Mott The Hoople Discography

Subject: Re: Mott The Hoople Discography Wed Jul 06, 2011 2:35 pm

I didn't even realize this LP was reviewed yet, I gotta spin this one more b/c it never sat well w/me. It seemed a little too contrived.

Subject: Re: Mott The Hoople Discography Fri Jul 08, 2011 12:07 pm

Shawn D. wrote:: Keep 'Em Comin!

I'm going to try and spin all these albums again this week!

Ok, Ill post the other ones tonight Very Happy

Subject: Re: Mott The Hoople Discography Fri Jul 08, 2011 12:26 pm

DeathCult wrote:

Shawn D. wrote:: Keep 'Em Comin!

I'm going to try and spin all these albums again this week!

Ok, Ill post the other ones tonight Very Happy

RAD!

Subject: Re: Mott The Hoople Discography Sat Jul 09, 2011 2:26 pm

Mott The Hoople Discography - Page 2 Live_lp

Live (1974)

Mott The Hoople’s live show by this time was completely spectacular, with almost every show ending with an audience riot. With an on-going duel for supremacy on stage between Hunter & Bender that would get increasingly wild throughout the show. Starting off with Bender slapping Ian about the face and shoving his guitar in his face, which would ultimately end with Ian wrestling Bender to the ground (while still playing!). Lord Overend Watts would stand tall in his huge velvet platform boots and drone out plenty of thunder, with Buffin going wild on the drums, Ian posted mid stage behind his shades commanding the whole show, Bender all over the stage screaming on his guitar, and Morgan pounding his piano into the ground. Amps and instruments were thrashed, and the kids would encite near riots, never being able to get close enough to the stage. Another recent addition since the release of The Hoople album was huge working theatrical puppets during the album’s cornerstone Marionette. The best concert you could’ve seen in 1974 was without a doubt Mott The Hoople. Mott The Hoople would play six warm up gigs in the U.K. (with Queen as support) before heading off on another extensive U.S. tour(again with Queen), the pinnacle of which was a 5-day stint on Broadway (Mott The Hoople was the first rock band to play Broadway) at New York’s Uris Theatre. The shows were explosive and MTH was truly the epitome of rock n’ roll. The second night of the shows would be recorded for broadcast on the King Biscuit Flower Hour in the U.K., as well as for the fast approaching live record. The tour was a smash and The Hoople was charting on both sides of the pond. However, their newest non-LP single Foxy Foxy failed to make the Top 30. They would return to the UK in June to begin mixing the Live album and play the Buxton Festival.

After Foxy Foxy failed, the band was once again heading down the dark road of calling it quits. Tensions were high, with everyone frustrated by Bender’s lack of input. Buffin however was unhappy with the last single and wanted to release a proper farewell track to the fans, so he along with Fisher & Watts would convince CBS they had this great song Sunset Summer Nights to record (which they actually didn’t!). Entering with the studio with nothing and become more worried, Ian Hunter would present the first draft of Saturday Gigs which would ultimately end up being the song they went with. The guitar solo on the new track would prove to be Bender’s last chance, which he promptly blew, effectively ending his time in Mott. Faced once again with the task of finding another new guitarist with a European tour coming up fast, the subject of Mick Ronson would once again come up. The band was very enthused, Mick was a great musician and song writer, meaning most importantly he would contribute something sorely missed with Bender. Ronson was promptly recruited, and they would finish Saturday Gigs, as well as it’s b-side Lounge Lizard (which would later be pulled by CBS). They had become an equal shares band again, and both musically as well as financially it looked like this incarnation of the band would have quite a bit of longevity and success, and at first things worked fine. After awhile though, the band would divide into two camps with the atmosphere turning real sour. Ronson and Hunter both felt the band needed a change as glam rock had run it’s course (though Mott were much more than a glam band), with the rest of the band wanting to stay with the established formula. The new band would release Saturday Gigs and promote the new track on Top Of The Pops before quickly embarking on the European tour. During a one week break however, Hunter would go over to the U.S. to sign papers for a new house and ended up collapsing from exhaustion while over there. The UK dates were all hastily rescheduled, and while Hunter would recover he felt he couldn’t continue on with Mott The Hoople and would embark on a solo career with Mick Ronson. The band was shocked, the tour was cancelled and Mott The Hoople would cease to exist.

