Ian Hunter is one of my five favorite songwriters of all time (with Elliott Murphy, Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, and Tom Petty rounding out The Five). He left my revered Mott The Hoople in late 1974, and his first solo album (largely a collaboration with Mick Ronson, former lead guitarist for David Bowie and last lead guitarist of Mott) followed in March, 1975. We’ll be covering Hunter’s 21st century output here at Pencil Storm at a later date.
IAN HUNTER / “ONCE BITTEN TWICE SHY” / 1975
Readers may remember the terribly inferior cover of this tune by Great White in 1989. This version (and the live one further below) are The Real Thing.
sidenote: The final Mott The Hoople single, from October 1974 - Saturday Gigs - features the backing singers intoning “Goodbye, goodbye.” from 3:13 on.
This song opens with Ian Hunter saying, “’ello…..” Accidental? I don’t think so.
IAN HUNTER / “WHO DO YOU LOVE” / 1975
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know; this is the SECOND track from Ian’s solo album and it seems lazy, but it’s maybe my favorite two-track opening for a record ever.
THE HUNTER - RONSON BAND / “IRENE WILDE” / first released 1976, live version 1980.
THE HUNTER - RONSON BAND / “JUST ANOTHER NIGHT” / first released 1979, live version 1980.
inspirational verse; “This is a story about a night in the Indianapolis city jail…..”
THE HUNTER - RONSON BAND / “AMERICAN MUSIC” / 1990
Ricki C. is 73 years old and has two dresser drawers full of black rock & roll t-shirts, which he wears incessantly. He also has a hand-tooled leather hippie belt from 1972 that still fits. He has congestive heart failure and prostate cancer and KNOWS that all this rock & roll nonsense has to stop someday.
But not yet.
BONUS LIVE VIDEO
THE HUNTER - RONSON BAND / “ONCE BITTEN TWICE SHY” / LIVE GERMAN TV, 1980.