A guy and his date pull up in front of her house.The world's shortest (a mere 1:16 seconds long) great rock-and-roll record.
HIM: How about a goodnight f**k?
HER: Okay, goodnight f**k.
That's Mott the Hoople's 1971 "Wheel of the Quivering Meat Conception" for those of you playing at home.
I bring all this up -- insert Beavis and Butt-Head joke here -- for two reasons.
Number one, I genuinely do think that Mott track -- which is from the last album they did before the arrival of David Bowie and Glam-Rock generally, (i.e., for me, anyway, their real Golden Age) -- is the greatest brief rock record ever.
And number two, I've been listening to a lot of stuff by Dion DiMucci lately and I'd forgotten that one of the many interesting oddball covers Mott was doing in that pre-Bowie era was a version of Dion's 1970 confessional anti-drug song "My Own Back Yard." From the same above Brain Capers album.
More on all these subjects later.
Oh, and incidentally -- the title of the Mott song is from Beat Generation icon Jack Kerouac. A writer whose ultimate literary merit may be debatable, but someone who I think we can all agree knew a great deal about single entendre.
8 comments:
I look forward to what's coming up. Love Mott, ATYD forward more than pre, but really, all of it.
Correct me if I'm wrong but, isn't "Wheel Of..." just a snippet of outtake from "The Journey," also from "Brain Capers?" Doesn't make it any less amazing (or short), but it really wasn't a separate idea.
Can't play anything in divShare. Is it going buggy again?
Anyway, the pre-Bowie music was ok rock offerings. But after Mott and All The Young Dudes, that sealed it for me.
I saw Mott at the Uris theater on Broadway way back when I was in high school, 1973 I believe. Queen was the opening act and nearly blew Ian and the boys off the stage. But Mott was still good needless to say and held their own. Great show and good seats back then.
And Dion has always been one of my favorite singers.
i saw them both pre, after, and after after Bowie.
They were always great, but the original pre-glam lineup was one of the most kick ass no pretensions bands I've ever witnessed.
And Sal, yeah -- the track is the very end of what would have been the fade of The Journey.
Dion did a great version of "Blackbird" in the early 70s. Have you run across that?
No, I haven't and I'd love to hear it.
So you saw them after Mick Ralphs left for Bad Co. with Ariel Bender? Interesting.
Dude -- I was actually at the NYC press conference where they introduced Ariel Bender (heh) to the world.
The hors d'ouevres were pretty good as I recall.
:-)
BRAIN CAPERS is the best of the four pre-Bowie Mott albums, and is one of my personal Top-Ten-of-all-time albums. By the way, there's a few live MtH BRAIN CAPERS-era clips on YouTube. Search for YouTube + Mott the Hoople + Paris 1971. In particular, check out DEATH MAY BE YOUR SANTA CLAUS (at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNZWu0UED4E), which is mistakenly title THE MOON UPSTAIRS.
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