ORIGINAL LP TRACK LIST:
Side One (Broadway):
All The Way From Memphis
Sucker
Rest In Peace
All The Young Dudes
Walking With A Mountain

Side Two (Hammersmith):
Sweet Angeline
Rose
Jerkin’ Crocus/One Of The Boys/ Rock ‘N’ Roll Queen/ Get Back/ Whole Lotta Shakin’/Violence

Mott The Hoople was one of the best bands in the world in 1974, a whirlwind of high energy rock, intense and poetic lyrics with a costumed spectacle for a stage show. They were well over due for one, and quite deserved a live record by this time. Given the power of their show and how great the recordings sounded, the heavily edited by CBS album that would eventually appear was ultimately disappointing with what it delivered. Over the years, the albums grown on a lot of people, because the performances are electric to say the least, the problems are purely caused by the tracklist and how it was put together. CBS absolutely refused to release a double album, or even a bonus 10” EP with extra tracks, giving the band a 50 minute time constraint for the single album. Another issue caused by the record company (this one more bugshit crazy then the first) was that the live album would contain no songs at all from then current album The Hoople (although pictures were included on the album of the band playing Marionette) and only a few hits. Despite Buffin’s superb production, another bit of the tossed together feel is given off by the fact that the songs are from two different shows with incredibly different feels (New York is harder edged and razor sharp, while Hammersmith is incredibly powerful, but with a warmer feel to the tracks, ultimately more celebratory). Finally ending up with a track list that is outright bizarre (with mostly deeper cuts and a couple B-sides making up most of the record). While the choices were eccentric, the performances are arguably the best versions of a few of these tracks. The medley is mighty in itself spanning their own career along with some covers thrown in that are just electric (unfortunately, the closer Walking With A Mountain was left off). Bender’s guitar hero trip his over the top here, his insane soloing and noisemaking are quite a highlight with here, coupled alongside Hunter’s commanding center stage performance Overend and Buffins’ powerhouse rhythm section and Morgan’s slamming the keys like a madman make it a terrific outing altogether, it just feels terribly incomplete. The 30th Anniversary edition (the tracklist is long as hell, you can view it here: http://www.allmusic.com/album/live-bonus-disc-r705961 ) finally rectifies this problem, released as a two disc set with a show on each (only two tracks were cut for time) and excellent liner notes it’s the perfect live chapter from this era of the band. The sound on this set is great, if you close your eyes it’s easy to imagine your there! A great release from a great band!

Subject: Re: Mott The Hoople Discography Sat Jul 09, 2011 2:30 pm

Mott The Hoople Discography - Page 2 Mott-drive+on

Making music for ten years now, made no bread, we must be dumb...
SIDE ONE:
By Tonight
Monte Carlo
She Does It
I’ll Tell You Something
Stiff Upper Lip

SIDE TWO:
Love Now
Apologies
The Great White Wail
Here We Are
It Takes One To Know One
I Can Show You How It Is

Once upon a time there was a group who went by the moniker Mott The Hoople, that is, until December 14th, 1974 and there simply wasn’t a group anymore. Thusly leaving Overdraft Watts, Mortgaged Fisher, and Dole Griffin quite far up the creek, not to mention Stan Tippins, Richie Anderson, and Phil John (Mott’s long time road crew). Something had to be done about this rather nasty state of affairs. What followed, and swift as lightning at that, was unexpected, and unwelcome and all around a kick in the ass. Their management quickly informed the poor chaps that due to the demise of MTH, the cancelled UK tour and ensuing US tour they were in quite serious debt. Add to that the fact that they no longer had a record deal or any income at all, the lads were ordered to get a group together sharpish and start making some damn money to pay back the debts. In the midst of all this, Morgan had vanished like a fart in the wind to do some session work or gigs and was in no mood to be involved with anything MTH related. Good ol’ Overend leapt to work pretty instantly with a cup of tea in one hand and a guitar in the other, writing some new tracks. Keyboardist Blue Weaver was still in the fold, aiding and abetting Watts until he was offered a chance to join the Bee Gee’s to play on the Saturday Night Fever album (later in 1975, Blue would actually phone Overend because the Bee Gee’s wanted him to play bass for them. Ove declined because he didn’t like the funky bass parts or the castrato vocals. Wattsy also turned down Ralphs‘ offer to play bass for Bad Company for the BIG bucks out of sheer loyalty to MTH). Buffin would take up his own axe and tape recorder and in the midst of a plethora of random chords, riffs and other smurf poo would eventually come out with “It Takes On To Know One”. While Watts the wonder boy had produced the starting points to “Love Now”, “She Does It”, and “Get Rich Quick”. Fortunately, Morgan Fisher reappeared rather quickly and helped Watts with “I’ll Tell You Something” and “Stiff Upper Lip” respectively. While the core was reunited they were still left with the problems of finding both a lead guitarist and vocalist, auditioning for their own record company for a new contract and there was no recognized songwriter amongst the ranks. Soon the time would come to recruit new members, but first a direction had to be established and some songs recorded to not only keep the Suits-That-Be at bay, but to audition new members.

