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Mott The Hoople-Who Knew?


elduave

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Wow, cool. LoveloveLOVE Mott! A band that were ahead of the curve and maybe a bit too clever/awesome for their own good. I like their version of "Ready for Love" (Mick Ralphs sings this version) much more than BadCo's.

Ralphs always got such a great, raw tone out of his Marshalls.

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I've dug those guys since Junior High. Great Brit rock you don't hear much of.

Hamer coincidence-Paul related to me this week the story about selling Mick and Boz custom Hamers. Very cool.

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The first four Mott the Hoople albums should be requisite listening for any student of hard rock guitar, although the third one (Wildlife) might be optional, with the exception of a live cover of "Keep A'Knockin'"---the first, second and fourth albums were produced by Guy Stevens, while the band produced the third, and it kinda shows...

The first album (self-titled) and second (Mad Shadows) have been seen on one CD.

Shouldn't come as a surprise that as the band began to garner notice, Ralphs was influenced by Leslie West's uncomplicated crunch from Les Paul Jrs.

The fourth album, Brain Capers, was the definitive early '70s British rock album, FWMOW. It came out in '72, when I was a senior in college; I borrowed the LP, dubbed it to cassette, and spent hours in my (usually-parked) Valiant listening to it over and over.

Important guitar tracks, IMO, include the following:

First album: "You Really Got Me", "Rock and Roll Queen"

Mad Shadows: "Thunderbuck Ram"

Wildlife: "Keep A'Knockin'"

Brain Capers: "Death May Be Your Santa Claus" (wotta song title!), "Darkness Darkness", "The Moon Upstairs"

For that matter, some songs on Brain Capers that aren't guitar-centric ("The Journey", "Second Love") are excellent. I don't think Ralphs and Hunter have ever sounded better. This is one album that I made a serious effort to seek out on CD.

I thought All the Young Dude sounded kinda sissified compared to the earlier stuff. Comparison invited.

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Fond memories from my High School years. I agree with Willie on All the Young Dudes as being a bit sissified at the time if you were a fan of their other stuff. But glam / glitter was all the rage and I must say that song has held up well over the years. I enjoy it more now.

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I remember listening to two albums back in High School, as well as All the Young Dudes which got plenty of air play, I think the titles were "Mott" and the "The Hoople" if memory serves correctly; personal favorite songs were "All the way from Memphis" and "Roll Away the Stone"

I always loved all of Hunters vocal work, the ballad "I Wish I was your Mother" is a great example; got to look for the DVD.

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In 1981, Creem brought out a History of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal mag. It covered everything from Blue Cheer to MC5 to BOC to Bloodrock to Angel to Budgie to anything remotely heavy. It was my bible, and I began the journey to seek out these records, that I knew nothing about, and no-one, at the time, talked about. Mott and the Brain Capers album rated a mention, and that album does it for me out of all the Mott albums.

The best Mott vid is this one :

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Way under appreciated band, both now and then. I've got a couple buddies who are 4 years older than me (HS class of '72), who were into them back then and turned me onto Mott. Through high school, all anyone knew was "All the young dudes", their loss.

One of my favorite videos is here; www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0CtET6sL6g&feature=related , and shows Ariel (Luther Grosvenor) wringing tone out of the LP junior The Shark talks about above. Also gotta love the self depricating sarcasm Hunter throws out in the beginning, that gets a laugh from the audience, about their latest "hit" recording. Watch also when Hunter shoos Bender away from the mic, then later Bender does the same to Hunter with the headstock of his Junior. Great stuff.

Might not be too much of a stretch to guess that maybe Ace Frehley got the idea for his outfit from watching Bender, or that Gene Simmons got the idea for his boots from those that Watts is wearing.

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Some four-digit Standard and Mick Ronson action in this one:

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Some four-digit Standard and Mick Ronson action in this one:

One of my old guitarists I played with for a couple of years, Rick Tedesco, owns Ronson's old Les Paul.

He's been playing guitar with Dennis Dunaway (orig Alice Cooper bassist) for the last few years.

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A friend of mine went to see their reunion shows in London a couple of years ago. They sold audio CDs of the concert that you could buy at the end of the night. He shot one song with his iPhone and later dubbed the audio from the CD. Here it is on YouTube:

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"Dudes" is a great song my band used to play live. Zero audience appreciation for that one. Most of them probably never heard it.

Ha! I remember playing that one with you guys about 5 years or so ago. Yep. Pretty flat response.

Fun to play though.

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I remember when Great White released their cover of "Once Bitten, Twice Shy" ('89?), nobody I worked with knew what I was talking about when I said that I liked the original better. The only thing better on the cover version was the drumming (IMO).

Oh, and that little thing about (the UBER HOT) Bobbi Brown being in their video.

I know we've got a lot of Chicago area guys on this forum, and most probably around my age. Anyone remember a little band (only 1 album, but it was killer!) called The Boyzz from Illinoizz? They used to do a smokin' cover of Motts' "One of the Boys" (gee, wonder why?).

For any kids out there, or for the guy who thought that the guys in Mott were just hangers on to Bowies' coattails, listen to this

, a great Ralphs/Hunter tune to hear in a bar, with your hand wrapped around a cold one.
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Way under appreciated band, both now and then. I've got a couple buddies who are 4 years older than me (HS class of '72), who were into them back then and turned me onto Mott. Through high school, all anyone knew was "All the young dudes", their loss.

One of my favorite videos is here; www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0CtET6sL6g&feature=related , and shows Ariel (Luther Grosvenor) wringing tone out of the LP junior The Shark talks about above. Also gotta love the self depricating sarcasm Hunter throws out in the beginning, that gets a laugh from the audience, about their latest "hit" recording. Watch also when Hunter shoos Bender away from the mic, then later Bender does the same to Hunter with the headstock of his Junior. Great stuff.

Might not be too much of a stretch to guess that maybe Ace Frehley got the idea for his outfit from watching Bender, or that Gene Simmons got the idea for his boots from those that Watts is wearing.

Everything you need to know about posing, including coordinating your costume with your guitar, you can learn from watching the bass player in this video. I wonder if Madame Pamita has those boots in my size. I grew up listening to this song, played live by friends of mine, and I've been a Mott fan since my teenage years.

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