When I was reading the NME decades ago, the question was frequently raised: Can The Stones/Bob Dylan/The Who (insert your own favourite, now aged, rock star here) still play rock ‘n’ roll over the age of 30? Or 40? 50, anyone? And yet here we are, still getting long live sets and new records from rockers in their 70s and 80s. These are not musicians not living in the past; they still have something to say.
Step forward Ian Hunter has been making music for decades and is showing no signs of stopping yet.
Click here or on the image to listen to ‘Defiance Part 1’ now
“There are a lot of reasons I chose to call this album Defiance. It’s as if people my age shouldn’t be making records, blah, blah, blah. But we’ve still got a bit left. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we did making it.” - Ian Hunter.
The ‘we’ is an all-star line-up, including and not limited to Johnny Depp, Todd Rundgren, Slash, Ringo Starr, Mike Campbell, and the much-missed Jeff Beck and Taylor Hawkins.
This is a Covid album, recorded remotely. Hunter explains the number of guests wasn’t a plan, but as people were stuck at home, it was easy for them to say yes.
I first discovered Ian Hunter in the 1970s; Mott the Hoople’s ‘All the Young Dudes’, of course, via Bowie, and then the albums via a school friend who was into Mott even before ‘Dudes’ got them radio play.
Ah, yes, school days and Mott the Hoople. At our school, we all studied music for a few years; not much playing, but I guess the aim was to teach us to listen at a time (1970s) when the arts were still seen as important and not all education was tailored to getting a job (although, even then, you didn’t any encouragement when you told the careers tutor you planned to be a rock star. Defiance, Part 0).
Anyway, Sometimes we were allowed to bring our own rock LPs into music lessons, as a change from the diet of classical stuff and to enable the teacher to explain why rock was rubbish in comparison with Beethoven. My friend and I were allowed to treat the class to the album ‘Mott’ and were amazed to find our teacher thought ‘Hymn to the Dudes’ was good because - I can still remember the moment - “it achieved what it set out to do.” That was high praise indeed. Ian Hunter answers questions in his online ‘Horses Mouth’ column and I have asked him if writing an actual hymn was really the intention (if I receive an answer I’ll write a Note).
Hunter has always been happy to explore what it’s like to be a rock star, and he wrote his book ‘Diary of a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star’ 1(aff) in 1972 (even if David Hepworth comments he “was never quite that” in ‘Overpaid, Oversexed and Over There’.2) I wonder if Hunter ever imagined he’d still be in the rock star spotlight - still “quite that” at the age of 84?
‘Defiance Pt. 1’ underlines Hunter’s credentials by being released on Sun Records. It was news to me that the 70-year-old Sun label was still releasing new records. Just looking at the Sun artist’s roster makes me want to explore classic rock ‘n’ roll more deeply (they seem to be getting behind new music, as well as their classic releases from the likes of Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Elvis Presley - for example, Suzi Quatro and KT Tunstall also have a new album out on Sun, and it’s excellent).
Anyway, we’re here to appreciate Ian Hunter’s new album.
Age is a theme. Many of the songs look back to those days of attempting to make it. He made it, is still defiantly still here, and still doing things the Hunter way.
Hunter has always had a tendency to look back. Note the Mott songs ‘Ballad of Mott the Hoople’, ‘The Golden Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll’, and ‘Saturday Gigs’, for example. Here he reviews his past on ‘Bed of Roses’ - what becoming and being a rock star isn’t. Even though one of his Horse’s Mouth answers is to the effect that he now only picks up a guitar if he has absolutely nothing better to do, we know how music gets into the blood. No one pursues something for their whole life if the roots don’t go deep.
This album is about an attitude to life - defiant in your own life, frustrations with others who refuse to defy orders (‘Pavlov’s Dog’) or who spread hate. ‘I Hate Hate’ is a reminder this is a Covid album: “ain’t no jabs, no one is immune”. Hate is corrosive.
To close, Hunter joyously reviews his life in music and says ‘That’s What I’m Here For’ - “Well when I was 30, I was over the hill / And 50 years later, I still kill ‘em all.” If this is what he’s here for, he might as well enjoy it (though perhaps not playing the guitar).
So, an album with attitude. In terms of playing, sometimes “all-star” can mean we’re about to hear an incoherent mess, at least when listening from start to finish. ‘Defiance’ has a coherent sonic approach; perhaps the remote recording during Covid helped the project, allowing Hunter and his co-producer Andy Yorke the time to listen to each contribution and reflect on how best to treat it?
Electric guitars, keyboards, a solid rhythm section (whoever’s playing) and Hunter is in good voice. He hasn’t toured in recent years in the way, say, Dylan or McCartney have.
What I like about Hunter’s approach, consistently over his song writing with Mott the Hoople and then solo, is the use of light and shade. Within a song, the pace and volume will drop and build again, and this is replicated across an album as a whole. Listen to ‘Bed of Roses’, and then note where ‘Guernica’ is sequenced to allow us to take a breath before the energy picks up again with ‘I Hate Hate’.
This is no ‘elder statesman’ album, following the sonic template of Rick Rubin’s production of Jonny Cash in the ‘American’ series, or Bob Dylan’s approach to song writing on ‘Time Out of Mind’. Strip back the music, bring the elder weathered voice forward in the mix, and select slower, more reflective songs. This album rocks - although an Ian Hunter elder statesman album would be intriguing.
Defiance Pt. 2 is on the way - who knows, maybe it is the quieter companion piece? I’ll write a Note, or a part two of this article, when the time comes. For now, DEFY.
Three more things …
Do you have an album you believe more people should hear? Pop the details in the comments. I’d like to hear it too.
I’ve changed the way I link to music. Previously, links went only to Spotify. Now you can choose your streaming service. Do you have a preference?
Are these Monday posts too long? Too short? What works for you?
Thanks in advance for your comments.
Rock on,
Ian
Hunter, I. (2018) Diary of a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star. 2nd edn. London: Omnibus Press.
Hepworth, D. (2021) Overpaid, Oversexed and Over There: How a Few Skinny Brits with Bad Teeth Rocked America. 1st edn. London: Black Swan
Great piece. I still need to listen to Ian Hunter but I loved what you said about rock stars in their 60s/70s etc. still having something to say. It's very true. Personally I don't pay too much attention to the age of musicians because most artists I love are either considerably older than I am or dead. Only a few of them are around my age. As for your questions:
1. I strongly recommend "Counting Sheep" by Max Pope, a young artist from our side of the pond (UK), who quit the music industry, got into gardening, and came back with a fresher, more authentic sound.
2. When not in my vinyl cave, I tend to use Apple Music, so linking to various platforms is great.
3. I think this length is perfect: neither too long nor too short. I've also realised with my own Substack that I get more engagement when I write shorter, more concise pieces. Too long and people won't read. Too short and it looks half-cooked. For me, the sweet number is 500 words, but it will also depend on your audience/preferences.
Is there a better album title than “You’re Never Alone With A Schizophrenic”? Plus Great White owes their total existence to Ian Hunter.
This guy is good but it did take David Bowie for Ian to get airplay with “All the Young Dudes”. Ian Hunter had a choice between “...Dudes” and “Suffragette City”. I felt he made the correct decision not because “Dudes” was absolutely fantastic but that Bowie nailed “Suffragette City” better than anyone could imagine.