With Cool Ian teamed up with his old mate Mick Ronson once again to record this song and album in the middle of 1989. Ian and Mick had toured the USA and Europe in late 1988-early 1989, before the album was even recorded, and the result is a highly polished album and one of their best. The team was tight and the LP examples their exemplary collaboration.
Originally, the song was originally entitled Cool Jerk and Hunter is identifying the herd mentality of people who won't change their mind. The song is a cloying look at the idea of being "cool" or a hipster since every society has some people within that group who decides these things. As Ian identifies the cool people he points out that it can be anyone highly placed or an ordinary everyday person; the point of the song is to oppose the cool people because the singer says:
But don't you ever cross me dude
'Cos that ain't cool, that's an attitudeThe song features kicking drum beats, wah-wah guitar, and synthesized brass, the punchy song noting all trendy things.
Cool
(Ian Hunter)
You might be a celebrity-everybody sits up and begs
You might be the sexiest thing since God invented legs
You might be a dictator, a dealer or a saint
Cool is here to tell you when you're cool and when you ain't
If you lose your cool-if you lose your cool-if your cool don't work
If your cool's gone fishin' you ain't nothing but a cool jerk
Now you might be a nazi-lookin' for a friend
You might be a beginning- looking for an end
Some folks go for the ice and snow-some like it Florida hot
Cool is here to tell you what is cool and what is not
You can write a book about the money you took
You and pose on the cover nude
You can flip on an ego trip-time'll do the cover on you
But don't you ever cross me dude
'Cos that ain't cool, that's an attitude
You might be a macho man
Do 50 million sit-ups a day
You might be an expert, with something important to say
You might be an evangelist-livin' on the wages of sin Cool is here to tell you what is out and what is in
| Cool | 4:30 | Originally issued on YUI Orta. |
Ian Hunter CD: "YUI Orta"
Sleeve and track listing
Lemon CD LEM 6.
Review
Ian teamed up with his old mate Mick Ronson once again to record this album in the middle of 1989. Ian and Mick had toured the USA and Europe in late 1988/early 1989, before the album was even recorded, and the result is a highly polished album - one of their best.
Highlights include the Stonsey Women's Intuition (if only Mick 'n' Keef were still this good!), the full-tilt rocker How Much More Can I Take, Big Time (Ian borrows his own riff from Once Bitten...), Tell It Like It Is (Mick borrowing the Get It On riff) and Mick's guitar showcase Sweet Dreamer which is breathtaking beautiful.
When the album was released, they toured the USA and Europe again to promote it. Intended in some ways as a comeback album for both men, the record company did little to promote it themselves, and it didn't sell in great numbers. They were dropped by the record company, and all plans for a follow-up were put on hold when Mick Ronson was diagnosed with liver cancer.
Unavailable for many years, this CD has finally been reissued on the Lemon label (a planned reissue on NMC having fallen through when NMC went bust). This reissue includes a couple of Ronno bonus tracks from 1971 - great for the completist but somewhat at odds with the rest of the album. The insert includes the lyrics from the original CD, but the sleeve notes are appallingly inaccurate - a shame really that Campbell Devine's notes for the aborted NMC release weren't used.
In 1995, Windsong issued an official release of their 15-Feb-89 concert, which had been recorded by the BBC for radio broadcast. This live album has since been reissued on Strange Fruit.
As is normal these days, there was material left over in the vaults, some of which is circulating amongst fans. This includes (Give Me Back My) Wings, which was demoed but never recorded, Ill Wind (now available on the Once Bitten Twice Shycompilation), More To Love Than Meets The Eye and Look Before You Leap, which IMO would have been a great single and features some beautiful guitar work from Mick Ronson
The album title is derived from "Why you... I ought to...", a phrase popularised by The Three Stooges.
Technical
The original CD
The reissued CD
Comments
Analysis of the reissued CD shows some compression being used; this has boosted overall loudness slightly (by some 2.2dB) without any noticeable affect on sound quality.