We don't know an awful lot about Jane. She wears a vest. She's a clerk. She saves her money. She may or may not like to go out dancing. Oh, and she's sweet; that much we do know.
It's a Lou Reed song he recorded many times, solo and with the Velvets, but I've gone for Mott's version. It's taken from their All the Young Dudes album. Ian Hunter always knew which way the wind was blowing and, by inference, which songs to appropriate. (It was released as a single in 1973 in America, Canada, Germany, Holland, Portugal and Spain. But not in the UK for some reason. Expect to pay up to £30 for a copy. Sweet.)
Without wishing to step on Martin's toes (his recent chain series over at New Amusements entitled Cover Charge is really rather good), I'd like to write about a brace of singles, separated by 20+ years, each in turn covered by another artist. My modus operandi being simply to showcase two blinding songs that no longer get the airplay they deserve. Oh, and the band being covered on track one is the band doing the covering on track two. Confused, you will be...
Spaceman was the tune (choon?) Levi's deployed to maximum effect back in 1995 to advertise their latest 501s. They used all of ten seconds of what would become Babylon Zoo's debut single released in January 1996. It went straight in at Number One. Of course it did.
This version is a rather spartan affair yet captures the essence of the song quite perfectly. It's brought to you by Derwood Andrews who, if you were paying attention last week, was playing some tasty homespun blues with a twist.
Derwood Andrews - Spaceman (2021)
Babylon Zoo belong to that (not so) elite club known as One Hit Wonders. Being a member is generally not something you brag about but would, I'm sure, get the odd drink bought for you if it ever came up in conversation (should the conversation veer down that particularly lonesome cul-de-sac.)
But it is from that very cul-de-sac that I'm going to pluck The Zoo and drop them in a rather more salubrious part of town. Mott Street, to be precise. (If you know, you know.) Ian Hunter admitted from the get go that you'd be wasting your time looking on a map trying to find Honaloochie. It only existed in his head. In a parallel universe their cover of Mott the Hoople's follow up to All the Young Dudes was released as a single and it too went straight to Number One. No, of course it didn't.
It's common knowledge that Ian Hunter and his Mott the Hoople pals were just about ready to pull stumps before Bowie came along and bequeathed them All the Young Dudes in 1972. A great rock and roll yarn for sure. But where's Leon Russell in Mott's back story? Russell's place in the rock pantheon is every bit as assured as Bowie's but his benevolence to Hunter barely gets a mention.
I'm referring to a track he stuck on side two of his eponymous debut album from 1970. Not only did Roll Away the Stone give Hunter the material for one hit single it also provided the foundations for a second. I'm talking about Roll Away the Stone (obvs) and All the Way From Memphis. I do hope that Mott did the honourable thing and bunged Russell a few coins of the realm but I doubt very much they did. Leon Russell was the real deal. Mott the Hoople? Coat tails. Beware of imitations.
You may not know the name, but you'll recognise the boat race. Former model and actress Kari-Ann Moller was the pin-up adorning the cover of Roxy Music's eponymous 1972 debut album. Her fee to lend her image to a bunch of then unknowns? Twenty quid. A steal.
Two years later she can be found on Mott the Hoople's seventh and final album, The Hoople. Her fee? Unknown, tho' probably a tad more than Ferry and Co. gave her.
