Friday 19 June 2009

Mott the Hoople – Saturday Gig (a-side): Ian Hunter – Once Bitten Twice Shy (a-side)

While Mick Ronson was recording his second solo album ‘Play Don’t Worry’ he was also playing with Mott the Hoople and working on lead singer Ian Hunter’s debut solo album ‘Ian Hunter’. In production and style this album and Ronson’s own are part of the same blend and template.

One of the many fans of Mott the Hoople was David Bowie and he offered them a song he had just written called Suffragette City. The band didn’t really think the song was right for them so Bowie sat on the floor of Mott’s office and played All the Young Dudes on acoustic guitar, the rest as they say is history.
For the next two years Mott the Hoople had a string of hits culminating in Saturday Gig with Mick Ronson now part of the band having taken over from the brilliantly named Ariel Bender.
“This grandiose anthem was Mott the Hoople's last single and lyrically appeared to be saying goodbye to their fans. However this was not the band's intention. Keyboardist Morgan Fisher explained to Mojo magazine May 2009: "While we were making it we didn't think it was about the end, which seems incredibly naïve now. For me, it was a summing up of what had happened so far, now we'll move on. That may have been Ian's take on it too, until it all went pear-shaped."
“The song's failure to climb any higher than #41 in the UK charts was the clincher in the break-up of Mott the Hoople. Its failure caused a devastated Hunter to cancel a UK tour. He later told Pete Frame: "I thought that was the best single we ever did, and it frightened the life out of me when it didn't make it."
Songfacts.com


“Oh 73 was a jamboree. The dudes were the news and the dudes were we.
Did you see the suits and the platform boots. Hey man, you wanna party”Saturday Gig 1974
The opening track on Hunters solo album was Once Bitten Twice Shy.

“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. The single was released on April 4th and entered the UK charts on May 3, and stayed there for ten weeks peaking at number 14."
Songfacts.com




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