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Mott The Hoople and Ian Hunter

Mott The Hoople/Ian Hunter CD: "The Journey"

Sleeve and track listing

Sony/BMG 82876 890022. (5 stars!)

Disc 1

  1. Road To Birmingham
  2. Backsliding Fearlessly
  3. Walking With a Mountain
  4. Angel of Eighth Avenue
  5. Waterlow
  6. The Debt
  7. One of the Boys
  8. The Journey
  9. The Moon Upstairs
  10. All The Young Dudes
  11. Momma's Little Jewel
  12. Jerkin' Crocus
  13. Sea Diver
  14. Honaloochie Boogie
  15. The Ballad of Mott The Hoople
  16. Hymn For The Dudes
  17. Whizz Kid
  18. I Wish I Was Your Mother

Disc 2

  1. All The Way From Memphis
  2. Violence
  3. Roll Away The Stone
  4. The Golden Age of Rock n Roll
  5. Marionette
  6. Crash Street Kidds
  7. Foxy Foxy
  8. Saturday Gigs
  9. Once Bitten Twice Shy
  10. Who Do You Love?
  11. Lounge Lizzard
  12. 3000 Miles From Here
  13. The Truth, The Whole Truth, Nuthin' But The Truth
  14. It Ain't Easy When You Fall/Shades Off
  15. Letter To Britannia From The Union Jack
  16. Irene Wilde
  17. You Nearly Did Me In
  18. Justice Of The Peace

Disc 3

  1. Cleveland Rocks
  2. Standin' In My Light
  3. Bastard
  4. The Outsider
  5. Gun Control
  6. All Of The Good Ones Are Taken
  7. Speechless
  8. Ill Wind
  9. The Loner
  10. 23a Swan Hill
  11. Michael Picasso
  12. I'm In Awe
  13. Avalanche
  14. Morons (alternate version)
  15. Wash Us Away
  16. Knees of My Heart
  17. Dead Man Walking

Review

There have been Mott The Hoople compilations, and there have been Ian Hunter compilations. Some have been reasonable, some have been very good. Few have covered all angles (eg both the Island and CBS years, or Ian's entire solo career), and even fewer have covered both Mott and Ian. Here at last is a compilation that does just that - take tracks from (nearly) every album from the very beginning in 1969 right up to the present day (well OK, 2001 - Ian's last studio album).

It is impossible to do justice to 30 years worth of work on a single CD, even two but three CDs seems about right. It's impossible to pick out highlights - all of the tracks are good. There's also three previously-unissued tracks, just to keep the regular fans happy as well (let's face it, if there was no new stuff on here, we'd be complaining).

There's also a 36 page booklet with a good overview of Mott's and Ian's career, together with many colour photographs.

As a retrospective of Mott The Hoople and Ian Hunter, I don't think it can be bettered.