Bassist Dan Hartman of the Edgar Winter Group contributed a great deal to Speechless which is an effective satirical take on obsession and the absurdity of TV. This is one of the strongest tracks on the record and it was later recorded by Status Quo as well although their version sounds formulaic. The song seems addressed to a specific person who is so intoxicated they have to be switched off. Hunter confesses that people like this leave him speechless. They got to him and he has to get them off his chest; these are powerful words and filled with emotional weight. Ian is warning about people you're fed up with and with television people waste more time. Kids are passively mesmerized by television which dumbs us down, and is getting worse. The song is ahead of its time with social media, computers, and the internet things have certainly gotten much worse than when this was written in the 1980s. Worse than gross indeed.
Hunter also played this on stage during the summer of 1991 with The Mats Ronander Band and Swedish covers group The Few.
Ian Hunter On Track for Sonicbond Publishing, TheDoctorOfDigital@pm.me
Speechless
(Ian Hunter)
Every time I watch you
Gotta switch you off, you surely can't be serious
Every time I see you
I just can't believe you go below ridiculous
All those days I spent
Starin' at your wilderness
All those ways you got to me
Through me, you, you leave me speechless
You, you make me scared of you
You make me scared of losing concentration
You make me afraid of you
Make me afraid of losing conversation
All my friends say that you're forbidden - fruitless
I hide away with you - I'm guilty - I'm guilty
You found my only weakness
You, you leave me speechless
Entertainment came and went
Why can't you be more curious, adventurous, mysterious, sensuous
Your remote control
Is sending out patrols, I've go consumer sadness
Spray me - camouflage me - blind me
So I can't see, help me through this madness
All those years I spent
Clingin' to your warm breast
All those words
I don't think I guess
Gotta get you off my chest - you pest
You, you leave me speechless
Strongest tracks are Speechless (later to be covered by Status Quo),
Mott The Hoople/Ian Hunter CD: "Old Records Never Die"
Sleeve and track listing
Shout 826663-10970.
Review
Hard on the heels of The Journey (a 3-CD UK compilation) we get another compilation of Mott The Hoople and Ian Hunter, this time originating from the States. The neat thing is one disc is Mott and the second disc is Ian.
For Mott all the choice album tracks are here, although I would have preferred the single version of Roll Away The Stone (American compilers always go for the album version, which I feel is inferior featuring as it does Bender on guitar instead of Mick Ralphs).
The same can be said for the Ian Hunter tracks - a strong collection, save perhaps for the inclusion of Artful Dodger which is one of the weaker tracks on that album. Fans will always argue over which tracks to include or leave out, but what is here is a good balance.
There's a good booklet, half of which is devoted to Mott and the other half to solo Ian Hunter. Sound quality is excellent throughout.
If you're new to Ian and Mott, and are looking for a compilation that takes in nearly 40 years of great music, this is as good a place as any to start.
| Speechless | 3:51 | Originally issued on All of the Good Ones Are Taken, also on the compilations The Journey, Old Records Never Die and Once Bitten Twice Shy. The version on Once Bitten Twice Shy is shorter (at 3:39) due to s shorter fade-out. |