Archive Review: Ian Hunter Band featuring Mick Ronson - Live At Rockpalast (2012)

In the absence of legitimate contemporary rock ‘n’ roll heroes, a sort of “cult of personality” has grown up around a number of admittedly eccentric 1960s-and-‘70s-era musicians. From Nick Lowe and Robyn Hitchcock to Todd Rundgren and other aging rockers raised in the long shadows of the second World War, the digital era has been kinder to them than most, prompting a rediscovery of their early, acclaimed work by a younger audience, extending their careers long past the ostensible commercial “sell by” date. In many instances, it has enabled these artists to grow old with dignity and grace, allowing them to deliver some of the best music of their lives in the 21st century.

Of all of these fellow travelers, Ian Hunter is the oldest and, perhaps, the most iconoclastic. A late arrival to U.K. glam-rock cult faves Mott the Hoople, Hunter quickly took over the band’s creative reins and became its best-known member. (Don’t think so? Quick, name another Mott member other than Hunter or guitarist Mick Ralphs…) Hunter’s often-snarky, Dylan-inspired wordplay and the band’s guitar-heavy hard-rock sound would earn them a modicum of fame, if little fortune, and by the mid-1970s, realizing that the party was coming to a close, Hunter jumped the Mott ship for a solo career, taking former David Bowie/Lou Reed guitarist, and recent band addition Mick Ronson with him.

Although a direct line can be drawn from Mott the Hoople to the intelligent punk-rock of the Clash and the less-intellectual, but admittedly more commercially successful pseudo-metal of Def Leppard, it is Ian Hunter’s sporadic solo career that has influenced a generation of British, as well as a lesser number of American musicians. Beginning with his self-titled 1975 debut, which yielded the classic “Once Bitten Twice Shy,” through the end of the decade and a handful of albums culminating in 1979’s You’re Never Alone With A Schizophrenic, which entered “Just Another Night” and “Cleveland Rocks” to the rock ‘n’ roll lexicon, Hunter wrote a musical legacy that continues to resonate loudly even in recent works like 2007’s Shrunken Heads and 2009’s Man Overboard.

Ian Hunter Band featuring Mick Ronson Live At Rockpalast

In April 1980, reunited with his friend and longtime musical foil Ronson (management problems having kept the two madmen apart for several years), Hunter performed for the popular German TV show Rockpalast. Translating, roughly, as “Rock Palace,” the program has been broadcast since 1974, airing performances from, literally, hundreds of rock, blues, jazz, and other artists. Video clips from the TV show have been a staple of YouTube since the dawn of that website, but only within the last couple of years has Germany’s MIG Music made a number of full-length performances available on CD and DVD. Hunter’s 1980 Rockpalast performance, prominently featuring guitarist Ronson, stands as a true gem among an eclectic and varied catalog offered by MIG Music.

Fronting a band that included Ronson, bassist Martin Briley, a pair of keyboard players, and a drummer, Hunter rips through a baker’s dozen of songs from both his solo albums as well as his tenure with Mott the Hoople. Performing in front of an enthusiastic German audience at the large Grugahalle arena in Essen, Germany, the first half of Live At Rockpalast mimics the tracklist, if not the actual performances, found on Hunter’s 1980 live release Welcome To the Club. The album-opening instrumental “F.B.I.” is effectively a raucous band intro fueled by Ronson’s wiry fretwork and a driving rhythm that leads straightaway into “Once Bitten Twice Shy,” the hoary hard-rock chestnut stripped down here, provided a slight boogie-rock framework with Hunter’s wry vocals dancing atop a sparse arrangement that explodes into a full-blown rock ‘n’ roll cyclone.

The beautifully lovestruck “Angeline” (a/k/a “Sweet Angeline,” from Brain Capers) is the first of several Mott the Hoople treasures recreated here, the song’s simple, slightly-twangy construction reminiscent of Nick Lowe’s Brinsley Schwartz, Hunter’s passionate vocals rising above a cacophony of chiming guitars and cascading drumbeats. A pair of beloved tunes from that band’s breakthrough 1973 album Mott are provided similar reverence, the wistful “I Wish I Was Your Mother” benefiting from Ronson’s elegant guitarplay and Hunter’s haunting, weary vocals while the up-tempo “All the Way From Memphis” displays all the reckless abandon and joyful banter of the original.

Cleveland Rocks

Of Hunter’s modest solo hits, “Cleveland Rocks” may be better-known than “Just Another Night” due to its use as the theme of The Drew Carey Show for several years, performed there by the Presidents of the United States of America (remember “Lump”?). Hunter’s version kicks ass, hands down, the singer declaring the city one of the birthplaces of rock ‘n’ roll and then kicking out the jams with a high-octane performance that is over-the-top delicious in its unbridled energy. Hunter’s vocals ride a wave of distorted guitars and crashing rhythms, feedback creeping in at the edges as the singer delivers the lyrics with a punkish sneer and a sly grin. “Just Another Night” ain’t chopped liver, though…Hunter’s swaggering vocals sit comfortably within a blanket of sound, keyboards tinkling above a sweaty, grinding dancefloor rhythm.

Live At Rockpalast includes performances of several of Hunter’s lesser-known songs as well as an intriguing cover of the obscure mid-1960s Sonny Bono single “Laugh At Me.” A spry pop-rock tune with an undeniable melody, vocal harmonies, edgy guitarwork, and period-perfect alienated teen lyrics, Hunter and crew crank up the pathos and turn up the amps and deliver a riveting performance. “We Gotta Get Out Of Here” debuted on Welcome To the Club and, sadly, wouldn’t be reprised on any later studio albums. Here the song is a hard-rocking sledgehammer with an infectious chorus, scraps of honky-tonk piano, tense guitar, bashed cymbals, gang vocals, and an overall crescendo of chaotic instrumentation.

