MOTT THE HOOPLE - LIVE (30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION): A Retrospective Righting Of Rock & Roll Wrongs
"I feel neglected, feel rejected/Living in the wrong time": that was a line written and sung by Ian Hunter on Mott The Hoople's Brain Capers album. It could be applied to a lot of bad breaks in their career. For example, consider the one live album released by the band during their career: it was cobbled from a couple of gigs on both sides of the Atlantic (the Uris Theater on Broadway in NYC, the Hammersmith Odeon back at home). The band didn't like the performances they had to choose from. Even worse, this was before the heyday of double-live LP's so the group's performances had to be hacked down to fit one 53-minute album.
Thirty years later, the band was allowed to right somewrongs with a 30th anniversary double CD edition of the album that allowed themto devote a full CD's length to the Broadway and Hammersmith shows. There's set list overlap between the twolocales but there are unique songs on each disc and enough of a difference inperformances to make it a compelling listen for fans.
The Broadway material offers an intriguingly raw andedgy take on the polished productions of the Columbia Records era, particularlywith wildman guitarist Ariel Bender barnstorming through each solo indevil-may-care style. The faux-operettaof "Marionette" becomes as ornery as a Sensational Alex Harvey Band raverhere (puppets accompanied it during the show!) and "Sucker" has anew, heavy throb to it.
Elsewhere in the Broadway setlist, Overend Watts waxesproto-punkish on "Born Late '58" and a medley of "Drivin'Sister/Crash Street Kidds/Violence" rocks hard but with an icy grandeur toit (the "now you're dead!" segue from "Kidds" to"Violence" is chilling stuff). It's worth mentioning the heavy stuff gets asolid counterbalance in the form of intense yet lovely readings of "RestIn Peace" and "Hymn For The Dudes." Bender's wailing guitarstyle is beautifully applied to a brief but searing solo in the latter.
However, it's the Hammersmith material that steals theshow here. This stuff was always the better side of the original single-discalbum and everything here shines with a focused intensity. The Columbia stuff sounds good but the revelationscome in the form of Island-era tracks: "Sweet Angeline" has tradedthe relaxed Stonesiness of the album version for an electrifying runaway-train rearrangementbuilt on a fast-chugging guitar riff and "Walking With A Mountain"becomes an exploratory showcase for careening but energetic guitar solos fromBender.
The big scene-stealer of the Hammersmith recordings isone of the few that appeared intact on the original LP, a scorching 16-minutemedley that mixes Mott faves like "Jerkin Crocus" and "Rock& Roll Queen" with snippets of cover tunes like the Beatles' "GetBack" and Jerry Lee Lewis's "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On." If it sounds like the band was playing withfurious energy, they were: apparently, Odeon's management tried to cut off thisencore only for the band to block the curtain with a piano and continue ravingaway.
A nice full-color liner notes booklet tops the packageoff in style. Band biographer Campbell Devine does a typically excellent job oflaying out the history behind the scenes of the shows, including up-to-dateinterview bits from the band. DaleGriffin, drummer and producers of the original album, also offers someretrospective musings about his work on putting the album together. It's acompelling read, particularly the accounts of the infamous Hammersmith Odeonencore and a battle backstage at Uris with Led Zeppelin!
In short, this is an impressive rehabilitation for an overlooked live album, restoring it to the glory it should have displayed way back in 1974. It's well worth an addition to the Mott fan's personal archive.