Lost In The Flood: Mott The Hoople self-titled (peak chart position #185 for 2 weeks)

I had never heard this album when I bought it soon after release. In fact, I had never heard of Mott The Hoople. I bought it because I liked the cover. AND The Kinks' "You Really Got Me" was listed among the tracks. 

I was impressed from the first needle drop - an instrumental version with a sonic rage that surpassed even the original. It wasn't the only cover version on the album, but these covers were... well, different. Different dynamics - different vocal approach - delivered in epic proportions. And that's just the first three songs. Who'd have thunk that an album could begin with three cover tunes by artists as diverse as The Kinks, Doug Sahm, and Sonny Bono and still sound so cohesive?

But it was the last song on the first side (an original) that REALLY grabbed my attention. I read every review of the album that followed. Much was made of the similarity in Ian Hunter's voice to Bob Dylan (some taking a positive position, some negative). They were all misdirected. On "Backsliding Fearlessly" Hunter sounded even more ancient a sage than Dylan, pulling from medieval times.

"Come all ye faithful and slaughter your lambs/ Your minds have been whipped by experienced hands." Man, did that speak to me. But more than being thought provoking, Mott The Hoople (the album) would be the gift that kept on giving. No more so than when I heard a lecture by John Trudell in the mid-90s that offered some degree of forgiveness for the white people who savaged the Native population.

Click here for John Trudell

It was coming from the same thought process. Things came full circle in 2012 when Hunter recorded "Ta Shunka Witco (Crazy Horse)". Ian Hunter continues to write great music and tour with vigor. And he's OLDER than Bob Dylan. Just sayin... (Bill Glahn)