Mott The Hoople

Subject: Re: Mott The Hoople Sun Jun 12, 2011 12:26 am

Making music for ten years now, made no bread, we must be dumb...
SIDE ONE:
By Tonight
Monte Carlo
She Does It
I’ll Tell You Something
Stiff Upper Lip

SIDE TWO:
Love Now
Apologies
The Great White Wail
Here We Are
It Takes One To Know One
I Can Show You How It Is

Once upon a time there was a group who went by the moniker Mott The Hoople, that is, until December 14th, 1974 and there simply wasn’t a group anymore. Thusly leaving Overdraft Watts, Mortgaged Fisher, and Dole Griffin quite far up the creek, not to mention Stan Tippins, Richie Anderson, and Phil John (Mott’s long time road crew). Something had to be done about this rather nasty state of affairs. What followed, and swift as lightning at that, was unexpected, and unwelcome and all around a kick in the ass. Their management quickly informed the poor chaps that due to the demise of MTH, the cancelled UK tour and ensuing US tour they were in quite serious debt. Add to that the fact that they no longer had a record deal or any income at all, the lads were ordered to get a group together sharpish and start making some damn money to pay back the debts. In the midst of all this, Morgan had vanished like a fart in the wind to do some session work or gigs and was in no mood to be involved with anything MTH related. Good ol’ Overend leapt to work pretty instantly with a cup of tea in one hand and a guitar in the other, writing some new tracks. Keyboardist Blue Weaver was still in the fold, aiding and abetting Watts until he was offered a chance to join the Bee Gee’s to play on the Saturday Night Fever album (later in 1975, Blue would actually phone Overend because the Bee Gee’s wanted him to play bass for them. Ove declined because he didn’t like the funky bass parts or the castrato vocals. Wattsy also turned down Ralphs‘ offer to play bass for Bad Company for the BIG bucks out of sheer loyalty to MTH). Buffin would take up his own axe and tape recorder and in the midst of a plethora of random chords, riffs and other smurf poo would eventually come out with “It Takes On To Know One”. While Watts the wonder boy had produced the starting points to “Love Now”, “She Does It”, and “Get Rich Quick”. Fortunately, Morgan Fisher reappeared rather quickly and helped Watts with “I’ll Tell You Something” and “Stiff Upper Lip” respectively. While the core was reunited they were still left with the problems of finding both a lead guitarist and vocalist, auditioning for their own record company for a new contract and there was no recognized songwriter amongst the ranks. Soon the time would come to recruit new members, but first a direction had to be established and some songs recorded to not only keep the Suits-That-Be at bay, but to audition new members.

Overend and Morgan favored the idea of a style change, looking to develop a more “power-pop” style focusing on harmonies and good tunes (and possibly more off the wall lyrics) as opposed to the rock bombast of MTH. This idea however, was quickly strangled, burnt and flushed by the Suits, who weren’t bashful in the least about informing the chaps that the new band was to be something Hoopleesque, named MOTT, and using MTH material live OR ELSE! Taking their constraints with a grain of salt, Watts determined that the new singer should have a wide vocal range, enabling them to do songs that would’ve been impossible for MTH (Collision Course and She Does It were the two tests for hopefuls). Ads were placed in Melody Maker, which ending up getting such an enormous response and pre-audition weeding out process had to be employed. The band took up residence in Gooseberry studios for the process. According to Buffin the guitarist auditions were more of a formality as the spot had already been filled in the bands’ heads by longtime friend Ray Major. Though, auditions were given and some excellent tracks were laid down by the likes of Dave Ball & John Du Cann, none of them sat as well with the band as Ray’s tracks did. As Verden Allen was known to say “He feels right, man”. The vocalist auditions were more troublesome, with many hopefuls (Pete French, John Butler, and Brian Parrish among them) but the band (even Stan Tippins if you can dig it) were immensely impressed by newcomer Terry Wilson-Slessor. A “welcome to the band” party was hastily arranged and attended by the whole Mott camp. In typical Mottluck fashion though, doom was around the corner as Terry would call the next day announcing he’d decided to take the spot in Paul Kossoff’s Back Street Crawler instead. The answer to the continued search would be answered by none other then Mick Ralphs, who happened to be sharing a flat with Morgan Fisher at the time (dubbed the Heartbreak Hotel and who’s motto was “Come one, come all”), mentioned that he had gone ’round the way one night to the Marquee Club and had seen a band called Royce whose singer (Nigel Benjamin) was quite impressive. Stan would search him out and would bring him in for the audition. Everything sounded great, he hit all the notes kept with the beat and had the write attitude. With that, Mott was five once again, with a record deal and set off to record the new album.

