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<\/a><\/p>\nFive years after All of the Good Ones are Taken, and both Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson find themselves wanting to get back on the road. Hunter has been working on some song demos, and Ronson gets the urge to play again<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cI rang up Ian, who I always talk to whether we’re working together or not, and said, ‘Look, I gotta do something. I want to play the guitar again and get out there.’\u201d<\/p>\n In June 1988 they tour for two weeks in Canada. It goes well so they book a more extensive tour of the US and Canada from late September to early December. Then in February 1989 they perform at the Dominion Theatre in London for two nights (I was there). The set list includes both old and new songs. Here\u2019s the tracklist for a November 1988 boot from Boston:<\/p>\n 1 Beg a little love* One of the London concerts was recorded by the BBC and is now available on CD as \u201cThe Hunter Ronson Band \u2013 BBC Live in Concert.\u201d Songs include How Much More Can I Take and Following in your Footsteps, also on YUI Orta. The album benefits from the fact that many of the songs had already been performed live.<\/p>\n Overall the album is upbeat and pacey, and the best release since Schizophrenic ten years earlier.<\/p>\n American Music<\/b> is about hearing amazing US music on the radio as a boy in England. Hunter wasn\u2019t happy with the song. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to call it American Music because it would sound like a commercial. But it just came that way, and any time I tried to change it, it wouldn\u2019t have it.\u201d An insight into the intuitive way Hunter composes; it is almost as if the muse possesses him. You might be a celebrity-everybody sits up and begs Big Time<\/b> was written in 1985, according to Campbell. It is one of those songs that sounds familiar even if you have never heard it before. At times it sounds like a sped-up Once Bitten Twice Shy. Energetic and fun. YUI Orta is a good album, but the fact that Hunter\/Ronson could tour successfully did not translate into record sales. Phonogram was disappointed and dropped the duo, putting a damper on plans for a revived musical career.<\/p>\n Maybe the album could have done with more promotion. I recall it appearing with little fanfare; I didn’t spot it until some time after its release. For some reason my copy is an import from the USA.<\/p>\n The extra tracks on the CD are worth having and I was a tad annoyed, having bought the vinyl, to find that I had to buy it again.<\/p>\n How good is it? It\u2019s a solid release for sure, with nothing terrible and plenty of good songs. It does lack a strong single though, reprising Mott the Hoople\u2019s commercial problems in the early days.<\/p>\n If you missed this one though, I do recommend it. It\u2019s also perhaps the most Mott the Hoople-like of all Hunter\u2019s solo albums. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" YUI Orta (late 1989 US, 22 January 1990 UK) Mercury 838 973-1 US: 157 Five years after All of the Good Ones are Taken, and both Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson find themselves wanting to get back on the road. Hunter has been working on some song demos, and Ronson gets the urge to play … Continue reading YUI Orta<\/span>
2 Just another night
3 Mick Ronson instrumental (?Sweet Dreamer)
4 Give me back my wings**
5 Standing in my light
6 The loner*
7 Bastard
8 Big time*
9 All the way to Memphis
10 Cleveland rocks
11 All the young dudes
12 Roll away the stone
13 Ships that pass in the night
*Released on forthcoming YUI Orta
**Released on BBC Live in Concert<\/p>\n
The success of the tour caught the attention of various record companies, according to biographer Campbell Devine. CBS, RCA, Phonogram and Epic are mentioned. Hunter\/Ronson signed a deal with Phonogram for a new album.
In June 1989 sessions begin at the Power Station in New York. The band is Hunter\/Ronson, Micky Curry on drums, Tommy Mandel on keyboards, and Pat Kilbride on bass.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
The song is great though, melodic but still I think qualifying as rocker rather than ballad.
The Loner<\/b> rocks a bit harder. Hunter calls it \u201cone of the best songs I ever wrote,\u201d one of about 20 he so describes! He says it is reminiscent of Free and it does have a touch of that clean Seventies sound.
Women\u2019s Intuition<\/b> is one of my favourites here.
It opens with \u201cWhy you I ought a \u2026\u201d, apparently a rhetorical technique called aposiopesis where we hear unspoken words of anger even though the phrase is truncated. The specific phrase comes from a comedy team called The Three Stooges, and became the title of the album in a slightly cryptic guise.
The song is Stonesy and is an angry song about an unhappy relationship. The girl should have listened to her \u201cwomen\u2019s intuition.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s men and women,\u201d explains Hunter. \u201caggression versus possession.\u201d
Not sure about the psychology lesson but it\u2019s a good raunchy song.
Cool<\/b> is a rock\/funk track with a near Rap style of singing. At times it is oddly reminiscent of Bob Dylan\u2019s Gotta Serve Somebody:<\/p>\n\n
You might be the sexiest thing since God invented legs
You might be a dictator, a dealer or a saint
Cool is here to tell you when you’re cool and when you ain’t\u200b<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Livin\u2019 in a Heart<\/b> is a Hunter ballad which he describes as \u201can apology for a mistake I made many years ago.\u201d It sounds like an apology for putting other things ahead of family.
Sons \u2018N\u2019 Lovers<\/b> is another psychological study, about the way a boy moves on from loving his mother to loving a partner. It\u2019s sad but not desolate as Hunter sings that \u201cthat\u2019s alright ma, you can still love him.\u201d Musically it\u2019s a medium-tempo song, enjoyable without hitting the heights.
Beg a Little Love<\/b> is more of a major piece, credited to Hunter and \u201cMcNasty\u201d, who is Robbie Altar according to Devine. \u201cIt\u2019s the diary of a guy floundering in the middle of his life,\u201d says Hunter. A rocker in which Hunter channels Mott the Hoople, quoting some words from Mad Shadows. \u201cwhen all of my mind\u2019s gone.\u201d Listening to it you actually wish Hunter had let himself go a little more. You can imagine that, had Guy Stevens been in the studio, Hunter would have been goaded into even wilder raving.
Tell it like it is<\/b> has a T-Rex vibe and rocks nicely.
Sweet Dreamer<\/b> is a Ronson instrumental and a fitting closer. Shades of The Shadows. Credited to Ronson and Don Gibson, since it is an adaption of a Gibson song.
Bonus tracks on CD only:
Following in Your Footsteps<\/b> \u2013 a ballad about Hunter\u2019s relationship with his father. Excellent.
Pain<\/b> \u2013 pounding rocker written with Donnie Kehr
How much more can I take<\/b> would have fitted well on All of the Good Things are Taken. Catchy rocker.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n