Issue 2024-055
Gary Steel — On Track... Talk Talk
Together with this book review, we also published reviews of all five Talk Talk albums and the Mark Hollis solo album in Talk Talk — Discography Reviewed.
With just five studio albums and a limited output of live recordings and B-sides, the career of Talk Talk is ideally suited to the "every album, every song" concept.
This growing series of books by Sonicbond Publishing often suffers from authors having to cover 30 or 40 years of output, in a page-count that rarely exceeds 140. As a result, the coverage of "every song" is too cursory to offer any great insights; becoming more of a listing exercise. Some artists have seen their output split into the more digestible Decades series. But the problem there is that the offering then becomes very piecemeal.
The "every album, every song" format is perfect for a band with a relatively concise output such as Talk Talk. Writers can tell the whole story of a band in one go. And New Zealand writer Gary Steel takes full advantage of having the word-count to get under the surface of the music and to let his opinions flow.
Some may have already come across his "every album" book on Gentle Giant, and with 40 years of writing experience, Gary's free-flowing style and professional level of research makes this one of the best-written tomes I have read in this series.
Gary is clearly a big fan, yet doesn't shy away from offering less-than-glowing prose when the output doesn't deserve it.
There are plenty of words already written on the complex character that was Mark David Hollis. As he undertook so few in-depth interviews and kept his private life locked-and-bolted behind closed doors, then most of it is purely speculation anyway. Wisely Gary doesn't overly dwell on the Hollis personality, but there is enough to give context to the music.
After a brief background to his career and the formation of Talk Talk, there is a detailed track by track commentary on each of the five studio albums and Hollis' delayed solo effort. I learnt a lot from these chapters, with plenty of little details to enhance my appreciate of particular songs.
There is a cursory coverage of the two live albums. I'm more of a fan of these than Gary, but I think we agree, that being permanently-clad behind his sunglasses, Hollis can never be described as a great live showman. Similarly, the milking-every-last-drop-from-the-cow collection of compilation and remix albums, gets little more coverage than they deserve.
Of greater interest is the coverage of the après-Talk Talk careers of its other members: Lee Harris, Paul Webb and Tim Friese-Greene. If you've never heard of the likes of Heligoland, Rustin Man or 'O' Rang, then this is the place to begin.
I also appreciated the list of official videos for their singles. It was great fun to watch these; each one is horribly dated, badly conceived and unwillingly delivered!
It's a shame that Gary doesn't give more space to Hollis' first demo and singles. These are easily available and as the majority of songs became tracks on the first two Talk Talk albums, they hold notable relevance to the band's story. I'd have loved to read Gary's views on some of these rudimentary efforts.
Anyway this entertaining and detailed book will be of interest to existing fans who enjoy reading different perspectives on the career of this legendary band, as well as newcomers wanting to find out what the fuss is all about.
Mick Smith — On Track... Ian Hunter
The first thought that came to mind when I selected this book for review was: Is this to be Pub Quiz Night: The Sequel? Well, almost. Because in a way this book by The Doctor of Digital™ G. Mick Smith, PhD, can be seen as a follow-up to Decades - Mott The Hoople & Ian Hunter In The 1970s by John van der Kiste. A delightfully knowledgeable and to the brim filled informational read which I enjoyed and reviewed in 2022.
Obviously there's a small overlap in years seeing that in 1974, Ian Hunter makes the startling decision to depart Mott The Hoople, famous for the David Bowie-penned All The Young Dudes. The difference however is that Van der Kiste follows both artistic paths after this split up to 1980 and then briefly devotes 15 odd pages to Hunter's future endeavours, whereas Smith takes this career switch as the book's starting point and gradually works his way engagingly through Hunter's solo career with completeness of legacy. Correction, almost complete! Because as so often the case in Sonicbond's universe it is Hunter, often admiringly referred to as Ian in the book, who at the lively age of 85 recently released a new album in form of Defiance Part II. Brilliantly timed as it happens, but more on that later.
