Mott The Hoople and Ian Hunter

Mott The Hoople LP/CD: "The Hoople"

Sleeve and track listing

Columbia/Legacy 82796978732. (4.5 stars!)

  1. The Golden Age of Rock 'n' Roll (3:26)
  2. Marionette (5:08)
  3. Alice (5:20)
  4. Crash Street Kidds (4:31)
  5. Born Late '58 (4:00)
  6. Trudi's Song (4:26)
  7. Pearl n' Roy (England) (4:31)
  8. Through The Looking Glass (4:37)
  9. Roll Away The Stone (3:10)
  10. Where Do You All Come From?1, 2 (3:26)
  11. Rest In Peace1, 2 (3:55)
  12. Foxy Foxy1, 2 (3:32)
  13. Saturday Gigs2
  14. The Saturday Kids (demo)2
  15. Lounge Lizzard2
  16. American Pie/Golden Age of Rock n Roll (live)2

1 bonus track on the 2000 remastered CD

2 bonus track on the 2006 remastered CD

Sleeve variations

2000 Reissue CD

Original UK LP

US CD sleeve

Review

Mott's seventh studio album is altogether different from the excellent Mott. It opens strongly with the brilliant Golden Age of Rock n Roll (which would also open their live shows), and continues with the five-minute mini "rock opera" Marionette.

Guitars are to the fore in both Crash Street Kidds and Born Late 58, but otherwise new boy Ariel Bender's guitar is strangely subdued throughout, with many of the songs being led by sax and/or piano... No bad thing considering the strength of material but still odd considering Mott were a hard rock outfit.

The material is strong, but Trudi's Song seems out of place (maybe it would have fitted better on a solo album?) and Through The Looking Glass sees the band backed by an orchestra. Odd! Roll Away The Stone which closed the original album also saw original guitarist Mick Ralphs' guitar repaced by Bender's lead and seems weaker in comparison.

This album has been released on CD several times. The original US CD saw average packaging and average sound. The UK CD in 2000 saw excellent sound quality and good packaging. 2006 sees excellent sound again and this time a host of bonus tracks but poorer packaging. "Mott" and "The Hoople" on the cover is printed in white, with some of the black from the original printing still showing. The booklet, although informative, also omits the lyrics. All previous CDs (and the original LP) included the lyrics, thus detracting somewhat from what is otherwise an excellent CD.

The original title for this album was The Bash Street Kids, which is a cartoon strip in a UK kids' comic called The Beano. However, the owners of The Beano objected so the album was renamed. So was the title track - to Crash Street Kids. There are rumoured to be a handful of white label test pressings with the original title on...

Although Morgan was, by now, a full member of the band his face is missing from the girl's hair on the album cover, and from many publicity photos of the time. This is because he was still signed to RCA (Italy), and was to avoid any contractual problems.