Mott The Hoople

Mott the Hoople rank among rock & roll’s most celebrated near-misses. Although the group notched several hits on the album-rock circuit during the first half of the 1970s, mainstream breakthrough remained elusive. Their abrasive blend of heavy metal, glam rock, and the sardonic hipster attitude drawn from Bob Dylan nonetheless laid essential groundwork for numerous British punk acts, the Clash chief among them. Ian Hunter stood at the core of the lineup as lead vocalist and pianist; a late arrival, he quickly emerged as the band’s focal point once his songwriting sharpened. Hunter’s lyrics upended rock conventions while guitarist Mick Ralphs steered a muscular, hard-rock sound that kept the ensemble grounded even amid flirtations with homosexual themes and theatrical makeup. Persistent commercial disappointment eventually fractured the group in the seventies, sending Ralphs into Bad Company and Hunter toward a devoted solo following.

Mick Ralphs on lead guitar and vocals, Verden Allen on organ, Overend Pete Watts on bass, and Dale “Buffin” Griffin on drums first assembled as Silence in 1968 and performed in their native Hereford, England. Early the following year they recruited singer Stan Tippens, secured a deal with Island (Atlantic in the United States), and traveled to London to work with producer Guy Stevens, who promptly renamed them Mott the Hoople after a Willard Manus novel. By summer Tippens had been dismissed—he later served as road manager—and Ian Hunter took his place. The self-titled debut appeared in autumn 1969, earning underground acclaim for its fusion of Blonde on Blonde-era Dylan with heavy metal, its literal reading of Sonny Bono’s “Laugh at Me,” and its thunderous instrumental treatment of the Kinks’ “You Really Got Me.”

Neither that record nor the poorly received 1970 follow-up, Mad Shadows, achieved significant sales. Wildlife, issued in 1971 with a country inflection, proved their least successful release yet. Constant touring nevertheless built a British cult audience; a July 1971 appearance at the Royal Albert Hall triggered a brief riot that prompted the hall to suspend rock concerts for several years. Brain Capers (1971) captured the band’s onstage force more vividly than earlier efforts, but its commercial failure left the members ready to disband.

At that moment David Bowie stepped in and urged them to continue. Then riding the crest of Ziggy Stardust fame, Bowie offered to produce the next album and proposed “Suffragette City” as material. The band declined, requesting “Drive-In Saturday” instead, and the two sides compromised on “All the Young Dudes.” Released as an explicitly gay anthem by a heterosexual outfit, the track became the defining song of the glam era, reaching number three in the United Kingdom and entering the American Top 40 during summer 1972. An album of the same name, issued on Columbia Records that autumn, charted on both sides of the Atlantic.

Verden Allen departed before sessions for the follow-up, citing Ian Hunter’s unwillingness to record his compositions. The resulting concept album, Mott, appeared in summer 1973 and traced a rock band’s struggle for recognition; it garnered favorable notices and peaked at number seven in Britain and number 35 in the United States. “All the Way from Memphis” and “Roll Away the Stone” both reached the British Top Ten, cementing Mott the Hoople’s stature within the glam movement. In summer 1974 Hunter published Diary of a Rock Star, which received widespread praise in the United Kingdom.

Even as commercial success finally arrived, internal strains mounted. Irked by Allen’s exit and by the fact that his own song “Can’t Get Enough” lay beyond Hunter’s vocal range, Mick Ralphs left late in 1973 to form Bad Company alongside Paul Rodgers. Former Spooky Tooth guitarist Luther Grosvenor replaced him, adopting the name Ariel Bender, while keyboardist Morgan Fisher also joined. This configuration toured in late 1973; the concerts were preserved on Mott the Hoople Live, released in 1974 after The Hoople had already appeared that spring. The studio album climbed to number 11 in Britain and number 28 in America, propelled by the singles “The Golden Age of Rock & Roll” and “Foxy Foxy.” At Hunter’s invitation, former Bowie guitarist Mick Ronson supplanted Bender in autumn 1974. Within months Hunter and Ronson departed to pursue a duo career. The remaining members added guitarist Ray Major and vocalist Nigel Benjamin, shortened the name to Mott, and issued Drive On (1975) and Shouting and Pointing (1976) with minimal impact. After recruiting John Fiddler as lead singer they became British Lions, disbanding two years later.

Although Ian Hunter’s partnership with Mick Ronson proved brief, it was warmly received, and the pair collaborated intermittently until Ronson’s death in 1993. Hunter maintained a modestly successful solo trajectory highlighted by his 1975 self-titled album and 1979’s You’re Never Alone with a Schizophrenic. Barry Manilow covered Hunter’s “Ships” in 1979, while Great White carried “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” into the Top Ten in the early nineties.