Goodnight, Cleveland! We Love You!
280. Mott The Hoople "Saturday Gigs"
Mott The Hoople had a fairly simple and good idea to start off with, combine the Cockney-fied Dylanisms of Ian Hunter with swaggering Stonesy* rock and roll. Their association with David Bowie provided a missing ingredient, the pompous theatrical strut of the nascent glam rock movement. Artistically, they were fairly consistent, but commercial success was more intermittent, as this musical band autobigraphy addresses.
All the ingredients are here, Hunter's tough vocals offset by the aggressively fey** background singing and rather than slowly build, Bowie alumnus Mick Ronson's power chords arise from the stately piano like a fireworks crescendo in pitch darkness, before the inspiring, heartfelt chorus. If you want to know what it feels like to be in a band, follow a band or merely admire one from afar, this song will tell you.
*The Stones influence makes the subtle dig at Mick & Co. before the first chorus even funnier
**This summed up the glam movement in a nutshell. It was quite an inclusive movement: yobbos like Slade and budding aesthete metrosexuals like Jobriath and Bowie under the same umbrella. The fey boys toughened up and the tough boys camped it up, all in the name of rock and roll. It was quite a pop moment that still reverberates today.
Mott The Hoople had a fairly simple and good idea to start off with, combine the Cockney-fied Dylanisms of Ian Hunter with swaggering Stonesy* rock and roll. Their association with David Bowie provided a missing ingredient, the pompous theatrical strut of the nascent glam rock movement. Artistically, they were fairly consistent, but commercial success was more intermittent, as this musical band autobigraphy addresses.
All the ingredients are here, Hunter's tough vocals offset by the aggressively fey** background singing and rather than slowly build, Bowie alumnus Mick Ronson's power chords arise from the stately piano like a fireworks crescendo in pitch darkness, before the inspiring, heartfelt chorus. If you want to know what it feels like to be in a band, follow a band or merely admire one from afar, this song will tell you.
*The Stones influence makes the subtle dig at Mick & Co. before the first chorus even funnier
**This summed up the glam movement in a nutshell. It was quite an inclusive movement: yobbos like Slade and budding aesthete metrosexuals like Jobriath and Bowie under the same umbrella. The fey boys toughened up and the tough boys camped it up, all in the name of rock and roll. It was quite a pop moment that still reverberates today.
