Mott The Hoople 8: Live

Ian Hunter’s final run with Mott The Hoople was celebrated somewhat with a live album covering two continents. Side one of Live was recorded at Broadway’s relatively new Uris Theater (fun fact: the opening act was Queen) a few years before Barry Manilow’s residency, while side two was captured a few months earlier at the Hammersmith Odeon. Even in these locales, the band is still fairly sloppy, even if they weren’t the same five guys from five years before.

In 1974, live albums were usually designed as hits collections, and outside of “All The Way From Memphis” and “All The Young Dudes”, this one doesn’t approach that model. Things slow down big time on “Rest In Peace” and “Rose”, both only known from B-sides. They also stomp through “Walkin’ With A Mountain” and “Sweet Angeline” from the early days—the latter with an extended survey of the “slags” in the audience—and a cacophonous medley springing from “Jerkin’ Crocus” and “Rock & Roll Queen”, stopping off at “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Get Back” (lyrics not even close) on the way to “Violence”.

The original LP only had room for excerpts from the shows, which the eventual 30th Anniversary Edition attempted to rectify by expanding each album side to a full CD and with the tracks presented in the sequence performed. Both begin with the grandiose “Jupiter” from Holst’s Planets; the Broadway half then starts with a verse from “American Pie” before “The Golden Age Of Rock ‘N’ Roll”. While recorded only five months apart, there’s only the mildest overlap between the halves, so it’s hardly repetitive. That said, the longer “Walking With A Mountain” on the London disc is devoted mostly to Ariel Bender’s fretwork, which occasionally resembles Jimmy Page at his clumsiest.

Mott The Hoople Live (1974)—3
2004 30th Anniversary Edition: same as 1974, plus 13 extra tracks