The set, somewhat appropriately, closes with the Mott hit “All the Young Dudes” and Ronson’s “Slaughter On 10th Avenue.” The former, handed to the band by the album’s producer David Bowie, is played embarrassingly straight. Ronson’s guitar mimics perfectly Mick Ralph’s original rakish note-picking, and Hunter’s vocals sound every bit as punkish in 1980 as they did in 1972. The upbeat “Dudes” leads right into Ronson’s languid instrumental; taken from the guitarist’s 1974 solo album by that name, the song starts out slow and jazzy and builds to an enormously satisfying finish.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson would more or less carry on their musical collaboration until Ronson’s untimely death in 1993, frequently touring throughout the early 1980s as the Hunter Ronson Band of which, sadly, only bootleg recordings seem to exist. When Hunter went on hiatus during the latter half of the 1980s, Ronson continued to record and produce, touring with Dylan and working with artists as diverse as Morrissey, Meatloaf, Roger McGuinn, and John Mellencamp, among others.

The two friends would reunite for Hunter’s 1990 album YUI Orta, and performed together one last time in 1992 during a tribute to Queen’s Freddie Mercury that would be documented on Ronson’s posthumous solo album Heaven and Hull. For a couple of nights in Germany in 1980, however, both artists were at the top of their game, and Live At Rockpalast captures the magic that was Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson together. (MIG Music, released August 8, 2012)

Buy the CD from Amazon: Ian Hunter Band featuring Mick Ronson - Live At Rockpalast

Review originally published by Blurt magazine

Short Rounds: Beach Slang, The Bar-Kays, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, Delaney & Bonnie, Mott the Hoople, Television Personalities (2020)

New album releases in 150 words or less...

Beach Slang – The Deadbeat Bang of Heartbeat City (Bridge Nine)
There’s no denying that James Alex and his Beach Slang gang wear their Replacements idolatry on their collective sleeves, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore The Deadbeat Bang of Heartbeat City. With former ‘Mats bassist Tommy Stinson helping craft the album’s sound, the band revels in the unbridled joy of playing rock ‘n’ roll with reckless abandon and guitars in overdrive. Sure, songs like “Born To Raise Hell,” “Tommy In the 80s,” and “All the Kids In L.A.” evince an obvious Replacements sonic vibe, but I think that Alex is a better lyricist (i.e. less self-absorbed) than Westerberg at this point in his career, and I hear strains of Hanoi Rocks and Superchunk in this gleeful din as well as a can’t-put-your-finger-on-it genius that separates Beach Slang from a generation of Replacements sound-alikes. I expect I’ll be playing Deadbeat Bang a helluva lot in 2020 (and so should you…). Grade: A   BUY!
 

The Bar-Kays – Gotta Groove (Craft Recordings vinyl reissue)
The Bar-Kays’ Gotta Groove was a comeback effort by a band recovering from tragedy, after losing most of its members in the plane crash that also killed Otis Redding. The survivors rebuilt the band and found the funk with this energetic comeback effort. Inspired by Sly Stone, “Don’t Stop Dancing (To the Music), Part 1” is a joyful fusion of funk ‘n’ soul with blasting horns, a busy instrumental mix, and an overall raucous party vibe. They slow it down a bit for an instrumental cover of Marvin Gaye’s “If This World Were Mine,” which displayed the band’s musical chops, but the party cranks up again with the rowdy, mostly-instrumental jam “Funky Thang.” This version of the Bar-Kays would later back up Isaac Hayes on his landmark Hot Buttered Soul LP and, as members came and went, would find success venturing further into funk and disco throughout the mid-to-late ‘70s. Grade: B   BUY!

Booker T. & the M.G.’s – Melting Pot (Craft Recordings, vinyl reissue)
With both Booker T. Jones and Steve Cropper looking to exit the Stax Records factory, 1971’s Melting Pot was recorded in NYC rather than Memphis. The album lives up to title, featuring a fusion of sounds befitting Jones’ expanding artistic vision, offering longer original songs with lengthy instrumental jams. “Back Home” mixes Southern rock and soul with gospel fervor, while the down ‘n’ dirty swamp-rock of “Chicken Pox” is brimming over with imaginative keyboards and greasy guitar picking. Running nearly nine minutes, “Kinda Like Easy” is a sequel, of sorts, to the band’s early hit “Green Onions,” the song mining a similar rhythmic canvas atop which Jones layers keyboard riffs and Donald “Duck” Dunn’s bass lines echo with malice. The band’s last album for Stax, Melting Pot would become their most commercially successful album since 1967’s Hip Hug-Her, yielding a hit with an edited version of the eight-minute title track. Grade: B+   BUY!

Delaney & Bonnie – Home (Craft Recordings, vinyl reissue)
The 1969 debut by Delaney & Bonnie – the talented pairing of Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett – Home was produced by Stax Records stalwarts Don Nix and Donald “Duck” Dunn, its groundbreaking sound providing a foundation for the duo’s later work, their blend of country, blues, and soul influencing the entire Americana genre. There’s a lot to like about Home, beginning with the album-opening “It’s Been A Long Time Coming,” which places Delaney’s gritty, soulful voice against Bonnie’s soaring tones for a stunning duet while the Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd-penned “We Can Love” should have been a hit single, the song reveling in a Sam Cooke groove and an Aretha vibe. Home failed to chart, and Stax dropped Delaney & Bonnie from their roster, but the album did attract the notice of people like Eric Clapton and George Harrison, who would help the duo write their next chapter of their career. Grade: B+   BUY!

