonny Bono's "Laugh At Me") displaying 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.
From the axe of Mick Ralphs,
"Mad Shadows" opens with the wild "Thunderbuck Ram" where
England’s Mott The Hoople suddenly thinks it’s a hybrid between MC5 and The
Stooges with a bit of melodic Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac thrown in for the
middle eight. As Ian Hunter delivers the brooding, epic and even sad "No
Wheels To Ride" – only two songs in and the second album already feels
like the band has found something – their own MTH sound. A trio of Hunter songs
- the reverential "You Are One Of Us", the Chuck Berry boogie of
"Walkin' With A Mountain" and the warbling seven-minute keyboard
ballad that opens Side 2 "I Can Feel" (complete with Uriah Heep drama
vocals) stamps his songwriting authority on proceedings (lovely solo too from
Ralphs). "Threads Of Iron" is a jaunty little number from guitarist
Ralphs with a catchy 'you are what you are' vocal line. The album closes with
Hunter's unnerving and funereal composition "When My Mind's Gone" - a
six-and-half-minute piano plonk that sounds as casket-inducing as its title
suggests. It's a good album. Amidst the extras - Radio 1's Fluff Freeman
introduces an in-the-distance BBC Session version of "Thunderbuck
Ram" immediately indicating what an exciting prospect this band must been
- live and in yer face. Far better however is the 'Original Take with Organ
Solo' of the same song where Mott start to sound dangerously close to Peter
Green's "Oh Well" with a disgruntled Hammond playing in the
background (have to say this is a highlight amongst the unreleased). Another
goody comes in the guise of the Kossoff-sounding riffage for "Moonbus
(Baby's Got A Down On Me)" – a very tasty period find. It's also cool to
finally hear their fast and furious studio take for Little Richard Penniman's
"Keep A Knockin'" – here kept down to a boogie baller of just two and
a half minutes (the Georgia Peach would approve).
They try to go American-ish
with the very Steppenwolf guitar vs. organ boogie of "Whiskey Women"
– the opening track to the infuriating every-musical-direction-will-do third
album "Wildlife". But that boys-own beginner is solidly trounced by
what I believe to be Ian Hunter's first moment of musical magic – the gorgeous
ballad "Angel Of Eight Avenue" where he describes waking up in New
York on the first Mott US tour with a lady who is as fragile and as beautiful
as the Manhattan morning he's gazing out upon (what a lovely transfer too –
great work boys). The cover of Melanie's "Lay Down" features a chorus
contribution from Bronco's Jess Roden but the Country-Rock of "It Must Be
Love" is awful (the "Downtown" stand alone single wasn't much
better - a cover of a Crazy Horse song). The album ends of what feels like a
different group - a crowd rousing 11-minute live take on Little Richard's
"Keep A Knockin'" with Mick Ralphs showing what he can do when let
rip. Late 1971's "Brain Capers" was always their best album and it
seems the band thinks so too. "Death May Be Your Santa Claus" opens
the record in raucous Rock fashion and this time covers of Dion's "Your
Own Backyard" and The Youngbloods "Darkness Darkness" (a Jessie
Colin Young song) actually sound like Mott made the right choices. Both
"The Journey" and "Sweet Angeline" see Hunter in a
melancholy mood (there's a man on a bridge called Suicide) - while Verden Allen
provides a rare lead vocal on his own "Second Love". A damn good
album "Brain Capers" - wee bit of a lost masterpiece really. I hadn't
expected either CD5 or CD6 to provide much but they're full of goodies –
especially those unreleased studio outtakes on disc five.
For sure "Mental
Train..." is not for the casual browser and it would take until album
number five ("All The Young Dudes") to awaken record buyers to MOTT
THE HOOPLE. But their is a strange kind of bloody-minded heroism on offer here
- a time when bands were allowed to sound nuts - grow with each release - until
that initial magic someone saw before they signed them - finally broke through.
Leaping lizards but it's
astonishing 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
loveable - on the musical evidence presented here - you may find yourself
seeking out Mott The Hoople and "Death May Be Your Santa Claus" this
Christmas...
