Mott The Hoople - All The Young Dudes

Released - September 1972

Genre - Glam Rock

Producer - David Bowie

Selected Personnel - Ian Hunter (Vocals/Guitar/Piano); Mick Ralphs (Guitar/Vocals); Verden Allen (Organ/Vocals); Pete Overend Watts (Bass); Dale "Buffin" Griffin (Drums/Percussion); David Bowie (Saxophone/Backing Vocals); Mick Ronson (Strings/Brass/Arrangements)

Standout Track - All The Young Dudes

1972 really was David Bowie's year. Not only was it the year that catapulted him and his Spiders From Mars to megastardom via his cosmic messiah alter-ego Ziggy Stardust, it also saw him adopting the wizened role of musical guru and producer for two artists, helping to steward them to success they were struggling to achieve purely on their own merits. The first was Lou Reed with his album Transformer, on which Bowie applied a glam rock finish to Reed's songs of isolation and sordid deviancy. The second was a band already a whole lot closer to Bowie's own current flair for pop glam perfection. I was well aware of Mott the Hoople long before my obsession with all things Bowie took hold, being a lifelong fan of the classic rock outfit Bad Company, which would emerge in 1974 consisting of Free's Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke, King Crimson's Boz Burrell and Mott's Mick Ralphs on guitar. As such, I'd given Mott the occasional glance. I was well aware of "All The Young Dudes," of course, but had always thought of it as more of a Bowie song than a Mott song (which, if we're being honest, it is). And I was aware of the band's original version of "Ready For Love" and had never much cared for it, preferring Rodgers' gutsy, bluesy vocals to Mick Ralphs's comparatively reedy wail. It was only when my love for Bowie had exhausted much of his own discography and driven me to the fringes of projects he had been involved with that I gave All The Young Dudes a proper listened and was pleasantly surprised by what I found - a colourful, talented and exciting band that managed to ably straddle the gap between traditional blues rock and glam rock. Ultimately, they're a band that never quite managed to capture my imagination in the same way as, for instance, Bowie or Bad Company themselves managed to do, perhaps down to a vague sense that the reason they spread themselves between genres so much is down to the fact that as one or the other they wouldn't quite convince compared to their contemporaries. But there are wonders to be found on All The Young Dudes.

In 1972, Mott were close to being a thing of the past. Their early albums had failed to capture the acclaim of the critics or the imaginations of the general public and the band were on the point of calling it a day. Bowie, a self-proclaimed Mott fan, caught wind of the rumours and was dismayed and took it upon himself to do what he could to reinstate them in the musical mainstream. As a token of his good faith, he decided not only to produce their next album but also to offer them one of his own songs. He first made the lunatic offer of letting them have "Suffragette City," almost robbing himself of one of his career highs, but was rejected. Instead, he gave them a new song called "All The Young Dudes" and gave it to them in a similarly insane gesture of charity, putting into their hands what would become one of the defining anthems of the glam rock movement. When discussing this album, that iconic title track is the only place to start, really. With the ray-gun clarity of its beautifully simplistic guitar riff, the almost hymn-like descending organ part and the iconically jubilant call to arms of its sing-along chorus ("All the young dudes, carry the news!"), along with its embittered dismissal of a previous musical generation and championing of a new musical landscape ("My brother's back at home with his Beatles and his Stones, we never got it off on that revolution stuff,") it's the defining hymn for glam rock, despite Bowie's later protestations that he wrote it as an apocalyptic dirge tying in with the end of the world themes of the Ziggy Stardust album, of which we can make what we like. It's inevitable listening to Mott's version of "All The Young Dudes" not to wonder how things would have sounded if Bowie himself, the undisputed King of Glam Rock, had ended up recording this iconic anthem himself, but Mott certainly do it justice, with Hunter's husky, half-spoken vocals feeling different enough to Bowie to make it his own.

Elsewhere, although Bowie's hand steers the direction of the whole thing, the band are able to have a little more of their own personality stamped on the songs. "Sweet Jane," a cover of a 1970 Velvet Underground song, is admittedly another concession to Bowie's preferred glam rock direction (and an undisputed album highlight, propulsed forward by Mick Ralphs's spirited guitar riff), but elsewhere many of the highlights feel more traditionally bluesy than infused with the theatricality and pomp of glam. Ralphs's brash, swaggering guitar solo on "Jerkin' Crocus" feels like something that could be found on any Rolling Stones or Free album (though Bowie's falsetto croons on the same song are a reminder of what territory we're in), and "Momma's Little Jewel," built around Pete Overend Watts's chugging bass and Ian Hunter's pounding piano, is an almost smugly cool slow groove that builds into a raucous chorus that builds in intensity before segueing perfectly into "All The Young Dudes." The two best hard rock-style songs come on the album's second half, the first being the phenomenal "One Of The Boys," which really should rank alongside anything by the Who, the Stones or Led Zeppelin as one of the all-time hard rock classics if there were any justice in the world. Driven by an incendiary, chugging guitar riff and brought to life by Hunter's machismo wailing, while the slow mid-song fadeout via a phone call effect is a masterstroke by Bowie. Then there's "Ready For Love," which, listening with older and wiser ears, really does stand up well against Bad Company's cover. Ralphs's vocals do lack the true mastery and bluesy roar of Paul Rodgers, but they have a kind of committed swagger in their slight off-key nature that really appeals, and his guitar on this version is raunchier, dirtier and more dangerous than his more polite, refined rendition to be found on Bad Company's debut.

For all the glam pomp and bluesy swagger on offer on this record, things finish in an uncharacteristically moving and sombre mood, with Hunter's emotive rendition of "Sea Diver," made all the more affecting by the characteristically lush and stirring string and orchestral arrangements by Mick "Spiders From Mars" Ronson. It's a fine demonstration of just how diverse a band Mott the Hoople could be when steered in the right direction by a talented helmsman. The only real duff track here is "Soft Ground," a composition by organist Verden Allen. It does actually boast a genuinely cool organ riff, but a weak melody and Allen's genuinely irritating vocal performance sinks it. All The Young Dudes rightly made Mott the Hoople into big stars in the glam rock scene of the time, with the title track becoming an iconic anthem and hit single. Bowie was initially keen to continue working with them and again offered them what would become one of his own classics, "Drive-In Saturday." However, when their arrangement of the song dissatisfied him, Bowie ended his professional relationship with the band and reclaimed the song for use on his own next album, Aladdin Sane. Mott's next album, simply titled Mott, would become their bestselling record but, though it contains a handful of great songs, I've always felt it's striving too hard to imitate the glam rock sound that had been successful for them the year before while ignoring the blues rock roots they were clearly more than proficient at if "One Of The Boys" and "Ready For Love" are anything to go by. So, for me, Mott the Hoople's place in the annals of truly classic albums starts and ends with All The Young Dudes. But most bands would be happy with making a rock album this diverse and exciting and then fading away into the background.

Track Listing:

1. Sweet Jane (Lou Reed)

2. Momma's Little Jewel (Ian Hunter & Pete Overend Watts)

3. All The Young Dudes (David Bowie)

4. Sucker (Ian Hunter; Mick Ralphs & Pete Overend Watts)

5. Jerkin' Crocus (Ian Hunter)

6. One Of The Boys (Ian Hunter & Mick Ralphs)

7. Soft Ground (Verden Allen)

8. Ready For Love/After Lights (Mick Ralphs)

9. Sea Diver (Ian Hunter)