Mott the Hoople – The Golden Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll (Madfish Records, UK)
The Golden Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll is a two-LP, vinyl-only import compilation of the legendary Mott the Hoople’s three-album tenure with Columbia Records circa 1972-74 and, as such, it’s a real gem. All the UK hits are here – “All the Young Dudes,” “Honaloochie Boogie,” “All the Way From Memphis,” “Roll Away the Stone,” and the title track. The set also includes rare B-sides and UK single versions that were unavailable to stateside fans back in the day. Throw in lesser-known obscurities like “Marionette,” “Foxy Foxy,” “Saturday Gigs,” “Rose,” “Rest In Peace,” and Mott’s inspired version of Lou Reed’s classic “Sweet Jane” and you’ll see why Ian Hunter, Mick Ralphs, Overend, and the rest of the gang inspired everybody from Queen and the Clash to Def Leppard and Kiss. Beautiful gatefold packaging with liner notes by Hunter biographer Campbell Devine makes this essential for any Hoople fanatic. Grade: A+   BUY!

Television Personalities – Some Kind of Happening (Fire Records)
The first of two double-disc volumes documenting beloved British rock institution Television Personalities, Some Kind of Happening is a collection of the band’s UK single releases circa 1978 to 1989. Although the band came of age during, and was inspired by the punk revolution, singer-songwriter Dan Treacy was too incorruptible to merely chase three-chord clichés. As such, the 45s preserved by Some Kind of Happening range from atonal post-punk and neo-psychedelia to melodic indie pop. The band was never more than a cult favorite stateside, but they influenced numerous college rockers of the 1980s and ’90s and Treacy’s restless muse, combined with his wry humor and dry wit, make songs like “Part Time Punks,” “If That’s What Love Is,” and “Paradise Estate” a joy. A whimsical cover of Syd Barrett’s “Apples and Oranges” and the Treacy original “I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives” are worth the price of admission alone. Grade: A   BUY!

Previously on That Devil Music.com:
Short Rounds, January 2019: The Band, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Dana Gillespie, Manfred Mann, Mick Ronson, An A-Squared Compilation
 
Short Rounds, December 2019 (Holiday Gift Suggestions): Cindy Lee Berryhill, Black Pumas, Alice Cooper, Robyn Hitchcock & Andy Partridge, Handsome Dick Manitoba, The Muffs, Harry Nilsson, The Rosalyns & Bobby Rush 

That Devil Music's 2018 Holiday Gift Guide

It’s not really a big secret that the world is filled with crapola and people trying to sell it to you. The Reverend isn’t above a little ‘bloato-hype’ of his own, thus the first (and probably last) That Devil Music 2018 Holiday Gift Guide. I bought all of the items listed below myself at some time over the past year or so and can personally attest to the quality of life they provide.

Most of these gift recommendations are music-related, but we do veer into fanboy territory with graphic novels and toys. It’s important to note that when you ‘click the link’ and buy these items from Amazon that the Rev gets a little piece of the action to help fund his rowdy rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle (i.e. buy more music).

Music Box Sets

The major record labels are depending, no…demanding that you shore up their bottom lines by reinvesting in music that you’ve already bought two or three times now. They’re flooding the market with expensive multi-disc box sets that revisit albums that you got tired of years ago, adding just enough flash (bonus DVD or extra vinyl to go along with lavish books) to convince you to part with your cash yet again. The Rev prefers checking out reasonably-priced various artist compilations for the multitude of music they contain, thus this list is heavy with cool boxes, but I’m also not above buying the odd artist-specific box set if the price (and content) is right. Anybody can gift a copy of the Beatles’ White Album, why not try something fresh and different for a change this holiday?

Mott the Hoople’s Mental Train: The Island Years, 1969-1971
Mott the Hoople’s Mental Train is a six-disc box set that collects includes remastered and expanded versions of all four of the band’s original Island Records label releases; an entire disc of unheard and unreleased material; and a full disc of raucous live and BBC on-air performances. Each of the original albums – Mott the Hoople, Mad Shadows, Wildlife, and Brain Capers – has been expanded by 8 or 9 tracks each, adding singles, demos, alternate takes, and much more. A fifth CD, The Ballads of Mott the Hoople, is subtitled “Unheard and Unreleased Music from the Island Archive.” That’s a lot of great music for the any Mott the Hoople fan!   BUY!

Frank Zappa – Zoot Allures! The Legendary Broadcasts
Yeah, the Reverend is a longtime Zappa fanboy, dating back to the Mothers of Invention and solo LPs like Chunga’s Revenge. This is a real find, though, a budget-priced four-disc collection of live performances culled from radio broadcasts featuring 53 songs spanning roughly a six-year period. One of those “copyright gap” releases of dodgy provenance (i.e. semi-legit bootleg), the set nevertheless documents vintage Zappa concerts like The Ritz, NYC 1981; Providence College, Rhode Island 1975 (with Captain Beefheart); Rotterdam, 1980; and the Capitol Theatre in Passaic NJ, 1978. Sound quality ranges from fair to fairly good, but it’s the rarity of the performances, the eras that they span, and the ‘cheepnis’ of the set that sells it.   BUY!

Various Artists – Gary Crowley’s Punk & New Wave
Much like the ‘New Wave of British Heavy Metal’ set below, Gary Crowley’s Punk & New Wave box tackles the difficult cutting edge of U.K. and American punk and beyond with 77 tracks spread across three CDs. Curated by legendary British DJ Gary Crowley, the set covers a lot of ground spanning punk, post-punk, new wave, and power-pop bands like Alternative TV, the Saints, 999, the Vibrators, the Fall, the Only Ones, Generation X, and John Cooper Clarke, among many others. Unlike other punk-oriented collections, though, Crowley doesn’t just feature the familiar ‘hits’ but rather delves into each band’s catalog to find the deep tracks. A number of tracks here originally appeared on limited edition 7” singles that are too pricey to consider (if you can find ‘em), and the box includes a nifty 40-page book with notes by Crowley and memories from members of the Skids, Altered Images, the Boys, and other bands.   BUY!   