Overend and Morgan favored the idea of a style change, looking to develop a more “power-pop” style focusing on harmonies and good tunes (and possibly more off the wall lyrics) as opposed to the rock bombast of MTH. This idea however, was quickly strangled, burnt and flushed by the Suits, who weren’t bashful in the least about informing the chaps that the new band was to be something Hoopleesque, named MOTT, and using MTH material live OR ELSE! Taking their constraints with a grain of salt, Watts determined that the new singer should have a wide vocal range, enabling them to do songs that would’ve been impossible for MTH (Collision Course and She Does It were the two tests for hopefuls). Ads were placed in Melody Maker, which ending up getting such an enormous response and pre-audition weeding out process had to be employed. The band took up residence in Gooseberry studios for the process. According to Buffin the guitarist auditions were more of a formality as the spot had already been filled in the bands’ heads by longtime friend Ray Major. Though, auditions were given and some excellent tracks were laid down by the likes of Dave Ball & John Du Cann, none of them sat as well with the band as Ray’s tracks did. As Verden Allen was known to say “He feels right, man”. The vocalist auditions were more troublesome, with many hopefuls (Pete French, John Butler, and Brian Parrish among them) but the band (even Stan Tippins if you can dig it) were immensely impressed by newcomer Terry Wilson-Slessor. A “welcome to the band” party was hastily arranged and attended by the whole Mott camp. In typical Mottluck fashion though, doom was around the corner as Terry would call the next day announcing he’d decided to take the spot in Paul Kossoff’s Back Street Crawler instead. The answer to the continued search would be answered by none other then Mick Ralphs, who happened to be sharing a flat with Morgan Fisher at the time (dubbed the Heartbreak Hotel and who’s motto was “Come one, come all”), mentioned that he had gone ’round the way one night to the Marquee Club and had seen a band called Royce whose singer (Nigel Benjamin) was quite impressive. Stan would search him out and would bring him in for the audition. Everything sounded great, he hit all the notes kept with the beat and had the write attitude. With that, Mott was five once again, with a record deal and set off to record the new album.

Drive On is for all intents and purposes a good, but difficult album. Coming from a long time MTH fans perspective, it may actually even be a bit of a let down given the stylistic shift. The main problem here is the songwriting, Ian Hunter and Mick Ralphs (although all members did contribute different parts) not only wrote most of Mott The Hoople’s songs, but provided all the direction as well. So even though Watts is quite capable and writes his best here, his experience was pretty limited and it all leans very heavily into the established Glam Rock category and never emerges out of it. Along with the fact that a few of the songs sound like no more then filler (out of the filler type tracks though, Love Now still rocks like a bastard). All problems and inexperience aside though, Mott still manages to turn out some corkers. Whether it’s the tight driving opener By Tonight, the rocking single Monte Carlo, the scorching Great White Wail, the ambitious She Does It, or the sonic ballad I’ll Tell You Something there’s plenty to enjoy here. They even toss in a bit of that old MTH humor in the likes of It Takes One To Know One and Stiff Upper Lip. In many ways, this was also a new band, so there’s a lot of the make-it-or-break-it attitude thrown in that gives the tracks quite a bit of piss and vinegar. The band sounds great, thundering rhythms, pounding piano and hot guitar all around! Altogether, I give the record a pretty big thumbs up, given the circumstances it was recorded under, it’s quite a promising beginning despite some lack luster songwriting and lack of member contribution. A solid 3 out of 5.

