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Book Review: Twelve months between the covers!
by Lang Reid
 Since
this is the final column for 2004, I looked back in a fit of
retrospection. This was a difficult exercise, as the range of books
reviewed ran from ‘penny dreadfuls’ (though I draw the line at Mills
and Boon) to wonderful resource volumes and expensive coffee-table tomes.
It should also be remembered that book reviews are
subjective exercises, and not objective overviews. What I enjoy is not
necessarily what you enjoy (and vice versa), but in the reviews I do
attempt to indicate ‘why’ I have liked or disliked any particular
publication. One reader during the year was prompted to write in and tell
me that I had missed the point of one book, proclaiming I just “didn’t
get it”. That is point enough. If the writing is such that an
experienced reviewer doesn’t “get it”, then for me, the writing (and
the book) is obscure and flawed.
While examining “reviewing”, the weekly column does
not purport to be an academic dissertation or undergraduate dissection. It
is designed purely to indicate publications that you should be able to
find on the shelves, and whether or not the reviewer enjoyed the literary
experience.
With the broad scope of the column, it is not possible
to give a “book of the year” award, but the following publications did
stand out. On the fiction shelves there was Christopher G Moore’s
Pattaya 24/7. Moore’s writing I always find enjoyable. This book
revolves around an eccentric classical pianist, a dead up-country Thai
gardener, his veterinarian widow, several concubines, a godfather, a flock
of hand reared goats, a Thai police colonel, a swami, Jemaah Islamiah, TQ2
go-go bar, a CIA operative and more. What more do you need? A great read!
“Faction” is another category I do enjoy and there
was one standout here. For King and Country, set in the middle to late
1700’s revolving around the lives (and fates) of a couple of young
English lads who go to sea in those romantic times of seafaring heroes
that are the staple history fare for all British youngsters. Sir Walter
Raleigh, Rear Admiral Horatio Nelson, Captain James Cook and Sir Francis
Drake, names that will invoke memories of movies with the hero before the
mast and countless happy, smiling Jack Tars breaking out the sails. Ah
yes, those were the days. Author Ian Quartermaine takes a different tack,
if you’ll excuse the pun. The book is written from the viewpoint of the
Jack Tars and shows another side of life before the mast. A powerful and
sometimes gut-wrenching read.
So to factual books and a few were superb, including
Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything, the most readable
scientific ‘text book’ you can buy (and you should have a copy at home
for your children).
Others included Steve Van Beek’s Thailand Reflected
in a River, far more than a book on the history of a river, but is a
history of a nation, its peoples, its culture, beliefs and religion, using
the main river system to meld it all into one.
An interesting year, and 2005 looks even better!
Mott’s CD review: Mott the Hoople - Wildlife
Scribbled rather
tamely by Mott the Dog
Sorted out by Ella Crew
 2
Stars **
This is where it all went wrong for Mott the Hoople.
Following up their great debut album with the hard edged ‘Mad
Shadows’, they had staked the claim for Mott the Hoople to be one of
the UK’s best rock ‘n’ roll units. Their new album was waited for
with bated breath by their many fans, but instead of breaking out of the
speakers and grabbing you by the throat, it dribbled out with a whimper.
The songs were not actually bad. In fact, the two Ian
Hunter ballads “Angel Of Eighth Avenue” and “Waterlow” are
24-carat classics, and a couple of Mick Ralph’s contributions would
fit well onto any Poco album. (Is there anybody out there who will still
admit to being a fan of those champions of the wimpy country rock
genre?)
The sad solitary live track, a cover of Little
Richard’s ‘Keep A Knockin’, is simply awful. There are much better
versions of this chestnut of Mott the Hoople’s early rock ‘n’ roll
jamborees on bootleg recordings (even a typical early seventies bootleg
done with a handheld microphone would compare favorably with this muddy
grotesque version.) So all in all not much of an effort really.
To be fair to the band, six months later all of the
songs had been dropped from the live stage act, even their beloved
‘Keep a Knockin’, to be replaced by the much harder edged material
that was later put out on their next album “Brain Capers”, when
original mentor and producer Guy Stevens returned to the scene after
being unceremoniously dumped for the recording of their third album. But
the damage had been done by ‘Wildlife’ and it took intervention of a
certain David Bowie a year later to put them back on the brink of
superstardom.
Mott the Hoople was constantly on the edge of global
domination, but always somehow managed to mess things up at the last
moment, wrestling defeat from the jaws of victory. The band was already
re-naming the album ‘Mildlife’ by the time they were doing the
rounds of interviews to promote the album. It is a mark of how far Mott
the Hoople had come in their eighteen months together, as ‘Wildlife’
debuted in the British Top Thirty at number 18. Other albums that were
in the Top Thirty that week were Jimi Hendrix’ Cry Of Love at number
1; at number 2 was the Yes album by Yes; and number 3 was Neil Young’s
After The Gold Rush. Also in the charts were two albums each for Elton
John and Pink Floyd, one each for Jethro Tull, John Lennon and George
Harrison, Atomic Rooster, Deep Purple; debut albums from Emerson Lake
and Palmer (that’s one group!), Argent, and Wishbone Ash; plus Frank
Zappa’s Hot Rats. So pretty hot competition, but not surprising that
number 18 was as high as it was ever likely to go, after people had
actually heard it.
Unremarkably, ‘Wildlife’ was the poorest selling
album Mott the Hoople ever released. If you want to find out what all
the buzz was about the band, look elsewhere than this rather limp
collection. This Dog was not named after this weak lot, rather the
barely controlled violence of albums like the previous ‘Mad
Shadows’, or ‘Mott’, Rolling Stone magazine’s album of the Year
in 1973. What saves this album from the dreaded “No Stars” is that
Angel Air have done a fabulous job of repackaging the five albums Mott
the Hoople recorded during their three years with Island Records (their
first four albums plus the tidying up collection of odds and ends) into
‘Two Miles from Heaven.’
The songs on this CD have been given a great
polishing job, leaving them with a clarity they never had originally,
plus bonus tracks and a great 20-page booklet with notes by Keith Smith,
editor of ‘Two Miles From Heaven’, the Mott the Hoople Fan Club
magazine (yes, sad though it is, Mott The Hoople still have an official
fan club thirty years after their demise), which is crammed full of
replicas of old posters and pictures. The booklet is almost worth the
outlay from the album on its own; almost, but not quite.
Musicians
Ian Hunter - Piano and Vocals
Mick Ralphs - Guitar and Vocals
Overend Watts - Bass Guitar
Verden Allen - Organ
Dale Griffin (Buffin) - Drums
Songs
Whisky Woman
Angel Of Eighth Avenue
Wrong Side Of The River
Waterlow
Lay Down
It Must Be Love
Original Mixed Up Kid
Home Is Where I Want To Be
Keep a Knockin
Bonus Tracks
It’ll Be Me
Long Red
To contact Mott the Dog email: [email protected]
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