Some random Mott the Hoople rarities

Mott the Hoople were one of my all-time favorite bands, without question. I was going to do a "greatest ever" post on them so as to put all of their classic studio albums up for all, maybe I will at another time, but I got looking at the shelf, and there is SO MUCH material that so many might not have heard....I think I'd rather do it as a "rarities" post. Like so many of the other bands of which I consider myself a "fan", I probably have 50-75 of their shows, the quality of which, of course, varies greatly (although, frankly, most of theirs tend to run toward the "poor" end), if there is a Mott show you've been looking for, chances are I may have it (unless for some reason you want something from the wretched, post-Hunter "Pointing and Shouting" era, although I would find that extremely hard to believe).

So, what are NOT included here are their stunning debut album, its frankly awful follow-up "Wildlife", or the comeback "Mad Shadows", or the classic "Brain Capers".....maybe another time. We'll start off with "Rock N Roll Queen", which includes just a small taste of the early greatness of the band (the great "Thunderbuck Ram", one of the hardest rocking songs ever recorded (from Mad Shadows) is here)...there are other anthologies available of their early work, I really recommend simply listening to the albums in their entirety (except for "Wildlife"). Of course, as great as they were, their career changed when David Bowie "discovered" them and gave them "All the Young Dudes".....instead of just a really good rock n roll band, they were now glitter/glam heroes, and it was a perfect fit. I have here the remastered/expanded version of "All the Young Dudes", which includes some demos, some live tracks, and an Ian Hunter/David Bowie duo on the title track. In a move some might refer to as excess, I have also included the THREE (!) disc "All the Young Dudes" box set, with more odds and ends of varying quality than you could possibly imagine. I am a FAN of this band, this is a fan's collection for certain.

What else, lets see...."Two Miles From Heaven" continues the obscurities trend with a vocal version of "You Really Got Me", and demo versions of some of the early tracks (some quite good, such as "The Road to Birmingham", some inferior such as "Thunderbuck Ram").....both "Hoopling Furiously" and "BBC Recordings" contain, well, BBC recordings of the older material. I'll cap it off with just two of the many concert recordings of theirs that I have, "Very Flash, Very Rude" is a pretty good set from Winterland San Francisco 1973, and from the same year a show from Boston MA...as I say I have MANY concerts from these guys, request your favorites and I will post them....at sometime in the future, also, I'll likely post all those classic early albums (The debut through "The Hoople" anyway), because they deserve to be heard in full.......also quite a bit of Ian Hunter's post-Mott output is worthwhile.

I hope everyone likes this stuff, and I hope I didn't put up too much off-the-wall stuff here, I wanted to tribute them with some REAL rarities.....it's NOT the "best" Mott the Hoople post ever, but I didn't intend it to be either. This is a FAN speaking, and the more obscurities and eccentricities I can find, the better. Links will be up by morning, I have an extensive collection of their stuff so request away if you wish, leave a comment if you should care to as well (in case, like, I put copy the tracks in the wrong order or something, which I guess I did on the Screaming Trees post, for which I apologize....I'm just doing this for the fun of it, if I'm something less than accurate at times, such is life.)

There are a LOT of tracks on some of these albums, but I'm going to try to be descriptive of what you'll be hearing, so bear with me a bit for the length of this.

ROCK N ROLL QUEEN-01 Rock N Roll Queen/02 The Wheel of the Quivering Meat Conceptor/03 You Really Got Me/04 Thunderbuck Ram/05 Walking With a Mountain/06 Death May be Your Santa Claus/07 Midnight Lady/08 Keep a Knockin

ALL THE YOUNG DUDES REMASTERED AND EXPANDED-01 Sweet Jane/02 Momma's Little Jewel/03 All the Young Dudes/04 Sucker/05 Jerkin Crocus/06 One of the Boys/07 Soft Ground/08 Ready For Love/After Lights/09 Sea Diver/10 One of the Boys (demo)/11 Black Scorpio (demo of Momma's Little Jewel)/12 Ride on the Sun (demo of Sea Diver)/13 One of the Boys (UK Single Version)/14 All the Young Dudes (Bowie/Hunter Vocal)/15 Sucker (live)/16 Sweet Jane (live)