Various Artists – Trojan Ska & Reggae Classics
Offering 60 red-hot tracks on three discs and running better than three hours in length, the budget-priced Trojan Ska & Reggae Classics set offers a lot of bang for the buck, the compilation preserving some of the finest reggae performances of the past half-century with even-handed re-mastering and pretty decent sound (considering that some of these songs were recorded almost 50 years ago on often primitive equipment). If you’re a newcomer to reggae, the set offers an instant lesson in the genre’s history; for us longtime fans, it collects some of our favorite artists and songs in a single package.   Read the Reverend’s review!   BUY!

Various Artists – Winds of Time: New Wave of British Heavy Metal 1979-1985
With a growing interest in the “New Wave of British Heavy Metal” there are a number of compilation albums that have been released over the past few years, most of them featuring the same old track listing and bands. Leave it up to esteemed U.K. archival imprint Cherry Red Records to top everybody with their three-disc Winds of Time box set. Featuring 51 rockin’ tracks from both familiar ‘NWOBHM’ bands like Diamond Head, Samson, Raven, Saxon, Girlschool, and Tygers of Pan Tang as well as relatively-obscure outfits like Gaskin, Shiva, Witchfynde, Fist, and Rock Goddess, Cherry Red doesn’t offer up the ‘same old, same old’ but rather digs deep to find the gems in these bands’ catalogs for a collection truly representative of the scene.   BUY!

Various Artists – Try A Little Sunshine: British Psychedelic Sounds of 1969
Another great psych-drenched box set from Cherry Red’s Grapefruit Records imprint, Try A Little Sunshine is a three-disc compilation of groovy music from ’69 that offers up 73 tunes, some from bands that would be familiar to any serious fan of the rock ‘n’ roll including Audience, the Spencer Davis Group, Barclay James Harvest, the Move, Dave Davies, Status Quo, and the Pretty Things. There are more than a few real obscurities included herein as well, fab 45s from the likes of Fat Mattress, Freedom, Andromeda, Edward’s Hand, Nirvana (U.K.), Sam Gopal (with Lemmy!), and others that would cost you a fortune to buy on the collectors’ market.  BUY!

Graphic Novels

Ed Piskor’s X-Men Grand Design - Second Genesis
The artistic genius that crafted the brilliant Hip Hop Family Tree series of books turns his talents to re-imagining the Marvel Comics world of the ever-popular X-Men. Mutant super-heroes living in a world that misunderstands and fears them, the late Stan Lee’s characters were designed to represent the oppressed minorities and immigrants in our society, and Piskor does right with his re-telling of the origin stories of beloved characters like Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, and Colossus in this second book in the series.   BUY!

Also highly recommended: Ed Piskor’s first book of mutant origins – X-Men: Grand Design – which features tales of the heroic old-school X-group of Cyclops, Marvel Girl, The Beast, Angel, and Iceman. The two books stand well on their own, but if you’re a mutie-lover, buy ‘em both!   BUY!

Mark Bernardin’s Genius series
Mark Bernardin is the co-host of the popular Fatman Beyond podcast (with filmmaker Kevin Smith), and a talented writer for TV series and comics. His Genius graphic novels posit an intriguing question – what if the greatest military mind of a generation was a teenaged African-American girl from the hood? Destiny Ajaye is a strategic genius and charismatic leader who, in the first volume, takes on the LAPD’s SWAT forces with the backing of a rag-tag group of gang-bangers and pulls off the win.

In the second volume of Genius, Ajaye has been shanghaied by a shadowy government organization to fight a one-woman war against the Mexican drug cartels. Both books are fast-paced and action-packed, with Bernardin’s clever plotting and whipsmart dialogue and stunning artwork by Adam Freeman. Some film studio should option these books pronto and turn them into a starring vehicle for Letitia Wright. Get your fanboy groove on and buy ‘em both!

Genius, Volume One: Siege   BUY!
Genius, Volume Two: Cartel   BUY!

Gilbert Shelton’s Fifty Freakin’ Years of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers
The Reverend has been a fan of underground comix for over 45 years now, and artist/writer Gilbert Shelton – along with Robert Crumb and Spain Rodriguez – has long been one of my “go to” artists for guaranteed entertainment. It’s hard to believe that Shelton’s Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers have been around for five decades now, but the ever-popular antics of Phineas, Freewheelin’ Franklin, and Fat Freddy have been published in 16 languages around the world and enjoyed sales of over 40 million copies…and that’s a shit-ton of comix! Fifty Freakin’ Years of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers celebrates the brothers’ 50th anniversary with a bunch of new strips, a gallery of Freak Brothers parody strips by artists like Crumb, and a brand new interview with Shelton. A ‘must have’ for any Freak Brothers fan!   BUY!

Toys

Funko ‘POP’ figures are possibly the hottest ticket in the world of toys, with rarer releases selling for hundreds of dollars on the collectors’ market. Personally, the Reverend likes to put ‘em on the bookshelves here at Conspiracy M.E.D.I.A headquarters as visually-stimulating ‘objekts de art’. Funko makes figures for a legion of comics, film, and TV characters but they’ve also begun cranking out a number of very cool rock ‘n’ roll figures that will spruce up your office, listening room, or wherever you want to sit ‘em down...

Jimi Hendrix “Woodstock”
Alice Cooper

Lemmy Kilmister (Motorhead)
Jerry Garcia

Joey Ramone
Prince “Purple Rain”

Music-Related Books

Disclaimer: I know most of the authors whose work I’m hyping below and, in couple cases, have had decade-long professional relationships with them. That doesn’t mean that these books aren’t brilliant – they’ve all been “road tested” and approved by the Reverend and would make a great addition to your music library.

