Happy Birthday Ian Hunter

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Ian Hunter Getty Images Jo Hale

Who from the Rock n’ Roll Capital of the World does not know the song Cleveland Rocks or Ian Hunter. Born Ian Hunter Patterson (June 3, 1939) Singer & songwriter in Mott the Hoople and a stellar solo career.

”Cleveland Rocks,” famous long before the cover version on the American TV series The Drew Carey Show used as the opener was filmed in Cleveland Ohio. Other Cleveland Connections include being with Cleveland International Records for awhile.

Hunter was born in Owestry, Shropshire, but was raised in cities throughout England since his father worked in the British Intelligence agency called MI5 and had to move frequently. Eventually, the family returned to Shrewsbury, where the teenaged Hunter joined a band called Silence in the early ’60s. Silence released an album, but it received no attention. In the years following Silence, Hunter played in a handful of local bands and worked a variety of jobs.

Silence soon renamed themselves after a novel by Willard Manus, published in 1966: Mott The Hoople. Lacking a credible singer with stage presence according to Stevens, the band auditioned a considerably seasoned Hunter, who auditioned for the band as a joke. The band was a critical success in the Uk and hot spots in the US like Cleveland but they could not sustain their commercial appeal, and their early American tours on the east and west coasts were slow in building a following, the band announced their end.

David Bowie, a fan of the band, offered them a song he had just written. As Hunter recalled in a 2004 DVD interview, “He offered us “Suffragette City”, which I didn’t think was good enough. And then he sat down on the floor, Regent Street it was, in a publisher’s office, and plays ‘All The Young Dudes’ on an acoustic guitar.” It shot to No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart and Mott had new life. The band generally were appreciative of Bowie, who had rescued them from an early demise.

The guitarist Mick Ralphs relates that Bowie taught Mott studio tricks, but one of the best-known sounds during the period was a ‘hand-clap-in-the-toilet’ routine that relied more on Hunter’s vision than it did on Bowie’s clearly more experienced studio abilities. Mick Ronson, Bowie’s guitarist, also significantly contributed to Mott’s sound, a fact noticed by Hunter who would later collaborate a great deal with him, although Hunter had actually met Mick years before in a pre-Bowie band.

The post-Bowie Mott the Hoople then had notable commercial success with the albums All the Young Dudes (1972, produced by Bowie); Mott (1973) and The Hoople (1974). The band began to score financially with songs such as “Roll Away The Stone”, “Golden Age Of Rock´n´Roll”, “Honaloochie Boogie”, “All The Way From Memphis”, “Saturday Gigs”, and especially “All The Young Dudes”. Hunter chronicled the highs and lows of touring in his self-penned “Diary of A Rock’n'Roll Star”, his journal of a chaotic five-week American tour in November – December 1972. When in 1973 original lead guitarist Mick Ralphs left to form Bad Company, Hunter began to play guitar until a replacement could be found but at the same time he was increasingly pressured to write hits for the band. Luther Grosvenor took over as lead guitarist.

Hunter moved to New York, where he and Ronson began working on his solo debut. Released in 1975, Ian Hunter spawned “Once Bitten, Twice Shy,” a Top 20 U.K. hit. Following its release, Hunter and Ronson embarked on a tour. After its completion, the pair parted ways, although they would reunite later in the ’80s. All-American Alien Boy, Hunter’s second solo album, was recorded with a variety of all-star and session musicians, including members of Queen. Released in the summer of 1976, All-American Alien Boy was a commercial failure. It was followed in 1977 by Overnight Angels, an album that saw Hunter moving closer to straightforward rock & roll; disappointed with the completed album, Hunter decided to leave the album unreleased in America.

Following the mainstream approach of Overnight Angels, Hunter became involved with England’s burgeoning punk rock movement, producing Generation X’s second album, 1979′s Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. For Hunter’s next solo album, he reunited with Mick Ronson, who produced and arranged 1979′s You’re Never Alone with a Schizophrenic. The album was a hit, especially in America, where it peaked at number 35. Hunter and Ronson set out on another tour, which resulted in the 1980 double live album, Ian Hunter Live/Welcome to the Club. In 1981, Hunter released Short Back N’ Sides, which was produced by the Clash’s Mick Jones.

Two years later, he released All of the Good Ones Are Taken. After its release, Ian Hunter became a recluse, spending the next six years in silence; occasionally, he contributed a song to a movie soundtrack. In 1989, Hunter resumed recording, releasing YUI Orta with Ronson. After its release, Hunter remained quiet during the ’90s, appearing only on Ronson’s posthumous 1994 album Heaven and Hull and at tribute concerts for Ronson in 1994 and Freddie Mercury in 1992. Hunter returned to recording with Artful Dodger, which was released in Britain and Europe in the spring of 1997. After a Columbia/Legacy compilation titled Once Bitten Twice Shy offered a wealth of Ian Hunter solo titles in the year 2000, much attention was paid to 2001′s fine Rant. In 2002, Hunter performed a pair of semi-acoustic concerts in Oslo, Norway, which were recorded for later release on CD and home video; the resulting project, called Strings Attached, included some new songs, including “Twisted Steel,” inspired by the events of September 11, 2001. Shrunken Heads, a collection of all-new material, was released in 2007 on the Yep Roc label, followed by Man Overboard in 2009 from New West Records.

Some parts of this blog came from Wikipedia, which is not a source but a vessel, like a cup, a place to put information that should be check and researched further be for quoting or using as fact.