Sony
1975
Greatest Hits
About This Album
A petty little package this is, and no mistake. It was no secret, of course, that the end of Mott the Hoople was a rancorous, bitter affair. But while former frontman Ian Hunter was igniting his solo career with an album of songs which could have been Mott's, did his erstwhile bandmates truly have nothing better to occupy their time with than compiling a collection which not only skews all that they really achieved during three years of hits, but also undermines those who played on them as well? True, guitarist Mick Ronson was a member of the band for a mere matter of months before he split for a new band with Hunter; true, too, that his contributions to Mott's recorded catalog amounted to just one minor hit single, the spookily valedictory "Saturday Gigs." But to see his name in the same tiny print reserved for the session players who appear elsewhere revises history with semi-Stalinist zeal -- or at least, spitefulness. So, though it now seems equally petty to suggest it, did the inclusion of "Born Late 58," written by one of the Hooplers who stayed behind (bassist Overend Watts), in place of any one of a dozen more deserving moments -- all of which, of course, were penned by the errant Hunter.
Track List (try tracks 1,5,6,7,9 and 10)

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