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Well, blow me down.\u00a0 It’s true.\u00a0 Hunter was born in 1939.<\/p>\n
Yow.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 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<\/em>.<\/p>\n 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 super<\/em>stardom.\u00a0 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\u00a0Hunter-penned songs\u00a0(“Ships” for Barry Manilow, “Once Bitten Twice Shy” by Great White, “Cleveland Rocks” by the Presidents, the Drew Carey Show <\/em>and, while we’re at it, the City of Cleveland).\u00a0 Which is good for Hunter;the songwriters get the real <\/em>royalty money; Hunter made out like a bandit during the eighties and nineties; every time “Once Bitten…” gets played on a classic rock station,\u00a0 or The Drew Carey Show <\/em>airs anywhere in reruns, Hunter gets a cut.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>, Have A Good Time But Get Out Alive, <\/em>which is one of my favorite records ever, period<\/a>.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n If you only buy one Hunter album, get You’re Never Alone With A Schizophrenic<\/em>, 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:<\/p>\n Just Another Night<\/a>” (practically a duet with Foley, and still my favorite Hunter song), “Cleveland Rocks<\/a>“, “Ships”, “When the Daylight Comes” and “Bastard”.<\/p>\n Anyway – happy birthday, Ian Hunter, and many more.<\/p>\n UPDATE:\u00a0 Derek Brigham is an even bigger Hunter fan, and has the series of posts to prove it<\/a>.<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/www.darkfaery-subculture.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/mott8lg.jpg\")
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