Devoting five full sentences on Hunter's glorious past with Mott in his surprisingly brief introduction, an enthusiastic Smith dives straight into Hunter's eponymous 1975 debut album with expert knowledge and descriptively creative phrasing. For everyone enjoying Mott and Hunter's musical realm, and those who have read Van der Kiste's effort, this will feel like a warm welcome. For anyone ignorant of or oblivious to Hunter's previous achievements, this however may well be too quick a cold splash into the deep end.
Especially when in the sixth described song The Truth, The Whole Truth, Nuthin' But The Truth, Smith makes the analogy with another, up to then unmentioned, honest love song, Bastard. Am I missing something? Is this a Mott song? Or perhaps an epic timeless composition that needs no further introduction (like We Are The Champions or Stairway To Heaven)? Adding to the confusion this referenced love song gets a second mention in 1977's To Love A Woman (from Overnight Angels). Until finally this mysterious opening paranoia is solved when it gets properly introduced as part of the 1979 album You're Never Alone With A Schizophrenic on page 34. I might be slightly exaggerating with this example, but given the fact that on page 39, Smith also refers to Mad Shadows out of the blue, for those unaware: a Mott album, it's safe to say Smith envisions his readers to be fairly informed on Hunter's Mott days. Something which will not always be the case.
Elaborating with in-depth lyrical assessment of Hunter's songs, a wonderful standout feature of the book on what makes Hunter tick (e.g. personal reflections, political engagement) truly comes alive. We safely arrive in the 80s. A relatively quiet period which after the 1983 release of All Of The Good Ones Are Taken, as heralded in the chapter Hunter's 80's Hiatus, sees Hunter participate on various soundtracks and get involved with the likes of Mountain and Blue Oyster Cult. The latter's collaboration actually expected by yours truly in a much earlier stage. Simply because the Bloom/Hunter composition Goin' Through The Motions dates back to BÖC's Spectres album from 1977 and is not from 1983 as stated to be by Smith.
Unfortunately, this is not the only error in the book. Besides several curious mistakes — for instance on page 136, the intro to Pavlov's Dog begins with "Who writes a dog about a security dog at JFK Airport?" — Hunter's final album Defiance Part I is excluded from the book's table of contents, and mistakenly made part of the extensively chronicled Stranded In Reality Box set from 2016. Defiance Part I is also missing out on a general (previewing) conclusion. As a result, the book's ending feels rushed and leaves something to be desired. Good thing there's now Part II so these mistakes can be corrected for a revised version.
Overall though Smith delivers an overall splendid and at times captivating and entertaining story. In the third and final phase of the book really excels in fathoming, interpreting and unfolding Hunter's lyrical themes like love, loss, complexities of the modern world and politics. The latter's aspect reflected upon from both sides of the ocean in Rant and Shrunken Heads from 2001 and 2007 respectively, whereby the latter's meaningful title may nowadays be even more befitting than four presidential elections ago.
The biggest advantage of Smith's book, spoken as someone who is always looking for appealing music, are his enthusiastic words with which he points readers directly (or indirectly) to albums and songs that are worth discovering. Clearly a fan, in doing so over the course of the book he bestows fact upon fact on his readers, although I am still clueless towards the shampooing secret behind Hunter's curly corkscrew hairstyle. It leaves no doubt that Ian Hunter's Dirty Laundry is one of Smith's favourite albums, closely followed by albums like Rant and latter-day efforts such as When I'm President and Fingers Crossed. Add to this high praise for songs like Cleveland Rocks, Resurrection Mary, Stranded In Reality, and the stellar David Bowie tribute Dandy to name but a fair few, and newbies willing to investigate have their rewarding explorative work spread out for them.
Complemented by an obligatory photo section containing record covers and many photographs and memorabilia from the personal collection of Smith, the overall conclusion is therefore that although the book isn't flawless and would benefit from additional editing efforts, it is all in all a highly insightful and recommendable read, worthy of attention for both the casual and diehard fan of the celebrated Ian Hunter. Another of these fine reads and I may well be invincible on pub quiz nights! If the topic involves Hunter and Smith is nowhere in sight that is.