Daryl Sanders’ That Thin, Wild Mercury Sound
Daryl Sanders’ That Thin, Wild Mercury Sound provides a fascinating and comprehensive history of Bob Dylan’s classic Blonde On Blonde album. There are a heck of a lot of Dylan-related books available – enough to stock a smallish library, really – but none of them have dug this deep into the making of one of the Scribe’s most creative, critically-acclaimed, and commercially-successful works. If you’re a Bob Dylan fan, you’ll want a copy of That Thin, Wild Mercury Sound on your bookshelf.   Read the Rev’s Review!   BUY!

Bill Kopp’s Reinventing Pink Floyd: From Syd Barrett to Dark Side of the Moon
With Reinventing Pink Floyd, his first book, Bill Kopp focuses his insight on the legendary British rock band, exploring Floyd’s early years “from Syd Barrett to the Dark Side of the Moon.” His efforts pay off, as Reinventing Pink Floyd provides a deep dive into the band’s years in the wilderness, as they forged a significant career in the wake of founder and guiding light Barrett’s departure, delivering all the minutiae and anecdotes that a Floyd fan demands, weaving a fascinating story of one of the most influential, pioneering bands in rock ‘n’ roll history.   BUY!

Steven Hyden’s Twilight of the Gods
Music journalist Steven Hyden is one of the best writers in the pop culture trenches today, and Twilight of the Gods is his first book. Providing an in-depth exploration of the enduring popularity and immense legacy of “classic rock,” Hyden also relates his own complicated history as a teenage fan of classic rock ‘n’ roll growing up in the grunge and alt-rock 1990s. He provides lots of insight and more than a few thought-provoking moments that will have you looking at classic rock bands in an entirely new way.   BUY!

Martin Popoff’s “Album by Album” book series
Rock writer and music historian Martin Popoff should be familiar to any regular That Devil Music reader. The talented scribe has written better than 80 music-related books to date (and counting), many of them self-published and leaving the reader neck-deep in band history. Martin’s (yeah, we’re on a first-name basis) coffee-table “Album by Album” series of books have been published by Voyageur Press, the music imprint of a larger publisher who is closing it down at the end of the year. That means that these gorgeous, informative, and highly entertaining books are going out-of-print and are destined to become rare, high-priced collectors’ items. You can still get some of them direct from Popoff’s website, or from Amazon via the links below.

Queen: Album by Album
Iron Maiden: Album by Album
Rush: Album by Album

Pink Floyd: Album by Album
AC/DC: Album by Album
The Clash: All the Albums, All the Songs
Led Zeppelin: All the Albums, All the Songs

The Reverend’s Personal Stash
Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t recommend a few of my own tomes as suitable gifts for the music-lover in your life. Here are a few good ‘uns to get you started:

Scorched Earth: A Jason & the Scorchers Scrapbook
Blues Deluxe: The Joe Bonamassa Buying Guide
Frank Zappa Buying Guide 
The Other Side of Nashville: An Incomplete History & Discography of the Nashville Rock Underground, 1976-2006

The Rock ‘n’ Roll Archives, Volume One: Southern Rockers
The Rock ‘n’ Roll Archives, Volume Two: Punk Rock
The Rock ‘n’ Roll Archives, Volume Three: Heavy Metal
The Rock ‘n’ Roll Archives, Volume Four: Cult Rockers

Archive Review: Ian Hunter's Shrunken Heads (2007)

Belying the idea that rock music is a young man’s game, Ian Hunter puts his lifer status on the line with Shrunken Heads. A superb collection that features Hunter’s typical fusion of witty, whip-smart lyrics and guitar-driven hard rock, Shrunken Heads also provides insightful and topical lyrical commentary from one of the sharpest writers in rock music history.

As frontman for British rockers Mott the Hoople during the early ‘70s, Hunter earned a reputation as somewhat of a grumpy old man with a poison pen, penning pithy commentary on culture and society with a satirist’s eye and a journalist’s tenacity, each packaged in three-minute bundles ready for radio airplay. His lengthy solo career has done nothing to disillusion the casual listener that they’re hearing nothing more than a crank, albeit one with no little skill as a rock ‘n’ roll tunesmith. Scratch beneath the surface, however, and you’ll discover a hopeless romantic that, much like Quixote, prefers to endlessly tilt at windmills rather than go gently into that good night.

Ian Hunter’s Shrunken Heads

Now, some forty years after first picking up the torch, Hunter has crafted one more minor masterpiece in a career littered with such. Hunter’s voice isn’t what it used to be, age and abuse lessening its power and leaving it ragged around the edges. The years have done nothing to dull the passion to be found in his vocals, however, and his undeniable British accent remains intact even after decades of living in America. Neither have the years diminished Hunter’s biting lyrical style, the inspired work of a formerly angry young man with enough experience under his belt to be deadly with his aim.

Shrunken Heads has a wealth of magical moments where the band and performance and song all come together to jump right out of the grooves. As a stranger living among philistines, Hunter has a perspective on the current social and cultural zeitgeist that we Americans may be too myopic to discern, and his views are scattered throughout the songs here. “Fuss About Nothin’” tackles the conservative snake oil salesmen that we continuously place in positions of power, whether they be corporate CEOs, preachers or politicians. Hunter sings “but if it’s left to the left…there won’t be nothing left,” his words a tongue-in-cheek swipe at the brainwashed legion of Fox News drones. Speaking of which, the hard-rocking “Brainwashed” challenges the media-bred, corporate-approved, celebrity-driven propaganda that we’re deluged with 24/7, concluding “if you walk like a duck, quack like a duck, baby you bin brainwashed.”

