It’s Ian Hunter’s birthday today. He’s…
…seventy?
That can’t be right. Let me check.
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Well, blow me down. It’s true. Hunter was born in 1939.
Yow.
Hunter – who climbed to fame as lead singer of classic glam-rock band Mott the Hoople in the early seventies, before launching a solo career that brought him almost to the edge of superstardom, and left him with a huge cult following and royalty income that’d make many “bigger” “stars'” jaws drop – started as an apprentice at a Rolls-Royce plant. His five-year stint with Mott included lows, highs (the hit “All The Young Dudes”) and one of the great books about rock and roll ever, Diary of a Rock and Roll Star.
He’s had the kind of solo career that I’d suspect a lot of rock stars would love to trade for; he has a mid-sized, fanatical cult following that make his live shows sell-outs 30 years after his supposed prime, which has to be all the fun of being a rock star without all the bother of paparrazi and the corrosion of superstardom. And while he’s only obliquely grazed the Top Forty on his own, other artists have had vastly bigger hits than he or Mott ever had with Hunter-penned songs (“Ships” for Barry Manilow, “Once Bitten Twice Shy” by Great White, “Cleveland Rocks” by the Presidents, the Drew Carey Show and, while we’re at it, the City of Cleveland). Which is good for Hunter;the songwriters get the real royalty money; Hunter made out like a bandit during the eighties and nineties; every time “Once Bitten…” gets played on a classic rock station, or The Drew Carey Show airs anywhere in reruns, Hunter gets a cut.
Sweet.
He’s also been an impresario in his own right; he produced Ellen Foley’s first album, as well as most of the Iron City Houserockers’ first critical grand slam, Have A Good Time But Get Out Alive, which is one of my favorite records ever, period.
I was lucky enough to see Hunter once – back in 1988 at the First Avenue, touring with a band that included his essential foil, guitarist Mick Ronson. Indeed, Hunter’s solo career is a bit like Mick Jagger’s, if only inasmuch as both of their most successful work seems to be linked to their main guitarist – Keith Richards in Jagger’s case, Ronson for Hunter.
If you only buy one Hunter album, get You’re Never Alone With A Schizophrenic, his 1979 album featuring collaborations with Ronson (on guitar as well as in the control room), John Cale, and the E Street Band’s Roy Bittan, Max Weinberg and Gary Tallent, as well as Foley, which is chock full of Hunter classics:
Just Another Night” (practically a duet with Foley, and still my favorite Hunter song), “Cleveland Rocks“, “Ships”, “When the Daylight Comes” and “Bastard”.
Anyway – happy birthday, Ian Hunter, and many more.
UPDATE: Derek Brigham is an even bigger Hunter fan, and has the series of posts to prove it.
Of course, the late Paul “Wog” Kuettel was Hunter’s biggest fan in the Twin Cities blogging community; if memory serves, his wife and he had an early date/just-married night out/something or other at a Hunter gig; I think it was from one of our conversations rather than his blog, but Hunter was the closest thing the Kinks had to a rival in Paul’s musical heart.
I think I’ve mentioned this before. I love Ellen Foley.
Great post, Mitch. I have You’re Never Alone With a Schizophrenic on vinyl — bought it in high school and it’s one of the few vinyl albums I have left. Wonderful record. Every time I play Mott the Hoople for someone, they’re always surprised how good a band they were. Hunter and Ronson were great together.
I think I’ve mentioned this before. I love Ellen Foley.
I don’t blame ya, AC. She was at nexus of most things that were cool in the late 70s, an otherwise very uncool time.
Also she was way hot.
Also she was way hot.
Yeah, that too.
Schizophrenic was the one Ian Hunter album I owned; as I recall I was debating whether to use my meager album-buying budget (and I did budget to buy music) between that and an Ian Gomm album (perhaps the only Ian Gomm album). I’m glad I chose Hunter; I hadn’t had to buy any of his albums in college because all my friends were playing him incessantly anyway. Thanks to a recent Sports Illustrated cover photo I’ve had “Cleveland Rocks” running in and out of my head for the past couple of weeks, and I’ve always preferred Hunter’s versions of “Dudes” and “Bitten” to all the many covers of each; the songs just don’t work for me without his rasp.
I like Ellen Foley, too. She was probably jobbed by not getting the part in the “Paradise By the Dashboard Light” video (though it was her voice), but that was because she was too luminescent for what needed to be a trashy persona.
Ian Gomm album
IIRC, that would be “Gomm With the Wind.” Hold On was a decent song; tends to live in my mind with “Driver Seat” by Sniff’n the Tears and “This Beat Goes On/Switchin’ to Glide” by the Kings in the “vaguely New Wave late 70s” category.
Something we all can agree on. I love Just Another Night. Check out the You Tube version of All The Young Dudes from the Freddy Mercury tribute. It’s excellent, and has David Bowie playing sax. Too cool.
Thanks, all.
In re: Ellen Foley: whilst “researching” this post, I found occasion to write about her. Check back on Friday.
In re: Ellen Foley: whilst “researching” this post, I found occasion to write about her. Check back on Friday.
Brace yourselves for another Miami Steve Van Zandt reference.
70 is the new 50 🙂
I owned Schizophrenic and the following Short Back and Sides on vinyl. (Ignore the track Gun Control). I also owned a really good double album import that was lost years ago. I can’t find it listed in any discography but it must have been released around ’80 or ’81.
When the Daylight Comes is my favorite Hunter tune.
Looking forward to the Foley post.
Like the late Wog, Angryclown digs on the Kinks. Saw a show years ago where they almost literally brought the house down. Turns out the balcony of a certain theater in the Eastern United States oscillates in sympathy with “You Really Got Me.” Plaster was falling on the orchestra section as ushers tried to keep the crowd from jumping up and down. Horrified kids pointed to the center of the balcony, which was visibly moving up and down – musta been more than a foot.
I saw the Kinks in ’86 in the balcony of the pre-rehabbed Minneapolis Orpheum. Not in quite as dire shape as the theater in your story, Clown, although the crowd probably took a few years off the structure’s integrity.
I’d say Ray and Dave were amazing, but it’d be superfluous, wouldn’t it?
Someday when I have a few extra hundred bucks in my pocket, I’m going to catch up on my Kinks kollection.
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