Tuesday 19 January 2016

More for the Celestial Jam Session

The rock 'n' roll deaths are coming thick and fast just now. With much of the fansphere still reeling from the loss of David Bowie, news comes today of two more deaths: Glenn Frey, Eagles guitarist and co-founder, and Dale Griffin, drummer with Mott the Hoople. Bowie will overshadow both these deaths, though that of Dale Griffin will no doubt lead to plenty of replays of Mott the Hoople's version of Bowie's All the Young Dudes. For me, though, Mott must be remembered for one of the truly great anthemic rock 'n' roll songs - All the Way from Memphis. I think I saw Mott the Hoople at the Cambridge Corn Exchange around 1970, but I may well be wrong. Never mind - here is All the Way from Memphis set to a rather extraordinary video. Enjoy...

5 comments:

  1. No, I've no idea what Hitler's doing there either.

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  2. I saw Ian Hunter perform this very song live on tour in 2015as well as All the young dudes, Roll away the Stone etc

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  3. Good to know he's still around - and, if Wikipedia is to be believed, 77 on his next birthday!

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. Bryan Appleyard recently tweeted the movement of the Rock Gods to Valhalla which is now beginning. Perhaps this is a painful process as there is something oxymoronic about an aging rock star. WH Auden with a face like a roadmap of central Birmingham was OK as poets can age and write poems about age and death. Rock’n Roll is all about sexual allure and so there is bound to be a sense of travesty in seeing the 70 year old Stones still in tight jeans and bandanas. Their attempts to deny mortality have to fail. It might be coming as a shock to many people as more of them shuffle off……

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