Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Favorite Songs #4: One Of The Boys


My first taste of Mott The Hoople was, like many I'm guessing, "All The Young Dudes." There was a record store on 8th Street in Greenwich Village called Happy Tunes and you could buy 8-tracks up one flight of stairs. I bought both "ATYD" and "Mott," their follow-up. I fell in love with both and became a lifelong fan. Many prefer their Atlantic years. I do not. While each of those first four records has something wonderful to offer, it was after the David Bowie makeover where Mott became Mott forever. And "One Of The Boys" which opens Side Two of "All The Young Dudes" has it all.

On "4-Way Street," Neil Young introduces "Don't Let It Bring You Down" as a "new song that is guaranteed to bring you down. It's called 'Don't Let It Bring You Down. This one starts off slow and then fizzles out altogether." That intro is more brilliant than the song. "One Of The Boys" does the opposite. It slowly takes off and then never lets up. This is Mott beating the Stones at their own game. And then, after the false ending, a brilliant trick that I fall for every time, it comes back even harder and louder. And then at the 6:17 mark, finishes up with one of the most exciting screams, courtesy of Ian Hunter, put to record. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! ALLRIGHT!"

"One Of The Boys." My fave. No question.


15 comments:

kevin m said...

One of the Boys is one my favorite songs as well.

I struck out trying to get tickets to Mott's Beacon show.

JAYESSEMM said...

A Double Feature!

I always loved Mott The Hoople -- One of the Boys is a great choice.

And the Shelby Lynne SOTD is transcendent!

Stay warm all.

Anonymous said...

Big fan of Mott (going to see the '74 installment in Milwaukee) and "One of the Boys" has always been my favorite. When a friend (huge Mott fan himself) first played it for me on his 8track, I knew the song pushed every single button. The guitars, the crass, the school; wow. My favorite Mott line, however, pops up in "Honaloochie Boogie: : "Now my hair gets longer as the beat gets stronger
Wanna tell Chuck Berry my news
I get my kicks outta guitar licks
And I've sold my steel-toed shoes"

Anonymous said...

Absolutely agree with your entire post.

One of the Boys is the pinnacle and I have little interest in the early Mott records.

That three album run from Dudes to The Hoople is hard to beat

Stay warm indeed!

Randy

P.S. What's great about Neil's intro is not only what he says but how he says it.

Anonymous said...

Sal, during my daily morning music blog circuit, I visited musictap.com where DW Dunphy has a nice review of the new John Sally Ride album.

Randy

Bill said...

Mott was my first Mott the Hoople album, so that's the one I fell in love with. Like you Sal, the first albums never sparked for me. Hunter's slower songs are the ones that I really connected to, so I'd rank I Wish I Was Your Mother as my favorite.

But hearing One of the Boys makes me want to put All The Young Dudes on, cause I haven't heard it in quite a spell.

Sal Nunziato said...

Hey Randy! Thanks for that heads-up. It certainly made my morning.

pmac said...

Saw them live at the, ironically, named St. Bernard Cultural center, located in the suburbs of New Orleans. they were on tour in support of Mott. Opening band was Queen!

Anonymous said...

the self-titled first album was one of the first records I bought, so I'm partial to early Mott. our local freeform station had an English import hour each week that used the intro to "Rock and Roll Queen" as its promo. After the band's "hiatus," I played All the Young Dudes to death which of course results in it being my least played now outside of Wildlife.

I don't know about best, but my favorite songs are the Doug Sahm cover of "At the Crossroads" (I live in Texas), "Rock and Roll Queen," "Thunderbuck Ram" and "I Wish I was Your Mother." Like Bill above, I really like the ballads. Every band should write a "Ballad of (insert band's name here)".

Sal Nunziato said...

I Wish I Was Your Mother is my extremely close second.

Anonymous said...

Coincidentally, Pitchfork recently ran a review of "All the Young Droogs" - https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/various-artists-all-the-young-droogs/

softshoebanana said...

I know where your coming from but my fave Mott song has got to be The Journey.

Anonymous said...

Fine song from a great album. I'm partial to "Jerkin' Crocus" and "Sea Diver" as well as the title tune. Was fortunate to see them live in Chicago around this time. A really killer live band in those days.

Anonymous said...

Totally agree! This song was on my first-ever selfmade mix 8-track tape. Not a lot of people knew it, but it drove me wild every time I heard it. Thanks for the memory!

Anonymous said...

Their first album remains one of my all-time favorites. From the opening rave-up instrumental of "You Really Got Me" to the back-to-back Dylan sounding covers of "At The Crossroads" and, of all things, "Laugh At Me", this record is very hard to top. Other Atlantic albums paled in comparison.

I saw them at the Fillmore East open for Traffic in support of the first record and then again in Buffalo (Aerosmith, NY Dolls and MTH!) when "Mott" came out.

"I Wish I Was Your Mother" is my favorite song of the "successful" MTH period, but I do love "One Of The Boys" as well.