Ian Hunter,still cool after all these years!

And oh yeah, left out "Leave Me Alone," where Ian sings in this stilted low register that sounds like bad '80s Bowie. Really hated that one.

"Central Park N' West" is pretty good. He played it last year at his miraculously un-rained-out free show in the park behind Stuyvesant and introduced it by saying "This is David Letterman's favorite song" which presumably was based on some bit of business between Dave and Paul Shaffer.

I hope he's still got it at 83. From wiki, this I didn't know:

Hunter was born in Oswestry, Shropshire, England.[3] Due to the onset of war, the family moved to Hamilton, South Lanarkshire to live with the family of his Scottish father. Hunter was brought up there until the age of six and has stated that he considers himself a Scot,[4] but also identifies as English and British.

oswestry i knew (of all places to be from lol)

On bass!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cALwEaH-tlU

WTF?

Dunno if this leaves off any solo keepers (though why does xgau refer to "Ian's Two solo albums" when he's already got three reviewed on this same page? Blocked memories of All American Alien Boy? He really didn't like that one), but yeah it's a good comp:

Shades of Ian Hunter: The Ballad of Ian Hunter and Mott the Hoople [Columbia, 1979]:
Exemplary discophilia. The Mott 45s on side one are all the young stiffs--great album tracks edited down for an AM exposure that was rarely forthcoming, they race along with an almost punky punch on LP. The B sides and miscellaneous on side two are uneven, natch, but worth getting to know (as owners of Greatest Hits have already learned with two of them). Those circumspect enough to have passed up Ian's two solo albums are now rewarded with side three's best-of. And side four excerpts the solo Ian that was never released here to impressive effect. A genuinely obsessive compilation. A-

Oh wait, AAAB was *also* a 1979 release, maybe from later in the year (na ga look it up). Diary of a Rock Star was good("David Bowie came back stage, not eating again I see. He's the only rock star I know who suffers regularly from malnutrition.") Haven't read Reflections of a Rock Star because title.

it should be mentioned that he's still tossing out rockers like this, at a few weeks away from 84.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx_sH3E-kuQ