Tag: Ian Hunter

Ian Hunter – Just Another Night

After Mott The Hoople yesterday I had to go into full Ian Hunter mode. The piano intro in the song is incredible. Not only the riff but the sound they got off of it. This song was written by Hunter and Mick Ronson. It was about a night in an Indianapolis jail. I have a quote by Hunter at the bottom of the page about it.

The song was off of the brilliantly named album You’re Never Alone with a Schizophrenic and it peaked at #35 in the Billboard 100 and #49 in the UK in 1979. The album has been called by some critics his best ever. The album also has one of his most recognizable songs Cleveland Rocks. The song peaked at #68 on the Billboard 100 Charts in 1979.

Ian Hunter had a great band behind him on this song. Mick Ronson on guitar, and the E Street Band’s Gary Tallent on bass, Roy Bittan on keyboards, and Max Weinberg on drums. It was produced by Mick Ronson.

You can just picture yourself cruising down the highway with this song blasting from the speakers. It’s got that timeless feel that makes you wanna listen to it over and over again. Just like this song…Ian Hunter doesn’t seem to age. He released an album last year called Defiance Part 1. On April 19, 2024…he is releasing part II of that album Defiance Part 2: Fiction. 

My friend Christian has a review of Defiance Part 1 from last year…check it out. CB has a review of You’re Never Alone with a Schizophrenic.

Ian Hunter: It was about a night in a city jail, in Indianapolis. And the last interview I just did before you was from Indianapolis! That was what the song was about. It was done with The E Street Band, so the initial recording [sounded] too much like Bruce! So Ronson was like, “Come on, do it how you wrote it!” And I said, “I can’t remember how I wrote it!” And then he remembered the groove, which was more rock and roll.

Just Another Night

Oh no, the fuzz, all in a lineMy oh my, I think I’m gonna dieAnd it’s just another nightIt’s just another night

Got a long black face; Who goes there?All the reefer madnessput a poor kid in jailAnd it’s just another nightYeah, it’s just another night

Oh take it easy boy or it’s DOAChrome on my body and a lot of folks sayThat it’s just another nightHey, It’s just another nightOh, it’s just another night on the other side of life

Head one’s a saw-bones and he wrecked my chairSaid “How’d you like to do it in a room downstairs”And it’s just another nightOh, just another night

Hey now, Papa Joe, Don’t you pull my hairAll this intrigue, it gets me out of my leagueAnd it’s just another nightIt’s just another night

His old man spent a fortune just to get him inBut baby boy growed up just as stupid as himAnd it’s just another nightIt’s just another nightIt’s just another night on the other side of life

Just another night, hung down slowI don’t like the hotel let me goHells bells! Give me a chance!This rock ‘n’ roller don’t wanna danceJust another nightJust another nightWell, it’s just another night on the other side of life

I never felt so bad; Where’s my shades?It’s gonna be a long one getting crazedA head spoutin’ noodles said, “What do you plead?”I said “You ain’t got to touch a man to make a man bleed”

‘N’ it’s just another night (on the other side)It’s just another night (on the other side)It’s just another night (on the other side)It’s just another night (on the other side)It’s just another night (on the other side)It’s just another night (on the other side)It’s just another night (on the other side)It’s just another night (on the other side)It’s just another night (on the other side)It’s just another night (on the other side)It’s just another night (on the other side)It’s just another night (on the other side)It’s just another night (on the other side)It’s just another night!

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Mott The Hoople – The Golden Age Of Rock And Roll

Happy Friday to everyone. This ends my unofficial week of UK bands that didn’t break big in the US. All of them should have but for different reasons didn’t quite make it. Whenever Ian Hunter sings I listen. Not only was he great in Mott The Hoople but I like his solo music as well. The first time I noticed him was with All The Young Dudes and then a single release in the 80s called All The Good Ones Are Taken. It was wonderful in the middle of the 80s hearing that power pop single on the radio.

Mott The Hoople had one huge hit in America. It was the David Bowie penned song All The Young Dudes. Bowie was a fan of the band and sent them Suffragette City but they didn’t think it fit their style and politely turned it down. Mott The Hoople were about to break up so Bowie showed this to the band on acoustic guitar and they loved it right away.

The Golden Age Of Rock and Roll was written by Ian Hunter. It was released in 1974 on the album The Hoople. This would be the last album with Ian Hunter as lead singer. It was also the first and only one with guitarist Luther James Grosvenor, who went by Ariel Bender for contractual reasons. He replaced Mick Ralphs who left the year before and co-founded Bad Company.

Mott The Hoople influenced bands such as Oasis, Queen, Def Leppard, Queen, The Clash, KISS, Cheap Trick, and many more.

Hunter started a solo career with the eponymous 1975 album that included his song, Once Bitten Twice Shy,  and has remained prolific. That song was later covered by Great White in 1989.

 Ian Hunter had journalistic training. “When I left school I became a cub reporter for the Wellington Journal in Shropshire, that job lasted about three months because although I could do the typing. I couldn’t do the shorthand. Then I went to Butlins [holiday camp] with my girlfriend and met two kids in a group who asked me to enter a talent competition with them.

