Category: Music
Ian Hunter: Boy
Mott the Hoople: Rose
Live 1973. One of their signature, serious bombasmo-glam power ballads, the genre in which they were the unsurpassed masters at the time.
Another live version is found on their 1974 Live album, but it’s not on any of their studio albums. Absurdly, it’s the B-side of a silly little pop single from the Mott album, Honaloochie Boogie. But it seems they immediately realized the mistake.
Ian Hunter occasionally made something musically and lyrically interesting out of “ordinary” (non-prog) rock. The few instances of this in the history of ordinary rock are important.
Abba: Gammal fäbodpsalm
Live 1979. From their album Live at Wembley Arena (2014).
Bob Dylan: Every Grain of Sand
From his album Shot of Love (1981).
John Lennon: Mind Games
From his album Mind Games (1973).
Paul Simon: American Tune
Live 1974. From his album There Goes Rhymin’ Simon (1973).
Adelina Patti: Ah, non credea mirarti
Queen and Philosophy
New Book Chapter
My essay ‘Queen, Prog and Vulgar Romanticism’ will be published in May in Queen and Philosophy: Guaranteed to Blow Your Mind, edited by Jared Kemling and Randall E. Auxier for the Popular Culture and Philosophy series, long published by Open Court but now by Carus Books. The volume is available for pre-order from all major online booksellers. Among them, uniquely this far it seems, Barnes & Noble show the full table of contents. The blurbs are still missing.
Olle Bengtsson 