ALL THE YOUNG DUDES BOX SET DISC 1-01 Like a Rolling Stone (Impromptu Jam)/02 Rock N Roll Queen (45 RPM Version)/03 You Really Got Me (Vocal Version)/04 Wrath N Roll (1998 Mix)/05 Find Your Way (Backtrack/demo)/06 Moonbus (Baby's Got a Down) (Livedemo/1998 mix)/07 It Would Be a Pleasure (demo)/08 Ohio (Live/1998 Mix)/09 Midnight Lady (Steve Marriott vocal)/10 Debt/11 Downtown (1998 mix)/12 Long Red (1998 Mix)/13 I'll Be Me (1998 Mix)/14 Until I'm Gone (1998 Mix)/15 One of the Boys (Alternate Version/1998 Mix)/16 Journey (Alternate Version/1998 Mix)/17 Mental Train (The Moon Upstairs) (Demo/1998 Mix)/18 How Long? (Death may Be Your Santa Claus Demo)/19 Ride On the Sun (Early Sea Diver Demo/1998 Mix)/20 Movin On (Demo/1998 Mix)21 Hunchback Fish (Backtrack)

ALL THE YOUNG DUDES BOX SET DISC 2-01 All the Young Dudes/02 One of the Boys (UK Single Version)/03 Sweet Jane/04 Ready For Love/05 Honaloochie Boogie/06 Ballad of Mott the Hoople (Zurich 3/26/78)/07 I Wish I Was Your Mother (1998 Remix)/08 I'm a Cadillac/09 All the Way From memphis/10 Hymn For the Dudes/11 Violence/12 Roll Away the Stone/13 Crash Street Kids/14 Marionette/15 Golden Age of Rock N Roll/16 Rest In Peace/17 Born late '58/18 Foxy Foxy/19 (Do You Remember) The Saturday Gigs?

ALL THE YOUNG DUDES BOX SET DISC 3-01 All the Young Dudes (Bowie)/02 It's Goodbye/03 Just Can't Go To Sleep/04 Transparent Day (demo)/05 Shakin All Over (demo)/06 Please Don't Touch (demo)/07 So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go bad) (demo)/08 Honaloochie Boogie (1998/demo mix)/09 Hymn For the Dudes (demo/1998 mix)/10 Nightmare (demo 1998 mix)/11 Saturday Kids/12 Lounge Lizard/13 Shout It All Out/14 It Don't Come Easy (Demo 1998 Mix)/15 Barking Up the Wrong Tree (1998 Mix)/16 To Short Arms (I Don't Care) (Eddie Kramer/Electric Lady Mix)/17 Get Rich Quick (Demo 1998 Mix)/18 International Heroes (45RPM Mix)/19 American Pie/The Golden Age of Rock N Roll (Live 1998 Mix)/20 Roll Away the Stone/Sweet Jane (Live 1998 Mix)/21 Rock N Roll Queen (Live 1998 Mix)/22 Blowin In the Wind (Live 1998 Mix)

TWO MILES FROM HEAVEN-01 You Really Got Me (Vocal)/02 The Road To Birmingham/03 Thunderbuck Ram/04 Going Home/05 Little Christine/06 Keep a Knockin/07 Black Hills/08 Mama's Little Jewel/09 Ride the Sun/10 Grown Man Blues/11 Until I'm Gone/12 One of the Boys/13 (There's an) Ill Wind Blowing/14 The Debt

BBC RECORDINGS-01 Whiskey Woman/02 Darkness Darkness/03 The Moon Upstairs/04 Original Mixed Up Kid/05 Thunderbuck Ram/06 Your Own Backyard/07 Death May Be Your Santa Claus/09 Darkness Darkness/10 The Moon Upstairs/11 Whiskey Woman/12 The Journey

HOOPLING FURIOUSLY-01 Thunderbuck Ram/02 Whiskey Woman/03 Original Mixed Up Kid/04 Darkness Darkness/05 The Moon Upstairs/06 The Moon Upstairs/07 Whiskey Woman/09 Darkness Darkness/10 The Journey/11 Death may be Your Santa Claus/12 One of the Boys/13 Midnight Lady/14 All the Young Dudes/15 It'll Be Me

VERY FLASH VERY RUDE-01 Angeline/02 Drivin Sister/03 Sucker/04 Sweet Jane/05 Hymn For the Dudes/06 All the Way From Memphis/07 Rose/08 All the Young Dudes/09 Jerkin Crocus/10 Rock N Roll Queen/Get back/11 Walking With a Mountain

BOSTON 8/4/73-01 Drivin Sister/02 Sucker/03 Sweet Jane/04 Hymn For the Dudes/05 All the Way From Memphis/06 Ready FOr Love/07 All the Young Dudes/08 One of the Boys/09 Rock N Roll Queen/10 Angeline Outro

What a damn great band.....I may do another post on them soon if these go over well. One of the best bands ever.