Album: Welcome to the Club
Year: 1979
Very few songs better captured Ian Hunter’s goal to fuse Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones than the live version of You’re Never Alone With a Schizophrenic’s “Just Another Night.”
Opening with Hunter’s rollicking piano augmented by Mick Ronson’s powerhouse guitar, “Just Another Night” — like nearly all of Hunter’s greatest songs — tells a slightly seedy and totally rock ‘n’ roll story from the perspective of someone who is secretly enjoying all of the chaos he’s describing.
Just another night, hung down slow
I don’t like the hotel let me go
Hells bells! Give me a chance!
This rock ‘n’ roller don’t want to dance
Just another night
Just another night
Well, it’s just another night on the other side of life
And of course, the big hook is how Hunter stretches out the vowels in “niiiiieeeeet” every chance he gets. Sometimes he doesn’t even bother to pronounce the “t.” But it’s never just “night,” because where’s the fun in that?
And that’s the key to this live version of “Just Another Night:” everybody sounds like they’re having a great time, so much so that after Ronson’s guitar solo nearly falls all over itself and then recovers, it’s time for for the song to break down so everybody can sing along:
It’s just another niiiiieegt
(On the other side!)
It’s just another niiiiieegt
(On the other side!)
It’s just another niiiiieegt
(On the other side!)
It’s just another niiiiieegt
(On the other side!)
And on and on and on it goes until finally the whole band comes in for the big finish and everybody goes home happy.
“Just Another Night” live
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