“We’d only known each other for three days and there were about 165 acts altogether – but we won it, then a couple of weeks later I had a letter from them in Northampton asking me to join them in a group. That group was called Apex and that was in fact how it all started.”

Some fun trivia…Kari-Ann Mollera was the model on the The Hoople album and Roxy Music’s 1972 debut album. 

The Golden Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll

Everybody hazy shell-shocked and crazyScreaming for the face at the windowJeans for the genies dresses for the dreamiesFighting for a place in the front row

Oh oh oh good for your body it’s good for your soulOh oh let’s go it’s the golden age of rock and roll

Well you get a little buzz send for the fuzzGuitars gettin’ higher and higherThe dude in the paint thinks he’s gonna faintStoke more coke on the fire

Oh oh oh gotta stay young you can never grow oldOh oh the golden age of rock and roll

The golden age of rock and roll will never dieAs long as the children feel the need to laugh and cryDon’t wanna wreck, just recreationDon’t wanna fight but if you turn us downWe’re gonna turn you ’roundDon’t mess with the soundThe show’s gotta move everybody grooveThere ain’t no trouble on the streets nowSo if the going gets rough don’t you blame us

Oh oh oh gotta stay young you can never grow oldOh oh the golden age of rock and roll

Ian Hunter – Once Bitten, Twice Shy

I will not be around today to comment but I will catch up on any comments either tonight or tomorrow. Thank you.

This was Hunter’s first single after leaving Mott The Hoople. The extended version appears on the self-titled “Ian Hunter” album, which was released by CBS in 1975. Hunter and Mick Ronson produced it. This marked the start of a long collaborative relationship between the two musicians.

Ian wrote the song and it’s a bit more loose and more rock and roll than the cover version in the late eighties which is more metal. A number of artist have covered this song, including Shaun Cassidy and the heavy metal band Great White, who were nominated for a Grammy for it. It was Great White’s biggest hit, peaking at #5 in the US.

The song peaked at #14 in the UK in 1975. I heard Hunter’s version first in the early eighties from a friend of mine…I have wondered why this wasn’t a hit in America in 1975.

From Songfacts

The single was released April 4, entered the UK charts on May 3, and stayed there for ten weeks peaking at number 14; the B-side was “3,000 Miles From Here.”

“Once Bitten Twice Shy” is an expression meaning that if you’ve been hurt, you are less likely to put yourself in that position again. In this song, Hunter sings to a girl who seems to take up with lots of musicians. He knows from past experience that he can’t count on her.

Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Well the times are gettin’ hard for you little girl
I’m a hummin’ and a strummin’ all over God’s world
You can’t remember when you had your last meal
And you don’t know just how a woman feels

You didn’t know what rock and roll was
Until you met my drummer on the Grey tour bus
I got there in the nick of time
Before he got his hands across your state line, yeah

Now it’s the middle of the night on the open road
The heater don’t work and it’s oh so cold
You’re lookin’ tired, you’re lookin’ kinda beat
The rhythm of the street sure knocks you off your feet

You didn’t know how rock and roll looked
Until you caught your sister with the guys from the group
Halfway home in the parking lot
By the look in her eye she was givin’ what she got

I said my, my, my, I’m once bitten twice, shy babe
My, my, my, I’m once bitten twice shy baby
My, my, my, I’m once bitten twice shy baby

Oh, woman you’re a mess, gonna die in your sleep
There’s blood on my amp and my Les Paul’s beat
Can’t keep you home, you’re messin’ around
My best friend told me you’re the best lick in town

You didn’t know that rock and roll burned
So you bought a candle and you lived and you learned
You got the rhythm, you got the speed
Mama’s little baby likes it short and sweet

I said my, my, my, I’m once bitten twice, shy babe
My, my, my, I’m once bitten twice shy baby
My, my, my, I’m once bitten twice shy baby

Alright! I didn’t know you had a rock and roll record
Until I saw your picture on another guy’s jacket
You told me I was the only one
But look at you now, it’s as dark as it’s gone

I said my, my, my, I’m once bitten twice, shy babe
My, my, my, I’m once bitten twice shy baby
My, my, my, I’m once bitten twice shy baby
I said my, my, my, I’m once bitten twice, shy babe
My, my, my, I’m once bitten twice shy baby

Ian Hunter – Cleveland Rocks

England Rocks was released in 1977 as the A Side of a single put out on the CBS label by Ian Hunter’s album Overnight Angels backed by the B side Wild N’ Free.

The same song with amended words was released in 1979 as Cleveland Rocks, and became a well known song for Hunter.

Ian Hunter had a great band behind him on this song. Mick Ronson on guitar, and the E Street Band’s Gary Tallent on bass, Roy Bittan on keyboards and Max Weinberg on drums.

The song was off of the brilliantly named album You’re Never Alone with a Schizophrenic and it peaked at #35 in the Billboard 100 and #49 in the UK in 1979.

 The song was extremely popular in Cleveland, and on June 19, 1979, Hunter was given the Key to the City by the Mayor.

