The title track Man Overboard was originally entitled Drunk and Disorderly but it is a powerful treatise on the life of the person left behind and living a miserable existence. The acoustic-based anecdote visualizes alcohol rather than seawater overwhelming this dejected individual. The derelict was not born in booze but sunk in it as he tried to wash away his internalized anger. Poverty and the sense of hopelessness fills this track and emotionally tugs at us to hear the life of a down and out life. The picture painted was a downbeat snapshot of repossessed homes and crime. The immediate issue is where you can find him, drunk and disorderly, despite all the technology available to help. You can display your "insides on TV" but they have not found a cure for the narrator. Ian references Dante Alighieri's work Inferno and echoes its most famous phrase: Abandon hope all who live here
The 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous won't work and the song seems like one of Ian's Northampton mates: overboard, drunk and unredeemable.
Hunter says this is a working man's blues but this guy isn't working thus it is an English blues song. It is based on a person who is no longer with us and his life wound up as a mess.
There is a live version from 2010 as well.
More info? Ian Hunter On Track for Sonicbond Publishing, TheDoctorOfDigital@pm.me
The title track of the CD is a powerful treatise on the life of the person left behind and living a miserable existence. Poverty and the sense of hopelessness fills this track and emotionally tugs at us to hear the life of a down and out life. The immediate issue is where you can find him, drunk and disorderly, despite all the technology available to help, Ian references Dante Alighieri's work Inferno and echoes its most famous phrase:
Abandon hope all who live hereThe 12 steps of Alcoholic Anonymous won't work and the song seems like one of Ian's Northampton mates: overboard, drunk and unredeemable. . Hunter says this is a working man's blues but this guy isn't working thus it is an English blues song. It is based on a person who is no longer with us and his life wound up as a mess. There is a live version from 2010 as well. Man Overboard
(Ian Hunter)
I shiver and shake, every morning I wake to the roar of the trains overhead
I got a newspaper floor and a towel for a door and there's things crawlin' round my bed
The facilities are free at The Ship hostelry before the football supporters appear
And I'm losing my mind in the great left behind
I got to get myself out of here
Man overboard, waves washing over me
Hard times, it's a perilous sea
I'll never learn
Anyone can tell ya where you can find me
Drunk and disorderly
There is rain on the ground and I can see upside down
Streetlamps and repossessed homes
They say crime doesn't pay, well take a walk down my way
And I'm stuck here with nowhere to go
Out on the streets with all the other deadbeats
Wasting away with the years
Their ship's going down on the wrong side of town
And I gotta get my ass out of here
Man overboard, waves washing over me
Sometimes it's a treacherous sea
The walls spinning around the anger that's hidden deep inside of me
Drunk and disorderly
Reality this, reality that
I been there once and I ain't going back
They squeezed me 'till I fell apart at the seams
Now I'd rather dream drunk and disorderly dreams
They got lasers that zap, they got cures for the clap
You can see your insides on TV
They got all kinds of pills for all kinds of ills
But they ain't found a cure yet for me
Out on the street where the cigarettes meet
Abandon hope all who live here
There ain't no medicine for the state that I'm in
And I gotta get myself out of here
Man overboard, waves washing over me
Sometimes it's a perilous sea
I'll never learn the 12 steps to heaven
They never work for me
Drunk and disorderly
Man overboard, straight in the deep end baby
Sometimes it s atreacherous sea
If I'm going down well it can't hurt any more than what you did to me
Drunk and disorderly
Ian Hunter CD: "Man Overboard"
Sleeve and track listing
New West NW6167
- The Great Escape
- Arms And Legs
- Up And Running
- Man Overboard
- Babylon Blues
- Girl From The Office
- Flowers
- These Feelings
- Win It All
- Way With Words
- River Of Tears
Review
After two albums that were somewhat political in nature (2001's Rant and 2007's Shrunken Heads), 2009 find Ian in a more mellow frame of mind. After a long and successful career he has time to look back on his life and say "Yeah... I've no complaints..."
The album opens strongly with The Great Escape, which tells of the singer's narrow escape after a "lack of respect" for a local thug. Indeed, several songs seem to be telling tales of the rougher side of life, such as the title track which informs us "They say crime doesn't pay, well take a walk down my way..."
Ian doesn't forget his working-class roots either, with the delightful Girl From The Office, which is reminiscent of the Kinks at their best and has a very English feel to it, and tells the story of a factory-floor romance. As always with Ian's songs of this nature, it has a happy ending (he gets the girl).
Ballads have always been a strong point with Ian, and these are prominent especially on the second half of the album. Not all work, however, with These Feelings being a particular weakness.
More up-tempo songs are on the first half of the album. I hesitate to say "rockers", as medium-pace is about the best we get these days (I did say Ian is more mellow these days) and guitars, although present, are rarely high in the mix any more. Those expecting another Just Another Night or Cleveland Rocks should perhaps look elsewhere. That was then and this is now... That said, Arms And Legs is a strong guitar-led song that will really work well in a live setting, as is the next track Up And Running.
Ian hopes to tour with the album both in the USA and UK, so we will wait and see how the songs work in a live setting. Reports from the two gig so far (at the time of writing, end July '09) are positive. As for where this album fits in Ian's extensive back catalogue time only will tell. It is more immediately likeable than its predecessor (sometimes it takes a few plays to "get" an Ian Hunter album, but I liked this straight away), but ulimately I feel it may end up a notch or two down from his very best.
| Man Overboard | 5:16 | Originally issued on Man Overboard. |
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