ponedjeljak, 04.05.2009.
Mott the Hoople - All the Young Dudes (1972) (Legacy Edition 2006)
Legacy's remastered reissue of Mott the Hoople's All the Young Dudes pays homage to a true rock & roll myth and one of the great recordings of the early '70s -- whether the "official" critics lists reflect that or not. Ben Edmonds' excellent, even poetic liner notes tell the whole story, yet a sketch of it is worth repeating here: in March of 1972, Mott, frustrated by a rough gig in Switzerland, poor album sales, and the failure to crack the charts or fill concert halls despite a small but rabid following in the U.K. and an even smaller one in the U.S. -- though critics liked them and they filled halls in Detroit with insanely wild fans -- decided to hang it up. As Edmonds accurately points out, the band was unable to capture the wild, frenetic roots rock & roll energy (combined with hard rock) that its stage show was drenched with. Enter David Bowie, a one-hit wonder with "Space Oddity," who was trying to reinvent himself with a character named Ziggy Stardust. He loved Mott. He offered to produce the set and offered them a song, the title track. The rest is history. "All the Young Dudes" was the band's first bona fide chart success, and helped to kick off the glam era, though Mott were not a glam band. Live, they possessed the crazy, danger-channeling spirit of truly edge-walking performers like Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard, yet had every bit of the swagger and spit of the Rolling Stones, the Faces, and the Kinks. Other tracks on the disc that struck pay dirt for fans and the uninitiated were the anthemic strutter "One of the Boys," the loose and woolly "Jerkin' Crocus," and Mick Ralphs' "Ready for Love," a song he later resurrected to chart success after leaving Mott to join Bad Company. And finally there was perhaps the finest version ever recorded of Lou Reed's classic "Sweet Jane."
While the album, presented in gloriously remastered sound, offers listeners an entirely new hearing of one of rock's most enduring outings, the bonus material included here is the stuff of legend; it cements the Mott myth. There are seven bonus cuts on the set. First there are demo versions of "One of the Boys," "Momma's Little Jewel" (then called "Black Scorpio"), and "Sea Diver" (then titled "Ride on the Sun"). These tracks, while rough, contain some of the wild abandon Mott exhibited live -- and there is further evidence of that here. There is a 45-rpm version of "One of the Boys," tightened up and mixed to stun. A real lo-fi gem included here is "All the Young Dudes," with Bowie on lead and chorus vocals. It's inferior to the album version with Ian Hunter on lead (though Bowie remains in the chorus), but it gave Hunter a road map for his own performance. Finally, there are two tracks from the Hammersmith Odeon, "Sucker" and "Sweet Jane," that reveal the sheer raw and crazy magic of Mott live. Both of these cuts are simply out to lunch in their abandonment to the music itself. "Sweet Jane," in particular, has none of the pretty guitar intro that the studio version does; it's all power chords and Hunter letting out the words, cool, collected, and ready to ramp it all up -- and he does as the band plays double time. He keeps it all grounded, having both the audience and the swirling, stomping music in the palm of his hand. Check out Ralphs' guitar solo in the middle; it's utterly badass. For anyone who ever even cared about rock & roll in the 1970s, this is one of those records that is a must-have. One hopes that the reissue of All the Young Dudes will spur a Mott revival in the same way that T. Rex are revived every few years. Legacy did a masterful job and treated the presentation of this with all the care a classic deserves...T. Jurek
This marvelous remaster of "All the Young Dudes" supercedes the British release of a couple of years ago. That version beautifully remastered by Ray Staff is captured here with the addition of bonus tracks taken from the "All the Young Dudes Anthology" and "2 Miles from Heaven". These include demo versions of "One of the Boys", "Black Scorpion" (a demo for "Moma's Little Jewel" at a brisker pace)and "Ride on the Sun" (a demo for "Sea Diver"). We also get an "audiomorph" of Bowie's unfinished demo of "Dudes" cross faded and mixed with Hunter's vocal version effectively creating a duet of sorts. This also was available on the "Dudes" anthology. Additionally we get the 45 edit for "One of the Boys" and live tracks drawn from the UK 2 disc release of "Live" (which was recorded two years after this album but that's a minor point. It would, however, have been better to release this with bonus tracks recorded by the original line up from the 1972-3 tour).
We also get liner notes discussing the making of the album but no song lyrics. There were other bonus tracks that could have been included from the band's years at Columbia. Those are, however, available on the limited edition "Dudes" anthology. Columbia has done a terrific job repackaging this 35th anniversary edition (that's if we're counting from the band's first release in 1969).
Just before the band recorded this album they had experienced three years of fruitless releases and were ready to break up. Every album they had made had been met with public indifference despite critical acclaim. Then along came David Bowie. He helped the band refashion itself into a glam rock band. Bowie streamlined their sound a bit but, more importantly, he came with a potential hit single he had written himself. The band turned down the first song offered (opinions differ as to what it was) but did accept the second which Hunter and the rest of Mott recognized would fit their sound. "Dudes" is one of the band's best albums (along with "Brain Capers" and "Mott")catching them just as they were reenergized by Bowie's involvement...W. Klein
Codec: mp3
Bitrate: 320 kB/s
Size: 167 MB
Genre : Glam Rock
2000mustangs
Traccklist:
01 Sweet Jane 4:21
02 Momma's Little Jewel 4:26
03 All the Young Dudes 3:32
04 Sucker 5:03
05 Jerkin' Crocus 4:00
06 One of the Boys 6:46
07 Soft Ground 3:17
08 Ready for Love/After Lights 6:47
09 Sea Diver 2:55
10 One of the Boys - Bonus / Demo Version 4:18
11 Black Scorpio - Bonus / Demo Version of "Momma's Little Jewel" 3:35
12 Ride on the Sun - Bonus / Demo Version of "Sea Diver" 3:36
13 One of the Boys - Bonus / U.K. Single Version 4:21
14 All the Young Dudes - Bonus / David Bowie/Ian Hunter Vocal 4:25
15 Sucker Live / - Bonus 6:27
16 Sweet Jane Live / - Bonus 5:00
