Mott [Remaster]

Performer: Mott the Hoople
Artist: Paul Buckmaster; Andy MacKay
Producer: Mott The Hoople
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Mott The Hoople: Ian Hunter (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Mick Ralphs (vocals, guitar); Overend Watts (vocals, bass); Verden Allen (keyboards); Dale Griffin (drums). Additional personnel includes: Graham Preskitt (violin); Paul Buckmaster (electric cello); Andy Mackay (saxophone); Thunderthighs (backround vocals). Engineers: Bill Price, Alan Harris, John Leckie. Recorded at Air London Studios and EMI Abbey Road, London, England, from February-April 1973. Digitally remastered by Larry Keyes (CBS Records Studio, New York, New York). Includes four bonus tracks. Mott the Hoople: Dale Buffin Griffin, Ian Hunter, Mick Ralphs, Overend Watts. Additional personnel: Andy McKay, Paul Buckmaster, Morgan Fisher, Graham Preskett. Mott The Hoople are often associated with the '70s glam movement, but their only real connection to that style was their involvement with David Bowie. In fact, the band was much more closely tied to the post-folkie work of Bob Dylan. Singer Ian Hunter had his British version of Dylan's transcendent moan down to a science. Though they were essentially a pure rock & roll band (and one of the main influences on the Clash), Mott sported detailed lyrics informed by the Dylan school, almost to the point of self-consciousness. One of the band's great strengths was its knack for self-mythology, as borne out by "All The Way From Memphis," a Chuck Berry-ish number about the travails of the road. "Ballad of Mott the Hoople" is an ironic but poignant look at the way the band failed to meet the expectations of both themselves and their fans. Amidst all this heady introspection, there's plenty of arresting hard rock guitar courtesy of Mick Ralphs. Things end on a quirky, oddly sentimental note with "I Wish I Was Your Mother," a folkie, idiosyncratic love song colored by chiming mandolin, and marked by some of Hunter's most inspired writing.

Rolling Stone (p.70) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[I]mmortal....Mott's forte remained the elegy, none greater than the self-mythologizing 'Ballad of Mott the Hoople'..." Q (p.125) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] vivid, bittersweet dissection of life on the road in a middling rock 'n' roll band." Q (5/95, p.127) - 3 Stars - Good - "...remains a peak in the careers of both Mott The Hoople as a band and leader Ian Hunter as a songwriter..."

While most rock fans remember Mott The Hoople as a thriving early-'70s glam band, they were also one of the first British bands to serve as a mouthpiece for the working class (predating both The Sex Pistols and The Clash by several years). Led by singer Ian Hunter and future Bad Company guitarist Mick Ralphs, Mott could rock out and pose with the best of 'em.

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