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Mott The Hoople and Ian Hunter

Mott The Hoople CD: "Concert Anthology"

Sleeve and track listing

Purple Pyramid CLP1509-2. (3 stars!)

Disc 1

  1. Thunderbuck Ram1
  2. The Original Mixed Up Kid1
  3. Laugh At Me1
  4. Keep A Knockin'1
  5. Angel Of 8th Avenue2
  6. Whisky Women2
  7. Hymn For The Dudes3
  8. Sweet Jane3
  9. All The Young Dudes3
  10. Death May Be Your Santa Claus6
  11. The Ballad Of Billy Joe6

Disc 2

  1. Sea Diver3
  2. Sweet Angeline4
  3. American Pie5
  4. The Golden Age of Rock n Roll5
  5. Sucker5
  6. Rest In Peace5
  7. Born Late 585
  8. Marionette5
  9. All The Way From Memphis5
  10. If Your Heart Lay With The Rebel6
  11. It Would Be A Pleasure6

1 The Konserthuset, Stockholm 16 Feb 1971

2 Fillmore West, San Francisco CA 3rd-6th June 1971

3 The Tower Theater, Philadelphia 29 Nov 1972

4 Don Kirschner TV show, Los Angeles CA 13th September 1973

5 Santa Monica Civic Center 13 Apr 1974

6 demo

Review

An odd one, this. Yet another sampler taken from the All The Way... and ...Live Heaven releases but with (on the face of it) a strong track selection. A full tilt rocker, Thunderbuck Ram, starts things off nicely, but then everything goes awry as Ian introduces Keep A Knockin, only for The Original Mixed Up Kid to be heard. Further confusion follows, as Ian introduces Walkin' With a Mountain (he also introduces it at the end of Whisky Women - and neither version is on here!) only for Laugh At Me (a slower number) to be heard.

No, Ian isn't off his rocker, these introductions reflect the original concert running order, but whoever put this compilation together wasn't paying attention to detail. These faults pervade the disk and can cause confusion for the listener unfamiliar with Mott's music and making it appear tracks are somehow missing.

Leaving these points to one side, this is actually a good selection of tracks. For once, the sleeve notes are good as well, written by MTHAS editor Keith Smith and accompanied by several live and studio photos. The casual fan thus gets a good introduction into who Mott were and what they were about.

So, in summary a good track selection and excellent sleeve notes, let down by clumsy editing. Recommended.