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Mott The Hoople and Ian Hunter

Mott The Hoople/Ian Hunter CD: "Gold"

Sleeve and track listing

Sony/Crimson CRIMCD683. (3 stars!)

Disc 1

  1. All The Young Dudes (3:32)
  2. One Of The Boys (4:21)
  3. Momma's Little Jewel (4:26)
  4. Sweet Jane (4:19)
  5. Jerkin' Crocus (4:01)
  6. Sea Diver (2:54)
  7. Honaloochie Boogie (2:43)
  8. Rose (3:57)
  9. Drivin' Sister (3:51)
  10. All The Way From Memphis (single version) (3:25)
  11. Ballad of Mott The Hoople (5:25)
  12. Hymn For The Dudes (5:23)
  13. Whizz Kid (3:26)
  14. Violence (4:49)
  15. I Wish I Was Your Mother (4:51)
  16. Roll Away The Stone (single version) (3:03)
  17. Where Do You All Come From (3:25)

Disc 2

  1. The Golden Age of Rock 'n' Roll (3:25)
  2. Rest In Peace (3:54)
  3. Alice (5:20)
  4. Crash Street Kidds (4:31)
  5. Marionette (5:04)
  6. Pearl 'n' Roy (England) (4:27)
  7. Foxy, Foxy (3:31)
  8. Trudi's Song (4:24)
  9. Saturday Gigs (4:20)
  10. Once Bitten Twice Shy (4:45)
  11. 3,000 Miles From Here (2:47)
  12. Lounge Lizard (4:30)
  13. It Ain't Easy When You Fall/Shades Off (5:45)
  14. The Truth, The Whole Truth, Nuthin' But The Truth (6:11)
  15. Who Do You Love (3:51)
  16. I Get So Excited (3:48)

Disc 3

  1. All-American Alien Boy (single version) (3:54)
  2. God (Take 1) (5:43)
  3. You Nearly Did Me In (5:47)
  4. Letter To Britannia From The Union Jack (3:49)
  5. Irene Wilde (3:43)
  6. Apathy '83 (4:44)
  7. Justice Of The Peace (3:00)
  8. (Miss) Silver Dime (4:36)
  9. Shallow Crystals (3:58)
  10. Broadway (3:47)
  11. Overnight Angels (5:12)
  12. England Rocks (2:51)
  13. Wild 'n' Free (3:09)
  14. All Of The Good Ones Are Taken (fast version) (3:43)
  15. Death 'n' Glory Boys (5:59)
  16. Traitor (3:58)
  17. Seeing Double (4:23)

Review

Gold. That most lustrous of all precious metals. When you've run out of superlatives (and let's face it, we've already had The Best Of..., The Very Best Of..., etc) then start with 'gold'. It'll be platinum next... or diamond...

So what have we got here? All of Mott's hits and nearly all their b-sides, together with some choice album tracks. What's interesting here is that some of these tracks rarely make it to compilations like this. So far, so good.

For Ian's solo material the picture is slightly less rosy. Yes, it's got Once Bitten Twice Shy (which was his biggest UK hit) and choice album tracks from the period ('75 - '77, '83). Again... so far, so good. But Ian's solo career has been going for over 45 years on numerous labels so there's nothing here from Schizophrenic (1979) or his more recent purple patch (starting with 2001's Rant). So in that respect it's a flawed compilation.

The sleeve notes are (for once) good, having been written by Mott/Hunter biographer Campbell Devine and the sound quality is excellent.

All in all a decent enough compilation, but for a career-spanning retrospective the listener will need to look elsewhere.