Hunter’s original recording of Cleveland Rocks begins with a sample of Alan Freed introducing his show. The song was covered in 1997 by The Presidents of the United States of America as the opening theme of the television program The Drew Carey Show

Ian Hunter: “I was watching TV one night when this comedian starts making fun of Cleveland… Cleveland had the coolest rock fans in the country — I wrote ‘Cleveland Rocks’ for them, because they were always so great to me.

Cleveland was the first city in America to embrace Mott the Hoople… The East and West coasts had their heads up their [expletive], but Cleveland was hip to us and Roxy Music and David Bowie right away.”

Ian Hunter: ‘I originally wrote “Cleveland Rocks” for Cleveland. I changed it later to “England Rocks” because I thought it should be a single somewhere and Columbia wouldn’t release it as a single in the US (too regional). “Cleveland Rocks” is Cleveland’s song and that’s the truth.’

From Songfacts

From 1995 to 2004, American comedian Drew Carey starred in The Drew Carey Show, a situation comedy based in Cleveland, Ohio. Instead of an original theme song, Carey used “Cleveland Rocks,” an anthem to the City which was written in the 1970s. By an Englishman.

In a June 2007 interview on The Late Late Show, host Craig Ferguson asked that Englishman, Ian Hunter, if he’d ever lived in Cleveland. Hunter didn’t answer the question directly, but it is common knowledge that after splitting with Mott The Hoople he moved to New York, basing his second solo album around that move.

Alluding to his touring with Mott, Hunter said “They didn’t really like us on the coast much”; by us he meant not just Mott The Hoople but the whole glam rock scene referring in particular to David Bowie and Roxy Music. But “When we went to Cleveland, that was the first time we sold a club out.” He added “Cleveland was kind of like the Poland of America” but he and the rest of the glam rock crowd thought they were cool, and as Cleveland thought they were too, he in turn thought Cleveland was the coolest place.

Hunter’s original version runs to 3 minutes 48 seconds and appears on the album You’re Never Alone With A Schizophrenic; it was produced by him and Mick Ronson. The album was released on Chrysalis, March 27, 1979.

What Hunter didn’t mention on The Late Late Show is that the song was released originally – with slightly different words – as “England Rocks.”

As Hunter toured the States with Mott in the early ’70s, his claim has the ring of truth. Indeed, he has never made any secret of looking back to what he sees as the golden age of rock ‘n’ roll, and rock ‘n’ roll can in some sense be said to have originated in Cleveland. The disk jockey Alan Freed (1921-65) was born in at Johnstown, Pennsylvania less than two hundred miles from Cleveland, and moved to the City in 1949 where in 1951 he began playing rhythm and blues records on his WJW radio show The Moondog House. Freed became known as the father of rock and roll, because although he did not invent the phrase, he appears to have been the first person to use it on public radio.

In April 1983, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation was founded in New York City, and in 1995, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum opened its doors in downtown Cleveland. After his death, Alan Freed was cremated, and his ashes were interred at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York, but in March 2002 they were moved to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The later Drew Carey version was recorded by the Presidents Of The United States Of America.

Cleveland Rocks

All this energy callin’ me
Back where it comes from
It’s such a crude attitude
It’s back where it belongs

All the little kids goin’ up on the skits go
Cleveland rocks! Cleveland rocks!
Jumpin’ Jane Jean, and moonin’ James Dean go
Cleveland rocks! Cleveland rocks!
Cleveland rocks! Cleveland rocks!
Cleveland rocks! Cleveland rocks!
Cleveland rocks! Cleveland rocks!

Momma knows, but she don’t care,she’s got her worries too
Seven kids, and a phony affair, and the rent is due

All the little chicks with the crimson lips go
Cleveland rocks! Cleveland rocks!
Livin’ in sin with a safety pin goin’
Cleveland rocks! Cleveland rocks!
Cleveland rocks! Cleveland rocks!
Cleveland rocks! Cleveland rocks!
Cleveland rocks! Cleveland rocks!

I got some records from World War II
I play ’em just like me grand dad do

He was a rocker, and I am too
Now Cleveland rocks, Now Cleveland rocks
Cleveland rocks! Cleveland rocks!
Cleveland rocks! Cleveland rocks!
Cleveland rocks! Cleveland rocks!
Cleveland rocks! Cleveland rocks!
Cleveland rocks! Cleveland rocks!
Cleveland rocks! Cleveland rocks!
Cleveland rocks! Cleveland rocks!
Cleveland rocks! Cleveland rocks!
Cleveland rocks! Cleveland rocks!
Cleveland rocks!
OHIO

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Ian Hunter – All of the Good Ones Are Taken

In the eighties, I loved this song. Ian Hunter was the former lead singer of Mott The Hoople. This song peaked at #25 in the Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs in 1983. I had the album and the cassette that I wore out in my car tape deck.

It’s not a great album…but this song was one of the bright spots. It’s one of those songs I never hear now except maybe at a grocery store and it’s a shame. It was a nice jangly song in the synth-heavy 80’s now pretty much forgotten.