As the `You're Never Along With a Schizophrenic' project came to a close Hunter Ronson were tapped to produce Ellen Foley's Night Out LP in 1979 and Ian offered a shelved ballad, Don't Let Go. There is a demo only released on the Anniversary issue of You're Never Alone With a Schizophrenic but oddly enough a live version was recorded for Live Strings Attached in 2002. Hunter wrote the song but it just didn't fit on Schizophrenic with enough ballads already. It sold well for Ellen Foley.
It's a straight forward ballad on persevering when the odds are stacked against you.
Ian Hunter On Track for Sonicbond Publishing, TheDoctorOfDigital@pm.me
Don't Let Go
(Ian Hunter)
When you're school shy and the world it ain't easy to find
And it's breakin' your heart cos you know you were no good from the start
Don't let go, don't let go, don't let go, don't let go oh oh oh
When you're headin' nowhere
and those friends who you relied upon don't care
And your room is a cage
ain't nobody gonna help you ease your rage
Don't let go, don't let go, don't let go, don't let go oh oh oh, oh oh I know
That it's easy to advise
But I hear someone callin'
And I feel somethin' fallin' through the money in your eyes
When all faith has gone
And you ain't got the strength to carry on
Like a child bathed in me
Hide away from the lovin that you seek
But don't let go, don't let go, don't let go, don't let go
Ian Hunter LP/CD: "You're Never Alone With a Schizophrenic"
Sleeve and track listing
CHRX 1214 / 50999 698134 2 9.
Sleeve variations
The US CD sleeve
The original UK sleeve
Review
Ian came back after a two-year absence in 1979 with this album. Mick Ronson was back on guitar, and Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band were the backing musicians (they had just worked on Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell album).
This is a brilliant album, and the yardstick by which all his other work is judged. From the opening beat of Just Another Night to the closing strains of The Outsider there isn't a bad track on here. Mixing full-tilt rockers (Cleveland Rocks, Life After Death) with sensitive ballads (Ships) the album is well-paced and leaves the listener wanting more.
This was issued on CD on Chrysalis in the UK in 1994, and on Razor & Tie in the USA in 1995. The UK release was a limited-edition "25th Anniversary" edition, in a long (blue) box, with a blue jewel-case and booklet (which was about Chrysalis generally, not Ian). Sound quality is very good. No bonus tracks.
1999 saw this CD reissued in the UK, this time on the EMI label as part of their "Classic Rock" series. It boasted new sleeve notes, and improved (remastered) sound quality.
2009 saw a 2-CD issue with a wealth of bonus tracks and a second disc of previously-unreleased live material. As a live document the second disc works very well, despite being recorded at a variety of venues.
Of the bonus material on the first disc perhaps the most interesting is the early version of Just Another Night which features radically different lyrics, showing how such a classic song can develop from the initial germ of an idea to the finished product.
| Don't Let Go (demo) | 4:14 | A demo version is on the 30th Anniversary issue of You're Never Alone With a Schizophrenic, and on the compilation From The Knees Of My Heart. |
| Don't Let Go (live 29/30th January 2002) | 3:56 | This live version (recorded Sentrum Scene, Oslo Norway) is on Strings Attached. |