Mott The Hoople and Ian Hunter

Mott The Hoople CD: "The Essential Mott The Hoople"

Sleeve and track listing

Columbia/Legacy 8883771462. (4.5 stars!)

Disc 1

  1. You Really Got Me
  2. Rock and Roll Queen
  3. Thunderbuck Ram
  4. Walkin' With A Mountain
  5. Whisky Women
  6. Waterlow
  7. The Moon Upstairs
  8. Sweet Angeline
  9. All The Young Dudes
  10. Momma's Little Jewel
  11. One Of The Boys
  12. Ready For Love/After Lights
  13. Sucker
  14. Sweet Jane
  15. Violence
  16. I Wish I Was Your Mother
  17. Rose

Disc 2

  1. All The Way From Memphis
  2. Honaloochie Boogie
  3. Whizz Kid
  4. Hymn For The Dudes
  5. The Golden Age of Rock 'n' Roll
  6. Rest In Peace (live)
  7. Alice
  8. Marionette (live)
  9. Crash Street Kidds
  10. Roll Away The Stone
  11. Born Late '58
  12. Where Do You All Come From?
  13. Through the Looking Glass
  14. Foxy Foxy
  15. (Do You Remember) The Saturday Gigs
  16. Lounge Lizard
  17. American Pie/The Golden Age of Rock 'n' Roll (live)

Review

Mott The Hoople compilations are, it seems, two a penny. There are greatest hits, the best of, the very best of, the collection (more than one!)... the list is seemingly endless. Not all are worthy of the purchaser's cash. This one, however, is.

There are choice Island-era tracks (Mott had a life before Dudes, you know), singles, b-sides, a good selection of album tracks and even a couple of (good) live tracks. The sleeve notes (penned by Rant band member James Mastro) are, for once, good too. They even manage to get Whizz Kid right (including the 'moan' and the coda).

I could quibble about a couple of things, like the LP versions of Roll Away The Stone (US compilations always do this) and All The Way From Memphis (hence me docking half a star) but these really are only minor criticisms. As an introduction to Mott the Hoople you really can't go wrong with this.