Christmas present for Mott fans
Gareth Davies-Morris | San Diego, CA USA | 10/17/2009
(3 out of 5 stars)
"By Mott I mean the post-Ian Hunter line-up who made two perfectly respectable albums of mid-70s hard rock with more than a nod back to the glam-rock movement that made them stars in the first place. The Amazon description is incorrect, by the way; these are not BBC takes or live tapes, etc. What you have here are basically the demos (including unreleased songs) that convinced CBS to keep Mott on the payroll after Hunter left, plus the actual audition tapes for new members Nigel Benjamin & Ray Major. Production and sound quality are consistently good, and you get the usual detailed liner notes from Buffin. The demos are sung by Overend, who also handles the guitars throughout -- admirably on both fronts. Between the two sets, you get an instrumental that hints at the title track of the second Mott album, Shouting & Pointing; a demo take of Collision Course, also off that album; and three songs from the first Mott album Drive On, including Love Now, She Does It (marred by a brief drop-out), and two different takes (one sung by failed try-out Brian Parrish) of the gorgeous ballad I'll Tell You Something. Best of all, you get several tracks that ultimately never made either record, including The Bright Days (rich in mellotron and power chords), the melancholy Love Me Always, and Shout It All Out, a perfectly credible piece of anthemic pop-rock that could have been a hit. However, the surprise isn't over yet. The remaining tracks are a set of rocking Christmas instrumentals delivered under the moniker the Paper Bags, presumably after Benjamin had departed. Things start off Telstar-style in full-on Farfisa / twangy guitar mode but soon evolve an eccentric direction as Morgan Fisher takes control and reveals his pre-Mott prog roots. Listen for season's greetings from the British Lions in a hidden track, and Morgan's cracked one-man performance of A Christmas Carol - better yet, play it late on 12-24 after a wee dram or two. All tracks are also available for MP3 purchase, if one wanted to pick and choose, but the whole thing's surprisingly good - a real Christmas present for Mott fans!"
Track Listings (22) - Disc #1