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Ian Hunter - Shades Of Ian Hunter - the Ballad of Ian Hunter & Mott the Hoople (1977)

Track listing:
  1. All The Young Dudes Mott the Hoople 3:36
  2. One Of The Boys Mott the Hoople
  3. Sweet Jane Mott the Hoople
  4. All The Way From Memphis Mott the Hoople 3:41
  5. I Wish I Was Your Mother Mott the Hoople
  6. The Golden Age Of Rock'n'roll Mott the Hoople
  7. Roll Away The Stone Mott the Hoople
  8. Marionette Mott the Hoople
  9. Rose Mott the Hoople
  10. Foxy Foxy Mott the Hoople
  11. Where Do You All Come From Mott the Hoople
  12. Rest In Peace Mott the Hoople
  13. Saturday Gigs Mott the Hoople
  14. Once Bitten, Twice Shy 5:27
  15. 3000 Miles From Here
  16. I Get So Excited
  17. You Nearly Did Me In
  18. All American Alien Boy
  19. England Rocks
  20. Wild'n'free
  21. Justice Of The Peace
  22. Overnight Angels
  23. Golden Opportunity

Notes

Columbia refused to release Ian's third album, Overnight Angels, in the USA, but with Ian enjoying renewed success with the Schizophrenic album, Columbia decided to release this 2-LP set to cash in on all the publicity Ian was getting.

Sides 1 and 2 are Mott, while sides 3 and 4 are Ian solo. Side 1 is a "Mott's greatest hits" collection, and side 2 is a B-sides and not-on-any-albums collection. It includes a previously-unreleased live version of Marionette. It was mixed for this collection by someone who didn't care - a better version is available on the Long Red bootleg CD.

Side 3 is a "best of" collection of Ian's first two albums, while side 4 is a collection of Overnight Angels material, including the non-LP single England Rocks. Interesting, given that Columbia had passed on it just two years previously....

This 2-LP set was issued as a 2-CD set in 1995, and is now deleted. Sound quality is average to poor. No bonus tracks.

Availability
2CD: Deleted. This album was issued briefly as a 2-CD set in the mid-90s; this is now deleted.

The finest of all the pre-CD Mott the Hoople compilations, the double album Shades Of is also notable as the first of many releases to combine the best of the band's post-1972 material with material by vocalist Ian Hunter alone — he recorded three albums for Columbia following his departure from the group, each of which is highlighted here, together with a clutch of Mott tracks which had never before appeared on album. These include the U.K. B-sides "Rose," "Where Do You All Come From," and "Rest in Peace," and American single edits of "One of the Boys," "Sweet Jane," and "All the Way From Memphis," but the jewel in the crown has to be a live version of "Marionette," recorded at the same show as side one of the Mott Live album, but omitted from that album. For many Mott fans, that track alone was worth the price of admission. Depending upon which side of the Atlantic one lived, however, the remainder of the set also repaid the investment. Having traced Mott's career through to the final salvo of "Foxy Foxy" and "Saturday Gigs," the album then launches into a generous swathe of Hunter material, beginning with the U.K. hit single "Once Bitten Twice Shy," from his eponymous debut album, then progressing through two further tracks apiece from that set and the follow-up All American Boy — including the mighty "You Nearly Did Me In," a collaboration between Hunter and Queen mainstays Freddie Mercury, Brian May, and Roger Taylor. Some of the best, however, was reserved for last. The 1977 album Overnight Angels, Hunter's last for the label, barely registered in the U.S., and anybody experiencing, for the first time, the likes of "Justice of the Peace" and "Wild N' Free" must certainly have been wondering why — both represented some of Hunter's most archetypal swaggering work in some years. Even better was "England Rocks," a U.K.-only 45 which would ultimately evolve into one of Hunter's best-loved live standards, "Cleveland Rocks." Like several other vinyl-era Mott collections, Shades Of has today been utterly overshadowed by sundry CD collections — its own CD counterpart was deleted in the early 1990s. No other collection, however, comes even close to recapturing the skillful blend of hits and rarities, band work, and solo material which Shades Of so effortlessly created. Plus, it had a great sleeve as well.

Departing Columbia, his label for the past five years, Ian Hunter shifted to Chrysalis and unveiled the earth-shattering You're Never Alone With A Schizophrenic. His old label, meanwhile, contented itself with a double album compilation tracing back not only through his last three solo albums, but also three Mott The Hoople LPs as well.

It was a well-designed set, aiming for both the casual fan and the committed collector. Though sundry CD compilations have now rendered it absolutely redundant, still 23 tracks divided almost exactly down the middle highlight both the best and the rarest of the Columbia years, mixing hit singles ("All The Young Dudes", "Roll Away The Stone", "Once Bitten Twice Shy") with rare b-sides ("Rose", "Where Do You All Come From", "England Rocks"), then topping it up with a few choice LP cuts. Mott's "I Wish I Was Your Mother", The Hoople's "Marionette" and Ian Hunter's "I Get So Excited had already established themselves as lifelong classics, and their inclusion cannot be faulted. But even the last, and least of all Hunter's recordings, 1977's Overnight Angels, came out looking good, and that really was an achievement to be proud of!