Additional information
Mott The Hoople: Mick Ralphs (vocals, guitar); Ian Hunter (vocals, piano); Verden Allen (organ); Overend Watts (bass); Buffin (drums). Additional personnel includes: Jerry Hogan (pedal steel guitar); James Archer (violin); Jess Roden, Stan Tippins (background vocals). Principally recorded at Island Studios, London, England in November & December 1970. Originally released on Atlantic. Mott The Hoople: Mick Ralphs (vocals, guitar); Ian Hunter (vocals, piano); Verden Allen (organ); Overend Watts (bass); Buffin (drums). Additional personnel includes: Jerry Hogan (pedal steel guitar); James Archer (violin); Jess Roden, Stan Tippins (background vocals). Principally recorded at Island Studios, London, England in November & December 1970. Originally released on Atlantic. For its second album, 1970's WILDLIFE, Mott the Hoople moved away from the tipsy, BLONDE ON BLONDE-like reels of the band's self-titled debut, into a more standard, bluesy hard-rock sound not unlike that of Joe Cocker and the Band. Of course, the glam era heralded by the 1972 hit "All the Young Dudes" was still a ways away, but WILDLIFE has its own unpretentious charms. The opening "Whiskey Women" chugs along genially, and "Angel of Eighth Avenue" is one of Ian Hunter's trademark creepy ballads. The remainder of the album continues in the vein of these opening two tracks, with Hunter's barrelhouse piano trading licks with Mick Ralph's chunky guitar and Verdun Allen's Garth Hudson-like organ as the rhythm section of Dale "Buffin" Griffin and Pete "Overend" Watts powers along.
