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Bonus Tracks/Personal
Touring Band/Producers:
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Bonus Tracks:
"Don't Let Go", "Ships"(demo), "When The Daylight Comes"(early
version), "Just Another Night" (early version entitled "The
Other Side of Life" and a ballad), "Whole Lotta Shakin'
Goin' On"/Second Disc: Previously unreleased live tracks
from the "You're Never Alone with a Schizophrenic" tour
with tracks recorded in Cleveland, Ohio/Berkeley, CA and
at the Hammersmith Odeon, London, England between June 18th
1979-November 22nd 1979 15 tracks: "FBI", "Once Bitten Twice
Shy", "Life After Death", "Sons and Daughters", "Laugh at
Me", "Just Another Night", "One of the Boys", "Letter to
Brittania from the Union Jack", "Bastard", "All the Way
from Memphis", "Cleveland Rocks", "All the Young Dudes",
"Sweet Angeline" ***
Personal: Ian Hunter-Lead vocals, guitar, keyboards/Mick
Ronson-Lead guitar, harmony vocals, co-lead vocal on "When
the Daylight Comes"/Gary Tallent-Bass guitar, Roy Bittan-Keyboards/Max
Weinberg-Drums, percussion/Ellen Foley, Rory Dodd, Eric
Bloome-Backing vocals/Lew Delgatto-Baritone sax/George Young-Tenor
sax/John Cale-ARP sythesizer and piano on "Bastard" ***
Touring Band:
Ian Hunter-Lead vocals, guitar, piano, harp/Mick Ronson-Lead
guitar, harmony vocals, Tommy Morrongigello-Guitar, backing
vocals/Tommy Mandel-Keyboards, backing vocals/Martin Brilley-Bass,
vocals/Hilley Michaels or Eric Parker-Drums/Georgie Meyer-Keyboards,
sax, backing vocals/Ellen Foley-Harmony & backing vocals
on everything but the London shows.
Producers:
Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson and Roy Bittan/Arrangements
by Hunter, Ronson and Bittan/Remastered by Dan Hersch and
Bill Inglot at Digiprep/Produced for reissue by Nigel Reeves,
Bill Inglot ---
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| Review:
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One of the cleverest titles of all time "You're Never
ALone with a Schizophrenic" gave former Mott the Hopple
vocalist Ian Hunter with his biggest and, arguably best
album. Originally released in 1979 the album jumped up to
#35 on the charts in the U.S. and was Ian's biggest seller.
Heck, Barry Manilow covered Ian's song "Ships" turning it
into a big MOR hit and eventually "Cleveland Rocks" was
covered by The Presidents of the United States becoming
the theme song for "The Drew Carey Show" and producing another
hit for another artist. Although Ian never had that number
1 hit himself he's produced amazingly consistent string
of albums over his long career. Ian just turned 70 this
year and is doing a series of reunion shows with his former
band Mott the Hopple in the UK featuring original guitarist
Mick Ralphs (everyone from the original line up is playing
the concert although Dale "Buffin" Griffin is ill and will
be particpating in some capacity he won't evidently be playing
drums for the tour) which is in part why this long overdue
deluxe edition has been released. ***
"YNAWAS" remains Ian's masterpiece as a solo artist
because of the insightful songwriting, a killer backing
band (featuring three members of The E Street Band) and
the deft arrangements by Hunter, Ronson and Bittan. Opening
with "Just Another Night" a rocker inspired by a real night
in jail that Ian spent during the tour to support "Mott"
began life as a rocker, turned into a ballad (the ballad
version survives as a demo here and is a nice contrast to
the rock version) and turned back into a rocker when Mick
Ronson reminded him that he wrote it as a rocker BUT was
too drunk to remember that fact. "Wild East" with its earthy
sax playing may be the underrated gem on this album. The
rest of the first side features "Ships", Ian's attempt to
write a Top 40 hit "When the Daylight Comes" (a song he
didn't really care for and which features a duet with Mick
Ronson only because Ian was too busy talking with Bruce
Springsteen and told Ronno as he called Ronson to do it
himself! Ronson did complete part of the vocal track creating
the first duet with Ronson) which, in spite of Hunter's
feelings about the song, IS a terrific tune. ***
The second side kicks off with the unrelenting rocker
"Life After Death" with its "Helter Skelter" like brusiing
tempo and propulsive percussion. The album continues with
a series of songs some of which are personal ("Standing
In My Life" written about Hunter, Ronson and David Bowie's
former manager), "Bastard" (which Ian characterizes as a
"love song"...it is but a very disturbed one) and closes
out with a song totally out of character for Ian--"The Outsider"
(the original title of the album by the way AND a track
that was attempted for a supergroup and issued in a very
different arrangement on "The Secret Sessions" album) a
rocker with a western motif that would have fit in well
in a Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood western. It caps off a
brilliant album. ---
Sound:
Bill Inglot and Dan Hersch who have worked together
on and off for the last 25 plus years do a terrific job
of remastering this; the album sounds like it was normalized
to me (although I can't verify that) which a bad thing--it
just brings the difference between the loudest track and
quietest a bit closer together creating a more consistent
sounding album) but it hasn't been compressed/brickwalled
and Inglot/Hersch as they always do remastered this from
the original master tapes. ---
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