Release date: 23 April 1979
Current edition: Chrysalis
Highest chart places: UK #49, AU #68, US #35.
Hunter's next steps would be to find his place as the outsider. On the 23 December 1977 at Friars Aylesbury Hunter joined former Mott The Hoople bandmates in British Lions and sang All The Young Dudes which was their first musical connection since the original band had disbanded. Then, Hunter was asked to produce Mr. Big and added piano, organ, and guitar during the sessions, along with Peter Oxendale on keyboards. The result was Seppuku, a hard rock effort that was buried by EMI Records for over twenty years. Señora was cowritten by Ian but was not released at the time; this is a terrific power ballad about love and briefly a single in 1978. EMI withdrew it instead of pushing it but maybe with New Wave and punk hitting then the timing was off. It's a bit Dylanesque as well and a strong co-writing effort by Hunter. Hunter then played electric piano on two tracks for the band Tuff Darts.
A project eventually released as The Secret Sessions was a collaborative supergroup effort including Hunter and Ronson and a song from this work would appear in a definitive version on the duo's next studio effort. The new Hunter song The Outsider closes out Schizophrenic and is a bit offbeat but still appropriate for Hunter who does write often of not fitting into society; the difference here is the setting and sounding like it's the Wild, Wild West.
For the final version of the song Ronson contributes swooping instrumentation paired with beautiful piano and howling prairie wind sounds. The track has noticeable echoes on the drums and vocal tracks while the straightforward recording allowed Ian's strong voice to be added with clarity and charm.
Of this lyric, Hunter thinks the song may have been misdirected to him; it is his Western cowboy star Roy Rogers song. However, he considers that this slow song is one of the three, with Ships and Standin' in My Light, that are among the best ballads he's ever written. In addition to this early effort there is a shorter version omitting the studio chatter on Tilting The Mirror, while there is also a live version from 2005. The effort was organized by Corky Laing ex-Mountain drummer and Laing and Hunter co-wrote I Ain't No Angel, Silent Movie, and Easy Money together.
The demo quality recording I Ain't No Angel was one of the collaborations on The Secret Sessions with the Mountain band. In 1978 Corky Laing, acting on a suggestion from his record company, put a "supergroup" together featuring himself (drums/vocals), Ian Hunter (ex-Mott The Hoople) on keyboards/vocals, Mick Ronson on guitar and Felix Pappalardi (Mountain) on bass. They started recording, but shortly after the record company lost interest and funding stopped. Silent Movie is a co-written song by Corky Laing and Hunter and it is a love gone wrong type of song in that the couple has nothing to say to another as in a silent movie. It is about communication that breaks down. Easy Money co-written with Corky Laing is arguably the best on the record as the remainder tend to be closer to sounding like demos. Lyrically, it is something like Alice and the woman portrayed is either a lady of the evening or simply down on her luck and looking for easy money while she is out on the run. Hunter and Ronson collaborated musically on the remainder of the tracks on the album as well.
One other curious collaboration involving Laing, Ronson, and Ian were workshop tapes recorded with John Cale. Hunter thought some of it was pretty good and one included the line: "Queen Elizabeth, you're just a luxury liner." Cale contemplated releasing songs including Baby, Can I Take You Home, You Can't Always Get What You Want (it is unknown if this is related to The Rolling Stones song), What Your Name Jane, Donald Duck is Dead, Lovin' Your Neighbor's Wife, and Slow Jam. Nonetheless, these songs were never released.
Ronson's demand as a producer had him working consistently but under paid but as Hunter guided Mick he was paid more and Ian then played on David Johansen's In Style sessions with Ian playing on Flamingo Road.
Chrysalis tapped Hunter to produce Generate X's second LP Valley of the Dolls and King Rocker reached #11 in the UK Singles Chart in January 1979 and Valley of the Dolls reached #23 in April. Fortuitously Ian played demos of his recent songwriting for label head Roy Eldridge and he was intrigued.
The importance of collaborations is that it produced one of his better songs, Hunter was regaining his footing, and perhaps most importantly, he was reunited with his best musical partner for one of their finest albums; and, critical for his musical career, one of Ian's best selling efforts after two poor selling albums.
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