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Mott The Hoople and Ian Hunter

Ian Hunter CD: "YUI Orta"

Sleeve and track listing

Lemon CD LEM 6. (4.5 stars!)

  1. American Music (4:12)
  2. The Loner (4:47)
  3. Women's Intuition (6:31)
  4. Tell It Like It Is (4:23)
  5. Livin' In a Heart (4:34)
  6. Big Time (4:03)
  7. Cool (4:30)
  8. Beg a Little Love (6:26)
  9. Following In Your Footsteps (5:02)
  10. Sons 'n' Lovers (4:55)
  11. Pain (4:43)
  12. How Much More Can I Take (3:48)
  13. Sweet Dreamer (6:28)
  14. 4th Hour Of My Sleep (3:08)1
  15. Power Of Darkness (3:32)1

Running time: 71m 11s

1Bonus tracks on the 2003 CD reissue

Review

Ian teamed up with his old mate Mick Ronson once again to record this album in the middle of 1989. Ian and Mick had toured the USA and Europe in late 1988/early 1989, before the album was even recorded, and the result is a highly polished album - one of their best.

Highlights include the Stonsey Women's Intuition (if only Mick 'n' Keef were still this good!), the full-tilt rocker How Much More Can I Take, Big Time (Ian borrows his own riff from Once Bitten...), Tell It Like It Is (Mick borrowing the Get It On riff) and Mick's guitar showcase Sweet Dreamer which is breathtaking beautiful.

When the album was released, they toured the USA and Europe again to promote it. Intended in some ways as a comeback album for both men, the record company did little to promote it themselves, and it didn't sell in great numbers. They were dropped by the record company, and all plans for a follow-up were put on hold when Mick Ronson was diagnosed with liver cancer.

Unavailable for many years, this CD has finally been reissued on the Lemon label (a planned reissue on NMC having fallen through when NMC went bust). This reissue includes a couple of Ronno bonus tracks from 1971 - great for the completist but somewhat at odds with the rest of the album. The insert includes the lyrics from the original CD, but the sleeve notes are appallingly inaccurate - a shame really that Campbell Devine's notes for the aborted NMC release weren't used.

In 1995, Windsong issued an official release of their 15-Feb-89 concert, which had been recorded by the BBC for radio broadcast. This live album has since been reissued on Strange Fruit.

As is normal these days, there was material left over in the vaults, some of which is circulating amongst fans. This includes (Give Me Back My) Wings, which was demoed but never recorded, Ill Wind (now available on the Once Bitten Twice Shycompilation), More To Love Than Meets The Eye and Look Before You Leap, which IMO would have been a great single and features some beautiful guitar work from Mick Ronson

The album title is derived from "Why you... I ought to...", a phrase popularised by The Three Stooges.

Technical

The original CD

The reissued CD

Comments

Analysis of the reissued CD shows some compression being used; this has boosted overall loudness slightly (by some 2.2dB) without any noticeable affect on sound quality.