Drive On is for all intents and purposes a good, but difficult album. Coming from a long time MTH fans perspective, it may actually even be a bit of a let down given the stylistic shift. The main problem here is the songwriting, Ian Hunter and Mick Ralphs (although all members did contribute different parts) not only wrote most of Mott The Hoople’s songs, but provided all the direction as well. So even though Watts is quite capable and writes his best here, his experience was pretty limited and it all leans very heavily into the established Glam Rock category and never emerges out of it. Along with the fact that a few of the songs sound like no more then filler (out of the filler type tracks though, Love Now still rocks like a bastard). All problems and inexperience aside though, Mott still manages to turn out some corkers. Whether it’s the tight driving opener By Tonight, the rocking single Monte Carlo, the scorching Great White Wail, the ambitious She Does It, or the sonic ballad I’ll Tell You Something there’s plenty to enjoy here. They even toss in a bit of that old MTH humor in the likes of It Takes One To Know One and Stiff Upper Lip. In many ways, this was also a new band, so there’s a lot of the make-it-or-break-it attitude thrown in that gives the tracks quite a bit of piss and vinegar. The band sounds great, thundering rhythms, pounding piano and hot guitar all around! Altogether, I give the record a pretty big thumbs up, given the circumstances it was recorded under, it’s quite a promising beginning despite some lack luster songwriting and lack of member contribution. A solid 3 out of 5.

Subject: Re: Mott The Hoople Thu Sep 15, 2011 4:27 am

Shouting And Pointing (1976)

SIDE ONE
Shouting and Pointing
Collision Course
Storm
Career (No Such Thing As Rock 'N' Roll)

SIDE TWO
Hold On, You're Crazy
See You Again
Too Short Arms (I Don't Care)
Broadside Outcasts
Good Times

Here it is mates, the once mighty Mott The Hoople's swan song. This album is generally perceived in a pretty poor light, with All Music calling it a "true nadir of 70's rock". Well, it's not even close to being a trainwreck, though it is rooted in firmly as "more of the same" ala Drive On. Fortunately, right off of a pretty well received (especially in the good 'ol U.S.A.) tour they were given a nice slot of time to write and record their next record. This time instead of the infamous Clearwell Castle (where the boys had also encountered the same ghosts Sabbath before them had) they were booked into Manor Studios London, with none other then Eddie Kramer. A big plus S&P has over its predecessor is that other band members contribute to the songwriting this time around making for stronger tracks. So even though Lord Wattsy is very clearly still the leader and his writing style predominates, the rhythms are richer, and the hooks have alot more meat to them. The title track, which lulls you into a false sense of security with a jingly piano line just rips open the album with a simplistic pounding drum beat ala Buffin and a great riff. Couple that with Nigel's wailing vocals and a scorching solo and you've got another Mott classic! "Collision Course", a number Mott had been honing in their repertoire, has some great riffs and is very catchy/memorable overall. "Storm" follows along the same lines, another fun track. "Career (No Such Thing As Rock 'N Roll)" takes alot of crap and accusation of being "The Ballad Of Mott Mark II", which is pretty much supreme ox manur. It's the best ballad Mott has on either of these albums with some truly heartfelt lyrics by the increaseingly disillusioned Nigel, and he sings his ass off on it. Side Two is where we run into the most problems actually "Hold On, You're Crazy" follows along the same lines as "Storm" a fun track, but nothing that particularly stands out. The acoustic "See You Again" is another of the albums best tracks, with lyrics about life on the road and some great melodies, it's a treat to listen to. Some excellent guitar work by Major here. "Too Short Arms (I Don't Care)" has lyrics full of that classic Mott wit, another that's fun to listen to. "Broadside Outcasts" leaves me kinda flat, musically it doesn't go much of anywhere and the vocals are a little silly. The closer, a cover of the Vanda & Young classic "Good Times" isn't bad, but it lacks the power their live rendition has, a bad choice imposed by the record company.

All in all, a very solid effort, with a good amount of structure and better songwriting, I'd say Mott went out on a high note. This is also the better of the two post Hunter albums IMO. The only cons I can really find here is well, Kramer's production is a little half assed, he was also working on "The Song Remains The Same" at the time and had a kid, so its fairly apparent his whole head wasn't in it. Also, the song writing IS much improved, but Overend's direction (while understandable based on sales) makes the direction feel kind of stagnant. Had other members had more of a say, this one could've been epic. Mott would complete their Shouting and Pointing world tour only to return home to record their final single "Get Rick Quick" the next day, CBS decided to drop the band from the roster. Left in shambles, Nigel Benjamin would pitch his idea about he should be leader, and the different direction they should take, which the other members declined and Mott thusly disbanded for good. The remaining members would grab up John Fiddler (Medicene Head) and become The British Lions while Nigel would form a couple bands (The English Assasin probably being the best) before leaveing for America and joining up with Nikki Sixx and Lizzie Grey in London.

Subject: Re: Mott The Hoople Thu Sep 15, 2011 4:27 am

and there it is fellas. The final Mott studio album, sorry it took so long. It's just a band I have to be in the mood to listen to.

Subject: Re: Mott The Hoople Thu Sep 15, 2011 2:13 pm

Excellent job and learned alot about Mott the Hoople, so thank you and if I ever do a thread on Mott the Hoople I know where I can get information on certain albums since my knowledge on the band was a bit lacking til I read this thread.

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Mott The Hoople

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