Bob Dylan isn’t the only artist supposedly having a late career renaissance. Over the last several years, septuagenarian, Ian Hunter, has put out a succession of terrific records packed with full-on Mott rockers complete with the Dylanesque wordplay he’s come to be known for. Now, let me digress a minute because it seems that in all of the rock rags I read, critics feel the need to refer to the 70-year-old rocker set as “septuagenarians.” While the term is correctly used, I just find it a hoot that critics can’t find anything more interesting to say about an artist than to fill in precious column inches with the fact they they are now septuagenarians. Now that I’ve got that off of my chest, I can now join the ranks of those critics… Anywho, part of the reason for Hunter’s run of great records is the pliant backing supplied by the Rant Band featuring James Mastro (of Bongos fame) on guitar, Steve Holley (Elton John, Paul McCartney) on drums, Paul Page on bass, Mark Bosch on guitar, Andy Burton (Tiny Lights) on piano, Mark Rivera on sax and Andy York (Jason & The Scorchers) on backing vocals. Together they make a MOTTly sound especially on this track from Hunter’s brand new album “When I’m President.” This song would have sonically fit comfortably on the 1974 album “The Hoople” comin’ in on the heels of “The Golden Age Of Rock ‘n’ Roll.”