One of the finer moments on Shrunken Heads is the nostalgic “When the World Was Round.” Having just turned 50, I can attest to the reminiscent nature of running headfirst into the brick wall of the final 1/3 of your life; here Hunter humanizes the grumpy old man with a wistful arrangement and clever lyrical turns. Decrying the information overload of the modern age and remembering simpler times he asks “is it my imagination, when I look back thru the ages?” Wondering if the past isn’t seen through rose-colored glasses, Hunter pleads “give me a reason to believe in, give me a reason to believe in, I think I liked it better when the world was round.”

Soul of America

The title cut, “Shrunken Heads,” displays the sort of magnificent Dylanesque grandeur that has long been Hunter’s musical trademark. With brilliant lyrical imagery and offering the best vocal performance on the album, Hunter sings “nothin’ matters any more, the rich get richer, and the poor get sorer,” asking “who’s gonna save us from these shrunken heads?” The song is a tragic commentary on a once-mighty, now sadly-crumbling American empire that is run by uncultured, ignorant boors (the shrunken heads of the song) that are masters of the dimwitted soundbite but can’t see beyond their own greed to recognize the damage they’ve wrought.

The equally impressive “Soul of America” shows a keen understanding of native-born patriotism that many on the left just don’t understand. Praising the heroes who take up arms and lay down their lives for their country, Hunter sings “yeah them wild boys ‘n’ red, white and blue, them wild boys gotta see the mission through, come hell or high water, we’re rooting for you,” finishing with “let’s rock the soul, let’s rock the soul of America.” Hunter includes a broadside against those that Dylan called the “masters of war,” damning them as “them good old boys in their three piece suits, feathering their nests while they’re rallying the troops, they cut off the flowers, don’t worry ‘bout the roots, eroding the soul of America.”

The rest of Shrunken Heads is equally sharp and entertaining, Hunter leading a talented band through, perhaps, his best collection of songs in over two decades. Musically, it helps that he has the foresight to bring along some of the best and brightest, if underrated musicians in the rock world. Former Jason & the Scorchers/Hearts And Minds guitarist Andy York is Hunter’s secret weapon, the overlooked and unheralded talent co-producing the album with Hunter and providing subtle-yet-powerful accompaniment on guitar, keyboards and backing vocals. Hunter has recruited some other Grade ‘A’ talent for the album as well, from guitarists Jack Petruzzelli and James Mastro to drummer Steve Holley and longtime Joe Jackson bassist Graham Maby. Guest shots include Jeff Tweedy and violinist Soozie Tyrell.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Hunter has never been the most prolific of artists. Although he recorded six studio albums during the first eight years of his solo career, since the hiatus that began in the wake of 1983’s All of the Good Ones Are Taken, Hunter has preferred quality over quantity, releasing just five studio albums during the past two decades. Now nearing 70 years old, with his place in rock ‘n’ roll history insured, Hunter has delivered a stunning tour de force in Shrunken Heads. Regardless of whether he records another single note – and I personally hope that he does – this would be a good one to go out on… (Yep Roc Records, released May 15, 2007)

Review originally published by Trademark of Quality blog, 2007

Archive Review: Ian Hunter's All of the Good Ones Are Taken (1983/2007)

By the time of the 1983 release of Ian Hunter’s All of the Good Ones Are Taken, the rock legend’s career had survived at least two turns of the generational screw. The first, while Hunter fronted British rockers Mott the Hoople, came when the band’s foundering fortunes were revived by the timely contribution by David Bowie of his glam-era anthem “All the Young Dudes.” After Mott’s rendition of the song became a smashing success in both England and the U.S., they rode the subsequent record sales and radio airplay to a modicum of success in the glam-dominated early ‘70s rock ‘n’ roll world. By 1975, however, glam had fizzled out and punk was on the horizon, as was the “New Wave of British Heavy Metal,” and Hunter jumped ship to launch a solo career.

The second major turn for Hunter came with the critical acclaim and modest success of his fourth solo album, 1979’s You’re Never Alone With A Schizophrenic. Yielding AOR hits in the classic “Just Another Night” and fan favorite “Cleveland Rocks” (which was later popularized by its use as a theme song for The Drew Carey Show), the album hit Top 40 in America, Hunter’s best chart showing since his 1975 self-titled debut. His follow-up, 1981’s Short Back and Sides, was produced by Mick Jones of the Clash and featured a more aggressive rock ‘n’ roll sound, but failed to meet the expectations of its predecessor; it peaked at number 62 on the Billboard album chart but dropped no hit singles and quickly sank from sight in the face of the cresting “new wave” and MTV.

Ian Hunter’s All of the Good Ones Are Taken

All of the Good Ones Are Taken, then, proved to be Hunter’s last grab at the brass ring. He had tasted success before, most notably with Mott the Hoople, but his waning solo fortunes and a changing musical environment had the musician skating on thin ice. With a core band that included bassist-around-town Marc Clarke, guitarist Robbie Alter and drummer/solo artist Hilly Michaels, Hunter recorded an album that has often been unfairly slagged as falling behind the artist’s loftier and acclaimed early efforts. In reality, if you enjoy and appreciate Hunter’s fairly-consistent ‘70s-era albums (Overnight Angels notwithstanding), you’d probably like All of the Good One Are Taken. Aside from a couple of clunky song arrangements no doubt designed for MTV-influenced airplay, and elements of dated, thin ‘80s-styled production, the songs and performances here hold up reasonably well almost 25 years later.

