Mott The Hoople

In 1969 the Midlands group: Silence, was in search of a new lead singer. Mick Ralphs, Pete Watts, Verden Allen and Dale Griffin had decided that Stan Tippins, the vocalist for Silence, was not projecting the image and voice that would propel Silence to the top of the charts.Enter a bass guitarist/vocalist: Ian Hunter Patterson. The group wanted their new singer to play piano and sing a bunch. Ian, could barely play piano but had a rough Dylan voice and style, that the band was searching for. Eleven days after Ian met Silence, the group was in the studio working on this album. Changes were in order. First the name of the new singer was shortened to Ian Hunter, Dale Griffin, became: Buffin, Pete Watts was now: Overend Watts. The band name of Silence was re-christened: Mott The Hoople.This startling debut record opens with a cover of The Kinks: "You Really Got Me." Not happy with the vocal track, the instrumental track was used as it was deemed more powerful. "At The Crossroads" By Doug Sahm & "Laugh At Me" by Sonny Bono spotlight Ian Hunter's vocal skills as a Bob Dylan type singer as backed by a Rolling Stone's style band. The Ian, penned: "Backsliding Fearlessly" is the first original song on the record, and it is a gem. "Backsliding" features a smoldering vocal and relentless piano that is all anchored by the pounding beat...the first glimse of what Mott The Hoople were to become.Side two opens with the first classic MTH song: "Rock And Roll Queen." With the guitars of Mick Ralphs, and shared vocals between Ian and Mick, this is now a BAND and here is right where it all begins. "Rabbit Foot & Toby Time" is a short jam that leads in the album's centerpiece: "Half Moon Bay" a sweeping 11 minute ballad orchestrated by the mighty organ of Verden Allen. Ian's voice croaks and cracks, and is very perfect for this music...."Half Moon Bay" is a must-listen for any rock music fan, this is a great, great song. A short bit of studio madness puts a rap on the original album entitled: "Wrath And Wroll" by producer/looney Guy Stevens.Two bonus tracks are included on this edition of Mott The Hoople's debut. They are: "Ohio" a live version of the Neil Young classic, and an instrumental by Mick called: "Find Your Way." They are nice to have been included, but it is still the original record that is the star here.Mott The Hoople, would go through lot's of changes in the five years, that they existed as band. But, this over-looked debut of a record, is a great begining for an even greater rock band.Four Stars !!!

As many have stated before, I shall state again. How and why this band didn't sell more records, especially pre-1972 is completely beyond me. They were a great throwback to the original sounds of the genre while at the same time so new and original and could cover the best and write some of the best as well. Combining Little Richard with Dylan and a mish-mash of English and American Pop music, you had this five piece band that was a force to be reckoned with. Kicking off with the strange choice of "You Really Got Me" (as an instrumental and 9 years before Van Halen took a crack at it) and segueing into the hauntingly beautiful cover of"At The Crossroads" (this is where I got turned on to Doug Sahm) and then Sony Bono's "Laugh At Me" you can tell that this is a band that takes chances, even when covering other people's material. The band would show off their skills as writers on the second side, namely with guitarist Mick Ralphs's "Rock and Roll Queen" becoming a staple of the band's set for the rest of it's days and singer Ian Hunter's "Backsliding Fearlessly" showcasing the idiosyncratic nature of his writing that would eventually take center stage as the years and tours wore on. But the album's centerpiece has to be the Hunter/Ralphs composition of "Half Moon Bay", an epic ten minute mini-suite in several parts that seems to combine Doug Sahm and Beethoven and transform it into this strange, new thing. Organist Verden Allen's playing really comes to the fore on this one at the halfway mark before the rhythm section of Dale Griffin and Overend Watts come crashing back in to close it out. To me, this is one of the strongest debut albums ever released. The strength, the songs and the sounds are all here. And you, simply just have to buy it.

from the day I first heard this album, in 1969, I have been a hoople fan (up to the leaving of mick ralphs for that awful bad company). this shows the hoople could rock with the best...and did. they, along with the great joe cocker, could interpret anyone's' songs as good as the original artist'. from the sonny bono "laugh at me" to the kinks "you really got me" they are superb. their own "rock 'n roll queen" rocks like nothing else. a very good first album, and a must for any hoople fan...and the bonus tracks ("ohio" yes, that "ohio") are a real treat !

The original Mott was one of my favorite bands in the 1970s. This album feels like it was put together to fulfill a contract obligation. It feels like a last album for a band that was dissolving. Some of the songs are from the first album, there are some covers (N. Young "Ohio" which is totally strange), and several instrumentals. That said, it is not a bad album, totally listenable. It is not my favorite but overall it is a pretty good album.

excellent conditionkiller cover of the Kinks

The early Mot great!

Mott The Hoople’s debut album, in 1969, three years before their Bowie-inspired renaissance, was a competent, but somewhat patchy affair. A great cover, by the way, but utterly irrelevant. Because it is Mott The Hoople, who we all went on to know and love so well, it somehow seems as if the album is better than it actually is.TRACK LISTING 1. You Really Got Me 2. At the Crossroads 3. Laugh at Me 4. Backsliding Fearlessly 5. Rock and Roll Queen 6. Rabbit Foot And Toby Time 7. Half Moon Bay 8. Wrath And Wroll 9. Ohio 10. Find Your WayNicely remastered, it kicks off with a storming semi-instrumental cover of The Kinks’ “You Really Got Me”, that almost sounds like a studio jam, then the Dylanesque “At The Crossroads” (one of Ian Hunter’s perennial influences). A cover of Sonny Bono’s “Laugh At Me” is not bad at all, neither is the most obvious single, the upbeat, riffy “Rock n Roll Queen”. “Half Moon Bay” is a bit introspective and the quality dips a little on the old “side two”. "Backsliding Fearlessly" from the old "side one" is a good one though, but you can't help but get the impression that this album saw the band go into the studio, play, and say "ok that'll do" in a "just happy to be there", rough and ready sort of fashion. I don't think they really thought this album through. It has the feeling of a studio jam pervading the whole thing.Included here is another Dylan-inspired number, “Road To Birmingham”. It should have been on the original album, to be honest, as should “Little Christine”. I just feel there was more that could have been put on here, and it was something of a missed opportunity. Three more albums over the next three years would do a little to dispel that notion, but all the albums were ever so slightly flawed. Therein lay their appeal, however.

it has its critics : too derivative of dylan; aiming high but falling short; mediocre musicianship; etc., etc., blah, yawn. i love this album. that is a personal, and therefore subjective, statement; it supplied the soundtrack to my late teens, so i am biased. by today's standards, it may not fare well in comparison. but it is still a cracking album! hunter has a better voice than dylan even if the words lack dylan's unique touch. and the piano/organ combination appeals to me as a big procol harum fan. they do not resemble PH most of the time but, occasionally, the album does have its procol moments.

The reason I bought this CD was because I sold my vinyl of Mott the Hoople and wanted a copy of these tracks. I have given 4 stars only because the first 2 tracks sound slightly different to the original LP. Overall this is a really good CD and show Mott the Hoople at their early best (before coming under the influence of David Bowie) and releasing commercial tracks such as All theYoung Dudes. The bonus tracks on this CD are good as well. If you want early Mott the Hoople this will be for you, it reminded me of when I saw them live in the seventies.

Liked the fast prompt service,Been after this album on cd for ages.Finally got as all Mott the Hoople albums up till Mott.

Average stuff