Subject: Re: Mott The Hoople Discography Sat Jul 09, 2011 2:31 pm

I haven't done Shouting And Pointing yet, mainly because I've been busy ripping CD's I'm selling, but I'm working on it right now.

I might re-do Drive On at some point too, I dont really like how that review came out.

Subject: Re: Mott The Hoople Discography Wed Sep 14, 2011 10:45 pm

Mott The Hoople Discography - Page 2 Shouting_hi

Shouting And Pointing (1976)

SIDE ONE
Shouting and Pointing
Collision Course
Storm
Career (No Such Thing As Rock 'N' Roll)

SIDE TWO
Hold On, You're Crazy
See You Again
Too Short Arms (I Don't Care)
Broadside Outcasts
Good Times

Here it is mates, the once mighty Mott The Hoople's swan song. This album is generally perceived in a pretty poor light, with All Music calling it a "true nadir of 70's rock". Well, it's not even close to being a trainwreck, though it is rooted in firmly as "more of the same" ala Drive On. Fortunately, right off of a pretty well received (especially in the good 'ol U.S.A.) tour they were given a nice slot of time to write and record their next record. This time instead of the infamous Clearwell Castle (where the boys had also encountered the same ghosts Sabbath before them had) they were booked into Manor Studios London, with none other then Eddie Kramer. A big plus S&P has over its predecessor is that other band members contribute to the songwriting this time around making for stronger tracks. So even though Lord Wattsy is very clearly still the leader and his writing style predominates, the rhythms are richer, and the hooks have alot more meat to them. The title track, which lulls you into a false sense of security with a jingly piano line just rips open the album with a simplistic pounding drum beat ala Buffin and a great riff. Couple that with Nigel's wailing vocals and a scorching solo and you've got another Mott classic! "Collision Course", a number Mott had been honing in their repertoire, has some great riffs and is very catchy/memorable overall. "Storm" follows along the same lines, another fun track. "Career (No Such Thing As Rock 'N Roll)" takes alot of crap and accusation of being "The Ballad Of Mott Mark II", which is pretty much supreme bullshit. It's the best ballad Mott has on either of these albums with some truly heartfelt lyrics by the increaseingly disillusioned Nigel, and he sings his ass off on it. Side Two is where we run into the most problems actually "Hold On, You're Crazy" follows along the same lines as "Storm" a fun track, but nothing that particularly stands out. The acoustic "See You Again" is another of the albums best tracks, with lyrics about life on the road and some great melodies, it's a treat to listen to. Some excellent guitar work by Major here. "Too Short Arms (I Don't Care)" has lyrics full of that classic Mott wit, another that's fun to listen to. "Broadside Outcasts" leaves me kinda flat, musically it doesn't go much of anywhere and the vocals are a little silly. The closer, a cover of the Vanda & Young classic "Good Times" isn't bad, but it lacks the power their live rendition has, a bad choice imposed by the record company.

All in all, a very solid effort, with a good amount of structure and better songwriting, I'd say Mott went out on a high note. This is also the better of the two post Hunter albums IMO. The only cons I can really find here is well, Kramer's production is a little half assed, he was also working on "The Song Remains The Same" at the time and had a kid, so its fairly apparent his whole head wasn't in it. Also, the song writing IS much improved, but Overend's direction (while understandable based on sales) makes the direction feel kind of stagnant. Had other members had more of a say, this one could've been epic. Mott would complete their Shouting and Pointing world tour only to return home to record their final single "Get Rick Quick" the next day, CBS decided to drop the band from the roster. Left in shambles, Nigel Benjamin would pitch his idea about he should be leader, and the different direction they should take, which the other members declined and Mott thusly disbanded for good. The remaining members would grab up John Fiddler (Medicene Head) and become The British Lions while Nigel would form a couple bands (The English Assasin probably being the best) before leaveing for America and joining up with Nikki Sixx and Lizzie Grey in London.

Subject: Re: Mott The Hoople Discography Thu Sep 15, 2011 12:12 am

I need to listen to this one again, I think I've only played it a couple times. Thanks for the review man, good stuff as always.

Subject: Re: Mott The Hoople Discography Thu Sep 15, 2011 11:05 am

Thanks!

Shouting and Pointing is easily the best of the two post-Hunter records. But when it comes right down to it, it's ashame this is how Mott The Hoople ended. They needed to expand into a different sound really, that's the biggest problem with these two records.

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