The disc opens with the title cut, the sort of Dylanesque rocker that Hunter cut his teeth on, an erudite love song that offers a couple of whimsical vocal turns and an infectious chorus; it should have been a big hit upon its release. Cut from the same lyrical/musical cloth as better-known Hunter compositions like “Just Another Night” or “Once Bitten, Twice Shy,” and including a soulful sax solo courtesy of E Streeter Clarence Clemons, the song should be considered part of Hunter’s canon of great songs. It would also set the stage perfectly for much of the album to follow.

“Every Step of the Way” is an enjoyable, big-booted hard rocker with a pop chorus and a stomping beat while “Fun” is a more intricate song, with an ever-changing musical horizon and a somewhat confused self-identity. With chameleon-like vocals, big band horns, heavy guitar riffs and a recurring tinny lead that foreshadows the coming Miami Vice years, is this an honest rocker or merely a sad relic of the times? Speechless is another artistic mistake, with waaayyy too much Flock O’ Men At Work styled punchy synth and the sort of short-attention-span arrangement that was de rigueur on MTV at the time. Hunter’s vocals sound like he recorded them in a helium booth. In this day and age, the song sounds horribly dated.

That Girl Is Rock ‘N’ Roll

Luckily, there’s more muscle than flab on All of the Good Ones Are Taken. Starting with a moody synthesizer/keyboard crescendo, “Death ‘N’ Glory Boys” is a grand, epic spaghetti western of a song, filled with provocative instrumentation and one of Hunter’s best vocal turns. Representing longtime Hunter foil Mick Ronson’s only appearance on the album, his six-string contribution is priceless. Understated beneath Hunter’s vocals and the symphonic grandeur of the keyboard work, Ronson’s subtle yet wiry fretted punctuations add a truly ethereal dimension to the song. “That Girl Is Rock ‘N’ Roll” fakes us out with a Huey Lewis & the News-styled plinking synth intro before settling into a spirited, rockabilly-tinged rambler that would have fit perfectly on an early Mott LP.

The R&B influenced “Seeing Double” benefits from Clemons’ lush sax intro and some fine Northern Soul style backing vocals, the ballad offering up a smart set of lyrics and another fine Hunter performance, one that highlights the artist’s true range of talents. The original album version of All of the Good Ones Are Taken ended with a reprise of the title track, reinforcing the power of the original while taking on an identity of its own with a wonderfully wistful reading and slowed-down, almost melancholy arrangement.

This American Beat reissue of the album tacks on a bonus cut in the form of the single version of “Traitor,” an ultra-cool ‘70s stadium rock throwback that starts with a Billy Joel type piano roll before jumping headfirst into a sort of metallic K.O. of the Billy Squier sort with a big, staggered rhythm and angry OTT vocals. I’m not sure of the song’s pedigree, or why it wasn’t originally included on the album, but it certainly had a chance to be a monster hit.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

For whatever reasons, All of the Good Ones Are Taken failed to capture the imagination of the record buying public at the time. Blame it on MTV, if you want, or on the strange days and times of the early ‘80s when punk and new wave and college rock and heavy metal clashed for our attentions. Regardless, after the album’s release and subsequent commercial dismissal, Hunter went on an extended hiatus that lasted until the 1990 release of YUI Orta, a collaboration with guitarist Mick Ronson that was credited to the Hunter Ronson Band.

In the 24 years following the release of All of the Good Ones Are Taken, Hunter has released but a half-dozen studio albums and a handful of live discs with mixed results. While his work since 1990 has enjoyed a significant amount of critical acclaim, Hunter has seemingly given up his quest for stardom and instead concentrated on making good music. Nearly everything that Hunter has recorded through the years has merit and there is a wealth of great songs waiting to be rediscovered on albums like this one. (American Beat Records, released January 9, 2007)

Review originally published by Trademark of Quality blog, 2007

Archive Review: Ian Hunter’s Welcome To The Club – Live (1980/2007)

Rock ‘n’ roll icon Ian Hunter always had something that his contemporaries didn’t – plenty of attitude. Although he came of age during the yellow mellow daze of hippiedom, Hunter was always too acerbic, too intelligent and too cranky to fall prey to the false aphorisms of the peace and love crowd. When the punk rock revolution hit the U.K. in 1977, many late ‘60s/early ‘70s British rock stars were swept away by the aggressive new cultural zeitgeist. Very few pop stars survived the explosion of punk and the swelling post-punk “new wave” that crested at the dawn of the new decade, most of them dismissed as tottering old duffers by the angry young men and women of the Mohawk-clad, safety-pin-wearing, torn-jeans crowd.

Outside of heavy metal, which rested comfortably on the edge of the musical mainstream, enjoyed its own set of rules, and which would experience its own genre-overturning moment as the NWOBHM raised its ugly head, only David Bowie, Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott, and Hunter came through the 1977-78 stretch relatively unscathed. For Bowie, it was because he was just too damn weird, too brilliant, and too chameleon-like to get pinned by the punk crowd – a moving target, as it were. Lynott recognized early on the promise and potential of punk and became a sort of older brother to the movement, but Hunter…his distinctive attitude expressed so wonderfully through both his own solo material and countless Mott the Hoople songs…became a sort of guiding light to the young punks, influencing bands from the New York Dolls and the Clash to Billy Idol and Generation X.

Ian Hunter’s Welcome To The Club – Live

By 1979, the British punk “revolution” had largely fizzled out, the genre splitting into three distinct factions – the hardcore underground, represented by Crass, Conflict, Discharge, et al; the mainstream, which could boast of the Clash and Stiff Little Fingers among its frontrunners; and the “new wave,” which spawned a thousand disparate bands suddenly freed from the constraints of commercial expectations that had been crippled (though not eliminated entirely) by the rise of punk. Also in 1979, Hunter would release his fourth studio album, You’re Never Alone With A Schizophrenic, which ironically would become the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed album of a career that now spans five decades.

