Ian Hunter

Certain Songs #670: Ian Hunter – “Words (Big Mouth)”

October 15, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Shrunken Heads
Year: 2007

And so Ian Hunter has enjoyed a bit of a late-career renaissance, churning out a steady stream of records — including one he just released — as he approaches his 70th birthday. I haven’t tracked all of them down, but the ones I have — especially 2009’s Man Overboard — have all been worthwhile.

A great example of his late period music is the opening track 2007’s Shrunken Head, the loping “Words (Big Mouth),” where over an agreeably catchy guitar hook, he rasps:

Certain Songs #669: Ian Hunter – “Wash Us Away”

October 14, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Rant
Year: 2001

At some point, I lost track of Ian Hunter’s solo career. I remember enjoying 1981’s Mick Jones-produced Short Back ‘N’ Sides back at the pre-on air KFSR days, but I never ended up getting it.

And I know that Drew Carey gave him probably his highest profile since “All The Young Dudes” by using a cover of “Cleveland Rocks” as the theme song for a TV show I never watched, but other than the occasional reissue, Ian Hunter dropped off of my radar for the better part of two decades.

Certain Songs #668: Ian Hunter – “Just Another Night (Live at the Roxy, 1979)”

October 13, 2016 by Jim Connelly

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.

Certain Songs #667: Ian Hunter – “Once Bitten Twice Shy”

October 12, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Ian Hunter
Year: 1975

Back in the day, when a lead singer got left the band that made his name, he didn’t take a whole lot of time worrying about what he was going to do next.

Nope, usually, he grabbed the nearest available guitar player and just got on with it.

In the case of Ian Hunter, who left Mott The Hoople in December 1974, that guitar player just happened to be Mick Ronson — who had played on a few classic David Bowie albums — and by April 1975, Hunter’s self-titled solo album was in the record stores, anchored by its classic opening track, “Once Bitten Twice Shy.”