All of which, in a roundabout way, brings us to Hunter’s Welcome To The Club – Live. A two-album set that was originally released in 1980 and subsequently reissued on CD in 1994 with bonus tracks; it has been further embellished and expanded for its 2007 reissue by American Beat Records. Culled from a week of performances at the infamous Roxy in Los Angeles in support of You’re Never Alone With A Schizophrenic, the two-CD set does a solid job of capturing Hunter’s onstage energy as well as the instrumental talents of a band that included long-time friend and former Bowie guitarist Mick Ronson and bassist Martin Briley.

Slaughter On Tenth Avenue

Welcome To The Club – Live features all of the songs that fans would expect: “Once Bitten, Twice Shy,” taken from Hunter’s self-titled 1975 debut; “Just Another Night” and “Cleveland Rocks” from Schizophrenic; and lesser-known gems like “Bastard” and “When The Daylight Comes.” Hunter throws a few surprises into the mix as well, like a scorching version of Ronson’s “Slaughter On Tenth Avenue” from his 1974 album of the same name, and a shockingly engaging reading of Sonny Bono’s “Laugh At Me.” Hunter reprises a number of songs from his Mott the Hoople days, including the breakthrough hits “All the Young Dudes” and “All the Way From Memphis,” both benefiting from wider arrangements, backing harmonies, and lush instrumentation.

Through several issues and reissues over the past 27 years, Welcome To The Club – Live has picked up some extra baggage along the way, and it mostly all fits into the intended scheme of things as laid out on the original vinyl release. Mott’s “The Golden Age of Rock and Roll” is provided an appropriately rollicking performance, and the additional medley of “Once Bitten, Twice Shy/Bastard/Cleveland Rocks” enjoys an energetic, rowdy rendering with Ronson’s screaming six-string licks and Hunter’s powerful honky-tonk-tinged piano work.

Three “live in the studio” tracks originally intended for the vinyl release resurface here; “We Gotta Get Out of Here” is a synth-driven new wave styled romp complete with chanted chorus that foreshadows Hunter’s work on albums like Short Back and Sides or All of the Good Ones Are Taken. “Silver Needles” is a slower, more deliberate ballad that shows Hunter at his most Dylanesque, with a fine vocal performance and sparse instrumentation, while “Man O’ War” is a mostly unremarkable, mid-tempo claustrophobic rocker that would fit comfortably on any of the artist’s solo albums.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Here’s where the attitude part comes into play, however. By 1979, the kind of roots-based rambling rock that Ian Hunter preached was supposed to be passé, dead in the water…the Sex Pistols had told us so…but Hunter, in his arrogance, refused to change directions even when the market seemed ready to force his hand. Both the joyous celebration of rock music displayed by You’re Never Alone With A Schizophrenic and the raucous, spirited performances preserved in wax by Welcome To The Club – Live represent a belief in the overwhelming power of rock ‘n’ roll and the value of a great song. This is probably one of the most honest live albums that you’ll ever hear, as well as a fitting document of Ian Hunter, one of rock music’s most respected cult artists, at the highest creative peak of his lengthy and storied career. (American Beat Records, released February 6, 2007)

Review originally published by Trademark of Quality blog, 2007

Ian Hunter’s enormous, spectacular Stranded in Reality box set!

These premium-priced, multi-multi-multi-disc box sets are getting out of hand, especially since your humble scribe is too damn poor to be able to afford even a portion of what’s being released from the archives on CD and vinyl in these days and times. While it may sound like the death-rattle of the recording industry, but for new and old-school rock ‘n’ roll fans alike, these boxes are literal nirvana. Case in point: Ian Hunter’s Stranded in Reality, a whopping 30-disc anthology box set that features damn near everything the legendary Mott the Hoople frontman and influential solo artist has tacked his name to over the past five decades!

Stranded in Reality was compiled by Hunter and Mott the Hoople biographer Campbell Devine, and it covers the years 1975 to 2015 – a wide swath of the singer/songwriter’s career. Collecting seventeen original Hunter solo albums on nineteen discs, the set includes another nine “new” CDs of rare and unreleased recordings as well as a pair of DVDs with visual content. The box includes expanded “anniversary” versions of Hunter’s self-titled 1975 debut album, 1976’s All-American Alien Boy, 1979’s You’re Never Alone With A Schizophrenic, and the live 1980 album Welcome To The Club. Other acclaimed Hunter solo efforts like 1981’s Short Back n’ Sides, 1983’s All of the Good Ones Are Taken, 1996’s The Artful Dodger, 2007’s Shrunken Heads, and 2012’s When I’m President are presented with unique bonus tracks.

The “new” albums included in the box are titled Tilting the Mirror (two discs of rarities), If You Wait Long Enough For Anything, You Can Get It On Sale (two discs of live tracks from 1979-81), Bag of Tricks (three discs of live performances), Acoustic Shadows, and Experiments. These audio discs feature many previously-unreleased and “lost” songs from Hunter’s archive including “San Diego Freeway, “Nobody’s Perfect,” and “Salvation” as well as live versions of “Wild East, “The Outsider,” and a 2008 acoustic concert. The accompanying two-disc DVD It Never Happened features promo, live, and previously-unreleased archive material including a complete 1979 Hunter concert featuring friend and longtime guitarist Mick Ronson.

Stranded in Reality is a limited edition release of only 2,500 copies for sale worldwide, and is packaged in an LP-sized deluxe box with custom Escher-styled cover, an 88-page hardback book with a comprehensive essay, memorabilia, a signed lithograph, and Hunter’s track-by-track commentary for every song. The set is available through the Proper Music website, and the price breaks down to less than $11 a disc, a bargain for an artist of Hunter’s talent and history.